Golly, so many “epic” stories over the past few months (Kate and I are crankin’) that it seems like … we don’t just stop and look at one pretty room — one pretty paint color — anymore. Kind of, “stop and smell the roses.” Or: Stop and ogle the gorgeous Tiffany blue paint in Hillary’s living room. Hillary uploaded this photo in our recent festival of 176 reader fireplaces. She noted, cryptically, “Traditional FP in 1949 cottage – Hillary.” Oh Hillary, this room is so glowy! And see, everyone, how I always talk about the sun dappling through sheer curtains? Dappling! I am getting sheers for under my pinch pleats this year once and for all, that’s that. But Hill — may I call you Hill? — what is the paint brand and color — we must know. Yes, for now, I’m calling it Tiffany Blue — just like the Breakfast at Tiffany’s blue — what a wonderful mid century provenance that is. And, umm, is that a real Saarinen womb chair? And is that your grandma’s sewing machine? Your two-tone color palette, rich noble woods, mix of modern and traditional — all laid on with a light touch… with restraint: Nicely done, grl. Now: What is the paint? xoxo
Hillary’s glowy 1949 Tiffany blue living room
Posted by: • February 19, 2013
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Wow, I could not be more surprised to see my own living room on Retro Renovation! I’m so pleased you like my arrangement.
The paint color was applied 10 or 11 years ago when we moved in, and I think it was called “Strawberry Pot” by Martha Stewart. Oh, looks like it’s still available: http://www.myperfectcolor.com/en/color/58937_Martha-Stewart-D05-Strawberry-Pot-Blue
Yes, that is a vintage Saarinen womb chair. It was a thrift store find, if you can believe it. I do have a sewing machine (treadle) that belonged to my great-grandmother, but that machine is another thrift store find, a lavendar Necchi Supernova Julia.
Thanks for the shout out!
That is funny, this color jumped out at me when I was looking through the fireplace pictures as well! It really is a wonderful color.
What a wonderful balance of light and airy, calmness and serenity. Makes me want to grab a book and curl up in the Saarinen chair next to the window. How did you find the chair in the left corner to match your paint so well (or was it the other way ’round?)
Also, is the portrait above the fireplace of a relative? Absolutely lovely living room!
Sheer luck brought that chair to me. It’s one of a pair, found at a thrift store.
The portrait is of Henry Clay. Thanks for your comments!
Soft, subtle, but stunning room. My window treatments are exactly the same as your, Hillary: light, airy, off white sheers hung from just above window frame to the floor. I have so enjoyed the changing effects of light filtering through mine.
Is your coffee table Mersman or Lane? It’s perfect for your room.
I have the end table that matches the coffee table. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to make it work with my current furniture/layout. So it’s sitting in the garage right now…just waiting for its place in a home! (Interested Hillary?)
Thank you for your generous offer, but I have a pair of blonde step end tables that I love!
It’s Bassett, actually, and thank you!
Bassett. It’s just lovely; has so much MCm style.
As a follow up thought to Pam’s previous open thread discussion about MCM minimalism, I think that Hillary’s living room is an excellent example of MCM minimalism that combines the spacious design elements, and reflects a warmth and comfortable atmosphere. She combines an eclectic style with the use of different pieces of furniture and decor that produces interest, and not a feeling of being a “sterile office or motel” type of atmosphere that some RR readers reflected about the MCM minimalist style. Again, I think it is a beautiful and welcoming living room.
Very pretty! I want sheers under my pinch pleats too but the cats would maul those things in ten seconds flat. They really do great things with light.
On my monitor, the color looks very Holiday Turquoise.
I would like sheers, but the dog could see every car and other dog being taken for a walk and always be barking and waking up my grandson from his naps. We even close the pinch pleats during naps.
I could write a book about cats vs. sheers. Chapter One: “Curtain Climbers”; aka, kittens.
I love sheers – always have. However, my hubbie doesn’t have the same lovin’ feeling toward them and therefore, there’s not a sheer to be found in our house. But this room makes me want them even more. What a tranquil, peaceful room. Very nicely done Hillary!
Hah, my hubby is the same he calls them “Grandma curtains”. Lucky for me we inherited a full set with our house so I won the sheer debate (at least in our living/dining!
I have a very similar color in my kitchen, at least it looks the same to me. It’s called Kensington green by Benjamin Moore.
I adore that beautiful blue. It’s what I wanted for our living room “accent wall” but we went with a slightly deeper, bluer shade. (Now I want to repaint!) I agree about Hillary’s restrained approach – this is just a lovely room.
I love this room! Such a great marriage between modern and mid-century. Awesome fresh, inspired space! You guys nailed it!
This is SPOOKY! My own living room has the same color, same window layout, same white mantel, same brick fireplace, same placement of ancestral portrait …
We bought the house (1954 Cape Cod) from the estate of the original owner, and this room was our first glimpse in the interior. We loved the color, which we think of as robin’s-egg, though maybe it’s greener than that. We needed to freshen the paint but wanted to keep as close to the color as possible. The Behr paint we used was “Balmy Seas.” (For the adjacent hall, we went one shade darker with “Eucalyptus Leaf,” similar to the leather color in Hillary’s chairs.)
I love how clean Hillary’s incarnation of “my” room looks! Mine had to accommodate more upholstery, since it’s the logical place for our pre-existing forest green velveteen sofa and recliner, plus an ivory chaise and a Persian rug. I was unsure that the green would work with the aqua, but it’s been fine. I’m planning to make some accent pillows in either a coral or a marigold yellow. But yes, the aqua/Tiffany/robin’s-egg is a wonderfully retro color that’s interesting but not flashy. People seem to love it.
How cool BrianT! You must have done a double take when you first saw this post! That particular shade of aqua is great for vintage and mid century homes.
How interesting! I’d love to see your version of our room!
Hillary — I posted it yesterday on the Retro Renovation Facebook page. And I see that Kentucky is another point of overlap — I’m in Lexington.
Wow, that is like looking into an alternate universe! I really love your cornices – now I’m tempted to make my husband build some! Your living room looks very serene and relaxing too. I think that’s just a great color. Thanks for sharing the pic!
It appears that the lovely color appears on just the fireplace wall. The window wall looks like it has a dove gray color, perhaps. So, Hillary, if you could let us know how many walls are the Tiffany Blue, and what is the other wall color, that would be nice.
The fellow in the portrait reminds me of Henry Clay.
It is Henry Clay! Good eye!
The other walls are just an off-white. I always resisted off-white as too “blah,” but nothing else seemed a good choice with the accent wall, and I’m glad I went with it.
A good example of basics—scale, proportion, color, line—handled with awareness and to positive effect, namely interest, harmony and wholeness. First, each piece of furniture, the amount of furniture, and the furniture’s distribution is proportioned to the essential, hard-to-change features of the room: the room’s size, its windows and its fireplace. The window treatments are neither underscaled nor too heavy for the windows. Second, the Tiffany Blue, the range of neutrals—white, off-white and wheat—the mahogany of the brick, and the hints of black are so well proportioned and strategically applied that the room is clean but not sterile; the furniture, window treatments, accessories and other interior elements read legibly; and accent falls where it should. I appreciate the warm-cool yin-yang placement of repeating colors: The Tiffany Blue of the accent wall repeats in the seat and back of the chair to the left of the fireplace, in the side drapery panels and in accents of the lamp shade in the foreground. The wheat of the Womb Chair’s upholstery and the black of its legs repeats in the picture over the mantel and in the lamp in the left background. The mahogany of the afghan on the blue chair repeats in the fireplace brick and in the console table in front of the picture window. Whenever colors mix, there is enough contrast that every part of the room stands out clearly, while at the same time, there is enough color similarly that the room holds together as its own whole. This integration is not only accomplished through color, but through line. Despite different historical styles and level of formality of the furnishings and millwork, the styles work harmoniously because they share common lines and visual weight. The mantel is formal, traditional and rectilinear, while the Womb Chair is casual, modern and organic, but they hang together because the fluting and shadow lines of the mantel and the legs and edges of the Womb Chair are similarly weighted. This mixing of the past and present styles was thematic in mid-century design, and is realistic, too. Most of us purchase furnishings over time, we hold on to cherished inherited pieces, and rarely do we compose a room all at once with a God’s-eye view. This room is in keeping with the mid-century’s, as well as today’s, spirit. Good eye and well done!
BTW, Pam, happy birthday. You’re looking great—much younger than the fifty-four years you claim!
Wow! *Love* this living room! Everything about it says “Peaceful” to me – and its a beautiful mixture of colors. My personal favorite color in the WORLD is “Tiffany Blue” – or (close to it) a paint color from General Motors that they put on the 1963 cars called Azure.
This is close. Its stunning, with the hint of red in the bricks, combined with the Puce (my term for the carpet color) and i never thought of combining the two – but the Navy Blue sofa is an excellent compliment to all the other colors! Way to go, this room is a knock-out.
By the by: I have an accent wall behind my headboard from Benjamin Moore called “Azores” – its very close to this color, but a tad bit more green. At any rate – this room is a winner!
That is the EXACT same coffee table my parents had, with the little curved edges (and end tables that matched)!! Boy, did my crowd party around that thing – too many times to count.
My parents had that same coffee table as well–I’d love to have it back.
Love, love, love everything about this room. I just want to file it away in my brain and make it my happy place.
We painted the living room, dining room, and hallway in our 1960 ranch a similar color– BM’s “St. Lucia Teal.”
picture perfect!
Yes, like everyone else, I was taken by this room when it appeared in the fire place slide show – the fireplace wall as well as the rest of the room. Very comfortable room. I have way too much formal upholstered pieces.
I was laughing about everyone ogling the shears. They were left for me by the previous owner, along with the pink pinch pleat traverse drapes. When I moved in, outa here! I like to see out the windows. I think the window treatments here are just panels hanging at each end, a look i like. Hillary, where are you? Please enlighten us on the room’s particulars.
I’m in Kentucky, Jay. We live in a 1949 asbestos-shingled house – not modern at all, so I consider it a “cottage.”
When I moved in, there were traverse rods at the windows, but at the time I just thought them horribly old-fashioned and took them right down. You’re right that there are just small panels at the ends. I made them myself and hung them on the same rod as the sheers because I didn’t want to block too much light. There is a porch that runs across the front of the house, and a shade tree that blocks quite a bit of light from the picture window. The sun was getting low when this picture was taken.
Hillary, thanks for replying and wow – great job on the curtains. I like what you did with the fireplace window treatments, a single panel on each and the single panels on the picture window. Here in PA, Capes/cottages were just as popular as ranches after the war and all of them are nuetral palettes that can take on any style of interior. Thanks again for your patience in answering everyone’s questions.
Wow, I was so surprised to see my living room on Retro Renovation! Thanks for all the kind comments, everyone.
The wall color is “Strawberry Pot” by Martha Stewart and seems to still be available, though we painted our wall 11 years ago. Most of our furniture is thrift store and garage sale finds, and luck brought it all together! I combined a few older pieces I love with the Mid-century, because people collected antiques back then, too!
To answer your question, Pam, I do have my great-grandmother’s sewing machine, but it’s a treadle machine. The one you see here is a thrift store find, a lavender Necchi Supernova Julia.
Mmm. Lavender Necchi Supernova. Lucky girl.
We have sheers at a minimum in all of the windows (kitchen in rear excepted) of our 1953 Modest Trad. Love the dappled light, subtle privacy, and traditional “look” from the outside, which can be as important as how it all looks from the inside.
And to address everyone’s comments on the sheers, I really like having them. They were the only window covering we had (with the colored panels) until we hung some honey-comb shades this past year. They let in light without anyone really being able to see in. We put up the shades because we get a pretty serious glare when the sun sets in the winter.
Hi from Toronto Canada!
Love the room and the serene blue. It is calming and elegant without
looking contrived or staged. We have the same coffee table, LOL! I was told the coffee table with the curved edge was designed by Grete Jalk. After doing research on it, I liked it so much that I gradually acquired other pieces by her, including end tables and an entryway bench. Bravo, an inspiration. Proof that turquoise doesn’t have to look kitschy.
That’s a truly yummy room and color really transports you. I don’t think that room could have been staged any better if it had been done by professionals. Hilliary, are you holding out on us?
I have a very similar color in my room, called Aztec Aqua, which I pulled from a 1969 Ford Automotive PPG paint chart. Vintage interior house paint swatches seem somewhat hard to find but automotive paint charts are common and quite affordable. Best of all they are actually painted with enamels, not printed, so the color hasn’t faded or changed over the years. I took my paint chart into Home Depot last fall and they were able to custom mix an exact match.
Just about any automotive Paint Chart between 1956 and the early 70s is a treasure trove of great color ideas. I have dozens and dozens of them and plan on pulling the colors for my other rooms the same way. I really like how these charts can help you pick an authentic period color by going directly to a period resource.
I have Tiffany blue in my downstairs bathroom. I took an actual Tiffanys bag to Lowes and the paint tech was able to match it exactly.
Lovely! Looks just like the living rooms from my vintage magazines. Nicely balanced and good idea not to paint the entire room in blue as it would be overpowering (I need to do that in my aqua blue room). Love those little plastic doilies…we had them when I was a kid and I actually found one a few years ago at the thrift store but too bad it was damaged.
I also remember back then that most people had living rooms that rarely anyone ever went in so they looked so nice and neat…mostly people hung out in the dens/family rooms which were less formal.
And, I love dappling sunlight thru windows…I just can’t have heavy curtains on any of my windows as I love the light.
great! that looks awesome and i think if i try to get my room designed something like this will make my house more attractive and royal
Hillary, your room is just lovely! I especially liked the way you put just one drapery panel up on the two narrow windows next to the fireplace. I love sheers too but my cats shredded the ones in my bedroom so that was the end of using them there! I am curious if anyone can speculate if the floor length curtains on these big picture windows were not common back in the day. Both my husband’s mother and grandmother had late fifties ranches with the 120″ wide picture window and both of them used the 65″ long drapes. They indicated to me when we bought the grandmother’s 1958 ranch that no-one put up floor length drapes back then. I don’t know if that is generally true or if maybe they had to be custom made and were very expensive, probably the latter. I know I put up the short ones and the $120 cost was alot of money to me in 1978! Anyhow, beautiful job.
I’ve noticed the shorter curtains too, in old magazines. They even took down long and put up shorter in one of the “modernization” articles I was reading. I like my long curtains though, because they hide the outlets and the cold-air return. I’d definitely go with the shorter if I had some low furniture that fit under the windows.
How interesting! I do love your windows though; the long ones look just perfect! I had the short curtains on my picture window and it took me a long time to find a sofa that fit under it that fit in with the age of the house. I am mad that I didn’t take my mother-in-law’s circa 1960 sofa when she replaced it. It had those square arms and that indestructible off-white nylon glimmery fabric that was so popular in the day, with a matching chair in aqua! They still looked brand new when she replaced them in the eighties. We had a regular sized window on the other outside wall which I hated because it spoiled all the wall space in the room. It had the usual large doorway into the kitchen and the fourth wall as is common had the fireplace. We removed that window so I had space for a line of tall bookcases and I never regretted it.
I love how this room welcomes you right in. It has an ageless feel to it. I like the comments about how people,then and now, collect and it does make our homes more personal and interesting.
I love the lamps on either side of the sofa and the “column” shaped one behind the womb chair.
This shade of blue would be great in my upstairs bathroom.
rick
Nice room! The layout of the living rooming room in my 1940 Cape is nearly identical. We have a long radiator under the big window, which makes it tough to position anything in front of it without it feeling like it’s floating alone in the middle of the room.
Great room. Let me know if and where anyone finds that paint color. I checked my local Home Depot and they did not.
Lauren,
You might look at http://www.myperfectcolor.com/en/color/58937_Martha-Stewart-D05-Strawberry-Pot-Blue. I have found other colors on their site.
rick
Thanks Rick!
Stunning! Just proves, less is more. I love the light, airiness, the classic styles, and the BEST color ever! (I also have it in my house) A truly lovely room, Hillary! I LOVE your furnishings, and the fireplace! (Some people just have good taste, and a good eye!) Thanks for sharing
)
I was surprised to read that the paint was applied so long ago. I thought I was the only one who lives with the same color for years! lol
I tend to take forever to choose colors, but when I do, they’re mainstays. Not only do the colors remain in style (if you care about that sort of thing – which I don’t particularly), but they are colors I fall in love with and can’t imagine living without.
A sign that you’ve done a good job choosing to begin with I think.
It’s time to refresh the rooms in our home, and except for the living room which is going to change from blue to red, the rest of the rooms are going to repainted as close to the original color as possible.
I love the room. It’s so restful.
As a HUGE fan of Danish Modern furnishings, how was it that fringe and skirting made its way onto chairs and couches? A definite regression, if you ask me. 1949? Are you KIDDING me? I’ll take the design sensibilities of those days over anything made today. One word: RIGHTEOUS!