The is no place like home....

I have a passion for travel. I love experienceing new cultures, people and especially food! But I think one of the most significant attractions to traveling is the ability to come home. As exciting as it is to be absorbed with the high gloss, flashy streets of city life or the slow pace of a country fruit farm in the early stages of fall, neither have the familiarity of home. Creating a space that reflects your personality and interest can take time, but it is an appreciation for the process and the unexpected 'finds' that seperate your home from anothers.

In my latest preliminary 'internet' search for vacation hot spots, I came across  Asia de Cuba which is a boutique hotel in LA and South Beach, FL. During a typical day in my life, you can find me stressing to friends, clients, myself the importance of scale and proportion in a home. This hotel has thrown these design principles out the window and said, 'Hey look at us!'. There is an almost Alice and Wonderland feel to the space with the excentuated scale. With high gloss, columns triple the normal size and 30' entry doors it evokes a classy, unique travel experience. I give them credit on thinking outside the box and branching out, but like I said earlier....There's no place like home.

                                               
                             
                                                             Mondrian Hotel

PERSONALITY

Do you give your home or office permission to express some personality/convey a mood or feeling? Why are some people afraid of commitment to a pattern? Why did my gigantic tomato plants produce only one little fruit this summer? What should my Halloween costume be this year? These are the questions I ask myself as I work to create the "wow" spaces I design for people who ask for my advice. It's always the same...I tell them to just be themselves at their very best, to be open to new interpretations of their style, and to commit to what they love. Don't copy, incorporate.

Be unique and be bold. Be open to the happy accident- it's like cooking (and very unlike baking which requires a strict discipline to quantities and proportion.) Otherwise, you take all the joy out of the project. Do you have a favorite color? I do (clear!). There are no bad colors, only sad combinations or "bad dates".

The Power of Light

           
Lighting can greatly enhance a space. Considering everyone from a veterinarian to an archaeologist thinks they are also a designer, why am I so frequently asked, 'How far above a dining table should my chandelier be?', 'Is it ok to hang a chandelier somewhere other than a dining room?', 'How big is to big for pendant fixtures and what height off the countertop should they be placed?'

These are all great questions, but knowing the answers to these questions is part of my skill set and talent as a designer. My first recommendation is to work with a designer and allow them to work their magic on the best scale, proportion and style. The alternative, is if you are taking the time to read this blog, then I am going to share a few helpful hints.

1. When placing a chandelier over a dining room table, place 30" above the table for a room that has 8' ceiling heights. For every additional foot of ceiling, raise 3".

2. When determining the size of the chandelier, add the width and length of the room and translate the feet into inches. Ex. 14' + 12' = 26' which makes for a 26" chandelier. Another way is to divide the table width in half to come up with the size of the chandelier.

3. For a bar top, the bottom of the pendant should be 36" from the surface. This allows people to comfortably stand at the bar and not have fixtures in their way.

With the popularity of mixing styles, the most important rule of thumb is SCALE AND PROPORTION. If the fixture is really heavy then you will want it to be smaller than the fixed rule of half the table width. When working with a daintier fixture you can get away with it being larger.

Remember, chandeliers not only look great in dining room, but also make a great visual surprise in other rooms of your home. 

    

Veneer

Why veneer? People often ask me whether or not a piece of furniture is solid wood or veneer, as if the word veneer is a mark of inferiority. If shopping for furniture, you may have been told (incorrectly) that solid wood is always better than veneer. Most people who have never attempted to make a piece of furniture (yes, I have and wow was it clunky!) do not realize that the art of veneering as a technique has been in existence for a very long time- it goes back to ancient Egypt.

The purpose of veneer is twofold- 1. to bring definition to a casegood through the use of a particular graining pattern or patterns known for their beauty 2. to prevent the warping and splitting which sometimes occurs with solid wood when it expands and contracts from changes in humidity. (try googling solid wood vs. veneers- furniture.com). When veneering is done right, and the materials are properly cured, there is no peeling, splitting or curling of the veneer from the frame. It's an art, a craft which requires a great deal of skill. The craftsperson has a deliberate choice to make when it comes to pattern matching a veneer- book matching, end matching, four-way matching or slip matching. In much the same way an accomplished seamstress or tailor will consider pattern, scale and repeat when creating a pattern for upholstery or clothing, the most accomplished furniture cabinetmaker will consider which graining pattern complements the overall shape and silhouette of the piece best.

It comes down to this- when shopping for furniture, purchase the best you can afford. There's a reason why good quality veneered pieces are found in antiques shops (Hepplewhite and Chippendale) and junk is found at... well, junk shops & yard sales. Don't ask the question for the sake of asking the question- Is your furniture solid wood or veneer. Hello! You have to want to understand the answer. (p.s. This photo is taken from Southern Living Magazine- an antique "chiffonier" or chest of drawers).

Bringing the sparkle back

                                     


One of my favorite things about renovations is that everything is new and sparkles. When looking thru decor magazine, you don't see the layer of dust that accumulates so quickly. It is like interest on a credit card....if you don't keep up with it it just appears, to only cause trouble. Now we all know that we can't go out and buy new furnishings for each room whenever it gets dirty.

With the lower temps and windows being open, I determined to conquer the dust and make my place feel like new again! So instead of paying for 6 new venetian blinds, I put on my fancy gloves, took each down, placed them in my claw foot tub and start scrubbing. An hour later, with a little elbow and wrist action, I have regained the sparkle in my entire home. I can hear my married girlfriends right now shaking there heads and saying, "Only you would find the time to do this". But it is a great way to save money and remember, I am just following the steps of the great women before me. (It helps that I have a small place)

A new room is only a pair of fancy gloves and some elbow grease away!

                                                      

Another Word for Eggplant

By the way, another word for eggplant is..... PLUM!

Outfit to Eggplant

I could talk about all things windows for my first post, but I do that all day long. Instead, I want to show you this outfit. I would have fun wearing this outfit while talking to you about window treatments. Isn’t this combination fantastic? Eggplant with a splash of tomato, the flouncy ruffle, classic cut trouser in a modern fabric and the hair finishes off the look.

Just like the red flower or the chignon hair twist, dressed windows are one of the most important finishing touches to complete the look of a room. But more about that later, now is about the colors, textures, and patterns that are inspiring to me today.

Though, I can’t go long without gravitating to images of rooms. All shades of purple are my favorite right now. The purples here are great, but the Chinoiserie paper is a wonderful backdrop - love the color combo.

See the wall? A lovely shade of eggplant - deep, deep, deep. It harmonizes well with the gold upholstery.

My screen says this is the gray mauve I’m currently in love with and want to make my bedroom. And I get the orange but…. No, not in my space and not with my mauve gray.

Eggplants

Yes, these are eggplants, too. Someone (not me) actually thought of this, made them, photographed them, and posted them. Wow!