Summertime

Labor Day - a day arbitrarily marked as the end of Summer. White pants? what about them? For San Francisco, it's the beginning of the Indian Summer, the warm big sister to those halcyon days to which we look forward all the year.

Balinese temple umbrella on my patio,
photo by Lynne Rutter, August 2008

Spring Forward

Today really feels like spring. Having the sun out all day, and light well past 7PM
just makes me want to paint my toenails pink.

signs of life

false spring in the garden...

















the crocuses are blooming!







seeing these little flowers pop up really cheered my week.

Chinoiserie in Red

The Chinoiserie Powder Room I designed for the 2002 San Francisco Decorator Showcase House - David Papas Photography

Here's one of my favorite historic decorating trends: Chinoiserie.
For a number of years now I've been known for painting a certain style of flowering trees Chinoiserie mural using my own spin on the look that was all the rage in late 17th and 18th century French décor.
I adore the wallcoverings of deGournay and Gracie, which are still being produced today in much the same way as the hand-painted wallpapers found in the Royal Pavillion at Brighton, or Lustschloss Hellbrunn, Salzburg. These papers are lush, labor intensive, delicate, and worth every dime they cost.

For this room mural, rather than paint densely covered wallpaper-style panels, I used a light hand, and a more naturalistic approach, to keep this intimate-scaled space airy and uncluttered. Carnelian Red walls help make the room look larger as well as rich and fabulous. And we included California natives such as poppies and monarch butterflies, alongside the lilies, pomegranates, and peonies.

some mentions for this room:
Kafka blog
sfgate

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Fall Color

Better late than never
my tree dahlia has finally bloomed! Along with the brugmansia, abutelon, and some of the masdevallias. This is what fall looks like in my garden----


yellow flowering brugmansia - night fragrant


dahlia imperialis