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True Colors
Every room in Christine Rubin’s ultra-colorful home tells her story. The highly visual floral designer— she owns Fleur de Lis— interprets space in color and metaphor.
“The dining room is the heart of the house,” Christine says. “The windows go to the floor… It’s almost like being in an aquarium of trees. People gravitate to that room. That’s why I went out and actually bought a couch for my dining room.”
Her cane couch in lime green corduroy from the Turnover shop sits in the bay window, bathed in light each morning. We love this color choice and its interplay with the Fuschia 5 fabric from Blanks covering the farmer’s market chairs.
Her charming milk glass collection sits in a bold-as-can-be red cabinet from Ikea, which Christine spotted on the cover of the store catalogue.
“I saw it and thought it was hot. I painted the mirror a high gloss white to match the milk glasses that belonged to my grandmother.”
We applaud the way she embraces her instinct for unexpected color— confidence works.
Two dozen vintage Vogue covers line the wall in frames from Michael’s. And Bird lamps from Urban Outfitters make perfect sense inside the fun-loving room’s composition.
“Urban Outfitters is a good resource for the average person. They have some very pretty things.”
A Menu of Whimsy
Christine chose white walls for her festive kitchen because she wanted a simple background for her colorful collection of porcelain and plastic plates, all different sizes, collected from Anthropologie, Target and vintage sources.
“I knew I’d bring the color in,” she says. “And the plastic hot pink fish from Pottery Barn Teen is definitely the statement piece above the large industrial stove…”
Her banana bowl is from Consign by Design. “It’s kind of pop-artish. There’s a lot of stuff going on in here. This room is a clean palette with punch.”
The Green Room
Christine’s turquoise pottery collection, much of it McCoy’s pottery, some newer, decorates the apple green family room with people, birds, all kinds of imaginative shapes. The fireplace tile is aqua, one of Christine’s favorite built-in touches.
“You can see how I’m pulling in the color of the playroom,” she says. “It’s whimsical and happy— I always say I’m the Mrs. Roper of decorating. I like that playfulness…”
Her buttery yellow couch is slipcovered— as is most of her furniture for easy clean-up. She adds a turquoise throw from the BMA.
“The warmth is the yellow I bring throughout the room,” she explains. “The chair’s big and white. The ottoman’s big and white— that relieves the eye.”
Against the large open door lives a hot pink, green and blue dollhouse from Costco, tall enough for Barbies to comfortably reside.
“The dollhouse marries the playroom to the family room, leaning against the door.”
Educational Pompoms
The turquoise playroom reminds us of a happy mod room in a Pedro Almodovar film. The framed painting from Red Tree, “Bird with Cherries,” underscores the sense of play.
At the activities table, Christine’s grandmother’s vintage chairs sport euphoric fabric, accented by a modern ceramic lamp with drum shade. Inside the French porcelain bowl, Christine stocks pompoms for her daughter Maizie’s art breaks. Each deep windowsill contains more craft goodies, buttons, sequins, markers, you name it.
“I definitely grabbed that lamp for that table— it looks so round and orb-ish with the round table sitting in the curved bay.”
The pink Ikea side table next to the sofa is the perfect spot to land remote controls. “It’s a catchall,” Christine says.
Twist Ending
Maizie, 5, sleeps in the sunniest room in the house. The pink walls and pretty, low white Ikea bed tucked in the bay window make it a little girl’s room other little girls will envy.
“She has two vintage dressers, one with pink-rose drawer pulls from Anthropologie,” Christine says. “The elephant pillow is from Urban Outfitters, and I thought the Land of Nod bedspread was so beautiful with the roses sticking out in 3-D ruching.”
A collection of vintage lamps adds to the light, frilly vibe.
Maizie’s bookshelf from Ikea displays various treasures, a vase, patent leather Mary Janes, books… Christine encourages her daughter to play with the props.
“The charcoal drawing above the fireplace is by my friend Bridget Griffith. It’s abstract in that you don’t see the head of the subject. You see Mary Jane shoes, a wand and two little girls. It adds darkness. And one of the lamps is a head, a nightmare baby. This makes the room not so incredibly candy-apple sweet.”
In the Jungle
Brooks, 9, is a major fan of wild animals, including lions. With that in mind, Christine found a great jungle animal bedspread by John Robshaw at Anthropologie.
“On his wall, there’s a series of appliques from Pottery Barn Teen, a giraffe, an elephant, a monkey climbing over the window…grass under their feet.”
The navy blue walls are Laura Ashley Navy 5 from Lowe’s, a nice backdrop for his dark cherry bunk bed.