The New Farrow & Ball colours

Farrow & Ball is releasing some new colours in February!

I always delight in the Farrow & Ball names and love their dense hues. I think Calluna is my new favorite. Or maybe Mizzle...

Farrow & Ball's last addition to the range was in 2008.

The new additions use the same intensity of colour Farrow & Ball is known for and, in keeping with time-honoured tradition, each colour tells a story with a distinctive name and inspiration.

Regrettably, I have not yet used Farrow & Ball paints in my own home, but I have bought many sample pots and have a list of favorites waiting for rooms. I copied their glorious "Skylight" (my favorite F&B colour) for my guest room but know that I am overdue to try the real thing. I've heard that once you switch to F&B you don't want to go back to other paint companies!

My laundry room is next on the "to paint" list and an F&B colour is in order. I have been dreaming about dark lovely Pigeon which my friend has in her shop. But the new Brassica looks interesting. It would be soooo crisp and fresh with white appliances and silver accents! Yum!

Have you tried Farrow & Ball paints, or is there a colour you love?

Painted Bliss: Before & After

I no longer wish to recall the horror of my green living room and dining room before I decided to paint it a classically beautiful shade of ivory (Benjamin Moore Soft Chamois OC-13).
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I'll start with the AFTER photos first (because they are prettier!) The rooms aren't put together yet darlings...the process is just beginning. We will install new drapes and hardware, a new light fixture in the dining room, and I have lofty plans for a new coffee table and a pretty collection of art for the walls.

What do you think? A soft and tranquil start, I think, and just the effect I wanted.

AFTER:

And a couple of BEFORE photos, with those green walls that I once thought I liked, and the draperies I detest and can't wait to replace!

Kudos to our wonderful and affordable painters:  KC Painting (Casey Zayko) (403) 258-3140

BEFORE:

Decor Planning: My Living & Dining Rooms

The last couple of weeks I've spent every free hour poring over decorating magazines trying, once and for all, to coordinate a colour scheme for my living and dining room. It isn't an easy process as I have existing furniture and rugs to use, and also some prints and accessories I want to incorporate. I've pulled so many inspiration boards together with different palettes, but think I've finally settled on a colour scheme (which I'll explain later, with photos!).
Fabric and paint colours are taking up so much time! I've brought home countless sample pots from Farrow & Ball and Benjamin Moore and can't count how many big sheets of bristol board I've painted. Evenings and weekends have been spent moving these big chips around the room at various times of the day to catch the light and see how the colours read.

I've also been hunting for fabrics for new drapery panels. I've finally settled on linen as my fabric of choice because there seems to be a solid selection and some very pretty colours at the shop I chose to sew my projects. I will have them make panels and a new valance for my dining room.

I've been meaning to post photos of the room and ask for your help. But instead, I became obsessed with doing it myself. It seemed too hard to try to photograph all the disparate elements of the room and explain everything. Eventually I'll re-upholster a chair, slip-cover another, re-frame some prints, and so on and it seemed too tedious to explain it all to you! In the end, there were the choices my heart wanted and then the sensible choices that worked best for the room. Decorating is a balancing act when you can't do a whole room from scratch!

This week, I'll do some measurements and hopefully have the shop start sewing my items (unless I change my mind). I haven't settled on an exact paint colour yet, but at least I picked a palette and have some front-runners lined up!

Besides that I've been voraciously reading design books and have fallen in love with Michael S. Smith's gorgeous book "Elements of Style" which is just what the doctor ordered this week for some serious aesthetic inspiration!

Hope your week is wonderful! I'll share some photos of my ideas soon.

Photos: House of Linnea

Farrow & Ball: 18 New Hues

In case you haven't heard, the illustrious Farrow & Ball introduced 18 new paint colours last week! In their stead, 18 existing colours have been "retired" from the colour chart (but are still available for purchase).

Today, I visited Maria Tomas, the only Farrow & Ball retailer here in Calgary (luckily a few blocks from my office) to view the new colours.

I was positively smitten with several of the colours and especially loved the first eight, which I've included below:

There's a new white (No.239 Wimborne White), an elegant tan (No.240 Cat's Paw), and my three favorites: a creamy stone off-white (No.241 Skimming Stone), a noble light gray-blue (No.242 Pavillion Gray), and a refined dark gray-brown (No.243 Charleston Gray).

I've also shown a handsome dark brown (No.244 London Clay) which looks beautiful next to a pretty pale pink (No.245 Middleton Pink) and a gorgeous dark rose (No.246 Cinder Rose). I've been dying for rose to come 'round again!

You could steal this palette alone and design a whole house (minus the tan, perhaps!).

Check out the remaining 10 colours at Farrow & Ball.

All paints are made at the Farrow & Ball factory in Dorset, England. The company is renowned for using "more high quality pigment in every tin than any other manufacturer." Since all paints are factory-blended and quality-controlled, colour accuracy is assured. In other words, no blending is done at your neighborhood shop!

Sophisticated designers rave about paint, but it's a rather expensive at over $80/gallon here in Canada (which is about $20 per gallon more expensive than Benjamin Moore's top-of-the-line paint). The paint is supposedly a little finicky to apply as well, so a confident painter and good instructions are a plus!

I can't wait to try a gallon for myself, perhaps Pavillion Gray, my new favorite hue!