Contemporary Craftsman (continued)
Atlanta designer Wendy Blount captured her client's bohemian-chic personality with a mix of modern and vintage pieces and included a few personal statements -- literally.
The design for the dining room started with Fuqua's pear painting and her wish for an oval table. Blount chose the mahogany-and-macassar-wood one for its sleek lines, the simplicity a contrast to the ornately carved extant fireplace. The Murano-glass chandelier by Barovier & Toso is an homage to styles of the 1920s and '30s.
A wall of Fuqua's favorite phrases -- including a line from a Grateful Dead song and a passage from Kahlil Gibran -- is the only other artistic touch in the room. The wall of words becomes a conversation piece in the very room where an interchange of ideas should be encouraged, Blount believes.
Even the adjacent kitchen has something to say. Blount's decorative artist, Kathleen Denson, made use of the mirrored backsplash as a canvas for a favorite biscuit recipe of Fuqua's grandmother's. As clever as all the painted-on words are, it's the more subtle ones that touched Fuqua. Blount selected six words to be applied without color, just a glaze, so that they're not immediately apparent. "You have to be standing in the right place to notice them," says Fuqua.
It became a game with friends to search for these hidden words, and some, such as PEACE, above a doorway, were easy to spot. Only after Fuqua had been in the house for a while did she find the last word, in the TV room. The fact that she'd just had a life-changing epiphany made it all the more significant that the word CLARITY appeared one day. "It really gave me chills," she says.
What the Pros Know
To add words of wisdom around a house, decorative artist Kathleen Denson uses interior latex paint mixed with Floetol, a paint conditioner that helps paint go on more smoothly. She also recommends using a natural-bristle lettering brush for best results, although some people might be more comfortable with a paint pen. Depending on the job, she might apply the phrases free-hand or with stencils. For a sheer look, she brushes on the words with a glaze in a contrasting sheen to the walls, or uses a spray-on glaze on stenciled letters (preserving the wall's matte finish). The size of the letters is determined by available wall space and the importance of phrases. "In Lauren's dining room I made two important but short quotes larger for extra emphasis," says Denson. She also chose a straightforward typeface to avoid distracting from the message or competing with other elements in the room.
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