Why the almost colorless walls in the living room?
Next to our vividly blue hall, we needed something light in spirit, so I did pale, pale plaster walls, almost blush. It’s called Collector’s Item also by Benjamin Moore. I’ll bet Mount Vernon also inspired you to grain the door casing in the hall. Apparently, George Washington was awfully fond of graining. Well, it was a popular decorative technique in the 18th century. Americans hoped to project their new prosperity by faux-painting their woodwork and paneling to look like more costly woods. So pine, say, was grained to replicate mahogany or walnut. It was often done with a wonderful naïveté that I’ve tried to reproduce here. The color of the kumquat sofa is also an 18th-century idea I adapted. How about those red, white, and blue geometric star patterns you’ve painted on the floors? Any meaning to them? They’re motifs from hex signs the folk art designs you see decorating old barns in Pennsylvania Dutch country. They’re circular, and very colorful, and each design has a meaning, incl
