BRIGHT IDEA. Kimberly painted the home's faded facade a bright, bold yellow (Valspar's "Beach Umbrella" in SR610). "I love when a home's exterior is a preview of what's inside," she says. The green buffet is a vintage French provincial style she found at a Goodwill store and painted green. "I love to put indoor furniture on the porch," Kimberly says. "I think of it as another room in the house.
COZY & CONCEALED. In the laundry porch at the back of the house, Kimberly cleverly concealed the washer and dryer behind louvered doors and yard sale wicker furniture under thrift store quilts. The aqua dresser, a contrast to the red table, was a yard sale find. "I don't follow any color wheel," Kimberly points out. "I just go by what I like."
Many homeowners shy away from experimenting with bold colors in their paint and décor. Kimberly McCole is not one of them. In fact, she looks for opportunities to make each interior and exterior space in her 1922 Lakeland, Florida, cottage bungalow come alive with color.
The self-described photographer/artist/writer and homemaker always admired the charming, old cottages she would drive past over the years. Finally, one day, one of them became hers.
"A'for sale' sign was planted in the tiny front yard of a faded yellow cottage, and I asked my husband to pull into the driveway. As we got out of the car, our eyes saw a huge front porch with a white swing beckoning us to try it out. We did, and that was all it took for my heart to fall in love with it. I had been living in a house just like this one, but only in my dreams."
As soon as she and her husband, Kevin, and all their pets moved in, Kimberly couldn't wait to pull out her palettes and express both herself and her home's character with color.
This story is from the June - July 2022 edition of Cottages and Bungalows.
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This story is from the June - July 2022 edition of Cottages and Bungalows.
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