<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" A decade ago, Jackie Rudman, who&amp;#039;s a museum docent and retired teacher, as well as an avid art collector, built a retreat in Rancho Mirage, California, in which she and her husband could escape the harsh Chicago winters. The home, designed by Thomas Hickey &amp;amp;amp; Associates in Chicago, was well suited to the setting: all low-slung volumes and muted earth tones, in a desert landscape by garden designer Marcello Villano. Sad to say, her husband passed away several years ago, and Rudman started looking at the house differently. &amp;quot;I woke up one morning and decided I didn&amp;#039;t like the way we had decorated the house. It felt too dark, too masculine,&amp;quot; recalls Rudman. &amp;quot;I like bright colors. My home has to be warm and cheerful, at least to me,&amp;quot; she says.  So Rudman asked friends to recommend a designer who could bring a new spirit to the house, to help her mark a new chapter in her life. A friend said there was only one pro she needed to talk to: Sam Cardella, the principal of the local firm Cardella Design. When the designer met Rudman at home, he proposed an experiment: She would leave the house for a few hours while Cardella and a colleague quickly rearranged rooms, to show her the sweeping changes they could make just by rethinking the furniture placement\u2014never mind colors and fabrics. &amp;quot;When I got home I said, &amp;#039;Oh, my God, you completely changed the look of the whole house. You&amp;#039;re a genius\u2014and you&amp;#039;re hired,&amp;#039; &amp;quot; Rudman reminisces. Cardella isn&amp;#039;t one to match the artwork to the sofa, but he drew inspiration for the lighter, brighter palette that would transform Rudman&amp;#039;s home from a piece of art already hanging in the dining area: a vibrant painting by Robert Kushner. &amp;quot;Those colors became my background palette: lilacs, soft greens, coral and raffia,&amp;quot; he says. The new chromatic scheme comes through in gestures big and small. There are large swaths of color in the entry foyer, where a wall finished in a bold Maya Romanoff covering, a Darren Waterston painting and a rich red-and-orange textured rug from the Chicago gallery Primitive make for a warm welcome. Coralhued Venetian plaster wallpaper casts an upbeat glow in Rudman&amp;#039;s bedroom. In the lofty living/dining room, the spectrum is somewhat more subtle. Here, jeweltoned shagreen-textured wallpaper echoes the greens of a hardedged Christian Liaigre sectional and a gently curving Andr\u00E9e Putman love seat. In that room, the biggest hits of color come from the Kushner canvas and another large, colorful painting by abstract expressionist Mary Abbott, a contemporary of Willem de Kooning. And the dining area features a wall of a Ralph Lauren Paint that is called Majolica. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s very refreshing to walk into that space now,&amp;quot; notes Cardella. &amp;quot;The colors are more on the feminine scale\u2014certainly a departure from the earth tones that were there before. And the new colors also work better with the light in the desert.&amp;quot;  In the spirit of turning over a new leaf, Rudman was ready to rid herself of all the furniture in the house. &amp;quot;She had a beautiful leather sofa that had almost never been sat in, but it had a very masculine feeling. She was just done with it,&amp;quot; says Cardella. &amp;quot;She was on her own and wanted to make the house her own.&amp;quot;  The designer convinced his client to keep a few choice pieces and reinvented them by reupholstering or refinishing them and finding new uses and locations. (Cardella was also able to sell some pieces to other clients\u2014a win-win situation.) A pair of Donghia raffia-covered armchairs (with newly reupholstered linen cushions) and a rug that once graced Rudman&amp;#039;s living room found new life in an eating and sitting area off the kitchen. In the kitchen, Cardella transformed a wall of cupboards used to store linen and china by replacing round stainless-steel drawer pulls with streamlined teardrop-shaped pulls. &amp;quot;Minor details, like drawer pulls, can make a huge difference,&amp;quot; says Cardella. He also added a dark frame of wenge wood around lighter cherry-veneer cupboards to suggest a polished, oversize armoire rather than run-of-the-mill kitchen cabinets\u2014or, worse, gym lockers. Rudman, newly remarried last December, is thrilled with her revamped ranch. &amp;quot;Home is where you refresh from the world. That&amp;#039;s why I like bright colors that convey a positive attitude,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I think it really captures Jackie&amp;#039;s personality,&amp;quot; says Cardella. &amp;quot;In the end, that&amp;#039;s the essence of design.&amp;quot;  What the Pros Know Venetian plaster, a centuries-old technique for creating luminous pigmented surfaces, is alive and well. But it&amp;#039;s time-consuming, laborious and not inexpensive, requiring hand-troweling multiple layers of lime-based plaster to a wall or other surface. An easier, quicker and cheaper alternative is Venetian plaster wallpaper. Brooklyn-based Asterisk Designs (AsteriskDesigns.com) and Studio E in Manhattan (available through WallLogic.com) both make low-maintenance, fireproof papers. Sam Cardella used several Studio E papers in Jackie Rudman&amp;#039;s renovated home. &amp;quot;They worked really well,&amp;quot; says Cardella, who opted for the plaster papers because of limited time. He worried that seams might be obvious, but reports that they virtually disappear. Installers put down a sub-layer before hanging the paper to ensure that no imperfections in the walls would show through. Studio E&amp;#039;s papers are environmentally friendly, created with water-based plaster applied by hand onto a thick paper substrate made of mostly recycled fibers. Click here to see the resources. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/color/a3899/just-add-color-a-55672/?src=shelter_footer>