Throughout the house, Howard uses paint finishes to enhance the house’s best features and to compensate for its limitations. In the entry hall, she enlisted Andrew Bruckman, a decorative painter from Little Rock, Arkansas, to put a classically geometric pattern on the walnut floors. A leopard print runner climbing the stairs provides a clever counterpoint to the traditional design, reinforced by zebra print trim on the window treatments. In the living room, Howard gave the ceiling a high-gloss finish of pale green to lend the illusion of greater height. She also chose white walls and light furnishings to capitalize on available light. “It’s a room with no windows,” she says, “surrounded by a gallery on one side and a sunporch on the other, so we had to maximize indirect light.” A tone-on-tone cream wallpaper keeps the room bright, “but adds subtle dimension,” notes Howard. A pale, graphic rug amplifies the sense of being surrounded by light.
