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My quest: finding the perfect paint color

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By Sandra J. Hutchinson

This story originally appeared in The Chronicle’s 2016 Summer Home issue.

I’m a woman on a mission — to find the right paint color for my kitchen cabinets. They’ve been a rich, barn red for about 13 years now, and I’m ready to lighten them up.

This endeavor — nay, obsession — has me poring over color charts, paint strips, paint chips, pictures in magazines and books, and wooden boards that have been painted as samples showing what a particular color would look like on a raised panel door, in my kitchen.

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When your dream home is an old house

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By Sandra Hutchinson

A version of this essay was published in The Chronicle newspaper, on September 29, 2016.

My dream home is an old house.

I grew up primarily in New York’s northern Westchester County, in several different mid-20th century houses. My father died when I was 14, and two years later, after my mother remarried, she decided to buy a rambling historic house and nearly 200 acres upstate, in rural Montgomery County, near my grandparents’ farm, where she had been born and raised.

So she and my new stepfather and my 16-year-old self moved from Chappaqua, New York to an isolated 18th century home with six working fireplaces, drafty single pane windows, only an oil-fueled generator for electrical power, a big Dutch door, and ghosts. To say that the move necessitated some adjustment on my part would be a gross understatement.

schoharie-farm

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A peek inside the Caspari Design Store, Charlottesville, Va.

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By Sandra Hutchinson

Originally founded to import Christmas cards designed by European artists, Caspari, Inc. is known for its extensive line of beautiful, artful paper products. The range — paper plates, napkins, place cards, gift bags and wrapping paper, placemats, picture frames — are sold in fine stores worldwide. Caspari opened its first boutique in 2001 in Paris, and then in 2005, another in Charlottesville, Va., in the heart of the downtown shopping district.

It’s one of my favorite shopping destinations.

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Perfect for fall — deep orange and succulents.

Not only does the Charlottesville store carry the extensive line of Caspari paper products, but it is a treasure trove of beautiful decorative pieces for the home, such as dishes and glassware, pottery and garden-themed items (often British-made). And most wonderful of all is the way the items are displayed — in table settings and vignettes, always with floral arrangements (real and artificial), that offer a smorgasbord of ideas for creating tablescapes at home. Who knew paper plates and napkins could be so rich in color and design?

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