Rocky Mountain Style
It takes a while to get there, up a winding road that seems to take you back in time as well as up the mountain. When you stop at a filling station, even the gas pumps are vintage red and yellow cylinders.
Along the road, barns and water towers lean at crazy angles, and you have the sense that life in these mist-shrouded mountains hasn’t changed much for two hundred years.
American country style still lingers on small farms and in backwoods retreats. It’s in the spartan grace of a Great Smokies town, or the luxurious rusticity of a hundred year-old Rocky Mountain resort.
But whether you picture yourself putting up preserves on a cast-iron stove or sipping a highball in a knotty-pine lodge, down-home American design means unpretentious comfort and natural beauty.
Woodwork is a good place to begin. Walls and floors of warm, plain pine boards, unfinished for a true pioneer look or stained for a more refined feeling, provide a backdrop for whatever homespun furnishings and accessories catch your fancy.
Practical items like old-fashioned cookware, rag rugs and antique quilts are both beautiful and useful. Old farm and household implements have a unique beauty, like the horse-drawn plow. A butter churn, a grain mill, an antique meat grinder, and, of course, a copper kettle are all good accent choices. Restored vintage ranges and refrigerators have become more easily available in recent years, and nothing says country like a cast-iron potbelly heating stove.
If you’re looking more for a turn-of-the-century “Great Camp” and less for a pioneer homestead, try antlers above a stone fireplace, knotty pine paneling, and (for the unsqueamish) hunting trophies and motifs.
A generous portion of luxury is appropriate: exquisite lace curtains, a beautifully restored old upright piano for evening sing-along. Don’t forget cozy nooks with leather armchairs in which to curl up with a book, and, if space permits, multiple fireplaces. And bearskin rugs may have fallen out of favor, but plush carpets scattered across wood or stone floors will keep out the chill mountain air.
Painted Scrolls on Ceiling Beams
The charm of painted scrolls on ceiling beams needs no introduction. This decorative accent is a delightful addition to any room. And though beams are common elements in many interiors rarely do one see them used as a focal point for decorative applications. Whether you enjoy the old world charm of Italy, or the contemporary flair of a San Francisco loft space, these tech iques can be adapted to suit the most creative inspiration.
Glazed decorative and faux effects on walls, ceilings furniture and objects.
Create classic effects such as colorwashing, dragging, striee, antiquing effects, or furniture effects.
Our interior and exterior glazes offer a high-end decorative paint solution that provides soft, delicate, subtle shades with either pearl, satin, or glossy tones for maximum depth and decoration.
Flouart is an acrylic based glaze for interior finishes that creates soft shades or spectacular decorative effects. Available in a pearl base, satin base, or clear, Flouart is a washable decorative paint applicable to walls, wood, metal, and plaster. Its inherent versatility allows for thousands of different aesthetic solutions depending on the tools or techniques used to apply it.
Contrast Pearl is a hard-wearing pearlescent paste specifically formulated to create numerous faux effects with one simple application.Pearl dries to a lustrous, satin finish.
Velur Interior or exterior glaze, Velur is an ideal glazing medium for mineral based plaster and stucco effects. Applicable by brush or other faux tools, Velur glaze creates delicate tones and transitions in a wide variety of saturation and opacity.
Early American Style
Colonial Amercians drew inspriation from their European heritage. Curent design styles would filter across the ocean and become reinventedin early America. Proportion and scale took reign over ornementation, A neutral color palette of grey blue, greens and rose pinks is readily apparent.
Stucco Rustico - Aged Plaster
Stucco Rustico is a Traditional interior and exterior textured plaster that epitomizes the rustic old world charm commonly associated with Tuscan environments. I love this treatment for its ease of application and the natural, organic glazed appearance that results when using mineral based plasters and glazes. Whether a rough application or a smooth finish, this treatment holds true to the test of time and, in fact, feels as if time itself stopped to wash the walls personally.
The Rustic Color Palette
The Rustic Style color palette falls within a distinct range of color tones and is essential in creating a successful Rustic interior. By using the appropriate color tones you can create a variety of design styles ranging from Period and Historic, regional or thematic. Color helps define our experiences within an interior and exterior environment. It affects us on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level and can be calming and passive, expressive and vital.
Painted Floral Details
Floral patterns used as accents in fabrics and furniture are common place details in the English Country home. These graceful and organic patterns complement the cozy interior of this style and work particularly well with lace window treatments, an heirloom tea service set and the natural and rustic charm of wooden ceiling beams and slightly irregularly textured walls.