Designer Snapshot: In Living Color

By Paula M. Bodah

I was paging back through past issues of the magazine recently and noticed that every time I came to a space designed by Gerald Pomeroy, I stopped flipping and spent time just admiring. In a feature we ran a bit over a year ago about his work in a Beacon Hill townhome and in a piece about the restoration and redesign of the College Club of Boston, I was especially struck with Gerald’s use of color. He didn’t seem at all surprised when I mentioned that to him. “I’ve been told by muralist Susan Harter that I use color in my projects as an artist would, as opposed to an interior designer, and perhaps I do,†he told me. “For to me it’s a perfect tool to convey intimacy, drama or the unexpected.â€

Here, in his own words, the Boston designer explains how he used color to bring something extra-special to a few of his projects.

“In the Boston Design Center Dream House, which had the unexpected scale of the painted floor and the magnificent plum blossom hand-painted wall covering, I created drama by referencing the color of the plum blossom persimmon/coral. The first reference was the peonies on my table, which I was fortunate enough to find throughout the run of Dream House. The second was the wonderful piece of abstract art entitled Girls Dancing that hangs above the settee. It was my good fortune that their dresses were the perfect reference to the color in my wall covering.â€

Photo by Eric Roth

“At the College Club, where I was assigned the task of lead designer in the restoration and decoration, the parlor-level floor consists of three rooms. The two rooms featured in these photos are the center receiving room, if you will, and the study. Creating intimacy in the space of this scale and grandeur was daunting. Introducing Susan Harter’s mural referencing the history of the College Club made a great jumping-off point to introduce an array of colors ranging from cantaloupe to salmon to periwinkle and lastly, Saxon green. It also took a historical space and made it feel remarkable modern.â€

Photo by Eric Roth

“In the living room I designed for the Junior League of Boston’s show house, I used color to create the unexpected. In this case the wall color, Farrow & Ball Teresa’s Green, takes a beautiful transitional room to the next level by having the wall color stand on its own, surrounded by complementary colors rather than additional references to that color.â€

Photo by Eric Roth

“In a project I did for clients with a historic home in Powder Point, Duxbury, we decided early on to make a statement with the middle room–the dining room. The bold color of that splashy room then became a reference accent color throughout the more or less neutral palette of the rest of the house. This color is custom, and we call it ‘melon.’â€

Photo by Michael J. Lee