Mediterranean Design

Mediterranean will remain an influence for sure as several themes merge into a new form.

Already, in America, its purity has been lost in a blur of influences and mutations of such as

• California Mission

• Southwestern

• Florida Design

• Mexican Colonial

• Moroccan

Wall Texture

Walls are predominately textured. It is what gives that pre-requisite aged appearance.

An over-all application of neutral sand paint supplies a good base. It’s easier than working with tinted sand paint at a later stage. There are prepared burnished wall texture Venetian plaster paints on the market that provide lots of texture. These can be used when working with color accents.

Include plaster moldings, cornices and columns when ever you can.

Oh the color

The sea and the sky and the warmth of the earth. Lavender wall textures, and creamy yellow make a whimsical appearance in this mixture. White is always making an appearance.

You will no doubt be using lots of accessories –brightly colorful to muted earthy and aged metallic– in your creation.

That’s not a warning to exercise caution and agonized pre-meditation in your selection of wall paint. Most walls will exhibit atoned or maybe even a wash effect by mixing some degree of white into all your color choices.

By applying some of these same paints at full strength, boldness can be added to appropriate spaces later as your overall project begins to take shape.

• Earthy orange

• sand

• sea green

• and creamy yellow

can be good choices to initiate the scene.

Color Accents

Incorporate brilliant mosaic tile designs into rich orange/red terra cotta or brick tiled floors. You can choose to continue the motif by applying the mosaics to the wall in the place of base mold, inlay them around door frames and be sure to make use of mosaic tiles for the kitchen or bathroom back splash.

Select a foyer, hall or alcove to try a toweled on red or lavender burnished plaster paint application for a dramatic affect.

Furniture and accessories

Furniture may be elegantly crafted from fine hardwoods or simple rustic designs of common woods. Either way, pieces are low and heavy set and often include accents of tile, iron or marble. Lots of furniture on the market carries a Mediterranean tag but that is as close as it comes to having the authentic scale and quality of the real thing. These are usually in the showrooms of mass marketers.

Find what you need in specialty shops.

Glass, iron and terra cotta have been decorating basics for centuries. The appeal of these works that you’ll want to use in abundance is in knowing the materials used, the production techniques required and workmanship employed are time honored traditions that can’t be changed. It can still be captured!

Hang wall tapestry from mounted wrought iron architectural pieces. Wrought iron grills can also be wall mounted to create the illusion of a window, above doorways to accentuate an entrance or to each side of a mirror to add interest and old world charm. Go back to some of those base paints to color in bulkheads or selected short walls.

Pottery has important application. Either in natural terra cotta or colorfully finished, over sized pots and vases in classic shapes add drama, form and color. Continue enhancing the allure with iron and wood wine racks in the dinning room. Add tapestry runners on side tables and top the one on the dinning table with a cast iron candle holder for quite, romantic dinners. Burnished brass urns, an indoor faux stone water fountain, and of course a thick relief, plastered fireplace hearth are “musts” if you can work them in.