Tackling the design challenges of a north-facing atrium with skylights, a high ceiling, lots of light, and brick walls

Atrium, ‘before.’ The haint blue didn’t quite work with the brick surface of the walls.

It was finally time to reimagine the atrium. The room had been a space to sit and relax with the family. But over the last couple of years, I’d been using it to store furniture and boxes as I renovated the rest of the house. Now, I was ready to tackle the room’s challenges. The atrium has lofty ceilings and skylights, and its large doors open to a patio on the north-facing side of the house.

For those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, sunlight that comes from the north has a few distinctive features: It’s indirect, so it tends to be diffuse and not concentrated. It’s consistent—light from the north stays fairly even all day. And, perhaps most important, it’s cool. Because northern light is diffuse, its color is more blue-tinted than direct light.

So the challenge, as I saw it, was to warm the room to balance the cool light from the north. I also wanted to find a color for the walls that suited a brick surface. The interior brick walls of the atrium had been painted in a shade of bright haint blue that we normally see on the underside of a porch roof. As I looked for a color to replace it, I realized the dilemma.

The uneven texture of the interior brick wall surface distorted the appearance of every color in the samples I tried. I would use a large vinyl stick-on color swatch from Samplize or Clare Paint and watch how the light affected the swatch color at different times of day. I’d think I had found just the right paint color. But when we tried the color with real paint on the real brick walls, the same color that looked lovely on the flat surface of the swatch looked dull and muddy on brick. I think the haint blue had been chosen as a last resort in the search for a color that wouldn’t look unsightly on the walls. Unfortunately, bright blue on brick walls didn’t make visual sense.

Atrium, ‘after.’ On Point by Clare Paint is a taupe that plays well with the rough appearance of the brick wall. And On Point has a touch of warmth that balances the cool light coming through the north-facing windows. I chose an eggshell finish. As for those wall sconces, I’ll find a way to cover them or replace them.

I experimented with one color after another and finally circled back to my old friend On Point by Clare Paint. I was curious to see how On Point handled a room with abundant light, so we painted a few square feet of the brick wall with the remnants of a can of On Point I had on hand. I noted in my book Design For Your Mind that On Point worked well in the guest bathroom near the foyer and in the larger bedroom in the guesthouse. Both of these rooms have low light, and in those rooms, On Point lent elegance and a touch of warmth. Now, in the north-facing and sunny atrium, I appreciated more of On Point’s attributes. The subtle creamy undertone of On Point balanced the cool northern light, and the color was earthy enough to be compatible with the texture of the brick walls. On Point made the walls look fresh, and it added depth. On Point had come through again.

Then as we prepared to paint the walls, we uncovered a surprise: A huge credenza that had stored clay planters and watering cans for indoor gardening stood against one of the brick walls. When we moved the credenza, we discovered a large frieze embedded in the wall. The frieze was a clue that the brick wall was an original exterior wall of the house and that the atrium had been added as an extension: The frieze in the atrium matches a frieze built into the wall surrounding the roundabout on the driveway. The features of both friezes are classic, and the frieze in the atrium is compatible with the refined tone of On Point. When it comes time to furnish the atrium, I don’t plan to block the frieze again.

Atrium, ‘before.’ This frieze, likely original to the century-old house, was hiding behind a large credenza in the atrium. The details of the frieze are classic and would work better with On Point than with the haint blue on the brick wall.

Atrium, ‘after.’ The warm taupe of On Point by Clare Paint complements the brick wall, and it does justice to the Classical elements of the frieze. For the trim, I chose an off-white color called Whipped by Clare Paint in semi-gloss. Whipped has a touch of warmth, but it doesn’t carry the heavy yellow undertones of the trim color it replaced.

Then a few days later, I spied two heavy steel garden statues that had been standing on the patio since my parents bought the house in the late 1990s. We brought the statues inside and cleaned them up with soap and water. They’re perfect additions to the atrium, where the brick walls, the porcelain tile floor, the extravagant light, and the frieze create a feeling that the outdoors has somehow wandered into the house. Why not play with that feeling and bring in other elements of the outdoors? Maybe I’ll hunt down a birdbath for the atrium and fill it with plants. Bringing the outside in has turned out to be another way to befriend the incongruity of brick walls inside this Modern Greek Revival house and to make those brick walls into an actual design asset.

Talk about finds. These heavy garden statues had been out on the patio for thirty years, as if waiting for their moment. The Classical style of the statues echoes the Classical style of the frieze on the opposite wall. The tryptic standing beside the statues is ready to hang. The piece is called Honeycomb by Albina Bratcheva (iCanvas.com).

STILL TO COME… Furnishing the atrium and bringing it all together