Tuesday, October 25, 2011

My Style Evolution

I've been thinking lately about how my personal design preferences have changed over the years. It's interesting to compare what I loved when I first started out to what I adore now. Back in my design school days, it was all about ultramodern, sleek and contemporary, contemporary, contemporary.  To me, the Barcelona Chair was epitome of good design.  I still think it's a pretty gorgeous chair:

via
All I wanted to do when I got out of school was work in commercial or hospitality design, where I wouldn't have to deal with what I thought were the "bored housewives, spending their husbands money on frou-frou accent pillows, swags and jabots".  I thought all fabrics were dowdy, muddy, dated and frumpy and had no idea what was really out there.  Yes, I am wildly embarrassed to admit that was my incredibly uninformed impression of residential interior design.  Was my impression. Was.
 
Luckily, I landed an internship with a design firm that specialized in model home design that turned that opinion on its head!  There, I gained exposure to furniture and fabrics, gorgeous fabrics, that I had no idea existed.  Suddenly, I looooved fabric!  I was still all about contemporary design but slowly, my style began to evolve. I began to appreciate a little softness to all those hard edges and the warmth of wood tones instead of chrome and stainless steel. I became confident that "Transitional" was the aesthetic I would love for ages. Tapered legs, espresso wood and track armed sofas please!
 
via
You know how once you fall in love with something, you start to notice it everywhere? Well, that's what happened to me and Transitional.  Overexposure.  We just saw way too much of each other that it stopped being special.  I started to crave variety.  Enter: Eclecticism.

Brass etagere from the 70's mixed with rustic, wood tables and mid-century, tufted back sofas?  You can do that?  That's not against the rules?

via Emily Henderson
Oh yes, you can do that.  You can also do this:

via Emily Henderson
And even this:

via Palmer Weiss
But, but - you're mixing wood tones and different eras and.....Hey!  Where is the "Lead Fabric"??  You know, the one fabric that has EVERY color in the room in it? The one that you HAVE TO HAVE in order to tie the entire color scheme together!! This is chaos! Anarchy! The design gods are NOT pleased.

Thanks to Jonathan Adler, Kelly Wearstler and (lately) Emily Henderson (thanks HGTV for putting someone like her on TV - she is seriously amazing!) my aesthetic has expanded by leaps and bounds.  My appreciation for an eclectic mix of new and old, high and low price tags, mass produced pieces with thrift-store rescues, has become an obsession.  
 
I can't get enough of interiors like these:
via Palmer Weiss

via Kelly Wearstler

via Kelly Wearstler

via Palmer Weiss
Now, how much more interesting and dynamic are these interiors compared to the transitional one at the top of the post?  So much more!
 
What I've learned since my design school days (aside from the wake up call about what residential design is REALLY about!) is that you go to school to learn the rules so that you understand exactly how to break them.  
 
When it comes to designing someone's home, there are no rules - aside from make the client happy, treat them right and spend their money wisely.  Being original is much more challenging (and fulfilling!) than following a formula of what someone tells you is the "right way" to design.  
 
If you would like some help creating a fabulously eclectic and completely original home, email me!  I am currently accepting new clients and would love to help you with your space.

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