Pandemic Updates, New Location,  plus-  Saved by sardines, rescued by pasta

Pandemic Updates, New Location, plus- Saved by sardines, rescued by pasta

Six months into this pandemic and changes abound. In addition to a sock drawer, we now have a mask drawer. And our lives are drastically altered—I’m hoping your new routine is somewhat comfortable. But better change is here as well. I am happy to announce my new location in a perfect little building downtown in the Guadalupe district.

Edy Keeler Interiors
312 Read Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 577-2167

Come by, don’t be shy. Thursday afternoons in October, after 3 pm I’m here to share and show my new interior design studio to you. (text, call or pop-in) We can partake in a happy hour with my immediate neighbor, Santa Fe Spirits Tasting Room and Patio. They serve cocktails outdoors with heaters, crafted from their fine distillations, starting at 3 pm, Thursday to Saturday

 

The new design studio is within walking distance to many vibrant businesses. Ohori’s Luna location, the Farmer’s Market, House of Ancestors, Kelly O’Neal, and right across the street from the Lannan Foundation.

A bit of a backstory on this new space. At the beginning of our lockdown, I worked from home like everyone else and experienced an uptick in my interior design business. Calls coming in from people also staying home who were noticing their drab kitchen cabinets, bathrooms too dark, the 1980s sofa was not “retro” chic, but just old and tired. They needed help, time for a redo.

I soon felt way too stifled with the confines of working from home, and as you know, I’m all about practicality. I rolled up my mental sleeves, I needed my samples—those working tools, and my friends in town. This home office in the country was not convenient. Time for change.

I really enjoy being back in town after those long months, air hugs and all, and change continues. Businesses like mine on the creative front end, along with architects, building contractors, landscapers have ever growing to-do lists. On the back end, I am discovering that vendors and suppliers are having a much harder time keeping up with the front-end demands. Cabinet makers, tile and plumbing folks, and more are having supply issues. The supply chain and manufacturing sector are taking a hit due to the pandemic. Less staff on the production lines, distribution and shipping slow-downs, not to mention abysmal mail, are causing delays and continual schedule revisions in our remodels. So, I now preach my own “PPP” practical mantra: Patience, Patience, Patience.
We all knew the moment it happened that we would never forget the horror of 9- 11. We now have another unforgettable tragedy in our collective memory, one having a direct daily effect on our lives. These times are fluid, and everupdating. But the vitality of friends and acquaintances doesn’t change. As you write your new to-do lists, think about adding a visit to see me, one Thursday afternoon.

Another backstory. A bit into the pandemic the New Mexican asked for an article for the series I do called Let’s Get Practical. It follows here, since they did not publish it in their shrinking print version, and I’m not sure you saw it in the online paper. It’s about quirky “from-the-pantry” foods that worked perfectly for me, from a great Santa Fe food writer.

 

Saved by sardines, rescued by pasta

.That headline is the title of my favorite chapter in Deborah Madison’s life-saving book for me right now, widely available online. This cookbook and sweet food narrative, intended for solo eaters, but useful for anyone needing a quick meal, has the most unique and even humorous combinations of pantry items, items shoved to the back of shelves in refrigerators and cabinets with obliterated use-by dates. A lifesaver for those observing the six-weeks-down-one-to-gomaybe (that was then — now we are into six to twelve months) phase of our state’s lockdown.

 

The quirky wonderful illustrations by Patrick McFarlin add to the experience — it is a tasty read. Even more interesting than How to Cook a Wolf by the legendary M.F.K. Fisher.
I think my fave from the chapter is Spaghetti with Tuna and Capers. It uses breadcrumbs for crunch — stale bread is easy to come by — and olive oil, pasta, half a tin of tuna, capers, a pinch of red pepper flakes, garlic, lemon zest and juice, salt, pepper, and parsley. Since I’m hoarding the capers and part of that lemon rind for a martini, I’ve found that a substitution like tangy green olives, crushed or chopped, work just fine. If you cook at all, you can figure out how to put this one together. If not, email me, or order the book.

My usual column topics include how to remodel or build the best kitchen for you. But on finding I can’t pen a serious remodeling article these days, I asked my editor if Let’s Get Practical reactions to this trying episode would suffice. “Make the deadline and it’s cool,” he answered.

What can be more practical than using up your aged, drying, boring pantry stuff? It starts with emptying out those shelves and that refrigerator. And getting a lot creative. One thing I learned is that Use-By dates aren’t about food safety. More about food flavor. Of course don’t use food from a can that bulges. Gather your pile of oddments and head for instructive books, or mostly, for many, the internet. “What to cook with … XYZ?” has been searched several million times since March.

It really is cool to use up stuff that you know you don’t have to replace, unless you fall in love with a certain pantry palatable and must have more! I love Trader Joes, but not enough to wait in line for an hour to enter that sanctum of thrifty, rewarding shopping. Whole Foods has shorter lines since the store is large.Nattily clad mask-wearing hosts escort you to the next available check-out lane.

But I’ve rediscovered the big-box groceries closest to my commute, when I had one. Minimal to zero lines. The stockers there are often new hires, but they do their friendliest to direct you to what you need. And there is plenty of it, unless you are hunting down elusive paper products and sanitizing goods.

 

 

Almost as practical and somewhat rewarding: the closet clean-out. It is time fora seasonal swap-out of cold winter for chilly spring anyway.

In closing, what’s not practical, but is happening anyway: Sadness at missing friends and associates. Finding Zooming is just okay. Not being able to visit a friend who had an emergency appendectomy, languishing alone in rehab. Being unable to ”settle” for long enough to get absorbed in a creative endeavor. Having time to read when the library is closed. The list goes on.

And back to the brief shout-out for What We Eat When We Eat Alone. Even if we are not eating alone, we’re in essence each alone with our thoughts, fears, and hopes for ourselves, for our “peeps” and families, and we hope, eventually, for the greater good. Speaking of our families, for those with children at home, this is the perfect time to help them learn to cook. Madison lays it down in a great chapter: What Every Boy and Girl Should Learn to Cook … Before They’re Men and Women. And it’s not making the greatest PB&J!

This too shall pass, we are hearing, and we know it’s true. What we don’t know is what our new
normal might be. So Let’s Get Practical again, and presume that we can help make it better,
kinder, more real, more fulfilling.

 

ShowHouse Santa Fe 2018

ShowHouse Santa Fe 2018

Happy to report we got a great response to the kitchen and some new ones to design, as a result of the hundreds of design lovers who toured the house in October. We raised big bucks (exact number to come, but hundreds of tickets were sold) for Dollars 4 Schools, had some grand parties at the house, and we were flattered to be on the cover of the Home section of the local paper. (image at bottom)

A view of the kitchen by Edy Keeler

Showhouse Santa Fe, for the sixth consecutive year, presented 13 uniquely talented interior designers and artisans as they collectively transformed a mid-century marvel of a Santa Fe residence into an interior design experience.

This years Show House Gala featured A Beautiful Story of Designers and Chefs in “A WORLD OF TASTE.”

Food and Fun.  This year’s show house gala featured the unique concept of designers pairing up with local artisan chefs of the region, inventing a fresh global experience for “a world of taste”. This beautiful story was told at the home with an amazing creative fusion for the gala preview where under one enormous tented tennis court, 13 chefs and designers worked together to create an amazing evening of dining, music and design!

Another view of the kitchen by Edy Keeler

The Gala has been called “the party of the year.”

This year every chef had their own table of delicious gourmet offerings for you to experience, with a tabletop design, especially for their restaurant, by their designer. This was a chance for a little fantasy. A beautiful fall night setting, decor over the top, and beautiful clothing in a glamorous setting…it was a real party. 

The Food

The designer challenge for 2018 paired designers and chefs by the luck of the draw in an artistic and unique experience. Designer and Chef can draw inspiration from each other for a entertaining presentation of food and decor.

CORE VALUE INTERIORS 
CHEF PARTNER IS
CHEF RORY O’BRIEN of The LEGAL TENDER

Locals are very excited to learn of the reopening in Spring 2019 of The Legal Tender. The old Harvey House restaurant is across the street from the 1800’s Lamy train station, the Santa Fe stop of the Amtrak, and railroads past. And they are pleased to know the new operator will be Murphy O’Brien of the popular “just out of town” eatery, Cafe Fina. Murphy is working on the project In collaboration with the Winslow Arts Trust. The trust works to keep the historic Route 66, Santa Fe Railway, and Fred Harvey transportation corridors vibrant and alive.

Murphy brings to town young rising star chef Rory O’Brien, from Miami. Youthful travels with family across France, Spain, Italy, and Croatia contributed to Rory’s fascination with food. When the family settled in Ireland, the influence of his Irish mother and the abundance of local produce, cheese, other dairy, grass fed beef, and fresh seafood, impressed him with the importance of quality ingredients.

Together they presented a menu borrowing and updating  Fred Harvey favorites for the modern palette.

For the Gala Menu, we served a braised lamb with porcini gnocchi and gremolata on a tabletop vignette of the old saloon. Fred Harvey memorabilia and passenger dining car accoutrement.

The House

In the historic South Capitol neighborhood, blocks from the heart of Santa Fe, and built sixty four years ago, this home has been in one family’s care for over forty years. About the time he designed the Governor’s Mansion on Mansion Ridge Road, Willard Carl (W.C.) Kruger, an American architect, designed and built this home for his own family. Kruger designed many of our historically registered state buildings, including the State Capitol in Santa Fe. His design was the only round capitol building in the country and combined elements of New Mexico Territorial style, Pueblo adobe architecture and Greek Revival adaptations. He served on the first New Mexico Board of Architects along with John Gaw Meem and other notables.

The Kitchen


Designer EDY KEELER on the Kitchen

This kitchen, where a passel of kids were raised, and literally thousands of cookies were baked, needed a lot of tender loving care. We had the luck to have W.C. Kruger’s artfully hand drawn plans to work with. 

The kitchen table remained, but barely! The chairs squeaked, and we could imagine all those kids rocking back and forth on the chairs hind legs, to break them in like that! One of the children, our project manager, remembers each of the kids sitting there doing homework, with chocolate chip cookies in the oven. 

The scallops topping off the casework and the copper hood, and even the mom’s carefully chosen Delft door and drawer handles also remain, reminiscent of today’s highly collectible Chinoiserie. 

“I love remodeling kitchens, and bathrooms, and in the past two years my work has evolved that way. Even though I still do furnishings — every remodel needs something new — I love construction and project management for remodels, something that comes from my family background, and my architect husband.”

Working with the Michael Hunter Painting, faux paint crew, Jason and David, on a custom finish and a color scheme.

Kitchens are complex, the heart of a home, and we view the challenges they can present as opportunities, most of the time! I also loved doing last year’s show house master bath, a bath large enough to require furniture. Bathrooms — second most important special room in a home to most of us.

Tile chosen and laid out at the cooktop is reminiscent of the checkerboard floors I remember in our childhood home. Finishes, appliances and fixtures will make meal planning, prep and clean up pleasant and a breeze.

Patina for the copper hood by
Bekye Fargason

WHY WE DO THIS EVERY YEAR AND WHO WE DO IT FOR!

“Dollars4Schools’ grassroots model provides Santa Fe public-school teachers with a local web-based “helping-hand” in funding classroom programs. Dollars4Schools transitioned to the Santa Fe Community Foundation in 2013, and to date has funded nearly 700 programs – including 92 in the current 2017-18 school year, thanks to the incredible support of our community of friends and donors who make it all possible.
 
Dollars4Schools thanks ShowHouse Santa Fe. Since its premiere six years ago, the extraordinary design event has raised over $140,000 in support of Dollars4Schools and enriched the lives of thousands of Santa Fe students by providing funding to over 250 Santa Fe teachers.”

Home Santa Fe Real Estate Guide November 2018
And Guess who made the cover of the Santa Fe Real Estate guide.
9 Projects (and a Few Other Tips) to Sell Your Home Quickly!

9 Projects (and a Few Other Tips) to Sell Your Home Quickly!

Where to Begin

sell your home

Preparing to sell your home? With a little elbow grease and some low-cost projects, you’ll increase your home’s appeal inside and out—and potentially net a higher sale. Whether you’ve got a small budget or a little wiggle room, these projects bring good returns on investments.

Inside home improvements

 

  • Paint is an easy, relatively inexpensive fix. It refreshes rooms and makes homes look new again. Stick with classic, neutral colors. A recent analysis showed that light blue or pale blue/gray rooms potentially increase a home’s selling price by $5,000+. I’m not sure that palette holds true in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, although shades of gray seem to hold sway just about everywhere this year. Here I’m tending toward warmer neutrals, especially in north facing rooms.
  • Have popcorn ceilings or acoustic tiles? Remove them, but use caution. If they predate 1979, they may contain asbestos. Hire a licensed professional to remove them. If you have the height, drywall over the popcorn or tile and create a slightly lower ceiling instead. In Santa Fe you’re more likely to face stained wood decking ceilings. And other stained wood. They look terrible and are not the easiest to fix, but if any wood shows signs of water or other damage, you are advised to get it taken care of by a professional paint crew. This simple bedroom we did several years ago would be ruined by blotches on the ceiling.

sell your house

  • Renovate—partially. Don’t redo an entire kitchen or bathroom. Instead, paint the cabinets and upgrade the hardware. Replace the vanity and reface the existing tub. Spend a little more for new light fixtures and faucets. If your budget allows, consider upgrading kitchen appliances, like dishwashers, microwaves, or stoves.

sell your house

In this loft style home (above) on the market in Santa Fe, we did not replace all the cabinets, but removed some and replaced with inexpensive shelving. We really punched up the light, (below) added simple white tile, a lighter floor, and a bit more reflective paint. Everything we did was to 1. Lighten up 2. Open up. So important to create a happier feeling space.

sell your house

  • Replace stained, dirty carpet with new carpeting or, if your home’s floors are in decent shape, stick with bare hardwood. It may feel daunting to restore them yourself, but it’s much less expensive than hiring a professional, and your elbow grease will yield a significant return. Higher end Santa Fe style homes never have carpet. Never too strong a word? But tile rules, and wood is a close second. And if your area rugs are stained, they must go! Inexpensive area rugs are everywhere today. We just sold this beautiful blue/green area rug for under 500.00.

sell your house

sell your house

  • Maximize your home’s light. Remove and replace heavy drapes or curtains with sheers. Clean windows, change lampshades, increase light bulb wattage, and trim vegetation near the windows. Have a few darker areas that might benefit from recessed lighting? Consult with an electrician to see what it would cost to brighten those spaces.

In New Mexico, natural light is always the best if you have the option with your windows. Dark rooms should be easy to combat in New Mexico with abundant natural light and perpetually dry climate. Sometimes, even a sheer cotton or linen curtain can soften the light and make the view even more appealing.

sell your house

  • Update your home’s windows, if they’re older and not vinyl, which are weather resistant and better insulated. Some experts say that new windows can add up to $12,000 on your asking price. This is ultra important in New Mexico where we have strict energy conservation building codes, at least in Santa Fe. Look at good brands and consult with the sales staffs at the vendors. Call us for names.

 

Outside home improvements

Don’t underestimate the importance of curb appeal; that first impression potential buyers get when they see your home for the first time can make or break a deal.

  • Improve the landscape with fresh sod or seed if the grass is worn and patchy. Replace old, scraggly bushes and other vegetation with annuals and perennials to give a pop of color. Add some potted plants and hanging flower baskets on the porch.

sell your home

  • Think green with the landscaping by taking a low-maintenance route with mulch instead of grass and planting drought-resistant plants. Again, in our state it’s different, where we are strongly discouraged, if not legislated, to NOT have traditional sod grass, but to have low water tolerant plants, for example-
  • Freshen up the entrance with a new coat of paint on the door, or replace it if it’s really old and tired. Update house numbers and your mailbox if they’re dated, and update the porch light fixture, too, if it’s also looking dated.

This is the place in our high desert country to add a big ceramic pot or two with flowers to water…colorful geraniums, true red and orange red are my perennial favorites. Check out this Pinterest link for inspiring ideas for an entry. A cheerful hanging box can make even the most humble cabin look appealing.

sell your home

Super selling tips

Naturally, you want to hit your asking price when you’ve put your home on the market, so here are a few tips to help you reach that goal.

Research listing agents to find the best one. Work with your real estate agent to determine the best time to sell your home—an agent can look at trends over time to see what’s sold in your neighborhood. Analyzing comps will help you set a competitive price. Stage your home so it looks its best for the professional photos your agent will have taken for the online listing. We help with this in Santa Fe if you have existing furniture that needs editing or refreshing. And our friends have inventory of additional pieces. .

Channel your inner social media guru and promote your home online. Real estate agents use the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) to list homes for sale, but you can also make use of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to spread the word that your home’s for sale. You can even take and post video walkthroughs of your home. Here are 50 creative ways to sell your home quickly.

Don’t over-upgrade

If you’re planning to move, avoid the temptation to splurge for that new kitchen you’ve always wanted. Save that for the new home! Huge improvement projects like new decks or second bathrooms right before you move likely won’t yield a good return on your investment when you sell. Investing the time to declutter, depersonalize, and move extra belongings into storage are other inexpensive projects that pay off.

Authors

Suzie Wilson is a San Francisco interior designer with more than 20 years experience. What started as a hobby (and often, a favor to friends) turned into a passion for creating soothing spaces in homes of every size and style. While her goal always includes making homes look beautiful, her true focus is on fashioning them into serene, stress-free environments that inspire tranquility in all who enter. The Ultimate Guide to Prepping Your Home for an Open House is filled with tips, tricks and other advice based on Suzie’s years of experience in interior home design that will set you up for success.

Edy Keeler is a Santa Fe interior designer who specializes in remodeling and refreshing homes in New Mexico and beyond that are well loved and ready for a second look and life. Twenty years and counting!

Starting with Pattern in Interiors

Starting with Pattern in Interiors

A Big Leap from my style to Heather and Matt of French and French Interiors!

Inspiration

Patterns from nature are so lovely in interior design. How I get inspiration? Often it’s to look outdoors and to look UP, for starters. That rowdy raven in our office courtyard demands attention. Talking right to me, sitting high in a lacy green-gold canopy of elm leaves. And that’s a pattern I have used.

leaf patern

Or as Maurice Sendak says in a charming children’s book . . .drawn pattern

But I would say, be quiet near a little stream and LOOK

 

wood pattern

Looking UP CLOSE works well. Patterns from nature really are prevalent in interior design. This blending of these bark patterns, blurred and abstract, now so reminiscent in glass and even wood mosaic tiles.

tile pattern

Then there are delightful patterns in urban ife . . . I really go into a zone on my infrequent city trips. Glass and steel, sidewalks and bridges, lights and pavement. Strong patterns, with plenty of mood.

city at nght pattern

And how can an artist or designer not be inspired by views from a taxi like this?  Living in New York off and on for short periods I was enchanted just by taxi rides at dark.I’ve got reams of photos of both types textures. As for using them, I see many photographically represented in fabrics, wall coverings, tile, and rugs, as well as artistically rendered by fabric designers and fine artists crossing over to interior design products.

Starting with Pattern in Interiors

So these patterns are really texture
Nature’s and urban patterns  are really as much about wildly creative textures than about man-made pattern.

Artist drawn patterns
Creations by textile designers and fine artists, fabric patterns are so often inspired by nature and city life, but augmented by anything else that occurs in the wild mind. With weirdly creative palettes and subjects, myriad artistic hand drawn designs do look as interesting as our land and cityscapes.

feather pattern

Colorful abstract, from the bird nest, or more floating images of seedling flowers.

floral pattern

And then a cityscape, sweet and abstract.

cityscape pattern

And in these two rug designs, I simply see a randomly developed city grid. By Robin Gray Designs, sold by Nedret Rugs and Textiles.

[su_row][su_column size=”1/2″]rug pattern [/su_column] [su_column size=”1/2″]woven pattern [/su_column] [/su_row]

Occasional pillows? drapery? or a rug? NO PROBLEM
But going bravely into artistically rendered pattern in interior design?

This is pretty scary for many of us, including designers, but masterfully done by Heather and Matt of French and French Interiors. Seeing their room at ShowHouse Santa Fe 2017 was a daily joy and inspiration. I loved to watch the work as the room developed. I think Heather chose one beloved fabric pattern, on these pillows and two chairs, and riffed off that like a jazz musician.

rug pattern

This is what I would call a delirious riot of pattern!

The fabric is on two pillows and two chairs and everything else pulls from it, and highlights it. The rug, the bold drapes, the artwork…it all creates a controlled explosion of  pattern and color perfect for an upbeat, color-crazy kids and family play and hangout space.

rug pattern

I think what they do is to choose one beloved fabric or rug pattern and carefully finding and reacting to patterns of different scales, so as not to compete heavily with the base pattern.  And don’t forget art. It’s even more layers of pattern and quite a wow factor in the choices in this room. More of the room at French and French Interiors.

 So, how to start with pattern? And where to go?

Why not start with kids or guest rooms that are perhaps not the biggest rooms in your home or environment. A family hangout or TV room would be another place to try the approach and it surely worked for French and French at the showhouse.

Of course I’ve seen Heather start with a color theme as well, in a bold or even very subtle small patterned fabric, but then quickly depart into an array of other patterns, larger or smaller, with some colors in them that I just would not have envisioned as working, but they do!

Themes can inform the use of pattern

Another way to play with pattern, I’ve often used,  is thematically. For example, we don’t have too many horse ranches right in here town, but I have seen a horseback theme used in a manner that is sophisticated, and not as hokey as it might sound.

And Heather and Matt have used animal themes many times. It’s a natural theme for kids rooms. Their abstract butterflies and wondrous flower motifs in a delightful girl’s room comes to mind.

wallpapaer pattern

As does the little foxes wallpaper in a baby boy’s room.

light wallpaper pattern

Another theme that I’ve worked around, and that is much more prevalent in our region, is an art collection. A favorite client has a large Asian one, for example, here with both a handsome kite artifact and a gong, and other patterns. It contrasts well with heavy textures, in its delicacy, as in this fireplace wall.

brick pattern

Or with intense colors like this fireplace, bedding and drapery combination, accented with the tribal feathered mask. Using lots of pattern is a true departure for many designers and clients alike. My comfort zone includes textures with strong colors and artifacts. But it has been great to start thinking about intentional patterns, and how to appreciate and incorporate them.

brick pattern

To summarize what I’ve been learning, grounding in a color palette, or a texture that you love, and then picking a strong or a subtle pattern using the palette is one jumping off point

Adding the perfect trims, art and lighting adds more of the unique touches designers bring.

I am less shy about using patterns since studying this great design duo’s, Heather and Matt French,  use of it.

Happy New Year’s Colors

Happy New Year’s Colors

We get palette predictions this time every year. I love that, some of the colors, and we’ll share some here.

Colors can be applied to rev up your environment, home or business, in many ways.
Paint is the most prevalent, but upholstery, drapes, rugs—even a new wardrobe piece or two, are great ways to test a color’s fit for you. New pillows are easy too, or small area rugs, to test how new colors might rock, or wreck, your world. So, for some of the new palettes, here you are.

From Dering Hall’s predictions by six designers.

new colors

Green-Black is the choice of Elena Calabrese, of Elena Calabrese Design & Decor. She likes Pratt & Lambert’s Blackwatch Green, which is dark and intense without being black. It’s hard to even see the green onscreen, but it is there. And she adds it as contrast to very light walls, and in a gloss finish here as trim.

new colors

Mustard Yellow Carter Kay, of Carter Kay Interiors says they are using mustard yellow and hits of turquoise this year. This is Benjamin Moore’s Eye of the Tiger. A rich color that still seems natural. I too love shades that bring our outdoors inside.

 

new colors

Yellow-Green Jo Ann Alston, of J. Stephens Interiors, favors this deep yellow-green. I see very little yellow here, just enough to tone down a too strong green. I would use it in any day room or especially in a library. Two paints that achieve this look are Benjamin Moore’s Guacamole and Sherwin Williams’ Saguaro.

new colors

Deep Blue From Caroline Kopp, of Caroline Kopp Interior Design likes strong color and this deep blue is essentially a neutral. Sherwin Williams’ Moscow Midnight is in the rear of the bookcase. It’s a perfect background for the brights she used and what a happy family hangout it makes!

new colors

Saffron Yellow works for Elizabeth Vallino, of Elizabeth Vallino Interiors, who loves the rich warmth but still exotic feel of these walls. I am looking for a perfect place for this color myself. It’s so great with red art and accent.

[su_row][su_column size=”1/2″]

There was the perfect place for a color close to it on an exterior wall we colored on a home outside Santa Fe. In the city center, one is limited to an extremely narrow palette ranging from “brown to a different brown” or “brown and round.” Working in the county is a different ballgame . . .  when outside a gated community.

[/su_column] [su_column size=”1/2″]new colors [/su_column] [/su_row]

[su_row][su_column size=”2/3″]new colors[/su_column] [su_column size=”1/3″]

Similarly on this long walkway and reflecting pool. Beside it is the natural palette as inspiration for the homes exterior.[/su_column] [/su_row]

Also outside city limits, we were able to do a real red on an entry, using automobile paint that resists fading, at least for several years. (Red being one of those colors that fades most easily, and is why you often see “pink” handrails and trim in New Mexico.) The addition of one deep red burgundy wall and one coppery red wall to the left completed my fantasy of doing a red house! These are in a series of homes outside of Santa Fe in an area called La Mirada, designed by Robert Zachry, AIA, and built by Hurlocker Homes.

new colors

In Albuquerque proper, and most of the region, colors appear frequently on residential projects. So I was able to do the red doors on an interior courtyard in a complex in that city.

new colors

 

[su_quote cite=”Nob Hill Apartments”]mid century colors“We hired Edy Keeler Interiors, of Core Value Inc. to prepare and select exterior colors for our Albuquerque apartments Nob Hill Apartments. This was not a simple task as there are 12 buildings and we requested that a Mid-Century palette be used. Edy started with an excellent research piece on actual colors that were in common usage in residential applications during the Mid-century. Utilizing these colors of the past she created a new and fresh modern approach which is tasteful, professional and has resulted in increased demand.“[/su_quote]

While on the streetside we did our best to blend with the neighborhood.

new colors

 

Moving from a Local to a Global Scale

Every year the color company Pantone names their “Color of the Year,” and many more “colors of the year” for the paint companies follow that announcement.

 Pantone names Ultra Violet as colour of the year for 2018

new colors

The color company Pantone has chosen a vibrant purple shade, named UltraViolet, as its colour of the year for 2018. Revealed earlier today, the Ultra Violet colour is described as “a dramatically provocative and thoughtful purple shade.” Says Pantone Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman: “We are living in a time that requires inventiveness and imagination. It is the kind of creative inspiration that is indigenous to UltraViolet, a blue-based purple that takes our awareness and potential to a higher level.
new colorsFrom exploring new technologies and the greater galaxy, to artistic expression and spiritual reflection, intuitive Ultra Violet lights the way to what is yet to come.”

Even I as a designer was surprised by one of the many upcoming products using the shade! And I love it on one of my favorite chairs, the super clean lined “Jean” from B an B Italia.

 

new colors

It is not too dissimilar to the color launched last year to pay tribute to pop icon Prince following his death. “The selection of Ultra Violet speaks to our shared desire for deeper understanding in an increasingly complex landscape, and our eagerness to experiment to reach that level,” said the company.

prince purple color

My New “Old Favorite” Resource

And for a local resource I’m in love with, meet Sara Dean and her plaster colors for traditional hard trowel and beeswaxed or Okon sealed plaster. Her palette is a winner, and includes legions of neutrals not in this photo, but she can match your color just as well. Sara was the techie in this business and then took the reins over, with her husband Jona Dean, when Rob Dean passed away. They refreshed the showroom and studio into a welcoming, usable space for designers and homeowners. Call me for directions, it’s tucked away in a construction yard off Cerrillos Road.

new plaster colors

 

Now I’d love to hear your favorites. The Saffron is one of mine and I’m hoping it will be in someone’s home that I am working on, this year!