Rooms I Love No. 24 - 2023 Kips Bay Palm Beach Decorator Showhouse - Part II

 

This is Part II of the rooms I love from the 2023 Kips Bay Palm Beach Decorator Showhouse and yet again I'm head over heels. I have to admit I literally stared at this room like it was a tall drink of water on the hottest day of summer. If I had physically been in this space, they would have told me there is more to see and I would have replied, "I'm fine here."

Lucy Doswell Interiors' study is marvelous. Some of what grabs my heart is the borrowed Mid Century cocktail table and desk chair belonging to Lucy's grandmother. Talk about enduring well-designed pieces that can translate from room to room, for generations. 

From the wallpapered ceiling washed with gold and its jewel of a chandelier to the calming painted walls the jewel box is created. The selection of seating all gems in their own right paired with the best textiles and leather to give each one a bit of the limelight. 

I can't even with that velvet on the sofa with its button tufted seat cushion. Velvet is one of my favorite sofa fabrics. (My living room sofa is a chocolate brown velvet that I haven't tired of in the 20 years I've owned it. Invest in the best quality furnishings you can afford, and you will be rewarded with many years of enjoyable.)

The mix of fabrics in this room are delightful and the touch of turquoise leather on the desk chair is like a great pair of shoes that top off an outfit! The floral on the sweet slipper chair, topped off with the geometric trim at the hem is so darling. I'm a sucker for the wood occasional chair with its fresh awning stripe cushion. Standing ovation for using four different chair styles with four different textiles to cover them. 

The patterned carpet the ground that carries all the things is splendid. 

And hello lambrequin! What a great reintroduction of a fabulous window treatment fittingly adorning the window. If the room was a runway this would be the finale. 

The musts for a well-designed room, treasures! The burled keyed box on the desk, the bird feet candlesticks on the cocktail with the sassy turquoise tapers, the collection of mismatched art on the walls hung just so, the vessels holding foliage, floral and feather. Well done.

Be inspired!

Sources: Lucy Doswell Interiors, Veranda, Carmel Brantley Photography, Architectural Digest, Pinterest, Instagram

When It Could be a Don't No. 16 - Library Dining

 

Some of my favorite rooms are those spaces that provide a good spot to tuck into. Where our nirvana is filled to the brim. Paradise, heaven, tranquility. Planned spaces that define our sanctuary. Let's get back to designing our homes around that. Where tradition is bucked and self authenticity is at the forefront.

In this post I'm calling all my fellow bibliophile because I know you aren't the shy type and will fully understand our great love for books isn't something we hide. Don't confuse this for ignoring the delight of hiding away while we are swept into the lives of our next book's characters. I'm writing about the thrill we get when sharing our latest book with our fellow lovers of literature. So what better way to share than in a library dining room. 

Heightening the experience of book club is a planned library dining room. Where the best real characters in our real lives are gathered over good food to converse about books we have read and books we added to our collections. Books with our handwritten notes, dogeared pages, an autograph from the author. Books that express our journeys and how we found ourselves or lost ourselves.

I have talked in the past about our libraries being wherever our stack of books finds their home; by our favorite chair or on our bedside table. Then we run out of space for those stacks of books and we get creative and they find their home tucked under a bench or ottoman and perhaps even in a dining room's china/hutch - the dishes moved aside to make room for one of the very definitions of ourselves - the books we read.

And then my mind goes to the joy of experiencing a book-themed dinner in the library dining room or the book author's favorite drink or cigar. Creating the feeling that the author is actually in our company, dining with us at our table in our library. Can you imagine dining with Herman Melville or Frances Mayes or Ernest Hemingway? What if Henry David Thoreau or Mark Twain or Bonnie Garmus or Brene Brown were invited to your next dinner party?

As in any design plan, what you surround yourself with becomes an element to your happiness in your home. Your retreat, port in a storm, shelter. If you are a lover of books plan that library dining room, it is both your escape and capture. Escaping from contentment to be captured by intrigue.

Don't get stuck on the formality that the design of a library can conjure up. Just like any other space in your home, the library dining room should reflect you. Just like the books on the shelves in this space.

The library dining room is a hideaway where some of your most valued treasures reside. Yet it is also a necessary functional space as well. Approaching a multi-functional space design plan can be a challenge, but a fun one. It is important to consider all the elements you need in this space just as if they were two separate rooms and then formulate a plan that marries those elements together well.

Just as I encourage the use of our formal dining areas to not be limited to special holidays, I would encourage a library dining room to not just be used for book club. We need to design our spaces so that every space welcomes a cup of coffee to start our day or a glass of wine to collect our thoughts at the end of our day. There are no reserved tables.

Be inspired!

Sources: Architectural Digest, 1st Dibs, Tumblr, Art of Doing Stuff, Vogue, The Nordroom, Markova Design, Laurel Bern Interiors, View Along The Way, Pinterest, Est Living

Be Inspired No. 11 - Leather Walls

Sometimes when we are designing a space the walls are left to a simple paint choice. Emphasis is put on the space plan and then the fabrics, textures, finishes, and color of the furnishings. These are definitely important elements of a well-designed space. And the wall color plays a part in bringing it all together. However, I believe that texture is also a priority for the walls.

Be inspired to think textile for the wall, namely leather or a great faux leather.

Leather walls are clever, seductive, and embracing. Be inspired to explore this option for your room design. Just be careful with the selection - make it timeless. Be careful with the color - make it classic. Be careful with the amount of wall - make it a great partnership between leather and wood mouldings or function in place of wood. 

The leather wall takes precise planning. There is pattern match, panel size and layout that are all factors in a leather wall design. Use a top quality leather or faux leather and a top notch installer. This is an investment just like the rest of the furnishings in your room make a wise one. Leather walls are not a trendy temporary addition to a room design. Plan carefully.

Now you have all the warnings and recommended precautions and you've made the decision to go for it! Now have fun with it. Pull all the swatches and finishes for the space and select a great leather or faux leather, draw out the pattern and placement and consider adding nailhead to your plan.

Let your walls speak, like leather bound books, let them tell a story.

Speaking of walls, be inspired.

Sources: Spinneybeck, David Linley, Jarvis Studio, Embassy Row Hotel-Washington, DC, Plumetis Magazine

Rethinking the Look of Things No. 65 - Tattoos

If my kids saw my browser search history lately they might get a bit worried about Mom because the word "tattoo" would show up in excess. Ever since I came across the Dan Gold tattooed leather chair (see my blogpost "Gotta Love No. 56 - Skulls & Tattoos") I've been distracted by the idea of tattooed leather home decor. Just how could this be tastefully integrated into high end design? Well, hello my fellow idealists! 

Meet P. Tendercool, a bespoke handmade furniture company that tattooed the leatherback of one of their side chairs with inked serpentes. Go ahead and stare, I know I did. Then I thought let's take that idea and transform some so-so leather toss pillows with some ink. A leather round bolster is the perfect canvas for the art of a tattooist. 

Meet Oliver Sweeney, a tattooist who takes the canvas of British men's shoemakers and tells a story in tattoo art on the leather finery. What more perfect shoe for the groom than a pair that boosts a tattoo that says "My most brilliant achievement was my ability to persuade my wife to marry me". Love the shoe. Translation to our home - forget the black and white typographic wall hanging - put this bit of sweetness on a tattooed leather kidney pillow and add it to the favorite chair.

And Oliver Sweeney's custom Ben & Jerry's tattooed flavor list? Totally need tattooed on a leather barstool in the kitchen. Then how about your favorite drink recipes tattooed on the inside backs of leather barstools at your home bar? Yes!

Just how far will one go? I mean one either has no tattoos but stares in wonder at them. (Ahem, that's me!) Or one dips their toes in the tattoo pool and gets a small one tucked in a secret spot. Or there are the ones that jump full body into the art of tattoo. In home design - let's keep it a toe dipper version. Tattoo art in home design - less is more in this blogger's opinion.

Meet Article.com who handed over a leather ottoman to their local tattooist and received back a convo piece for the home. 

The stunning art of embossed leather has been an element in home design - let's shift and rethink the look of things and consider tattooed leather elements in our home.

Once you start rethinking the look of things - in this case tattoos in home design - it blows your mind. Ponder, delight in the possibilities, and then reign it all in and choose wisely. 

Sources: P. Tendercool, Article.com, Oliver Sweeney, Gessato, Red Bubble, Neiman Marcus, Etsy, The Fuller View

Rethinking the Look of Things No. 64 - Redefining the Easel

The easel, a word derived from the German language, is defined as a self supporting wooden frame for holding an artist's work. I'd like to redefine the easel as anything that supports art in our home. So it could be an actual easel or let's rethink it.

I love the use of a furniture piece as an redefined easel. This furniture piece can be one that the actual art is propped onto or; how about sitting beneath it,  supporting the art without even touching it? 

A bookshelf that supports the art piece inside or outside its shelving is brilliant! There is something about art being displayed in a manner other than just hanging it on the wall because it brings all the colors of the room together. Reconsider that art piece truly being unique by rethinking where it is placed. Think actual easel or think the definition of easel and find a supporting piece that holds the artist's work.

Interestingly, the word easel is a synonym for donkey. The beast of burden. Like a fine wine pairing, the art and its "easel" must be carefully thought out. Just as the artist studies his blank canvas on the easel so must the art owner study the perfect perch. Is it a settee? Is it a console table? Is it a chair? The supporting "frame" that hold the art has a burden to partner, but not steal the show.

Whatever you choose to support your art piece it almost becomes the period at the end of the sentence of meaning of the art. Or the exclamation point! The supporting role piece provides the quiet completion of the art.  

When one chooses to prop a art piece it provides for an interchanging of favorite art pieces of the same size. Allowing one to enjoy a "new" art piece up close and set apart for a time and then another holds its spot to start the process all over again.

How will you rethink the easel for your art piece? Be inspired!

Sources: Home Bunch, Remodelista, Room for Tuesday, Rustic Chic, Vicente Wolf, Veranda, Tumblr, Apartment Therapy, Domino, House Beautiful, Pinterest, Etsy