Water: A Designer’s New Best Friend

It started with an indiscernible leak—a tiny leak that evolved into a small gusher during a brutal Nor’easter.Once dried out, the small gusher transformed to mold, which transformed to rot and then warped a door. And, like all small disturbances where little skirmishes transform into world wars, the indiscernible leak has now become a “cause célèbre” for an entire 2016 rethinking, reconstruction and redecoration.

Perhaps some in the interior design profession celebrate when commissions come their way through the decorator’s best friends: fires, floods, children and pets. But this designer was certainly not celebrating, as, this time, the leak happened to me.

So while contractors poured in with estimates and their prognoses of doom and gloom and despair and their recommendation of a complete removal of the entire façade of my house hit home, I had to face the music and swallow my own advice, which I dole out easily to my clients but find a bitter pill to swallow: It’s time to renovate.

It has been 15 years since I built and decorated my home with up-to-date technology, cutting-edge construction and classic quality decoration. But carpets fade, and fabrics pill, smart houses become “smart-ass” houses as older technology becomes obsolete, and construction, no matter what quality, takes a beating in our maritime environment from roofs to appliances, hot water heaters and hose bibs. Therefore I realized, like I recommend to my clients, I was ready for the 15-year touch-up and blow-out!

I do not, however, subscribe to the appalling remark received by a renowned local real estate broker, whose surly client bellowed, “I wouldn’t buy a 15-year-old car! Why would you show me a f---ing 15-year-old house!?!?!” Hmmmm.

My house and garden are my home and my refuge, not a monetary investment in a diversified portfolio. And as such, the leak sprung an opportunity and a thrill for me to both renew and revive my dream house.

The rotted door could become a Palladian window, as I had too many doors anyway. The upper reaches of the window would improve my nocturnal enjoyment of the moon. As current style has it, I will paint my mullions charcoal, with the casings in a contrasting, fresh shade of glossy cream.

The walls will darken to a shadowy camel, as matte of a finish as I can make them. Fine Paints of Europe’s gloss on my doors is so shiny right now that friends are terrified to touch them, as they appear wet. (Gloss paints tone down in three months, which is tough to explain to a doubting client.) My matte paint is a Vermont milk paint that is so matte, it appears chalky. The contrast is quite exciting and quite contemporary in feel and striking for a classic, traditional home.

Paint is a homeowner’s best friend and the least expensive means to transform a home. And it is no surprise that after 15 years the wall colors have faded and scuffed, the baseboards have chipped, and even the ceilings have darkened. For a more current flair to your home, select colors with a greater degree of brightness that are more saturated. Once the curtains, upholstery and carpets are placed, the color fades into the background, so don’t be frightened by it.

I clothed my dining room (by happenstance) in Pantone’s color of the year “Serenity,” a light but fairly saturated periwinkle blue. It had the effect of putting some fizz back into my dowdy English antiques, while saluting the evening tones of Gardiner’s Bay.

I am weary of pattern-less rooms, and I have to move beyond whites, grays and sea glass greens for the Hamptons. Though I respect great art collections (one of which, I sadly do not possess), and understand the push to neutralize walls that are backgrounds for visually demanding art, I find these colorless, pattern-less walls lifeless during the bleaker, leafless season.

So a rich yellow has become my friend, emanating warmth and optimism; this yellow, stippled with a geometric stencil, lights up the walls, highlights the black and white photographs and lithographs and manages to complement an array of Swedish Gustavian pieces along with the mahogany furnishings.

After a decade, one’s lamps and lampshades can use a rethinking too. So much creative energy has gone into the world of lighting of late that choices are plentiful. Shades are drum-like rather than slanted, and newly constructed in wood veneers, lacquered papers, and exotic fabrics. A simple glass cylinder lamp can be dressed to kill with one of these innovative shades.

The current fondness for pattern and texture has led me to consider many of the David Hicks-inspired geometric broadlooms, along with the current craze for expressionistic Rorschach-like rugs. Our local purveyors on the East End are well stocked with beautifully edited selections that feel right for the beach.

Another great pleasure of rethinking my decorating has been revisiting our local purveyors of mid-century and vintage goods from a consumer’s point of view rather than as the client’s designer. Offerings from Italian, French, American and Spanish origins, collected by some unwaveringly talented connoisseurs, dot our highways and byways. I am contemplating a coffee table update. Centrally focused, this element of furnishing sets the room’s mood.

I am also revisiting that powerful tool of design, the silhouette. The silhouette of my sofa and how it plays against the mantel, and the silhouette of my dining chairs and how they may require a skirted table to bring out their winsome shape. A bonnet top armoire will be more playful silhouetted against my heavy beams and add grace to the stark architecture.

Designers are constantly asked if they enjoy the process of designing for themselves. I, for one, love it. Excellent choices are boundless, but the “givens” of space, location, appropriateness, architecture and budget govern the outcome, just as they would for any client. Being creative within these parameters is not simply our job, it is our joy.

So, as the experience of redecorating my own home unfolds, it seems that in the end, I am simply grateful for that leak.