My Consultation with Camille Saum

We tackled the boys’ bedroom first. Henry fell in love with a quilt on an outing to Sperryville, VA, last weekend, so we had our inspiration piece to start a new look. I took the matching sham with me for reference:

I told Camille that I wanted a sleek new look for the boys’ room. Considering the “country” nature of this quilt, I didn’t want the room to devolve into some Holly Hobbie nightmare.

With barely a pause, the ideas started flowing. “I think this color on the walls,” she said, pointing to the brown background on the sham. “I think it’s sort of handsome looking.” That came as a bit of a shock – all that brown? But it might be growing on me, considering the trim, ceiling, louvered doors, and bookcases would be painted cream.

Then she told me to find a “tweedy” rug with a “salt and peppery” mix of navy and cream. I never would have thought of something like that, but more on the rug later.

We then tackled the window treatments. I told her Roman shades would be good, but what kind of fabric? Remember, I kept telling her, no Holly Hobbie. No gingham. No country look.

So we started in stripes.

While the selection at Kravet was lovely, it was also waaaay too expensive for a little boys’ room.

The Fabricut showroom was next. We found a good candidate.

Camille gets help from the lovely Jennifer Clark

A close-up of our first candidate – Fabricut’s Deer Grove

But Camille was trying to find a version of mattress ticking with some navy blue in it, which we both thought would look great. But we, along with Fabricut’s Jennifer Clark, made an interesting and rather depressing discovery: “Navy is actually a color I don’t see that often in textiles,” Jennifer remarked.

My pillow sham has dark, nearly-black navy blue in it, but no one seemed to have anything that runs dark enough.

Nope, won’t work.

Not quite.

On to Pindler & Pindler we went, without any more luck. But then we stopped into Schumacher on a whim, where Camille declared she had found The One.

Remember what I said about avoiding Holly Hobbie, and no gingham?

“I like this!” She said excitedly. “I think it goes!” Meanwhile, I’m getting bad, eye-twitching visions of some Kountry Kute explosion in my poor son’s bedroom.

What’s worse? This fabric is from Schumacher’s “Country House Cottons” collection. I can’t do it, Camille. I just can’t. Then the showroom rep, Mark Hall, produces a solid blue color. “I’m drawn to the solid,” I tell her. “Hmm” is her response, in a tone that’s more of a “Humph.”

She compromises. Try the solid with a wide trim in the check pattern, she says. Then she tells me to walk away from it, turn abruptly around, “and take a quick look – they do go.”

Oh, okay.

Here it is. I have since gotten the approval from Henry, who really likes the combination.

As for the rug, I’m pretty much on my own now, but I like Camille’s tweedy concept. Here are some options I’ve found online, which don’t approach the “salt and peppery” texture I’m after, but are worth considering. 

From Flor:

Clockwise from upper left: Rake Me Over in Lagoon; Twist and Shout in Indigo; Velvet Rope in Cream and Indigo

From CompanyKids:

Flokati rug in Denim Blue

So let’s put the bedroom aside for now and check in on the dining room.

“I think we ought to try to do something from this light fixture,” Camille says. “I don’t want to scare you, but it looks like there’s a hint of peachy in here.”

And you know, she’s right! I came home and turned on the light, and there is a bit of a peachy glow from it, which is somehow appropriate because there are some peach tones in the adjacent living room.

In any event, she says, with all the blacks, whites and browns in this room, “You need color. You really need color.”

Now, here’s the second whammy: She says we should paint some peachy stripes where the wallpaper is now – only this time, they should be horizontal, and very wide – six to nine inches wide. She whips out a photo of a similar room she designed with wide, sorbet-yellow stripes, and I immediately see how horizontal stripes can make a tiny room like our dining room look much bigger.

But what kind of peach? Like the boys’ bedroom, I can see this going bad, fast. But this is why Camille is a designer and I’m not.

Camille started searching for a fabric in Pindler & Pindler’s cotton section that might emulate the paint color.

Hmmm. We’re not quite there yet. I started looking online, but again, paint needs to be viewed in person. The search is not over.

How about Farrow & Ball’s Fowler Pink? Maybe too pink.

Benjamin Moore’s Peach Sorbet? Maybe too peach. (I’m starting to feel like Goldilocks here…)

Sherwin Williams’ Pizazz Peach? Maybe?

Decisions, decisions. Thank you, Camille, for at least giving me a road map – one I never would have imagined if left to my own non-designer devices.

Anyone else have advice pour moi? This will likely be a year-long process, so there’s plenty of time to mull it over. I’ll keep you updated.