The other day I had a heavenly Caligula moment. I was indulging myself in anything and everything involving design. I went to the local bookstore and filled my arms with every imaginable publication – from designing southern style mansions to decorating tiny big city apartments. Flipping through the pages it’s easy for me to decide which ones are worth taking home. If even one picture deeply inspires me, I buy it. This time around I brought home only European design mags, among them, Elle Decor UK (who unfortunately doesn’t let you see the site without a subscription) and Home and Design. Compared to the American design mags, the rooms are much more eclectic and individual. They seem warmer and actually livable. Traits I have built my business on!
This leads me to my current train of thought on designing a successful space – defining who you are. This requires both in-depth philosophical and emotional analysis. When people come to me to help them redesign their homes, they often tell me what they were trying to achieve before I got there. They see a picture in a magazine, go to a nice hotel, or visit a friend, and they are inspired. They go about buying furniture and accessories they think will help them get that look. The problem is, they can’t recreate that look or feeling because neither is truly who they are.
Those of you that know me know that I am neither a minimalist nor do I love overstuffed, over accessorized spaces. I’m a clean and tidy girl who wants warmth and comfort in a kind of retro high style way. I am a restrained gypsy I guess. However, I can appreciate a luscious dose of Rococo style like what you’ll find in the Hotel de Varnegeville, in Paris:
But honestly, I don’t want to live in that type of space. However, I like aspects of Rococo style a lot, and I love to mix the swirly, curly, beauty of it with harsh, clean-lined furniture. Take for instance my Alice in Wonderland inspired mirror, it’s a 1960’s take on Rococo style. It was even gold before I painted it matte black:
I would put this mirror above a very straight lined desk, console or dresser. I would not mix femme with femme usually. To me, that’s just too much femme going on. It’s taken me all of my 41 years to know who I am design wise, but I did figure it out, and to my family’s dismay, it’s an ever-evolving style that finds me bringing in and taking out pieces of furniture week after week and never being “done.”
I recently consulted with an awesome woman on her single family residence. She felt a deep need to create a fresh new space for herself yet she believed that it meant forgoing what she truly loved design-wise. She felt she had outgrown her cottage style and wanted to move on to something more modern and “grown-up”. The ideas she had and the accessories she had already bought were fighting with the space she truly wanted. When I explained to her that she could love cottage style and still have a modern home, she seemed relieved to hear it. If you aren’t a glass and steel loft dweller, why try to be one? Modern cottage style can border on contemporary if you do it right:
There isn’t much that’s shabby chic about this room, but it is more traditional than a true contemporary style.
I find that nearly all of my clients are eclectics like myself. Undoubtedly that’s why they gravitate toward giving me the privilege of designing their rooms! I want people to live in homes that are lovingly curated. Whether over a course of months, by me, or throughout their own lives. I want rooms to have a dose of personality and class and most significantly, be about the people that live in them. This isn’t an easy task, as most people haven’t spent a great deal of time figuring out who they are stylistically. Sadly, many people are “mimics”. They walk into Pottery Barn, see a nice vignette, and purchase the whole deal. It’s like they transported a movie set into their own living room. To me it’s both sterile and depressing, no matter how cool the leather club chair and industrial light fixture might be. If a person bought a “room kit”, I can feel it – and so can everyone else.
So when you are considering what you want your home to feel and look like, sit down with a notepad and figure out how you like to feel when you walk in your door. Do you want to look at a piece of art that reminds you of a once in a lifetime vacation? Do you want to plop down on an extra plush sofa and nest? Do you want your friends to wander from space to space with endless interesting things to look at? Write it down. Collect pictures of things that inspire you and identify why. Choose colors that make you feel comforted, classy, proud, expressive, etc. All of these things together will begin to outline the story you want to create with your furnishings and accessories.
And of course, if all else fails, you know where to find me!
Happy analysis friends,
Melisa
