It is official, Key West was just named the “most excellent cities to visit” by Trip Advisor in an article in Southern Living. We are on a four day countdown until we leave and life will slow down to a lovely crawl. The tropical hot days will end with amazing sunsets full of brilliant color. Key West is a colorful melting pot of interesting things but they come together somehow and blend to create something unique, eclectic and now nationally recognized! In the world of decorating interesting things can work together too. Let’s take a peek into an expanded Lantana that received a burst of color and interesting new things somewhere in the heart of The Villages.
• Goal for the home The goal of the homeowner was to replace all the carpet and tile with engineered hardwood and add some color into the space. The color would come from new rugs, and art.
• Paint We did not have to paint because the walls were already painted and the homeowner was happy with the color. The walls were a mixture of tan with a few golden green accent walls.
• Flooring The house had tile in the kitchen and carpet in the living room. The homeowner did not like the tile in the house and wanted to remove it. Rather than have two types of flooring the homeowners wanted to run the engineered hardwood through the living room and the kitchen. Engineered hardwood can be put in the kitchen and will take a beating but it is not for those who spill or leave ice cubes on the floor with frequency. The homeowner chose a Bella Cera hardwood in the color of sand. This color of hardwood kept the house light and bright. This floor also had lots of character lines so it would be forgiving if something did happen to the floor. The tile did have to be ripped up in the kitchen and it is a messy job but for those who really do not want tile anymore it is worth it. Tip: if you don’t want to remove your tile then you don’t have to. Hardwood can butt up to the tile without a threshold and the transition will be smooth.
• Rugs With the engineered hardwood installed we had an opportunity to introduce color. The color palette already had lots of golden greens on the accent walls and the living room furniture was golden green. The homeowner liked a tropical look and with all the green the natural color to add as an accent was coral/orange. We added a big splash of the coral/orange into the living room by installing a large nine by thirteen rug. This rug has crème colored coral branches running through it and it looks great with the living room furniture. The homeowners also needed a rug in the dining room but this time we introduced a soft blue. The large print pattern on the rug had all the colors in the room including coral/orange and green. This rug tied everything by pulling colors from all elements of both rooms.
• Wainscot The island in this model often gets kicked by feet and the wall gets dirty too quickly. We added a wainscot with bead board and beautiful trim to make the island stand out and protect the walls from feet. The entire wainscot was painted white so that it would stand out against the dark granite. This type of wall treatment is classic and will never go out of style.
• Art New art was added in the dining room area. The homeowners chose two water colors from Gene Rizzo. The Great Blue Heron and the White Egret hanging side by side have all the colors of the house and more. They introduce the blue that tied into the rug. The art above the buffet is a picture of coconuts on a palm tree by the water. This picture by Elizabeth Kershaw reinforces the tropical feeling well.
• Mirrors The wall opposing the sliders has three mirrors. Mirrors on this wall collect the light from the view and put it back into the space.
P.S. –Attention, club presidents! I give free decorating programs! It is lots of fun and very informative. Call and schedule your club today or call Ruth your full service decorator at 352-804-2056.