Welcome to my first blog post.  I am late to the business of blogging (and I am unabashedly attempting to boost my online brand!), but thought it the perfect place to  share my observations of beauty, style and comfort, the “amenities” around us.   I hope you enjoy these little tidbits and will call for your interior design/renovation needs.

I am nuts for color!  It delights me.  I appreciate it in nature, and in design.  Recently, I have become obsessed with colorful front doors.  They charm me with their individuality and creativity.   I am lucky to live in a neighborhood of American Four Square houses where many doors are painted a contrasting but complementary color to the house – Eggplant, Rust, Deep Red, Pine Green and Royal Blue.   These are my favorites!

 

 

You can imagine my delight when I visited Dublin last summer and saw the wonderful array of door colors on traditional Georgian houses!  And I love the explanations for the colorful doors.  According to The Circular,

“A popular story that tour guides love to tell involves the writers George Moore and Oliver St. John Gogarty who were neighbours on Ely Place. Gogarty had a habit of coming home drunk and knocking on Moore’s door instead of his own. Moore painted his door green so he wouldn’t get confused. Then Gogarty retaliated and painted his red. It was a domino effect from there.

Another story goes that after Queen Victoria died, England ordered Irish citizens to paint the doors black in mourning. The Irish rebelled and took out the bright paints instead.

And yet another tale that circulates in Dublin is that the painting of colorful doors was started by women. Women painted their doors so their drunk husbands wouldn’t mistake other homes for their own. And wake up in bed with another woman.

 

The most common story and probably the most accurate one is that During the early 18th century, Dublin, Ireland rose to become one of the British Empire’s most prominent and prosperous cities. Dubliners began to build elegant new Georgian homes beyond the walls of the original medieval town. At the time of construction, all of the exterior doors were the same color. The Georgian style exteriors of these townhouses, by virtue of strict rules laid down by the developer, had to adhere to very specific architectural guidelines – they were all, to the smallest detail, uniformly built. So, in order to set themselves apart, the residents of Georgian Dublin started painting their front doors whatever color struck their fancy to differentiate their homes form others.”

A friend noted that the glass patterns in the fan lights above the doors were used on the homeowner’s calling cards before street addresses were assigned, so that visitors could find the correct home!

In addition to being a full service Interior/Renovation Designer, I specialize in Paint Color Consulting.  With over 500 color consultations in the last few years, I am current on both interior and exterior color trends.  Let me help you transform your home!

Cynthia Espy    Amenities@mac.com   312-421-2450