I apologize in advance to those who follow me on Twitter or are a Facebook friend, as I already shouted this one out from the rooftops on those sites. Google Alerts was kind enough to let me know that the Fauxology blog was mentioned in a Connecticut Now article entitled “Trick Out Your House with Color” — as one of two recommended blogs to read (the other being the wonderful Color Buzz).

Thankfully, y’all can’t see me doing the I’m a Superstahhhhh! Moves. (Looks like this…)

The article was written by Feng Shui expert Kathryn Weber — a big hearty thanks from me. Click on the link to the article which contains great tips on the addition of color in your home. I particularly like the one about painting your doors a snappy color. My doors are now looking at me like “What? We look good — you woodgrained us already!”. Silly doors — they’ll see a lot more changes throughout the years. Enjoy the article!

Color Buzz is one of my fave blogs. Sponsored by Valspar, their team of artisans really do an outstanding job of writing posts full of color inspiration, history and best of all, provide specific swatch names and numbers. A recent fave opened the door to this blog nibbler: The Shades and Colors of Parisian Doors. (Yes, that was my attempt at a pun. I know…)

Beautiful Parisian Door

We’ve profiled Ann McGuire before on our Blog Beat series, in case you’d like to read more about her artistry and the Color Buzz blog. The Parisian doors post was inspired by a few rainy days spent in Paris. I think that would be a beautiful experience, non? Oui!

As any dear Reader knows, I looooooooooooove color. BUT, I want you to know yours truly can also appreciate the beauty of black & white. I found some gorgeous images for you:

Tile, yes — but doable as a decorative technique with stencils and handpainted elements. I do like the pairing with the bold wall finish. This was profiled in Phoenix Home & Garden.

(Below) The following three images pair black & white with gold tones. Very pretty.

Kameha Grand Hotel (Bonn, Germany)

Nama Rococco Wallpaper

Asarota Mosaics

(Below) Love the glossy black wood flooring paired with the distressed white wood ceiling. Also, the mix of furniture styles and the art chosen. The nicely designed space was profiled in Phoenix Home & Garden. (Love that mag, seriously. Fantastic images.)

Photographed by Werner Segarra

(Below) A collage of inspired black and white fabric patterns on the left and a unique laundry room on the right featured in, yessssss, Phoenix Home & Garden. The laundry room can be similarly recreated using The Stencil Library’s print stencils.

Tell me, would you personally prefer being surrounded by color or the freshness of seeing in black and white?

Benjamin Moore recently sent me an invite to a complimentary webinar entitled Three Centuries of Color. The one-hour webinar offers a look at “the major influences on color, color selection, and design from 1880 through 2010.” (big grin) They are talking my language!

They go on to say that each webinar will cover “six key colors for each decade and highlight the societal, political, technological, and cultural influences on color, as well as inspire new ideas, fresh perspectives, and insight into future trends.” The next one is scheduled for August 17th (1 – 2 p.m., EDT) and registration will be open about a week or two before that date. They also have others planned after that in case you can’t make that date. Cool, huh? Let me know if you sign up!

While perusing pics from my trip to Italy in 2005, I found images of a finish I stumbled upon in one of the hotels. Wish I could tell you which hotel or even which city but I neglected to note that. However, I think it is an interesting technique and one that looks easily achievable with tinted plasters, a grate with a pleasing pattern and a trowel to mess some of it up while still wet. It looks as if they applied, troweled or rubbed some sort of metallic wax or overglaze over some of the finishes when done.

The finish was applied around the room entrances and elevators. Below, you will see Reds & Golds in one area and Blues in another. Isn’t the blue color movement just so visually pleasing? All my closeup shots of the blue are fuzzy. Argh!

Here’s the closeup of the Red & Gold, though…

This one is in ochre tones — there’s a closer look.

The Red & Gold combination continues but here it is paired with beautiful greens.

I love the “messiness” of the finish and the goal of it being not so perfect either.

The artisans in Italy always think in such exciting colors! I really enjoyed the results. What do you think?

Linda Banning, the owner of a new Orlando, FL workshop studio, La Murabella, recently introduced me to a few products in the market. One of these was Perfetto Wood Gels. Now, I’ve been using another water-based woodstain system to color and use within glazes to great success. However, that product is not exterior-rated (ask me how I know) and although we love the wood color options, we’ve been searching for another product that would allow us to use them outside with no fear. Enter Perfetto Wood Gels.

The stains are water-based, can be combined with other products such as glazes, are exterior-rated and are comparably priced at about $20 per quart, give or take. We took a leap of faith and used them recently to woodgrain a set of garage doors — a technique we do a lot here in Florida. The color held and although not as strongly tinted as other products on the market (you will use a bit more), they are much more liquid and therefore easier to stir and blend than other products. So for us, it was a great result.

(above) Before ~ (below) After

They have an array of 20 colors in addition to 3 metallics (Gold, Silver & Copper) which can be added to the stains as well as a Black Concentrate to deepen the available colors at will. One of my fave colors is Gilded Walnut, which gives a subtle rich sheen to the stain — very nice. You can check out the other colors available here. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Linda at La Murabella. She’ll lead you down the right path. Let me know if you’ve used this product and what your results were, if so.  Have a wonderful day!

Blue is a gorgeous color — and I thought it was perfect to profile since we are smack dab in the middle of Summer. Although a tranquil color, the following images make my heart race. Make sure you click on the pics to zoom.

(above, left) A space designed by Haynes-Roberts and on the right, a beautiful distressed table surrounded by perfect accents.

(above) This is part of a print ad for Armani Casa. I think the wall surface is to die for.

(above) On the left is The Greenbrier Hotel as designed by Dorothy Draper. On the right, sublime use of Seven Lakes by ICI Paints. Room photographed by Simon Watson.

(above) I wish we could see the wood ceiling in detail.  It looks so beautiful even from this angle. Love the border and the colorations.

I hope you are “feeling the blues” — in a good way, of course! Until tomorrow, dear Readers.

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