Gretchen Overman Designs - Telling YOUR STORY

Beautiful Contemporary Home in the Hills

Santa Fe, New Mexico
PRIVATE RESIDENCE

When I first met the owners of this home, every square inch of wall and ceiling space was a pale, mint-green hard troweled plaster. It was a very high-quality plaster job, but the color was overwhelming. My clients' first idea was to minimize the green by choosing a few walls to paint and faux finish in a color which would coordinate with the existing walls. I came up with a pale shade of "taupey" gray, with hints of lavender, which has a value the same as the green plaster. Using a color the same value minimized the look of having a two-toned room, and kept it from looking too busy. The new shade picked up many elements in the wood and stone floors, and looked great with the green. However, after a year of living with this color scheme, I was called in again to finish the rest of the walls, because the green was really getting to them. I just finished these rooms yesterday, and I am amazed at how much better the whole house looks! It is a soft, unified color scheme that picks up tones in all of the other elements of the home, including the artwork. I chose to do a deeper accent wall, also with a faux plaster, as seen in the photo above.

View into dining room, with green blinds

Now, about those blinds...

Back when just a few of the green plaster walls were left, I never noticed the striking green hue of the blinds in the sliding glass doorways. Next to the plaster, they just looked off-white. After cleaning up and placing all the furniture where it belongs yesterday, the first thing I noticed was the green light coming through the windows! (See photo above, upper right corner). I sent these photos to my clients, who are out of town right now, but didn't mention the blinds. (I didn't want to have them feel as if they're living in a never-ending, de-greening spiral). Guess what! The first e mail I got from them said, "everything looks great, but the blinds are GREEN!" The colors don't clash, but I think we can all conjure up images of a less startling shade for the shades. I guess that will be the next thing on the list when they return to Santa Fe!

View of living room, with two-toned faux plaster walls

TIP:

Taking the color changes a few steps at a time has been a very low-impact way
to deal with not liking the original color of their new home.
Throughout the process, we were able to minimize impact
on my clients' daily lives by doing small bits of work
while they were out of town, take time to decide if more work was desired,
and stay within their budget.