Renovating Boxwood Hill
One of the design elements I committed to early on was to have highly saturated doors throughout the main floor of Boxwood Hill. To understand my process, before I decide to move one wall in a house, I always decorate it first! This may come as a surprise, but to me, decorating is more fun than designing. So renovating Boxwood Hill was no different. I spent hours picking fabrics and wallcoverings to develop the color story for the house. Once I could see the mood that I set, then I could think about living in the house and how the spaces should relate to each other. This leads me to which walls should stay or go and if doors should move to improve sight lines or traffic flow.
I was inspired by Miles Redd and his penchant for theatrics with color. (That is another blog post.) I also thought the jolt of color would bring a modern sensibility to my very traditional interiors.
Miles Redd is the king of brightly painted colored doors. Let’s all have a moment of silence for this magnificence.
But then, which color?
Red would be too obvious and orange would be harder to live with. Plus, our main rug in the living room has an orange field and I felt the color needed to contrast more.
This is my antique rug in my living room. Don’t you just love the modern colors of this timeless piece?
Green came to me as I was looking around the house. Boxwood Hill sets on 2.5 acres in Nashville, Tennessee where we have more than 75 trees, so every window you look out of has green surrounding you. The green would complement the views–bonus! Also, I think of green as a neutral. I felt it would work well with other colors. And, you know how much I love blue and white, so I knew that would look great with green.
But, which green to choose?
I wanted it to be uber traditional, but a bit garish. Not hunter green, but more like British Racing Green with the sheen of a car paint. So, I chose Chrome Green from Benjamin Moore in High Gloss. I had my painter spray the doors for a perfect finish! Darby has marred a few with his scratching to go out. Ugh, pets!
Don’t you get English racing vibes from this color? It transports you to the elegant English countryside
When you look at several of the rooms, the green really acts as a counterpoint. In our small library, the built-ins are Robin’s Egg Blue. The richly saturated green doors really pop against the quiet mood in there. In the dish room, the green doors pop against all the blue and white dishware. The dining room is particularly stunning with the blue draperies contrasted against the rich green French doors.
I love how the intensity of the green contrasts the playfulness of the robin’s egg built-ins
I love how these shades of green play off each other, especially with the troves of blue and white dishes we have collected
Our beautiful dining room curtains made of a Miles Redd Schumacher fabric really pops against the intense green of the doors
Many people who have come to Boxwood Hill in Nashville, TN, immediately comment, “I love the green doors. Why did you do that?” I say, “Because it’s beautiful!”
All in all, leaving your doors white is a missed opportunity.
When considering a change in your home, find a color that is a common thread in all of your rooms, and choose a shade of that color you can live with for a long time. Painted doors are a commitment, but one that has massive payoff in the end.
This is from a showhouse I did a few years back. Do you notice I upholstered the doors? This is just a whimsical and fun as a painted door, if not more!