Country Decor Blog

If you’re a chocolate lover, you’d approve of this message! Okay, so I’m not talking about edible chocolate - rather - I’m referring about using that gorgeous, rich colour on your walls at home. There is a certain sophistication to painting your walls dark brown, and that is because one must have a confidence in their decorating abilities in order to use dark colours on their walls. Why? Using dark colours on walls can create drama, intimacy, and coziness. But it can also plunge a room into dark despair! There are a certain number of rules to use when decorating with dark wall colours (in this instance chocolate brown). Follow these rules, and you’ll have a gorgeous room!

1. Is your room bright or dark? I always tell people that you can get away with painting every room chocolate brown if you have tons of natural light. Otherwise, the room will be plunged into gloominess. If you don’t have lots of natural light, but still want to use chocolate brown, maybe try just colour-blocking out one wall with the rich tone, allowing the space to breathe without being overwhelmed by colour.

2. How high is your ceiling? If you have a high ceiling, by painting it a lighter colour than the chocolate brown (one trick is to add a couple of drops of chocolate paint into your ceiling white to create a consistency in your colour tones), you will still make the room feel airy and open. 

So why chocolate brown? In the same way that we like the look and smell of chocolate, the richness of chocolate brown walls is known to have a calming effect. It’s like being enveloped in a mug of hot chocolate! Just like this room in Hampton Island, Georgia, keep your accessories neutral and allow the wall colour to take centre stage.

Some of my favourite chocolate brown paint colours are: 

Pratt & Lambert’s Stonehenge 2260 - a nice, chalky chocolate brown with a bit of grey in it

Benjamin Moore’s Brown Sugar 2112-20 - a rich warm dark brown

Para Paint’s Truffle Oil P5242-85 - a yummy chocolate brown with a hint of earthy green

There’s nothing more amusing than walking into a powder room that’s decorated in quirky style. Case in point: a friend’s powder room that was wallpapered in vintage covers from The New Yorker, a loo at a stable in Creemore, Ontario that was wallpapered in the back page from the UK’s Horse & Hound magazine (the back page consists of outrageous falls and near-falls from horseback throughout history). The powder room also gives a homeowner an opportunity to pull out all the stops and decorate in a way that they may not in a larger setting. For example, if you love hot pink, it would make more sense to paint a tiny powder room in that brilliant hue (try it in high gloss) than to paint your living room walls that colour! On my Hampton Island visit in Georgia last month, I was delighted to come across a powder room that was having fun with trompe l’oeil. Wallpapered in a stunning fabric printed with reams of porcelain plates “hung” on the wall, the effect was quite intense. The fabric was a rich amber and the plates were black and white chinoiserie. The overall look was quite fun. As intrigued as I was by the initial appeal of the room, imagine my surprise when I realized that they’d actually attached REAL plates to the wall - on top of the fabric pattern! What a fun idea.

At any rate, a great idea for a powder room that I would definitely suggest stealing from the stylish team at Hampton Island!

…Maybe I exaggerated a bit about my favourite country bathroom in my last post. At least, I thought it was my favourite - that is until I saw this bathroom the next day. At Hampton Island, a tiny private island on the coast of Southern Georgia, beauty and nostalgic architecture reign supreme. In fact, one of the houses that is available to guests of the Hampton Island club appeared in a famous American decorating magazine (which I won’t mention - after all, they are a competitor!). That being said, the decor at Hampton Island is a nice blend of elegance and glamour infused with laid-back country style. The master bathroom in one of the houses had tons of great ideas to steal. I’ll go through all of my favourites here:

1. Create a trompe l’oeil carpet with mosaic tiles.The use of mosaic tiles in a dark charcoal juxtaposed the sleek white carrera marble tiles gives the illusion of a “carpet” under the top. It works well in this large bathroom to help delineate the space where the tub sits. I also like how they have used carrera marble mosaic tiles on the wall - it bridges the two tile styles on the floor.

2. Install a porthole window in your showerOne of my favourite things in my own shower at home is the tiny window that my contractor installed just above eye-level. It’s too high for peeping Toms in the house next door to look in (unless, I suppose, they get on a ladder), but it lets in a wonderful amount of natural light - sometimes I can even imagine that I’m showering outdoors! I loved how this shower, tiled in tiny perfect Carrera marble mosaic tile, has a porthole window. Very fun!

3. The demi-lune is a hit as a vanityContinuing on the theme of creating furniture-like items in this bathroom (i.e., the mosaic “carpet”), these feminine demi-lune vanities with their gorgeous bianca marble (I think that’s what it is) tops, are just perfect. I’ve always loved the demi-lune shape for a table (I have one in my front hall). It is simple but elegant all at the same time! A true “little black dress” of furniture!

4. Please, no angled glass showers!My dad has a lot of influence over me - still - and though I will deny it if anyone were to tell him, when he tells me something, it usually sticks in my mind like parental glue. In the case of designing a bathroom, he always said that a square shower is the way to go - forget about slicing off the corner to create more space. Angled shower doors are “mincey” in his words. And I have never forgotten it. Every shower I have ever designed looks pretty much like this one. (although I always add a shelf for beauty products!)

5. A room of one’s ownDoesn’t this photo feel like something out of a Merchant Ivory film. The soft light filtering through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the muted colour palette, the rich look of the room. This simply perfect country bathroom has a lot of wonderful qualities and ideas to steal for your own bathroom at home. I know I have been inspired! And for sure this bathroom is REALLY my favourite!

When I think about the country bathroom ideal, it ALWAYS has to involve a clawfoot tub. None of those decadent four-person, air bubble tubs for me! But imagine if you could take that bath on a screened-in porch? That’s exactly what I did the other night while exploring Hampton Island, a fascinating private island in Southern Georgia; just half an hour from Savannah. The developers have created an idyllic community that blends the best of nostalgia (carriage rides pulled by 18-hand white Percherons), with nature (kayaking and hiking), with gourmet food (a fabulous biodynamic organic farm). The houses that have been built so far all have that Southern sensibility blended with modern-day panache. I plan on chatting about the decor of a number of my favourite rooms here. But first, the bathroom! Simple, elegant and most importantly, built from reclaimed wood. This bathroom is actually a tiny rustic-looking powder room, while the bath was in a separate screened-in space. I like the idea of using a vintage cast-iron sink, as well as the fun 1950s calendar. I have two more “country baths” to show you in upcoming blogs, but honestly, I think this one, in all its simplicity, is my favourite! Take a look at my shots and let me know what you think!