Stripes on Furniture

With five painting projects in line on my summer runway, I’ve been looking for ideas.

Next month my life will change when we take a parting look at the Manhattan apartment where we’ve happily spent the past 20 years and move to our house in the country. Among other things, that means I’ll get some of my furniture projects done.

First on the list is a dark chest of drawers in our guest room which desperately needs a light color. I’ve been thinking pale green or ochre but then I saw the gray-striped vignette created by stylish young New York designer, Sara Gilbane. I feel the simplicity of this changing-table chest moves the Gustavian gray furniture concept forward, modernizing  and punching it up with the gray and white tent-stripe wall. The texture is great and the tassel-drop handles so chic. The look would work in any bedroom and it’s making me think.

I adore gray-painted furniture but we’ve seen a lot of it over the past few years – one result of enthusiastic DIYers clearing out the thrift shops. We’ve also seen clever surface solutions from spray paint to old-fashioned milk paint. Now, there’s a frisson around a line of lime-based chalk paint launched by British special decorating effects guru Annie Sloan. Finally, shiny is out and matte is in – ruthlessly.

Another striped chest came along courtesy of Miles Redd, whose boldness and originality are always a treat. Let’s set aside the leather-upholstered door embellished with nail heads or the tongue-in-cheek retro hot-air balloon motif wallpaper and zoom in on the subtle vertical stripes on this chest of drawers. A simplified variation in almost any color scheme would be a showstopper.

(Source: saragilbaneinteriors.com, House Beautiful)