Friday Randomness

My personal style has changed drastically since I first began actively pursuing a career in interior design.  I've talked about how I'm completely over the whole "super contemporary" look and more recently, my love for transitional style (full of tapered legs and espresso wood) has waned. As I continued to explore various styles, vendors and the work of other designers my horizons broadened considerably. And thank god!  I now describe myself as being firmly in camp "Eclectic".

Which pretty much means, if I like it then it's my style.

These days I also find myself more willing to experiment with bold colors and utilizing multiple colors in a single room. For someone who had the model-home-mantra of "only three colors per house (and one of them was always chocolate, gray or black) drilled into her impressionable head for years, this is a big departure.  Albeit a very, very welcome one!

Pantone listing such a bold color as Tangerine Tango their color of 2012 has inspired me to create a bedroom design board that was big on saturated color. Now, I don't know if I myself could live with this much color in my master bedroom but it has made me wonder.

Also a big departure from my model home days is the mix of styles in this board.  You have a classic Draper chest, chinoiserie chandelier and a modern wing back chair all in one space. I love it this space and for me it works in part because the repetition of yellow and black helps unify the room. 

Everywhere I look, whether it's Pinterest or the dozens of design blogs I read each day, designers and decorators are fearlessly experimenting with color and combining styles in a way that feels (to me at least) so fresh and timeless.  Who knows, in 20 years we may look back on all of this crazy mixing and gag but I don't really think so.  While the overabundance of Ikat and Chevron might make us cringe a little, all in all I think the interiors we're seeing today will still be appreciated in the decades to come. 


On my plate this weekend is a small (I hope!) DIY project.  I'm going to try to rewire these vintage lamps and outfit them with new shades!  They're the first part of my guest room makeover which will get into full swing once the little brother moves out later this month.

Have a happy weekend!

Get Some Class with, Brass?

I'm writing today as a recently converted brass enthusiast.  If you had asked me a year ago would I ever use brass in my home or even a client's home, my answer would've been along the lines of "Oh hellllll no!".

Back then, the word brass brought up images of ugly, dated lighting fixtures and doilies.  Something along the lines of these truly frightening images:

So many heinous things going on in this dining room, the brass chandelier is hardly the worst of it.

So if you are still in the "anti-brass" camp, let me say that I get it.  I do.  Brass has been seriously misused in the past and has done its bit to earn a bad rep.  Just stick with me and let me do my best to bring you over to the brass-appreciation camp.

Today's brass, or even today's use of yesterday's brass is so much more glamorous and stylish than grandma's brass.  It works especially well in eclectic rooms that are a mix of design styles and periods.  And..."brass" doesn't necessarily have to equal "shiny" or "yellow".  Think of an aged or antique brass finish and the warmth and character those pieces bring to today's interiors.

 First up, lighting!

via Arteriors Home

What  a difference a clean, modern shape and a drum shade make!  These brass lamps and pendants are anything but dated or fussy.  That black shade combined with the brass hardware?  Super glam and definitely not your grandma's brass!

These brass etageres and shelves could easily go all "Dynasty" and "Designing Women" if not styled correctly.  But these examples show just how modern and relevant brass can be when done right.

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Seriously sexy, right? 

Now, if any of these shelves held a collection of Precious Moments figurines or containers filled with potpourri or dried flowers.....we'd be in trouble.  But these shelves are beautifully and simply styled, letting the brass feel clean and modern.

When it comes to the brass hardware that was standard on all the doors in our house, I can't wait to change those things out.  They're bad brass and they need to be dealt with.  That's not to say brass hardware can't be a very good thing.  Case in point:

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 The aged finish of the brass hardware against the blue desk is perfection.  A lot of people (me, a year ago included!) would have spray painted all that beautiful brass black or nickel.  We would have been oh so wrong because it's completely fantastic as-is.  There's definitely something to be said for appreciating the patina that can only come with age.

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I'm such a big fan of anything by Kate of "Centsational Girl" and this peacock blue chest with brass pulls is only one reason why.  Modern, feminine, perfection.  Love, love, love it!

A collection of more brass beauties to entice you over to the "Brass Side":

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That ain't your granny's brass bed!

Convinced yet? 

Well, to any holdouts still left out there, I'm about to rock your world. 

You ready?

Behold:

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Oh yes I did! 

Now, if that insanely amazing brass railing from the Tory Burch boutique on Madison Ave in NYC doesn't make an immediate and enthusiastic brass-lover outta you, I will have to accept defeat.  I'll also have to accept the fact that this means more brass for me! 

So tell me, have I made any converts out there?  Or, have you already found yourself recently appreciating the beauty of brass?

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:

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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!

 

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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.