A Private Place to Reflect
She wanted to rest and retreat from the stress in her life. This focal wall as you entered her apartment set the stage to what you would experience throughout her home. A restful retreat. This statue was purchased at one of St. Thomas Academy’s annual auctions. It is now a comforting feature in my client’s home.
After selling her long time home in St. Paul which I helped her stage, she asked me to help turn her new apartment into a home.
She needed a place to get away and reflect. She was entering a new stage in life.
Feature Wall
The first thing she asked me to do was to help with this feature wall that greeted you as you first entered her new apartment retreat. She wanted the statue of the Blessed Mother here but the statue seemed to fade into the white wall behind. We need it to be a focal point.
In response, I decided to raise it up and center it more in the space and create a faux painted wood panel to be installed behind it. This helped the statue of The Blessed Mother become a prominant feature without making it look “churchy”. I pulled the colors from the Blessed Mother and layered them when staining the wood panel.
Hiding Wires
Then, there was the challenge of hiding the modem wires and finding a place for the grandchildren’s toys. She loved the modern touch that this buffet and the additional needed storage it provided.
A simple solution to hiding the TV and modem wires was these covers from the local hardware store. They worked wonderfully.
Paying attention to sight lines added to the Retreat Atmosphere
As a matter of fact, the living room wall happened to be the wall she saw from her bed. Therefore it needed to be addressed with a focal point. If you want to learn more about “sight lines” and “focal points” I talk more about them in the Love Your Layout Workshop. What you see from other rooms is important to consider when curating your home.
Subsequently, she bought this print by Steve Henderson entitled “Ocean Breeze” [from greatbigcanvas.com]. Simply put, it was a delightful find that was an emotional lift at the start of each new day.
Additionally, she wanted to feature another inspiring painting that was created by her nephew when he was, also, going through a traumatic time in his life. The painting, entitled “Eternal Hunger”, represented a nursing child finding solice in his mother’s arms.
And then it was just a matter of tying together her existing decor to create a cohesive color scheme that was calm and relaxing.
Retreat Guest Room Color Scheme
In the guest room, using the colors in a picture she treasured from a friend, we then took the soft teal from the ocean in the picture and repeated it throughout the room by painting the oak frame and hand painting the pillow to coordinate.
Focal Point for Dining Room
Lastly, we needed to create a focal point behind the dining room table. Since, it was an open floor plan with the living room, the colors needed to be cohesive. And due to the muted colors of soft greys and cream throughout these rooms , she found delight in the colors in this grouping. We centered them over the dining room table to draw the eye as if to call you to sit down.
A home is all about surrounding yourself with things that you love and inspire you.
It was, indeed, an honor to be a part of her journey to help her create a retreat to refresh and reflect and rejoice in God’s love for her.
