Mixing Paint Colors and Patterns

Denver designer Ramey Caulkins and her husband, Max, had been looking for a house with a sense of history, something that reminded them of the Buffalo home she grew up in. But when plans for a remodel of an older home fell through, they ended up in a brand-new house. Ramey wasted no time going to work to make the new house feel like her childhood home.

To capture the been-there-forever look, Ramey painted the house charcoal gray and the window frames high-gloss black. "The trim is not white and it's not ivory; it's a color that looks like whipped cream," says Ramey. The red door adds major zing. "It's how I direct people here: 'I'm halfway up the street, the house with the red door.'"

Pictures lined the stairs in Ramey's childhood home, so she wanted to re-create the look. "You don't have to measure everything out. Just hang things where you think they look good to you," she says.

On the stairs, Ramey added a hard-wearing wool runner with a geometric print in the same colors as the house's exterior. "How can anything not go with gray and white?" she says. To prove her point, she added green and color with a skirted console table that hides candles and other accessories beneath it.