Over the last few years since moving back from San Diego, California I have been working on a quaint little cottage compound built by my grandparents here in the Hamptons on Eastern Long Island, New York - just a mile from the Atlantic Ocean beaches. It is a 2 Bedroom, 1 Bath Main House with an attached 1 Bedroom, 1 Bath accessory apartment on over a 1/2 acre parcel. I've been taking it slow and getting the work done... new roof, new windows, new bath rooms, new kitchen, new home office, new electric, New wainscotting... just about new everything. Everytime I started a new project and opened up a wall, there was a new surprise waiting for me that needed to be attended to first before getting to the project at hand.
There is a great hand-carved Mahogany fireplace mantle in the living room that my grandfather found floating down the road following the September 1938 Hurricane. He was in the process of building this house when the storm devasted our community here in Westhampton Beach with a Category 4 direct hit. The mantle was tied to the back of his boat and brought home and incorporated into the house after the big storm. On the front of the home there is a large sun porch overlooking the gardens.
My grandmother was quite the garder and the house is surrounded by colorful perennial gardens that features her green thumb from the last half of the last century... lily gardens, wisteria vine, dutch iris, daffodils, dog wood trees, forsythia, lilacs, hydrangea, andromedea... color rotating throughout the year.
When I finally finished the exterior I decided to just paint it white and live with it for a year and watch all of the color of the gardens float around it for a year. Well... it's been a year now of white everywhere.
We just had our second major snow storm of the winter here in the Hamptons and there is absolutely no color anywhere... just a white little cottage sticking up from being buried under 3 feet of snow. So the palatte that I have for 4-5 months of the year is white on white. Under the snow, the roof is actually a dark grey / black architectural roof. I would like to keep any trim white though.
So I'm getting my paint brushes ready for the Spring thaw so that I can get a little color added to my little Hamptons village cottage near the beach ready for the Spring and Summer of 2011. Do you have any great color combinations lurking in your secret paint chip sample portfolio?
Got any ideas? Share away !
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