Ask Kyle: Pulling A Room Together

Hi Kyle,

I have a design question for you. I am lucky enough to have a “beach house”. We painted the interior a great light blue—not powder blue and not baby blue, but a blue with some punch to it. I am using the color of coral red for my PUNCH color and lots of caramel colors in the furniture too. Here is my question: I want a fun, cohesive look and I sort of want to punch up the "fun-ness" of the room in some ways and tone it down in other ways, if that makes sense. Would pulling in green on pillows and the walls help me with this?

Ann

An 'as-is' photo of Ann's beach home

Kyle: First of all, may I just say how jealous all of us are of you, Ann, of having a beach house and what great choices you have already made. That being said, I really think this room, as it is, feels extremely formal and “matchy-matchy” (excuse all of my technical design terms). I love the color of the chairs! I also think you should play around with the idea of coral in other ways than just in the literal sense of color, especially being a beach house.

I would turn one sofa around to create an L-Shaped effect and make it feel more intimate and relaxing, then remove the matching side tables and find fun pieces in the local market to make it feel more collected and personal. A rug is a big necessity -- and a way a room comes together overnight. I think these rugs are one way of playing the coral up in more ways than one and really brings the beach theme inside:

Coral rug from GreenCulture.

I also think you should bring in some textures; some found pieces of coral either displayed in a lamp or arranged on the coffee table will really make the space personal. The idea of having all of these in shades of white would be really pretty.

Glass lamp, Williams Sonoma Home

You also asked if bringing in green would be good as another punch or if that would be too much. I have two thoughts on this – I always believe good design relies on an editing eye. However, you don’t want to be stuck in a three room palette where your choices feel obvious. I like the idea of bringing in green to this room, but I think staying with seafoam to jade color greens will work best and really relate to the calming beach atmosphere. Think of using some of these porcelain garden seats as extra seating or use these as side tables instead of the current matching wood ones:

Garden stool, Williams Sonoma Home

The last thing I would recommend is with throw pillows to not just think of the “punch accent” in terms of colors but rather in terms of textures. Bring in some different feelings on the pillows to have people just want to touch things in the room and evoke an interaction with the surroundings, like these styles from Crate & Barrel and Thomas Paul:["Ask Kyle" appears the first Wednesday of every month. Kyle Schuneman is a professional designer who has worked in not only residential design but also on the sets of many of your favorite design shows. To learn more about Kyle and see pictures of his work, click here. If you have a question for Kyle, feel free to ask! Email Kyle@thelovelist.net, and you may see it answered on The Love List!]