Garrison Hullinger - Living Life With Color

In the past couple of years I’ve had the opportunity to work on some great projects. Working with the client is one of my favorite parts of my job. But sometimes the client isn’t always who you would think it would be…I worked with the creative director of Rejuvenation’s catalogs on styling ten different homes for an upcoming catalog. The task was very intriguing as I knew I’d have to work with different styles of homes. I told the director that I would have a hard time working with trying to create ‘period styled homes’. He assured me the direction for the new catalog was to show homes that would use period-styled lighting but would still live in a current more traditional way. Here’s a couple of the rooms from the Rejuvenation website.

This Colonial Revival Home was selected to show off the low hanging Hudson light fixtures. The piano, rug, sofa and coffee table were the home owners and I provided all the draperies, pillows, accessories and plants. The curtains were something that I think help frame the windows and give the room some depth and even more height to these gorgeous ceilings.

http://www.rejuvenation.com/catalog/settings/settingdisplay.html?setting_id=102&category=living

This Colonial-styled room is the only room on the main floor of this estate that had painted trim work. The light fixture is a replica of one that the home-owners allowed Rejuve to make a mold of and recreate the Jamison chandelier. The picture I was given prior to seeing this house didn’t show the color of the room in the distance. Most of these items were brought from my own home and I wanted the accessories to look as if the home-owner was an eclectic collector of items/art. The art in the room behind this sitting room is from one of my favorite artists, it’s titled Bowl of Cherries by Dimitri Kourouniotis , http://www.dolmas.com/index.htm, the art above the fireplace was on loan from the Portland Art Museum.

http://www.rejuvenation.com/catalog/settings/settingdisplay.html?setting_id=95&category=living

In the past few months I’ve been trying to make an effort to reach out to businesses that I’ve worked with in the past. One small, but beautiful project I worked on last year was a photo shoot for a regional magazine; Portrait of Portland. I had met one of the creative directors and she had inquired about some of my floral design work. They were doing a shoot that involved highlighting an award winning remodeling company’s newest project and needed some help with staging the house for the photo shoot. Williams-Sonoma Home would be providing most of the furniture for the shoot but the creative director was looking for the flowers to be different than what you could pickup at the local grocery store stand. I had an over-sized rock crystal votive to work with for a formal sitting area and then some other vessels for the remaining parts of the home. The article ended up featuring a few of my floral designs and furniture/accessory placement in the home.

I made contact with Bryce Linton, Yalecrest Renovations President, to see if his company would be ok me linking my sight to his that featured the Portrait of Portland article. I’m not sure Bryce even remembered me from the photo shoot, but he took the time to talk to me and to ask about my services. We set up an appointment to meet and talk about how we could collaborate on future projects. Many of the clients I come into contact with are thinking of a major remodel or have already begun one. Yalecrest Renovations is a company that specializes in kitchen and bathroom remodels. The extent of their projects goes beyond the kitchen or bathroom and each one has a nostalgic feel that only fine craftsman can achieve. Check out the article on the Yalecrest website http://www.yalecrestrenovations.com/news.htm.

I’m working with a client that I thoroughly enjoying working with…she has great style and great taste. A casual conversation lead to the discussion of her beach house that is being remodeled. The house was purchased new several years ago when their children were younger and the usage of the home has changed over time. Otherwise, it’s time for the house to grow-up and be a bit more sophisticated. The general contractor has taken a majority of the walls down to the studs and the wall to wall carpet has been removed.An unfinished attic/crawl space has been reinvented as an in-suite and will provide wonderful refuge for guests…I’m sure no one will even think the rediscovered area was ever an attic space…nor will we leave a vestige of the attic or crawl space.Since the home is used primarily for short stays there was no need for large closets in each of the bedrooms. The that stretched across one wall of each bedroom have been removed and closets have been tucked into a corner or left to be replace by a piece of furniture. The regained area will provide more space for a larger bed for two of the rooms and give more depth to a room that may have seem a bit cramped before.The idea for two of the rooms is to have the upholstered beds against the far wall when you walk in and on each side of the bed would be a wall sconce…this will provide great reading light but also wonderful ambient lighting. Conceptually, this is what I’m thinking it would feel like (minus the asian influence).  Williams-Sonoma Home - Fairfax bed, Hudson Side Tables, Bamboo Wall Sconces www.wshomecom.com    The new claimed area that is becoming the in-suite is a little bit trickier to get to with the turns in the doors and hallway so it won’t be able to have a traditional headboard. I want to have a low upholstered headboard made that will sit below a new large window. I’m hoping to cover the headboard in a natural colored raffia.  The mattress will sit on a fabricated platform. The new wood floors throughout are in place and we’ve decided to use no stain. It’s a beautiful golden oak and we’ll allow the natural grains to stand on their own. The trim and cabinets for the kitchen are hemlock and also have a clear-coat applied to them.My choice was to have interior doors, kitchen cabinets and all the trim painted out in my favorite trim color Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee (OC-45). My number two choice for interior trim in white is Benjamin Moore’s Decorator’s White…it’s a crisp not too blue white. I only work with Benjamin Moore paint and find it imperative that the paint contractor use the Benjamin Moore paint that is selected during the design process…trying to substitute another brand is a mistake that can not be corrected. My go to place in Portland is Kaleidscope Paint. www.kaleidscopepaint.com But, the general contractor and the husband of the homeowner won out with my client deciding to go with a clear coat on all the trim and doors. It is important that the wood finishes not take over the space of the home. I want to ensure we have harmony throughout the home and not have too much of one color (the wood) and not enough balance. Some of that balance is done with the wall color. I’ve tried to help create a serene element within the main living areas with a color that doesn’t distract one’s eyes but is soothing and feels like it belongs at the beach. I selected Sea Foam 2123-60 this is a color that translates well for a home near the coast. It has a slight hue of green to it and will help with reflecting light from the large windows at the rear of the home. We’ll be using Cedar Key oc-16 (part of the off white collection) for an accent wall behind the fireplace and built-in storage units.  Knowing our colors is important, we had picked out the other finishes throughout the house but my client felt like the kitchen countertop was going to be too dull, we had picked out a beautiful travertine marble but she felt with all the wood aspects of the home it was too formal and too flat in color. So today we went to the stone slab yard and picked out a new stone for the kitchen countertop. She had absolute black on her mind and her fabricator and general contractor highly recommended it. This  is a commonly used granite and there is plenty of it to be had. I my only concern is that this fights the serene feel that we were trying to achieve with the other finishes in the house. We walked thru the stone yard and came to an agreement on the choice of kashmere whiteThis stone has beautiful blue/grey veining running thru it and has flakes of burgundy scattered throughout. We both feel that this is a much more suitable stone for the kitchen and I’m excited to have this project back on track.   

A blog or just some of my notes from my day.  I never thought I’d have a blog…but I’ve been asked by a few people to clue them into my projects. Today’s projects are grounded at home. A writer for a regional magazine inquired about doing a photo shoot at our house for an upcoming feature. It’s a feature on exterior spaces…I was hoping she’d tell me it was for a photo shoot in Aug or Sept…but no, it’s for next weekend. My first thought is that J, my partner, is going to think I’m crazy if I let anyone photograph ‘his’ garden during the winter months.  Here’s what it looked like last fall. Today, I had a carpenter over and he was helping to increase the pitch of the roofing. We added a polycarbonate roofing material to the top of the pergola to help extend the use of the patio during light rain. We found out that the pitch of the pergola wasn’t quite enough to get the water to drain properly without leaking thru some of the seams. Today, we hope we’ll rectify that.    

My blog was just installed this afternoon and I’ll be posting to it shortly, please try back soon.Thanks!