Anne Grice's blog

Furniture Layout: Focal Point, Conversation and Circulation

When deciding on a layout, decide the most important focal point in the room. Is it an architectural feature, like a prominent fireplace wall, or a beautiful view? Unless you have a large room, try to select only one. Do not put the TV on a different side of the room as the fireplace unless you have enough room for 2 seating areas.

 

 Create a conversation “pit” by placing furnishings opposite and adjacent that work for conversation. Keep in mind the distance between furniture; You don't want pieces to be too far apart. Make sure that there is a clear path, at least 30" wide on one side, to enter the conversation area. You do not want people squeezing between a table and chair because there is no clear path.    

Serve up everyone's favorite libation and complimentary snack, and wait for the praise of your impeccably layed out furniture to pour out.

 

 



 

Mountain Homestyle Article: Palette Pleaser

Palette Pleaser

Quoted from Mountain Homestyle Midwinter 2010-2011 Issue:

http://www.aspensojourner.com/Aspen-Sojourner/Holiday-2010/Palette-Pleaser/

Story by Anne Grice

Using color effectively is all about proportions.

Photo by Aspen Architectural Photography

Though they use different palettes, both rooms apply the 60/30/10 rule.
 

Nothing impacts  a home’s interior design as powerfully as color. Choose well, and color will add warmth, character, and vitality to the indoor environment. Misfire on your palette choice, however, and color can become overwhelming, discordant, even irritating.

So how to select colors in a way that works? Your first big choice is between a warm or cool palette. Cool colors, such as blues and off-whites, tend to separate and create more contrast in a room. Reds, yellows, and other warm colors blend angles and surfaces together. Grays and greens can be warm or cool depending upon their particular hue.

Of course, the existing colors in your home help make the palette decision, too. Happy with your upholstery? Then focus your color choices on paint, art, and accessories that accentuate those fabrics. Love your art collection? Let your paintings guide your color choices of upholstery, rugs, and walls.

Just be sure to take into account any dominant architectural features in your home, such as built-in cabinetry, doors, wood ceilings, or stone fireplaces. They create large color blocks, and you have no choice but to adapt your design to them. 

Room size is also an important consideration. A very large room benefits from being broken up by contrasting colors on walls and ceilings. Conversely, smaller spaces will feel larger if you keep the walls and ceilings all the same color.

Next comes tone. Tone is the lightness or darkness of a color as opposed to the actual color or hue. It’s important to realize that tones are relative. A tone that’s light in one context may seem darker in another if it’s surrounded by even lighter tones.

A useful rule-of-thumb ratio for tone is 60/30/10. For example, if light tan walls and ceilings make up 60 percent of your room’s color, then opt for 30 percent in darker reds and browns and 10 percent in bright orange or black accessories as framing, art, or throw pillows. Or you can reverse those percentages.

In the room above, the floors, walls, and bedding are all a light neutral color that works well with the stone fireplace. This is the 60 percent light tone. The warm wood tones make up another 30 percent of the overall palette, and the tomato reds and the dark woods add the 10 percent of strong accents. Note how the various colors are balanced around the room. It helps that the reds sit against the lighter neutral—they stand out more. Because this is a large room with high ceilings, the contrast of the trim against the lighter walls works well. In a smaller room, it would work better if the trim and walls were closer in tone.

In the room at right, the walls and floor create a neutral overall tone in a medium hue. The brown bedding and furniture are about 30 percent of the palette, with the green and chocolate as the accent colors. Notice how the warm color of the walls blend the adjacent colors, which does well for this small bedroom.

Since a color overhaul is a considerable commitment, test your proposed colors (including your existing ones) by creating a collage using the 60/30/10 rule. Paint a piece of cardstock with a “sample pot” of your proposed wall color (or use a large color sample), then lay out fabric, paint chips, photos, or magazine photos in the relative amounts you will see. You’ll get an immediate idea if your palette works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holiday Cookies

Anne Grice Interiors not only prides themselves on exceptional client and vendor relationships, and designs that exceed expectations, their baking skills are quite accomplished as well. This year the team lovingly baked dozens upon dozens of delectable Chocolate Peppermint Wafers, and meticulously packaged them for their well-deserving, much-appreciated clients and vendors.

Chocolate Peppermint Wafers

Candice, Senior Designer, measures the cookie dough into 2 x 2 squares. Precision is everything. 

Anne dips the wafers into creamy melted chocolate, then sprinkles hand-crushed peppermint on top.

Recipe:

Makes 45 cookies- Hands on time: 25 Mins- Total time: 2h 30m

Ingredients:

-2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for rolling the dough

-1/4 teaspoon baking soda

-1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

-1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) at room temperature

-3/4 cup sugar

-1 large egg

-1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

-4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature

-1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies (we used candy canes)

Directions:

1.    In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2.    Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high until smooth. Add the egg and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla.

3.    Reduce mixer speed to low. Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated (the dough will be stiff). Shape into a disk and refrigerate, wrapped, for at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.

4.    Heat oven to 350 Degrees F. Divide the dough in half. On a floured surface, roll each piece out 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 2-inch squares. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets and refrigerate until firm, 10-15 minutes.

5.    Bake, rotating the baking sheets halfway through, until just beginning to brown, 12-15 minutes. Cool slightly on the baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

6.     Dip one half of each cooled cookie into the chocolate, allowing any excess to drip off. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets, sprinkle with the peppermints, and refrigerate until the chocolate is set, 25-30 minutes. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

7. Enjoy!

 

 

Aspen's Galerie Maximillian

 Hi all,
 
Sorry I've been absent lately, I was very busy during the late Fall and early Winter. You'll hear from me more often now.

I was walking in downtown Aspen the other day and had to stop at Galerie Maximillian after browsing the windows. I have always loved almost any kind of picture that is made from a mosaic or collage. They feature the work of Cameron Gray, whose photo collages create interesting, beautiful and eye catching works of art. I love the Marilyn series - look closely and see hundreds of tiny images. It's like getting hundreds of artworks in one!

       

 

Below is the detail of the flag above - fun isn't it?

 

 

 

You can see more and more close-ups and how the artist makes them at www.galeriemax.com

 

 
 

Galerie Maximillian co-owner Michelle Bryan with one of Cameron Gray's latest peices "Flowers After Murakami". This is composed of hundreds of tiny photos of flowers and has a very thick layer of resin poured over it for a stunningly bright look. I could see this in a breakfast room, family room or other gathering place in the home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken Fajita Dinner

This is one of the easiest recipes that I have made since I was in college at the University of Texas at Austin. I served it to some friends on my back deck in Basalt, Colorado last weekend. There is lots of chopping, but it's pretty foolproof.

Marinate for at 2-24 hrs. in refrigerator:

Boneless Chicken Breasts – 4 halves – Pounded to a uniform thickness

Fresh lime juice (juice of 4 small limes)

Soy sauce (I use the lite) – approx. ½ cup

 

You can also substitue skirt steak for beef fajitas.

Make Guacamole – not too far ahead:

• Mash 2 or more ripe avocados
• squeeze of lime
• dash of salt
• 3 tablespoons salsa of your choice

Mix together – cover and refrigerate

Make pico de gallo:

Chop small and uniformly

• 1 large or 2 med. Tomatoes
• ½ or more med. White onion
• about ¼ cup fresh cilantro (known as coriander in the northeast)

Add about 1 teaspoon canola oil or similar and

A dash of salt

Grill Chicken and Slice into 1/2-3/4” strips

Heat Tortillas

The fresher the better, see below. This can be done in the microwave separating them with damp paper towels or on a hot skillet (no oil or butter) but this takes longer. Keep warm in oven covered by a plate.

Serve

Set everything up on a buffet. Serve with sour cream, grated cheese, salsa and of course the guacamole and pico de gallo.

Accompany with salad or rice and Margaritas.

I usually serve some fresh melon as an appetizer or side.

 

Here is a nice and easy flower arrangement idea 

Dessert

For dessert we had this awesome Mexican coconut ice cream and lime sherbet. I mixed them in waffle cones from the market.

Games

It’s always fun to have something to do after the meal, especially if you like to serve your meal early, like I do. I suggested Rummikub, a tile based number game that anyone can play. But my friend Ellen, had Banangrams in her purse which is a game similar to playing Scrabble as an individual but racing against each other to use up all the tiles.

 

 
A great place to get tortillas here in the Roaring Fork Valley is the Tortilleria La Roca in Carbondale

 

 
Right off of Highway 133

 

 
A popular place for steaming hot corn or flour tortillas. You can buy your pinatas here, too.

 

 

 
You can have a meal right here in their seating area

 

 

 As you see, you can get all of your ingredients for your fajita dinner here
 

¡buen provecho  

 

Beautiful ways to save energy

There are several ways to provide insulation other than the traditional heavy lined draperies. Cellular (think honeycomb) shades provide dead air space that insulates against both heat and cold. From the front, they look like standard pleated shades. However, when viewed from the side they have a honeycomb construction which provides outstanding insulation. Some are double cell. The Hunter Douglas Duette Architella shades have a cell within a cell that can save up to 50% of the energy lost through the window. Customers may also qualify for a $1500 federal tax credit. One nice feature is that when open, they stack to a very small height (i.e. usually they only take up about an inch and a half at the top of the window) which means they work well mounted inside your window frame for a more architectural look.

  

Close up of cellular shades, on the

right is the room darkening shade

 

 

 

These opaque cellular shades allow light to

filter through.

Another example are PVC solar shades. These are a fresh alternative to more traditional roller or roman shades. This new advance in technology of PVC-coated fiberglass yarn means you can:

• Filter out heat, glare, and ultra-violet rays that harm your furnishings
• Still allow natural light into your room
• Maintain a degree of privacy
• Still see the view!

These sun shades (available from different manufacturers) all offer varying ability to see through them. This is known as the “Openness Factor”. These are a great option for motorized shades and a great solution for western exposures with a view you don’t want to give up.

Solar shades preserve your view

 

Anne Grice, ASID

Anne is the principal of Anne Grice Interiors, the Roaring Fork Valley's award winning interior design and remodeling experts since 1996.

Road trip to Redstone

I went to Redstone last week to meet a new client and help her select paints, carpet, etc. for her vacation home there. We selected a few combinations of paint and carpet. She is going to get sample sizes of the paint and see how they look on her different walls. This is so important as the samples are not always true. Keep posted for a future blog on paint colors.

Redstone is a wonderfully scenic small town on the edge of the Maroon Bells Wilderness Area. It was a beautiful drive along the Crystal River from Carbondale to Redstone. By the way, this is a great cycling route, just go very early on weekends or mornings on a weekday as there isn’t much of a shoulder. Most of the drivers are cyclist friendly but some are not. There is a nearly completed bike path about halfway to Redstone from Carbondale.

Here’s a link that shows the route:

http://www.mapquest.com/mq/1-XWZX*xk6XUdD7YNFMY8w

It’s great fun to ride for breakfast on the back deck of Café Redstone or at the Redstone Inn.

 
The historic Redstone Inn

 

 

Café  Redstone – sit out back and look over the river and watch the  hummingbirds feed.

On the way back, I stopped at the Avalanche Ranch. The 36 acre ranch has 13 cute cabins, a 3 BR house, an apartment, a fishing pond, hiking and tons of other outdoor activities, and an antique shop with lots of fun, kitschy and unusual items. This is an incredibly beautiful mountain setting. It is now owned and operated by my friends Chuck and Meredith Ogilby and their family. This is a great family run, family and pet friendly retreat in the mountains. www.avalancheranch.com

 
 Entrance off of Highway 133 to Avalanche Ranch

 

Molly Jacober, General Manager, Avalanche Ranch

 

Anne Grice, ASID

Anne is the principal of Anne Grice Interiors, the Roaring Fork Valley’s award winning interior design and remodeling experts since 1996. 

Furniture Selection: Think Scale, Height and Finish

When selecting furniture for your home, first take a look at the scale of your home. If you have high ceilings and large spaces, consider large scale furnishings.

 

Also:

• Is there a lot of detailing in your woodwork, lighting, etc? If so, look for furnishings with a similar scale of detail. Do not mix bulky with refined.
• Furnishings should be of a similar scale.
• Take a look at the chair legs. Are they thin? Then most of your furnishings should have thin details.
• Are the lines straight or curved? Keep the lines consistent.

Make sure sofa arms are at least an inch above side tables or the tables will look too high. Coffee table height should be close to the seat height of the sofa or lounge chairs. The same rule goes for an ottoman used as a coffee table. Finishes should be a similar level of sheen; if most your finishes are rough or matte with little sheen, do not mix with pieces that are highly polished.

 

The same goes for level of distressing. You can easily mix painted pieces with stained if you keep to these rules.

 

Quality pieces tend to have the best proportions and scale.

 

Quick Recap:

• Scale of furnishing should work with the scale of the space
• Keep a similar scale of wood detailing, pattern, etc.
• Sofa arms should be an inch or more above side tables
• Keep seat heights similar
• Keep finishes similar – level of sheen, distressing, etc.
• Stay with similar lines - straight, turned, curved

Notice the similarity in scale, consistent sleek lines and consistent level of finish in this living area.

  

Anne Grice, ASID

Anne is the principal of Anne Grice Interiors, the Roaring Fork Valley’s award winning interior design and remodeling experts since 1996. 

Shopping for Wall Art in Carbondale

Yesterday I went to Carbondale, a cute town here in the roaring fork valley that sits near the Crystal and Roaring Fork rivers. I was having some pieces framed at Main Street Gallery and looking for some interesting wall art for a client. This client has a lot of black and white photography we are re-framing but I want to mix it up a little with something 3 dimensional. I think I found just the thing in some fun metal pieces at European Antiques on Main Street. I am planning to put them together on a wall above a seating area.

 

 

If you want to try this, be sure to plan the height, width and distance apart. Groupings are great, but make sure the overall height of the group is similar to the other pieces in the space.

Carbondale has such a pretty Main Street, I thought I would share some photos. They have a great outdoor art program so I included a couple of pieces.

Main Street Near 4th

 European Antiques - Lots of fun gifts and small decorative items for the home

The "Big Head" public art piece   

 

 I love this "Couple" piece!

 

New trends in lighting

I love the new trends in lighting! Mixing fixtures, types and sizes is the order of the day. Keep one item consistent such as color, material, size, shape, etc. I just went into Aspen for a dinner with friends and saw some great lighting at Brexi's Brasserie. These all use the rainbow glass that I remember from the State Fair prizes. It gives some fun accents, while keeping the glass consistent ties them together.

Cool lighting at Brexi's Brasserie in Aspen

Anne Grice, ASID

Anne is the principal of Anne Grice Interiors, the Roaring Fork Valley’s award winning interior design and remodeling experts since 1996.