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EUREKA!
Geologist’s Duplex Goes From Mismatched Confusion To Energized Fusion
A Before and After Story by Joetta
Moulden of ShelterStyle.com
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JANET LENZEN
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When I first met geologist David Fontaine, I was struck by his sense of humor and
love of international travel, yet his duplex did not reflect these colorful aspects of his personality.
In fact, it had a high “grandma factor” and looked timid and boring.
“Art objects I just hauled back from South Africa
sat eerily silent next to a prized Venetian mask, artifacts from Florence, a Navajo rug — all reminding
me of great adventures,” David recalls. “Surely,
I thought, there is a way to enjoy this bounty everyday,
to make it come alive.”
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The background for his exotica featured dull gray walls and rooms sparsely furnished with vintage family furniture: a
mishmash of Mission, French provincial and Colonial styles. “Nothing matched, nothing worked. It was decorating
schizophrenia,” David says.
So desperate was he to pull his home together, he even took a night decorating class. “The best thing was that I was the only
male in a room with 26 beautiful women, but that’s another story,” he says, smiling. “Afterwards, at least, I had an idea of
what I wanted: a cohesive, upbeat look with fall colors, wood and casual comfort…with a reflection of ‘me’ in the rooms.” The
task seemed overwhelming. Should David buy new or reupholster? Should he toss the wing chair and buy a recliner? Should he
find an affordable Persian silk rug?
“Confusion reigned,” he says. “I was stuck.”
TRANSFORMATION TIME
David called me after reading a “DIY Decorating” column in Houston House & Home. “In business, I deal with consultants of all
types,” David explains.
“I have a sense about whether the people standing before me can do what they claim, or if they are simply aspirants. You
understood that my ’50s duplex is a tear-down and that I did not want to spend money on remodeling — rather, just enough to
make the place comfortable and attractive.”
During our initial meeting, David pointed out his mother’s powder-blue sofa and wing chairs he was planning to toss. To his
surprise, I delivered my mantra: “If it’s paid for, let’s try to make it work.”
I suggested we restyle his pieces with spring down cushions and extra padding to achieve the more contemporary, comfortable
look and feel he was after.
A custom ottoman could be constructed, I explained, to emulate the “recliner” he wanted, topped with his Navajo rug.
“I simply could not visualize the result,” David says. “Then I asked myself, ‘Why did I hire Joetta, if not for this very
thing?’ So I took a leap of faith.
“When the upholsterers carried in the restructured sofa, now a deep, brick red, and placed it against my new straw-colored
wall, it was awesome. Just awesome! The furniture is a ‘star’ in the room, and my goal was accomplished for well under the
retail cost of new furniture,” he adds.
The “trust” issue arose again when I suggested David paint his sunroom. “No way,” he protested.
A few years earlier, he had installed a wood-plank ceiling and had stained the ceiling and concrete floor a dusty rose, which
cast a bubble gum-pink glow over the entire room.
“A few days later, I again thought about why I had hired you. I decided to trust…and painted the entire room straw and even
the floor the taupe enamel you suggested (Pratt & Lambert “Ventana” #2271). Guests who liked the original now prefer the new
version hands down. Me, too!” says David.
AVALANCHE OF IDEAS
During the first visit, I found a hand-painted tablecloth lying on a chair from Cape Town in fall colors with a tribal motif
that David loves. When I admired it, he said he had another antique cloth he brought back from his trip, and as soon as I saw
it, I knew it could be framed in a Plexiglas box and hung horizontally on the wall above the sofa.
“That cloth started the wellspring,” he says with a smile, “and our meeting turned into four hours of questions, suggestions,
paint color selections, measurements and several pages of written instructions left for me, a veteran do-it-yourselfer.”
I gave David a list of homework assignments, including painting the walls (Sherwin-Williams “Straw Doll” #1365), the back
wall of the bookcases (Benjamin Moore custom #M02-23-88) and woodwork (Benjamin Moore “Super White” #310-02), changing out
cabinet hardware, replacing the chandelier, refinishing the floors, ordering three discount “Seaside” seagrass rugs (from
www.homedecorators.com) and buying a palm tree from China Silks. |
AFTER:
Reupholstering
existing furniture; adding a textured rug, up-lit
palm tree, TV cabinet and geological accessories; and framing a
textile
brought back from Africa transformed this once-staid living room.
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I also provided David a Web site from which he could order three 11-by-14-inch prints of South African scenes
(www.danitadelimont.com) to hang above his mantel, and to preview them, I suggested he tape off the frame outlines right on
the wall with blue painter’s tape. He bought three 16-by-20-inch frames on sale at Aaron Brothers for $10 each and had
Arden’s Picture Framing cut archival, acid-free mats for the photos. A pair of $49 candlesticks from Home Source Outlet
completed the mantel’s transformation.
“Under your direction, I completed a large portion of the plan without your presence, which saved me money,” David says.
To divert attention away from the mismatched woods’ formality, I suggested we paint his dining chairs a deep,
Sherwin-Williams color, “Black Green” #6994, and recover the slip seats in the brick-red sofa fabric. To house his television
and hide it away, David and I purchased an antique $395 painted cabinet from El Paso Imports.
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AFTER:
Moving in
a Mission-style chest and small end table from
a bedroom, we added a large mirror to fill up the dining area. Inserting
an existing leaf in the round table helped balance the room.
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Slowly, my intern, Dorenda Longoria, and I added layers for visual warmth and comfort, including a Pottery Barn basket under
the coffee table for magazines, a $299 Storehouse mirror over the Mission “buffet” we moved from the bedroom into the dining
room and a new $29.99 table lamp from Linens ’N Things. With measurements in hand, David had his cousin construct a Plexiglas
box for the African textile over the sofa. A beaded table runner and glass lantern from Home Source Outlet were purchased for
the dining table — again diverting attention away from formality.
We hung the Venetian mask above a mirror in the dining room, out of harm’s way, yet viewable from all angles.
The plan called for the purchase of two candlestick lamps for the buffet, but I improvised and had artist Amy Queen
over-paint the lavender and pink flowers on David’s mother’s Asian lamps with brick red and coral paint. With new lampshades
from Alcon Lightcraft, they have a second life atop the dining room buffet.
“Mom would be delighted that I kept them,” David says with a smile. |
AFTER:
Repainting the
floor, ceiling and walls brightened the sunroom.
The console table and oil painting were moved in from another room.
Curtains were raised and restyled, subtracting years from their age.
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| To add style and length to the too-short sunroom draperies, I suggested the curtain rod be raised and that we add a
contrasting fabric panel to the bottom of the curtains — and ditch the uptight pinch pleats.
We used the reverse application of the two fabrics on the living room’s Roman shades, made by D&H Drapery, which recycled the sunroom’s dated French door
curtains to use as the shades’ “border.”
DISCOVERY COMPLETE
“To me, we were finished,” David says, “but we weren’t. You said we still needed to add ‘me’ to the design.” During a
brainstorming session, Dorenda and I talked about putting something meaningful, like geodes, in the coffee table’s wood
charger.
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AFTER:
To soften the
stark living room, we painted the walls, placed the television
inside an antique painted cabinet and created custom Roman shades. The
round occasional
table is from Linens ’N Things, floor lamps from M&M Lighting.
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“Immediately my mind avalanched with possibilities,” he says. “Geology is the overwhelming passion of my life, my creative
expression. This idea energized me, and I set about assembling a stellar collection of my favorite minerals, rocks and
fossils, including a 170 million-year-old Ammonite fossil from Morocco on top of the television cabinet. We
had arrived at fusion!
“Nine months ago, I sat in my living room staring at dreary walls,” David explains. “Today, I’m stirred each time I enter the
house.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Houston, Texas based interior stylist Joetta Moulden offers home makeovers using your own home furnishings to create the home you’ve
always dreamed of. Joetta believes your pieces that have been collected through the years are a
reflection of your personality and can be artfully arranged.
Her ability to focus on your personal style and not let her own preferences influence the design
of your home makes her unique. See more makeovers on her Web site at www.shelterstyle.com,
email her at joetta@shelterstyle.com or call 713.461.2063.
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