I painted my hallway this past weekend and have just finished hanging the artwork. My husband and I love art and have collected many pieces over the 23 years of our marriage, some having investment value, some not, but all selected for the subject matter and joy it brings into our home. Art should never be selected for its "decoration" value for it will eventually end up in the basement, the consignment store, or your next garage sale. This is a poor waste of $$$ as the framing alone is pricey when done properly and often times is more expensive than the art when buying a print of an original.
Artwork is meant to be seen. Being viewed is it's only real purpose. My upstairs hallway is long with ample light at the landing from the open two story foyer, but when you turn right instead of left, you enter 15 feet of windowless space. The hallway terminates at the Master bedroom and Study. Turning left puts you into the bedroom, where turning right offers a small hallway with a french door that opens into Scott's study. The small hallway also offers a color opportunity to strike a new mood and draw the distant wall closer by making the hallway not appear to be long and narrow. When my daughter's bedroom door is open it does allow some natural to enter the center of the hallway, but the light is marginal even on the sunniest of days. The prior owners had painted the hallway a pleasant green/gray color. Many pictures had been hung in the 10 feet of wall space so the primary wall was full of nail holes. Rather than add to the golf course of holes she had already created or try to fill and paint over the holes in a color I did not intend to keep, I utilized the existing holes and simply lived with the odd arrangement of artwork until the plan of change had been determined.
"Necessity is the mother of invention." Complacency set in and the unintended consequence was not painting the hallway until an event was to take place in our home that would open it to the public for many to see. As a known interior designer and
educator of young minds to the profession, I simply could not allow untold numbers of people to see my home and not have it at its best. A commonly asked question by friends and clients is how do you know when it is okay to change from one color to another with so many of us living in open plans and not wanting all our walls to be the same color. Inside and outside corners is the usual answer to that question. Color transitions help to define a space. It is important to note that strong and numerous colors may not be recommended for those individuals planning to sell and move within a couple of years, but long term residents can transcend a room for a small amount of money and effort providing joy and comfort where there previously was none. A home's color palette is a response to one of the Principles of Design, harmony. Harmony exists when through
a master plan one has achieved both variety and unity.
Within my home are a variety of furniture styles within an open floor plan. The common "cheerful" color that I determined would bring a sunny fresh feeling to my hallway was a subdued shade of yellow similar to light rattan. My inspiration (remember the kitchen at the Jersey Shore having an inspiration) was an Asian folding silk screen on a high shelf in my foyer opposite the upper landing. During the daytime the creamy yellow color gives the impression of sunlight where there is none and widens the narrowness. The small hallway leading to the study still retains the original color of green at this time, but my final finish will be to bring the warmer green in my dining room (also open to the foyer) to the back hallway giving warmth and interest while showing off the more masculine wildlife artwork leading to the study.Finally, the artwork needed to be hung. I took all the artwork I had removed, plus all the artwork I had stored and laid the pieces out to decide what is re-hung and what goes away or finds a new home. In the end I decided to also walk through my house and see what artwork I should move to new locations.
It has become my habit to buy a piece of street art when I travel. Often it is original art that portrays a scene distinctive to the city or country I am visiting. My current collection includes the famed harbor in Copenhagen lined with colorful 4 story buildings, Stockholm's "Old City", The Ballastone Inn in Savannah, and Capitola by the Sea in my beloved Santa Cruz county and former home, just to name a few.
When the artwork was laid out, I discovered that somehow I had acquired numerous pieces of art that held large amounts of pink, a color I currently had nowhere in my home, so I boxed up most of the pink artwork for safe storage. The hallway now boasts my travel artwork where I can see it each day as I pass through the hall giving me pause to consider what view I may want to add when I travel to Paris in December. Hmmm......snow drifts on the Seine?
