Things have changed for my approach to interior design over the last 35 years. I remember the first speculation home I built in Hillsboro. I did it myself and used orange shag rug, and whatever color the painter had in the back of his truck for that home. It was okay then as we lived in monochromatic homes, all whites and lights.

The approach to design changed dramatically. Every nuance of color, every thread of material, for every item is considered. We just finished chasing around after a stain color for the poplar trim work. I really was pleased with just my decision to stain the wood. I know Susan Green, my designer would have preferred paint. Not me.

My initial inclination was to clear coat the poplar wood trim, it would be fine, but Susan did not agree. She wanted to key off the cabinet’s darker stain color. It took a week to come to a strength of a tone color to key off of the cabinets. Unfortunately we were given an off example of the finished cabinet color. This started a wild chase, and discussion of employing a grain tamer for the wood because of my selection of poplar as the species of wood for trim…one more step, and add two days to an already tight time frame.

We were blessed to not have to employ the grain tamer step. We used an approximate 1/2 strength stain, and the result was perfect!

I’ve got a give credit to Benjamin Moore Paint. Their ability to match a combination of colors for stain of the cabinets, however the cabinet company would not give us their formula for “their” stain color, so we had to invent it ourselves…We did.