The Death Of The Boring Beige Living Room

July 26, 2017
35 Comments
Posted in: color schemes

It seems that I have two things on the brain.

Okay, it’s more than two things.

But these two things are standouts these days.

Blue and White

And Mark D Sikes.

They go hand in hand, but Mark is also the master of the (not) boring beige living room.

Well, isn’t that what people call it?

Boring beige.

And yes, beige can be dreadfully boring.

Just dreadful.

And yet Mark’s beige rooms are not even close to being dreadful. They are elegant, rich and uhhh… expensive.

How expensive?

I was afraid you were going to ask me that.

This is Mark’s exquisite room that he did for the Southern Living Show House last year. We discussed it before which you can see here.

The upholstered pieces except for the French chair, I believe are from Mark’s new collection at Henredon. We talked about that too.

So how much Laurel????????

Okay, calm down! Are you trying to catch a plane or something?

I honestly don’t know. With the renovations, built-ins, art, totchkes, antique rugs + all of that Henredon Furniture and expensive fabrics… it definitely falls in the “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it category.”

Maybe like 250k +/- ???

yeah… like I said…

Those Christopher Spitzmiller lamps on the console between the sofa are most likely in the neighborhood of 7k for the pair.

A non-boring beige living room doesn’t come cheap.

Why?

Well, it’s because when one does a monochromatic room like this, in order for it not to be boring, it needs to be full of texture and complexity.

As well the following for a non boring beige living room

plenty of white
plenty of dark/black accents
gold
different materials/textures
layering
differing the shades of the main color
beautiful architecture
classic accents
beautiful styling with plants and objets

and maybe a surprise or two

So, let’s have another look at Mark’s “boring beige” (not) living room.

I believe that Mark stole those gorgeous antique rugs from his own home.

You can find more info about some of the sources like this wonderful chandelier here.

Here, we can easily see all of the principles in place that IMO make this room anything but boring.

The exquisite single sofa and chair fabric is from Claremont Furnishing Fabric Company.

This is a new source for me.

And make no mistake, this stuff costs bucks.

See? This is one of their showrooms. It positively reeks of the finest of the fine. And that comes at a price.

The draperies are Cowtan and Tout’s Rapallo in Beige.

Here’s a poor man’s version found on Overstock.

No, not the same, but it’s the same idea for a LOT less $$$. These are only in 120″, so they would require hemming.

However, please take heart. I combed the interwebs for more substitutes and if I say so myself, I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.

I made a widget for you (below) of dozens of items that are largely quite affordable. And fabrics too! I love making these widgets. I can’t control the size of the items or their placement, so the scale is off in many cases. But you get the idea.

I could not fine the exact jute rug that Mark has used but a great source that’s to the trade is Fibreworks.

Please click on the individual images below for the source, etc.

I found this way cool Harrison Van Horn table at Chairish. They are asking about $2,500 for it. Now, that might seem like a lot. But these babies go for at least $6,000. And don’t forget that you can often talk them down.