Updating brick- a unique perspective

Aged brick walls and fireplaces can be a beautiful textural addition to your interior.

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Historic homes, industrial buildings transformed into live or work spaces, fireplace surrounds... In fact, brick walls are often highly sought-after architectural features.

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But sometimes, brick can be overbearing,  dirty-looking, or just not the "look" you are going for.

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People are often torn: do they leave the brick as is? Do they paint it a light color in an attempt at camouflage? Or do they cover it up entirely with wood, stone or tile?

Here's a thought I hadn't considered before: what about simply Coloring them? Not a flat coat of latex interior paint, mind you. (not to say that this can't be a beautiful solution, too) But what about embracing the textural variation in tone, overlaid with beautiful rich color? Intrigued? I was.

I had never seen this approach attempted until I discovered photos of a particular apartment in the Chelsea Hotel. The space is rented (not even owned!) by Gerald Decock, an artist and hairstylist with a unique perspective on color in interiors.

 

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When Gerald moved into his Chelsea space, everything was pure white.  “I am obsessed with color in its most vivid state,”(source), and so set to work transforming the entire apartment.

  images source with permission from Todd Selby

His apartment is Wild! As one article puts it so eloquently, "the whole vibe is reminiscent of a harlequin outfit put into a blender without the lid."(source)
But what caught my eye was his extraordinary treatment of brick in his apartment.

 

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One brick wall is completely covered in gold leaf. Evidently, it took him an entire month to cover the brick, as gold leaf is most easily applied to smooth surfaces, not bumpy, lumpy brick.

 image source with permission from Todd Selby

Another brick wall was a variety of violets. Gorgeous. The translucent pigments allow the natural variations in the brick to show through so that the walls don't appear flat or too uniform. Instead, they practically vibrate with life.

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To replicate this look without necessarily delving into fuchsias and violets, brick staining/tinting kits are available. Instead of coating everything one tone, I would opt for several similar color choices, then mix different strengths of the stain to mimic the different shades in the brick. Much more natural looking.

Wait, we can't leave our tour of Gerald's apartment without a parting glance at...wait for it...his hot pink ceiling!

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Gerald's enthusiastically painted ceiling brings the rest of his crazy colors and decorations together. The icing on the cake, I'd say.

 

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"Everything was kinda done, and the ceiling was white, and it was really bothering me", says Gerald, "Once the ceiling was complete, which I painted, like, a hot pink fluorescent color I felt like the apartment was like, more whole." (source)

  image source with permission from Todd Selby

Oh yes, and the floors are orange. Of course.

Okay, so does that spark some ideas for how you'll deal with tired old brick in your house? Anyone ready to paint their ceiling pink? Oh come on, give it a try- it's only paint!

The Controversy over Pink

The text in a recent J Crew ad reads: "Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon."

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In response to the uproar surrounding the ad in which Jenna Lyons, creative director, paints her son's toenails pink, I thought I'd revisit the topic of gender specific colors.

Personally, I think it's Ridiculous with a capital "R" how bent out of shape some people are getting. Did it ever occur to them that color-coding for boys and girls is all just a marketing ploy, set up by advertisers, to sell more product? Just look through history. There is no innately Male or Female colors. It's all a matter of interpretation. Talk to someone in India, the UK, or heck, even Berkeley California, and they'll tell you that colors don't define a person's sexual identity.

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I love what Jon Stewart has to say on the matter: "in a Fox News clip Keith Ablow is seen saying the ad is "an attack on masculinity," Stewart counters with, "If only masculinity had a defender. Someone like four-time Ultimate Fighting Champion Chuck Liddell," who paints his toenails black."

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Photograph of paper dolls from "Polly Pratt's Sister and Brother," Good Housekeeping, 1920, by Jo Paoletti, courtesy of the Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester, N.Y. Yup, that would be a pink romper for the boy.

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As I entertained in detail in my article, "Why is Blue for Boys and Pink for Girls?" (four years old and still my most read-post) the assignment of pink for girls and blue for boys was not always the case. Often times, blue was thought to be much more of a feminine color, and pink a watered-down masculine hue.

There are many reasons that contributed to the pigeon-holing of gender-specific colors, specifically in the United States. According to an excellent article on slate.com, marketing played a major role in pushing color-coding. The book, Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys From the Girls in America, by Jo B. Paoletti is referenced. In the money-flush era between World Wars, mothers started buying more manufactured clothes instead of sewing their own. In order to boost sales, marketers established color-coded clothing. No more hand-me-downs from big sister to little brother. Nope, all new outfits would have to be purchased. Thus ensued a battle for whose coding would win out. Some department stores, like Wanamaker's in Philly, Marshall Field in Chicago, and Maison Blanche in New Orleans, pushed pink for girls. Others, like Macy's and Franklin Simon in New York City, and Bullock's in Los Angeles, pushed pink for boys. This was in 1927. Post war-time saw all sorts of bright cheerful colors introduced back into the marketplace, least of which was pink for women.(source)

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“Think pink!” decreed fashion magazine editor Kay Thompson in the classic 1958 movie "Funny Face"
 

Can we say market-speak?

Think pink! think pink! when you shop for summer clothes
Think pink! think pink! if you want that quel-que chose
Red is dead, blue is through,
Green's obscene, brown's taboo
And there is not the slightest excuse
for plum or puce or chartreuse
Think pink! forget that Dior says black and rust
Think pink! who cares if the new look has no bust
Now I wouldn't presume to tell a woman
what a woman oughtta think
But tell her if she's gotta think: think pink!
Pink for bags! pink for shoes!
Razzle, dazzle and spread the news!
And pink's for the lady with joie de vive!
Pinks for all the family
Try pink shampoo
Pink toothpaste too
Play in pink, all day in pink,
Pretty gayin pink
Drive in pink, come alive in pink
Have a dive in pink
Go out dancing but just remember one thing:
You can get a little wink
If you got a little pink
In your swing
Think pink! think pink, it's the latest word, you know
Think pink! think pink and you're Michelangelo
Everything on the great horizon
Everything that you can think
(and that includes the kitchen sink)
THINK PINK!

I'd like to close by share some insight from Hue readers from around the globe, commenting on gender specific colors:

Canada

"I have been jarred many times by what strikes me as a much more hyped-up pressure in the States to conform to these roles. For example, I have been almost shocked by the extent to which some U.S. online fabric stores actually tell customers in their product write-ups which colours and prints are appropriate for little boys, and which for little girls. Taking into account my 50 years of experience as an urban and rural Canadian being ongoingly exposed to both Canadian and U.S. media and now, to online stores, I have found some of this sort of gender-role advocacy coming from the States to be so over-the-top that it's actually made me consider not buying fabric from a couple of shops." -Oracle

Malaysia

"The association of colour to gender is not so strong in Malaysia. Of course the "pink for girls" trend has arrived but people are not satisfied with "blue for boys"- Sask

India

"No such stereotypes in India - if it is colorful, it belongs in baby clothes!"-Anon

United States

"Having traveled all over the world I agree that there is a greater gender color bias in the US than most places. Really though it very much depends on geography even within the US. I find that southern and mid-western areas tend to cling to more to the gender/gender link than in the north and northwest areas. In the northeast, where I live, you are just as likely to see a girl in muck boots and overalls as a boy. It definitely is more rare to see a boy in "girl" colors however." -Anon

Bangladesh

"I am a woman from Bangladesh and babies wear all colors in Bangladesh regardless of their sex. I learnt about this blue-pink differentiation only after coming to the US."-Kanta

Rio de Janeiro

"I'm from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the last decades our culture was heavily influenced by marketing coming from the U.S., so the blue/pink gender association is present in full force." -Pedro

Sweden

"Hi, I'm from Sweden, where the debate rages high every day...Well, I'm fully aware that there are differences [between the sexes], but to be honest, don't we all wish for our children to be strong, nurturing, taking care of their family and friends, easy going, fun to be with and so on... I think that all qualities that are good in human beings are universal. That is, they are good regardless of the persons gender... " -Michis

Ireland

"I am distressed by the strict gendered duality of our societies, the rigid pink and blue boxes we feel people must fit in. Far from becoming more equal, we are in fact polarizing work suitability, ability assessments, etc. based on gender."-Simon

South Africa

"The Pink/ Blue situation is very entrenched here in South Africa but seems to be under going a change due to the '95 elections and a coulor mix here." -Graham

Pakistan

"We have a friend from Pakistan. He said when he first moved here as a child, he was made fun of for picking the pink cap instead of the blue one in school. He said pink wasn't taboo for boys in Pakistan"-Anon 

This important conversation needs to be continued. What do you think of gender-specific colors? What are your observations about color where you live? I'd love for readers, especially those outside the US, to weigh in. We need a broader perspective on color that you can offer!

Walt Disney Family Museum

 I've been meaning to get over to the Presidio in San Francisco to check out the new Walt Disney Family Museum for months now. After reading Jill's article on Mary Blair, a color stylist and designer for Disney, I had to go see for myself. Alas, no picture taking was allowed inside, so I'll have to make due with what I can find online to show you.

You might be wondering, with Walt Disney so closely-tied to Southern California and Hollywood, why Northern California for this museum? Seems Walt's daughter Diana Miller wanted to keep her dad close to her home in Northern California. "Walt Disney was a huge fan of the military and Gen. Pershing [who commanded the Presidio] in particular," explained Diane. In addition, she says, the museum building "recalls the Main Street USA in Disney World." San Francisco firm Page and Turnbull was retained to design a museum to pay tribute to her father's life and work.

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The museum occupies a former barracks building located in The Presidio in San Francisco. The barracks were built in 1898 and housed soldiers during the Spanish-American war. I wish I could find a picture of the building located directly next door to this renovated one- it's amazing to see before and afters side by side.

 

This place is enormous. Three buildings, 77,000 square feet  with a combined exhibition space of 19,000 square feet. A 20,000-square-foot addition set into the U-shaped barrack courtyard provides added exhibit space and facilitates circulation through a dramatic spiraling ramp.

A wee synopsis:

"Inside, Page & Turnbull collaborated with Rockwell Group and used influences from the existing building’s inherent character to feature the existing brick walls and exposed ceilings as a backdrop to contrast against more modern materials. Modest wood flooring, plaster walls, stamped ceiling panels, and original windows serve to ground the bright exhibits in which color was prominent, due to Disney’s successful focus on animation. To represent this cartoon creativity, the designers opted for a more theatrical approach to the interior lighting, alternating galleries between light and dark, to coincide appropriately with the exhibits’ back stories, and playing with the control of natural light within the space." (source)

What I was really impressed by was the immersive design of the museum, leading you through room after room chronicling Disney's life story.  A bit of stimulation overload, with Disney's voice piped through speakers just about everywhere you turned. Storyteller and all that...

 

Designed by the Rockwell Group out of New York City, their goal was to honor Walt's storytelling legacy by using the tools he himself used throughout his career to innovate in this field: art, music and technology.

 

Let me just say, the exhibition design was -way- over the top. More than 200 video monitors. They were technology happy!

This was a -major- undertaking. Total project cost? Ready for this? $110 million.
Special highlights to justify this cost(as mentioned in PR)

• Original multiplane camera displayed through two gallery floors

• 360° overhead video ribbon showcasing a decade of Disney filmmaking

• Exhibits along a 164 foot floating spiral ramp path featuring the last 20 years of Walt Disney’s life

• Display case with over 100 examples of early Mickey Mouse toys, watches and other memorabilia

• Walt Disney’s own 1/8-scale live-steamer train, the Lilly Belle

• A 13 x 13 foot model of the Disneyland of Walt’s imagination

• Infinitely configurable circular light fixtures on ceiling of lecture hall that can display images of the sorcerer’s apprentice in Fantasia or exhibit a starry night effect when the lights dim

• Custom inset terrazzo tiles (these were super pretty)

• Custom, animation-inspired carpets

As for the designer's use of color and lighting- I thought this was very skillfully done. Galleries alternated between light and dark, vibrant or muted colors, old and new depending on the story being told.

I especially liked the "pause" in gallery space when gallery goers are treated to a panoramic view of the Golden Gate Bridge before plunging back into dark, dramatic gallery spaces.

Here I am posing, oh so glamorously, at the window with Nina on my back

But my favorite space in the museum?

The bathroom. Loved the variable sink heights with a different red or orange color in each bowl.

Yup, it was all pretty impressive. I know we've got some Hue readers with museum and exhibition design experience. What's your take on this project? Is that chump change for a project of this size?

For those too far away to visit, here's an in depth synopsis of each gallery

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Rugs: wallpaper for the floor

My latest Stir article is up! This month, I talk about my quest for the perfect rug, and how to incorporate rugs into your design plans for a jolt of color.

"I like to think of rugs as wallpaper for the floor."

Designers are notorious for being the most indecisive clients. It’s probably because we can’t stand the notion of having to pick just one thing when we know there’s a myriad of options out there. I always thought I would know exactly what I wanted when it came time to decorate my baby’s room. Boy, was I ever wrong! Continue article

Whether you are a designer or DIY'er, when you are selecting something for yourself, are you decisive, or completely overwhelmed by all the options out there? How do you cope?