One clear singular thought emerged in my mind as I worked on Sally’s and my living room design vignette for this May’s Wenham Museum Show House. While color fashions and trends come and go each year, neutrals have a staying power that can not be denied, regardless of style or period.

They can be used as a neutral background against which a designer develops and expresses his or her details and color color palette, as in this project done by Boston’s own Richard Fitzgerald. (New England Home, July/August 2009, Interior designer, Richard Fitzgerald, Photographer, Michael Paternio)

Brooke and Steve Giannetti us neutrals as a stylistic and lifestyle expression. (Veranda, July/August 2011, Interior design  by Brooke and Steve Giannetti, Photography by Steve Giannetti and Lisa Romerein)

English interior designer John Carter shows us we don’t have to stick to whites. We can use browns, dark taupes – even wallpaper with wonderful success.  (2009 The English Home magazine, Interior design by John Carter, month of issue and photographer unknown)

Here’s an eclectic/modern living room done in 2008, an artful collaboration between the owners and Tate + Burns Architects. (New England Home, September/October2008, Interior deign a collaboration between the owner and Tate+Burns, Architects, Photography by Michael Paternio)

Finally, a page from John Saladino’s book Style, published in 2000.

What do you think of neutrals. Classic? Boring?

How do you use them?

Cheers,

If a person were to ask me to offer an off the cuff phrase describing Sally’s and my style, I would say “classic traditional with an enticing European influence”. Having said that, there’s a piece of me that that will sit right up and say, “Whoa!” when I come across the right modern interior – an interior that uses form, surface, light and shadow to define and shape form, function and volume. Add an exterior that offers up not a clue as to what you are walking into, you have a formula that spells magic. Such is this project – a house with a stone exterior built in 1937 and an interior renovated to feel like a modern gallery in New York City.

Wouldn’t you expect a charming rustic interior?

The central fireplace has been reworked as part of an open floor plan.

Tucked around the corner… Antique keys.

Fantastic!!! A 1769  schrank & 18th century church pew play vs. tuxedo style furniture.
What’s a schrank you ask??? The short answer is it’s an antique wardrode.

Love the sweep of the shelves and counterpoint of modern tufting and practical  period furniture.

What a compostition – modern island between antique painted chairs and rustic shelves - brilliant!

 Look at the different thicknesses of the shelves. Real understanding of scale and weight!

Cantalevered shelves again. The antique windsor chair looks so alive! Context!!!

Saarinen Womb Chair, modern quilt, folded tin sand pipers, antique basket having a conversation.

A singular vision throughout. Beautiful!

 Could you live here?

 All images from Architectural Digest, Architecture by French & Crane and Jeanne Scandura. Interior Design by Lauren Sara.