Antebellum Pop!

I’ve been having such a good time working with curator Dr. Sarah Clunis and the team at the LSU Museum of Art on the upcoming Hunt Slonem exhibit I just realized I haven’t posted in months! If you live in the area, you won’t want to miss this unique exhibit that’s already started getting quite the buzz. Here’s a link to a blurb in last Saturday’s Page Six of the NY Post:

http://pagesix.com/2016/04/01/louisiana-pop-show-features-hunt-slonem-work

The exhibit opens Thursday, April 21st with a talk by Hunt Slonem at 6:00 followed by a reception from 7:00 until 8:30. As you’ll note from a copy of the invitation below, you do not have to be a museum member to attend. In addition to the opening reception, there are several other programs and lectures over the course of the exhibit, including a Gallery Talk with me on July 10th.

Antebellum Pop! will intermix his paintings from the 1980s to the present with decorative art and furniture chosen by Slonem from the LSU Museum of Art’s permanent collection, M.S. Rau Antiques, and his two Louisiana Plantation homes. This exhibit will bring together his work in painting with his work in architecture, interior decor and decoration. Here’s a sneak peak:

“Bunny Wall” in foreground and “Hutch” wallpaper in what will become a dining room behind it. Images taken from Slonem’s paintings are now available in wallpaper and fabrics by Groundworks for Lee Jofa. Photo taken by paperhanger Clay Fairbanks.

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“Antebellum Violet” in the foreground was created especially for the exhibit. “Watermelon Red”, “Lakeside Napoleon” & “Juliet’s Potion” (L>R) are from my Full Spectrum Paints Brights Palette. Many thanks go to PPG Paints who donated all of the paint for the exhibit!

“Juliet’s Potion” in the foreground with my new “Sacre Blue” teal in the background.

Slonem’s “Hutch” wallpaper in what will be transformed into a dining room with that 30′ $448,500 dining table mentioned in the Page Six article! Photo taken by paperhanger Clay Fairbanks.

The exhibit stays up until August 5th. A trip to the LSU Museum of Art with its newly installed permanent collection is well worth a trip, no matter how far away!

The Hunt Slonem wallpaper, fabrics and rugs are available through Ellen Kennon Design, Furnishings & Full Spectrum Paints. Please email me directly for more information. ellen@ellenkennon.com.

Another Day in Paradise!

I am so incredibly lucky to live and work in rural Louisiana where I get to soak in beauty on a daily basis. Just the other day, I went to drop off some curtain rings to Aimee English who runs the workroom that sews all of my clients’ curtains and drapes. Aimee’s workroom is located in a cute little out building on Monte Vista Plantation (circa 1857) on the banks of the Mississippi River in Port Allen. From my previous visits, I knew Aimee had some pretty extensive renovations going on, and on this trip I was excited to see the finished project. Everything looked so magical, I just had to take some time out to snap a few photos to share, as Aimee has turned her home into an event venue. Yes, you can have your wedding or other fabulous party here at Monte Vista!

(Workroom for ARE Custom Works in Port Allen, Louisiana where Aimee English has a staff of seamstresses sewing custom window treatments, bedding & bed canopies, tablecloths, etc. Their work is exquisite and always perfect!)

(Can you believe this garden? As you can see by the pansies, it’s Wintertime! The often used bell is original to the plantation.)

(The house faces the levee and river so you drive up to the rear where she created a canopy with magical white lights.)

(The front of the home, verandas and parterre rose garden face the levee and Mississippi River. You can see the Huey P. Long Bridge from here.)

The workroom isn’t the only other building on the property. There are several others, each one more charming than the next:

There’s also an adorable childrens’ playhouse as you drive onto the property. As you can see, Aimee has many talents and gardening is certainly one of them!

(Of course a place as charming as this has chickens!) 

(The Huey P. Long Bridge crosses the Mississippi River between Port Allen and Baton Rouge.  The day I visited, several bonfires like the one on the right were set up for a Christmas Party.)

Now do you see why I consider myself so lucky to be able to live and work in such a beautiful area with such talented folks? Just another day in paradise!

For more information about Aimee English, her many talents and services, you can email her at arecustomworks@yahoo.com. For more photos, here’s a link to photographer Pearl Walker’s Blog Post featuring a wedding at Monte Vista Plantation: Pearl Walker Photography

My favorite window treatments that Aimee makes for my clients are simple lined and interlined panels with no pleats that hang from iron rods and rings. You don’t have to live in our area to have these made as I often ship them out of state. To see fabric samples and for more information, email me!

 

Summer Sale!

I finally posted a Spring 2014 newsletter that announces that we are having a sale on all paint products through July 4th. 10% off on all paint ordered online. Simply use the code “summer” in the coupon box at checkout and it will give you the discount. Also, if you’re not a Louisiana resident, there’s no sales tax, so that’s another 8-10% in discounts!

By the way, did you know that our paints cover far more square footage than most other paint brands? Most brands only cover 300-350 square feet per gallon, but our Lifemaster eggshell covers 450-475 square feet per gallon which is only 13 cents per square foot! Considering what a difference paint makes in the overall project, it is by far the best deal around.

We also have a couple of new types of paint samples! One is an 11″x17″ color chart poster of all 100 of our stock colors, as well as a smaller 8″x11″ color chart of our 10 whites and 20 magical gems and brights. Especially helpful when putting together color palettes,  the 11″x17″ chart features 100 fail-safe colors that compliment each other flawlessly in any setting, be it an ultra modern office or a historic plantation home. These nature-inspired colors have proven themselves consistently beautiful and therapeutic no matter how they are paired or lit, so seasoned designers and amateur homemakers alike can benefit from using this simple yet broad and effective palette.

Hand-painted 11″x17″ Color Charts feature all 100 stock colors.

 Our 8″x11″ Whites & Brights Color Charts feature 10 Ethereal Whites and 20 Magical Gems and Summer Brights, the colors featured in House Beautiful Magazine as “Colors from the Deep South”. The whites include several new ones that we recreated full spectrum formulas for of some of  Benjamin Moore’s most popular whites: “Barry’s White” is our version of “Dove White”, “Pottery White” is our version of “China White”, “Nautical White” is our version of “Maritime White” and “Designer White” is our version of “Decorator White”. Did you know that our “White Opal” is whiter than Ben Moore’s “Super White”? What makes our whites so much better? No black and seven pigments in each one makes a huge difference!

Ethereal Whites, Magical Gems & Brights

Many clients use the more saturated colors to create jewel box spaces out of closets, bookcase and cabinet interiors, powder rooms and other spaces where you want to add pops of therapeutic color. Artist Hunt Slonem, who inspired many of our brights, often uses these colors for his plantation homes which surprisingly can easily handle these more saturated colors.

“Albania Mango” walls in the Parlor at Albania Plantation

Throwback Thursday: Harmony House

For my second Throwback Thursday post, I thought I’d share a local project I’ve been helping with. Back in 1998, I was asked to design a house based on the design of my own home, but bigger. Part of my task was to come up with a plan to market and rent it out as a bed and breakfast.

As luck would have it, the local historical society’s annual Audubon Pilgrimage home tour was scheduled about the same time as the construction completion date, so we came up with the idea to turn “Harmony House” into a decorator showcase house as an added bonus to the tour. We named it “Harmony House” since several designers had to work together due to it’s open floor plan.

The large one-room living, dining, kitchen area has a staircase leading to a loft bedroom upstairs. The designer for downstairs wanted mustard walls and the designer for the loft upstairs wanted red brick walls, but there was no way we could use both colors together as there was nowhere to stop one color and start another. Personally, I thought both colors were too strong for the huge space. To compromise, we created “Terracotta Sand” which worked beautifully with both designers’ fabric choices. (This was before I had my line of Full Spectrum Paints.)

“Terracotta Sand” walls & ceiling with “Edgewood Green” trim, which brings the outdoors in.

Since then, the house was bought by one of the B&B guests and recently sold back to the original owner who plans to rent it out again as a bed and breakfast. He hired local painter Mike Small to repaint everything, using the same colors, but this time the colors have my full spectrum formulas!

Today I got to see once again what a huge difference full spectrum makes in not only brightening up the place, but also in the way the energy shifted. I’ve had countless psychics, channelers and regular folks like you and me rave about the great energy radiating from our paints and this project is a perfect example. Dr. Doreen Virtue in her book, 21 Days to Improve Communicating with Your Angels, says one of the first things you can do to purify your home so that angels will want to come in, is to paint your walls!

Since the beginning of Full Spectrum Paints, I have visualized and prayed that everyone who comes in contact with them is joyful and balanced.

Mike Small, who is doing a fabulous job painting, also gave me a couple of painting tips I’d like to share. He said when painting with an eggshell finish, it’s important to paint “wet on wet”, meaning to start rolling the walls while the paint from cutting in is still wet. This avoids lapping or flashing. He also said he adds a little bit of water to the paint when touching up. Having never used our products, he’s loving both the coverage and application of our products and is using all three finishes from the Diamond 350 and Lifemaster product lines. Locals, Mike can be reached via his cell: 225-245-1269.

The former Harmony House owners used “Terracotta Sand” again in their new home shown here because not only did they like it, but it also happened to blend in perfectly with the already pickled cabinetry! Since the rest of the trim was white and nothing special, we minimized it by painting all walls & trim the same “Terracotta Sand” in an eggshell finish.

Throwback Thursdays

I love Throwback Thursdays because I always post a photo of my daughter who has had so many different looks over the years, it’s hard to believe it’s the same person. Also, I always tag her so that it appears on her Facebook page and try and post early in the morning before she has a chance to delete it off of her page. It has become a little game we play. She did tell me that in one of her theatre classes at Loyola, that my Throwback Thursday photos of her were quite the topic of conversation with everyone, including her professor, saying how much they looked forward to seeing them.

This got me thinking that I should start recycling old color and design projects on Thursdays for my blog. This might be a good way to inspire me to post more often. So, hopefully, this will be the first of many!

I’ll start with one of my first color consultation projects. Shortly after I started my line of Full Spectrum Paints in 2001, Mercedes Whitecloud asked me to meet her at the Pitot House Museum in New Orleans because they were doing some repainting. I didn’t have nearly as many stock colors to choose from back then (now we have over 100), so what was surprising to me, was that many of my colors were actually dead ringers for the historical colors original to the circa 1799 plantation. The interior millwork was all “Edgewood Green” and three of the rooms were the equivalent of our “Wedgewood”, “Citrine” and “Ruby” which is from our Magical Gems Palette. I was floored to discover that this saturated, bright red was used back then!

“Ruby” walls with “Edgewood Green” trim recreated from the original colors used in this bedroom. Photo from the book Creole Houses.

Today the Pitot House is home to the Louisiana Landmarks Society who saved it, moving it about two hundred feet in the mid-1960s to prevent its demolition for the construction of a school. The Landmarks Society focused its restoration during the period of 1810-19 when it was occupied by Jacques-Francois Pitot, a native of France who became the second mayor of New Orleans. Pitot previously spent time in Saint Domingue, now Haiti, hence the Creole architectural and colorful influences.

We created our full spectrum formula for the shutters and named the color “Pitot Shutter Green”.

Although I had already created several of the colors used in the Pitot House, I was so taken with the unusual colors of the shutters and the mango-colored parlor, I later created full spectrum formulas for those colors for colorful artist Hunt Slonem, who used them at both Albania and Lakeside Plantations.

Our version of the Pitot Parlor wall color was used in the parlor of Albania Plantation so we renamed it “Albania Mango”. “Edgewood Green” is on all millwork including the ceiling. Note how the trim is so neutral it goes with every color in the house!

“Citrine” walls with “Edgewood Green” trim used in one of the bedrooms. Citrine is a color we use often to brighten an otherwise dark space. Works every time!

“Wedgewood” walls with “Edgewood Green” trim used in this bedroom is probably the most subdued color in the whole house and still one of our most popular bedroom colors. To get samples of these colors, visit: Full Spectrum Paints