Shep to the Rescue?

If you regularly read my blog you know we are moving to a new (for us) home in an age restricted 55+ community.  This is a lifestyle change we've been considering for over four years.

Google image of one of the open space vistas in our new community.

Our new home (built in 2005) has an abundance of tile flooring - about 80% of the house is tiled.  We appreciate tile as practical flooring for owning three dogs.  Tile is my first choice in majority flooring (with only bedrooms and living room carpeted).  But.... and this is a big "but" due to the amount of tile flooring at the new house:  the color choice for this tile must have been at the height of the Tuscan decorating craze nearly 10 years ago.  While the floor is very pretty high quality travertine, the color and formality adds a decorating challenge.   Remember, I'm a primitive rug hooker.  So, how do you see my rugs fitting on this floor?  Here's a few examples of the floor.... beautiful?  Yes?  Primitive?  No?

Kitchen floor.

This mosaic is at the entry way to the house.  Can you see a primitive rug near this?

Or can you see Shep's World covering this?

A view looking down the hallway and you can see the size of the  mosaic at the entrance area.
This picture makes the tile look a lot darker than it appears in person.  It's hard to adjust the color for a realistic photo.

The tile is very gold.  It is beautiful.  It is practical.  But it is very GOLD, like in your face gold!!  So what's a girl to do?  Enlist your color planning knowledge from rug hooking, of course!

I love decorating a house and in my next lifetime I will definitely go to interior design school.  In anticipation of decorating I've been giving this floor a lot of thought.  And my thoughts are "tone it down!" and tone it down a lot.  You see, I like neutral colors in my house for flooring, counter top and cabinetry.  Then you can add color through paint, decorations, rugs.

In pondering this decorating challenge, I've been studying my color wheel a lot to consider paint colors that will enhance and draw your attention away from the sizable and noticeable amount of flooring.  What is the opposite of gold on the wheel?  What is the complementary color?  PURPLE.  Oh no, I don't think purple is exactly the color for me!  So what will develop here?

I do have a few color ideas besides purple using the colors that prevail in the triad and tetrad combinations.  I've already made an appointment with an interior decorator who immediately reassured me that we can tone down the floor through color on the wall and area rugs.  Phew!  This is exactly what I have been hoping for because replacing the flooring is not an option.  I can't wait to meet with the decorator.  Our first appointment is scheduled for two weeks after we move in.  That's just enough time for the house to be in less disarray from moving and little enough time for me to start pulling my hair out due to too much GOLD!

Everyone says "live with it for a while" then make changes and I do recognize this is very sound advice.  I also think our current furnishings will look a lot better in the house than the previous owner's stuff, so the house will look a lot different once our belongings are in it.  Still, I look forward to adding paint and area rugs to reduce the gold impact and bring more harmony and coziness to the rooms.

So, standby for decorating challenges ahead.  And Shep?  Oh he would love a place of stature right as you come in the front door, but darn, he isn't large enough to adequately cover the mosaic so I'll have to come up with another rug design for that purpose.