LA Art Teacher Needs Exterior Design Help!
I was very lucky to buy a home in Los Angeles when the market crashed in 2009. I am 10 minutes from downtown, in woodsy Mt Washington, near an area called Highland Park, which was up and coming when I bought, and now has exploded with restaurant/bars, shops, parks, literally everything. Love my neighborhood and my equity has doubled. But as a busy teacher with a long commute to the West side--I live on the Northeast side--I am STILL fixing up my 50's house. Hoping this will be the year I get all major exterior work done, like painting and landscaping. Just redid the roof and had to do a Cool Roof per LA city codes, so it turned out to be a lighter gray than I expected. All those color reflective particles means color interacts with the sun and there is A LOT of sun shining down on the front of my house. Does look darker in back. Anyway, REALLY need help with a color scheme. Painters coming in 2 weeks. I have original wood siding in front and stucco on the remaining part of house. Deciding whether to add an ipe wooden porch along the front of house as well. Also, that big shadow you see on the left hand front corner of picture is my 100 foot Pine tree!!!! And the reason there is no pathway? I had the original concrete walkway taken out/broken up, (the idea was to repurpose it into an urbanite pathway), but the concrete was so thick, and job ultimately so much harder than it looked, that people I hired never came back to lay it back down for me. Sad but true.
Comments (12)
PRO7 years agoRelated Discussions
Looking for feedback on art for my son's room...(w/ pics)
Comments (24)A little more: So cute. Are your framed plane pictures matted? When I look closely it looks like they're either matted or there's a width of frosted glass or something that is not quite as white as the print. If they are matted, and the wall color is staying yellow, I would suggest taking them out and either painting them, or covering them with fabric, to something that will help seed them on the wall a little more. (I've both painted and used fabrics to change the color/texture of matting -- in the end there's no real difference other than the texture that fabric can add). Unless my color is off, I don't think those (look like/white) sheets are going to really tie in with the (looks butter) wall color. Maybe a red/blue/white/yellow stripe, or a plaid or something, or contrast the wall color with a navy or red/white stripe. Though it looks those sheets _would_ tie in to the shades, if you end up wanting to keep those (they look lime on my monitor as well). You could always go with blue walls. :) HTH...See MoreCraftsman/Arts and Crafts exterior columns: pics?
Comments (11)Walkin Yesindeed, a reporter once asked Louis Sullivan the same basic question you just asked me, and got back one of Sullivan's typical cryptic responses: "I would describe it as the successful solution of a problem." Thanks a lot, Louis. Big help. And when somebody else asked Sullivan to describe the style of the Auditorium's own decoration, he said "I would prefer not to describe it at all. I would perfer for you to look at it yourself and make up your own mind." Let's just say that Sullivan would have gotten himself eliminated on the first round of something like "Design Star" that are less about design ability or artistic vision and more about personality & sense of humor. And those things are fine, but they have nothing to do with design. Anyway, here's the thing: like I said above, most of Sullivan's mature work was on major commissions: the Auditorium, the Chicago Grand Opera House, the Chicago Stock Exchange, department stores, banks, railway stations. After Adler & Sullivan becamse famous with the opening of the Auditorium, he seldom designed anything as small as a residence again, and most of the residential designs that came out of the office were in fact Wright's, or George Elmslie's, with Sullivan directing the overall design & the ornamental detailing. Even in this somewhat limited role, it was his vision that determined the aesthetic form of the finished buildings and the look that we think of as Sullivanian, in the same way that Fritz Kreisler & George Solti & Daniel Barenboim put their individual stamps on the sound of the Chicago Symphony, even though they weren't the ones playing all the instruments. Unfortunately, since Sullivan didn't really do residences, and never furnished the interiors of the houses that came out of the A&S offices, we have to look at his other buildings to find what motivated him, but it's not hard to see. In a letter to a banker client, he talked of the decorative scheme of the interior as a 'color symphony' and he wasn't kidding: the finished banking room has literally dozens of intermingled colors, mostly soft greens, yellows & oranges. It also has an elaborate stenciling scheme that blends all those contrasting colors with such subtlety that they seem to dissolve into a green haze that floats in front of the wall plane. Not only that, the main banking room is lit with a pair of gigantic arched windows of golden yellow & white glass, and at night the room glows with the light from four immense electroliers that hang from the corners of the room, fixtures in the form of gigantic clusters of sea green foliage & coiling, intertwined stems, all studded along their length with electric light bulbs. And don't forget the honey-colored Roman bricks on the walls, the intricately molded paster ceiling ai more tinys of green, the green terra cotta moldings, the bronze teller cages or the green marble counters. What's amazing was that this incredibly rich scheme was designed not for a sophiticated city audience but for a small-town farming community, where the people in line were likely to be standing in muddy boots & dirty overalls, and when he was designing for the really fancy people, it was amazing. But rather than intimidating the locals, it enobled them and their daily activities. Sullivan was a color genius, that's all I can say. After dinner I'll look up the description of his color scheme for the McVickers' Theatre here in the city, which, even as mere words on a page--the theatre was demolished decades ago--is one of the most striking combinations you'll ever see....See MoreHelp designing living room, hanging artwork, what to add?
Comments (49)BeverlyFLADeziner Peter, some of the advice you receive is not worth anything. ------------- No need for insults. Don't take my word for it. Feel free to look at all the threads that say, I painted my walls gray or purchased a gray sectional or installed gray carpet, what is wrong with my room? The problem is almost always because the gray is fighting with oak floors or tan walls or warm whites. Yes, gray and tans can work together but it takes decorating skill. If you are a decorating novice, make your life easier. Stick with the same color tones. On my screen the sofas show as dark brown. If they are in fact black, a warm dark wall would still help balance and work with the predominant tones in the room....See MoreDining Room - need help with wall art/accessories!
Comments (92)You're dining room looks lovely, I love the neutral wall colors. I believe these work by Avaulte artist Bronle Crosby would be a lovely compliment to the room. The first one is titled 'Birds Eye View" and is 24"x18". I believe the neutrality of this painting along with the pops of color would be a beautiful addition to the room. This next image by Avaulte artist Bronle Crosby is titled 'Still Waters' and is 36"x26.5". The simplicity and stillness of the image would be a lovely feature to the dining room. I would also consider looking at works by Avaulte artist Barbara Trcinski who creates amazing figurative paintings. These could add a lovely pop of color and be a beautiful statement piece within the living room. The first is titled 'Shondra in a Purple Dress' and is 20"x16". The warm colors of the painting would compliment the wall color of the dining room well. The next work by Avaulte artist Barbara Trcinski is 'Chrysanthemums' and is 30"x24". Again I belive this could add a beautiful pop of color to the room. If you wanna see more original by either of these artists or learn more about Avaulte here are links to Bronle Crosby and Barbara Trcinski's creator pages on Avaulte. Let me know what you think! Bronle Crosby: https://www.avaulte.com/bronle-crosby-1 Barbara Trcinski: https://www.avaulte.com/barbara-trzcinski...See MoreRelated Professionals
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7 years agoI saw a blog the other day with a nice transformation, using behr paint I believe.
Heres the before and after,
I realize her roof is brown, but it's still a neutral to me. Then I see a nice grey walkway. Depending on the overall style you like the walkway can be modern square slabs or even a cobblestone. Landscaping will be fun on this for sure.
katherine purdy thanked Annette Holbrook(z7a)
7 years agoDunn & Edwards has a great color called Antique White. We paired it with Burnt Crimson for our So Cal Spanish house.
katherine purdy thanked 1929Spanish-GW
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agokatherine purdy thanked carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10
7 years agoThanks to everyone for joining in! Being a homeowner has been quite the adventure!!! Here are some pictures of my house when I purchased it back in 2009....and it's a little painful for me to look at because - as you can see I removed a LOT in the front yard since 2009, some of it good and some of it probably bad. In other words, even if I thought it looked dated and was trying to give it a newer look, it still looks finished as compared to what I have now. The metal awning was first to go - it was like looking through metal bars and losing it made the good light in the south facing LR spectacular light. Still, front of house lost some architectural detail, and looks rather flat and bare now, I think. Also took out the hedge, the gas light fixture (slow leak) , about three Bottle Brush trees that were never tended ( still have a 100 foot Canary Island pine in the front of my yard near the sidewalk street and a 30 foot Bottle Brush) along with the concrete pathway. Remember I had no intention of completely LOSING the concrete walkway, I was just going to repurpose it into urbanite, re-lay it and take it from 1950 into the next century. But guys abandoned me!!!
This last pic is looking out my front window - you can see how deep my front yard is, and the enormous Pine and Bottle Brush near the street and sidewalk.
Lastly, here is the old roof that I just replaced a few weeks ago with a new Cool roof per LA's new saving energy requirements. The right side of the picture shows my attached garage which forms an L shape in the front yard. BTW, I was thinking of staining or painting the brick chimney to blend with the new gray roof.
- 7 years ago
rockybird, the only pic I have of the back of house is this one from 2 weeks ago when I started to paint the back of in primer so I could test out paint samples....out of town right now or I would shoot some more! You can see how dark my roof is in back - and my back yard is almost 10 hours of full sun!
- 7 years ago
Thank you sableincal! I am definitely planning to add curves to walkway, especially since my front yard is so long and deep. Right now, I have an ivy covered fence around entire perimeter, with only an entrance from driveway. Planning to remove fence, and possibly replace it. Add entrances from both sidewalk/street area, and from driveway. If I can get away with not adding a fence I will, as the bids I have received are exorbitant, even for hogwire, as in pic below, and I would rather spend my money on adding a front porch, to add some oomph to my very flat facade. Here are some possible design pics of direction to go in...see below. One more thing, I appreciate the vote for 1929Spanish-GW on ivory paint color, but it appears to be so similar to what I have now, which I am really tired of! So vanilla!!!! Thinking now of Graystone from Benjamin Moore - appears to be an architect choice for best grays, and flattering in all kinds of light.
sableincal