This London Home Makes the Case for Painting Historic Wood Paneling

"But perhaps the most surprising through line isn't the color itself, but how extensively it's applied-particularly across historic wood paneling and moldings. For those wondering if it's sacrilege to paint over historic paneling, Maddux offers this: "Wood is beautiful, obviously, but it can feel heavy and oppressive, and can suck the life out of a room. The color needs to be vibrant and resonate with you personally.""

"And for the matriarch of the family, the color decisions were deeply personal. "We'd paint something, and she would put her skin next to it and take a photograph and send it to us, because it felt important to her that the colors she was living with made her skin look beautiful," says leGleud. That same attentiveness carries into the home's more private spaces, though here it takes on a more exacting form."

"In the primary suite, a melange of rich textures and patterns creates a dreamy effect-one achieved with painstaking attention to detail. The team worked with Namay Samay, a fabric house producing in India and Bhutan, to develop a custom colorway for the patterned fabric used on the headboard and bolster, a process that required several trials before the match felt right."

Vibrant paint is applied extensively throughout the home, including over historic wood paneling and moldings, transforming heavy surfaces and enlivening rooms. Deep, saturated color choices aim to resonate personally and counteract wood’s potential to feel oppressive or to 'suck the life out of a room.' Color selections were tested against skin tones, with a family matriarch photographing swatches against her skin to ensure flattering results. The primary suite layers rich textures and patterns, with custom-patterned fabric developed through multiple trials with Namay Samay to achieve the precise colorway. The adjacent dressing room combines Indian floral wallpaper and bamboo cabinetry moldings to echo Victorian aesthetic references and personal meaning.

Read at Architectural Digest