Blair Delli Santi’s family was excited to move into their new house last summer. The nearly 120-year-old home was filled with character and thoughtful updates from the previous owner, but Delli Santi wanted something to pop.
Her solution: A Fine Paints of Europe front room just for her.
“I call it ‘Mom’s blue room,’” she says. “It’s my room away from the chaos.”
The chaos includes two – soon to be three – children, plus her husband. Delli Santi had hired the H.J. Holtz & Son team for wallpaper installation in the family’s prior residence. But in this space, Delli Santi’s aim was to go for full dramatic effect.
“I wanted to put my own decorative stamp on the space,” she says. “Because I’d worked with them before, I trusted them implicitly.”
When it came to color selection, Delli Santi worked with the H.J. Holtz & Son team – the only certified Fine Paints of Europe painter in the Commonwealth of Virginia – to find just the right color. “I knew I wanted a gray blue, and they helped me narrow it down,” she says. The final selection? Farrow & Ball’s Parma Gray, a cool blue with a distinctive chalky finish.
Installation was less complicated than for some other projects, because the Holtz painting team was able to work before the family moved in. Fine Paints of Europe application requires a carefully contained and controlled atmosphere, as the high-gloss coating will attract and show airborne particles, such as dust. For this project, the team created an enclosed area that extended from the front of the house, where the room is, down the hallway and out the back door. “It was tricky, but we didn’t have to live with it,” Delli Santi notes.
Now that she’s had a chance to live with the room for a while, Delli Santi wouldn’t change a thing. “It’s always daunting to feel confident with your choices,” she says. “I love working with H.J. Holtz & Sons because they’re so professional, so easy to communicate with. Their attention to detail and craftsmanship is unparalleled in Richmond.”
