Monochrome Home

© Ryland Peters & Small 2015

Designer Paul Tilby Senior Commissioning Editor Annabel Morgan Production Manager Gordana Simakovic Location Researcher Jess Walton Art Director Leslie Harrington Editorial Director Julia Charles Publisher Cindy Richards

First published in 2015 by Ryland Peters & Small 20–21 Jockey’s Fields London WC1R 4BW and 341 East 116th Street New York NY 10029 www.rylandpeters.com Text © Hilary Robertson and Ryland Peters & Small 2015 Design and photographs © Ryland Peters & Small 2015 ISBN: 978-1-84975-613-6 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The authors’ moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

US Library of Congress Cataloging-inPublication data has been applied for.

Printed and bound in China

© Ryland Peters & Small 2015

Contents Introduction

6

MONOCHROME PALETTES 12

MONOCHROME HOMES

56

Night Owl

130

In Black and White

14

Shades of Pale

58

Light Touch

138

Grey Matters

18

Five Shades of Grey

68

Sweetness and Light

148 156

Shades of Pale

24

Luxe, Calme et Volupté

80

Lofty Heights

Dark Looks

28

Round Midnight

90

Neutral Territory

164

In the Mix

32

Dark and Stormy

102

The New Black

174

Let There Be Light

36

The Concrete and the Clay

112

The Dark Room

46

Perfectly Balanced

122

Sources

186

Credits

188

Index

190

Acknowledgments

192

© Ryland Peters & Small 2015

Grey Matters Welcome to the middle ground. The uninitiated might accuse the grey interior of a tendency to blandness, of being as dull as the proverbial dishwater, neither one thing nor the other, a cop-out for the undecided or those that prefer to play safe. But as every Farrow & Ball paint chart aficionado can testify, there is much more to grey than a politician’s conservative flannel suit. Fashionably complex greys with names like Pigeon, Down Pipe or Plummett are far from a basic mix of black and white. The most successful execution of a grey-on-grey scheme combines several paint shades (with green, blue, brown or violet undertones) and naturally grey materials such as slate, zinc, steel or wood weathered to a shade of silver.

The éminence grise delights in it for its mutability; grey may be warm or cool, it plays nicely with other colours, tones down brighter shades and illuminates softer ones. It is calming and restful and, when used judiciously, far from boring. Dutch master colourist Axel Vervoordt uses the most sophisticated range of greys in the soothing interiors he designs: shades that veer towards green or brown, letting light, texture and scale operate as the decorative elements completing his sober colour schemes. In Sweden, 18thcentury Gustavian interiors employed a pale blue-grey as both the backdrop and the shade used for painted furniture popular at the time, a device which produced some pared-down but atmospheric interiors that made the most of the available light.

OPPOSITE

Naturally grey materials like

PAGES 20–21

A stormy sky depicted in

PAGES 22–23

The sophisticated use of greys

weathered wood, patinated metal and

a vintage painting is a starting point for

combined in a graphic pattern demonstrates

bare branches bring textural interest to a room.

decorating alchemy. Greys with warm brown

how effectively closely related shades combine.

A painter’s canvas tarp marked with spills from

undertones mixed with creams the colour of

An interior that employs the same device —

many palettes breaks the rigid cube of

ironstone plates evoke a monochrome scheme

tonal variations of one colour brought together

the console table, bringing some chaos to

that teams with rustic, raw materials like

in one space — cannot help but have a soothing

temper all the right angles.

bleached wood, tweed, corduroy, natural linens,

effect on the eye. Take inspiration from

horn, pewter, rusted metal, patinated copper,

modulations found in nature: rock, sea and

weathered cedar, rattan and seagrass.

sky are perfect references.

© Ryland Peters & Small 2015

The upper floor of Annaleena’s home combines her work station, office and storage for her metalwork designs with an open-plan sitting area next to a balcony with views over the fields.

© Ryland Peters & Small 2015

BELOW

According to Annaleena,

RIGHT

Set at an angle to the wall,

glossy painted white floors require

Annaleena’s shelves conceal or reveal

no more maintenance than any

depending on the angle from which

other kind of finish. The

they are viewed. Like many of her

wraparound white makes the ideal

styling tricks, they make an abstract

blank canvas for her brand of

geometric statement.

monochrome minimalism, which she achieves by mixing simple Ikea staples with her own designs.

Shades of Pale Annaleena Leino Karlsson might live in a bucolic setting, lush with electric green grass and yellow cornfields, but she makes no sartorial concessions to country living. ‘Am I monochrome?’ asks the ashblonde Finn dressed head to foot in city black as she flings open the door to the white interior of the cottage she is renting while building her ‘dream house’ in countryside outside Stockholm. In Annaleena’s universe, living in black and white is a deeply embedded reflex, as natural as breathing.

This 1950s farmhouse may be a temporary abode for Annaleena, her husband and their five children, but the interiors stylist and blogger would not consider even the briefest period of compromise or entertain another palette. A superficial makeover was required to smarten up the rental property.

Annaleena’s budget-friendly scheme involved laying plywood over the floors and applying lashings of white paint, disguising grotty tiles in the kitchen with panels of ‘gold’ sheet metal and updating the fitted cabinets with pale dove grey paint.

Shades of Pale

59

INTERIORS

A celebration of the stylish simplicity of the perenially popular monochromatic home – elegant interiors in black, white and all the shades of grey in between.

www.rylandpeters.com UK £25.00/ US $35.00/ Priced higher in Canada I S B N 978-1-84975-613-6

9

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Printed in China

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