Finding Your Style: A Room to Love

This is part two of Step 1 in the five step series. 
5 Steps to Decorating Any Room: An Introduction. 
Step 1: Create a Vision. Part One: How to Translate Inspiration into Rooms You'll Love to Live In.


One of the very best ways to find your style is to collect and analyze rooms you love. Your gut knows what you like. Start there. A bit of thought, though,will help you take those gut feelings and translate them into a room you'll love because

knowing what you love means you'll love what you have.

I had a huge gut reaction when I saw this kitchen in the June issue of House Beautiful. Designed by Robert Stilin, this New York kitchen is a fabulous departure from all the white kitchens we usually see.

source

Isn't it stunning?

Lately, I've been feeling my style shift a little. Ever since I finished my dining room, I've noticed I've been drawn to more of an industrial, urban look--and here it is in kitchen form! So let's break it down, shall we?

Finding your style is as easy as looking at your favourite spaces and making a quick list of what you love. And then we'll dig just a little deeper.


What I love:

1. Those pillars! Cast iron.
Digging Deeper:
The material is so solid. Yet the shape, the columns are such a classic. They are showstoppers, for sure. Such drama.

2. Those lights!
Digging Deeper:
I love, love, love the cone shape. I love the scale...they are ridiculously huge. They add humour and playfulness to what could be a very serious space. (Imagine any of these in their place, for example. The whole vibe would be different.)

source

3. The lower wood cabinets and island.
Digging Deeper:
Wood is warm and inviting material. The cutouts for openings are simple and straightforward. Functional.

4. The stainless steel backsplash behind the range.
Digging Deeper:
Repeating the same material from the oven to the hood keeps the room simple and streamlined. Flanking it with fridges on either side creates a balanced colour blocked effect which is very soothing.

5. The backsplash tile.
Digging Deeper:
The glazed terra cotta tile has such a lovely sheen to it. It reminds me of Mother of Pearl. Again, another material to love.

6. Texture.
Digging Deeper:
This room is all about the controlled use of subdued shine. There's the dull shine of the frosted glass in the steel clad uppers, the counter top, the backsplash. Even the shiniest materials: the stainless steel and aluminum are not mirror bright. The matte floors, cabinets and cast iron just glow.

7. The light.
Digging Deeper:
This room is beautifully bright. I love the way the light reacts with all the different materials in this room: so much so that I begin to wonder if I'm on love with a kitchen --or a photograph! (The photographer is Joshua McHugh).

8. Colour--or, rather, did you notice? the lack of it.
Digging Deeper:
This kitchen relies entirely upon the natural colours inherent to the materials themselves for colour. Almost all of the colour in this photograph was introduced by the stylist with the food and flowers.

9. The French blue limestone counter top.
Digging Deeper:
Finally--here's some colour! Here's some pattern. But like everything else, the colour is found in the material itself. Still, I am happy it is blue and not white, or black or anything else.

10. I love the layout.
Digging Deeper:
Symmetry is very calming to me.

11. The stools.
Digging Deeper:
Simplicity itself. They remind me of school, somehow.

12. Contrast.
Digging Deeper:
Blue and orange are opposites--so the countertops are a deliberate but subtle contrast to the wood tones. The shiny silver of the stainless contrasts gently with the flat, matte of the cabinets and pillars.

To sum up: my love for this room exemplifies my love for texture, good, solid, unadorned materials, symmetry and contrast.

This is only one photograph, one room. Sometimes, that's enough. But it is generally best to have a large pile of photographs to do this exercise with. I hope to show you how that's done, soon. My daughter and I are collecting pictures for a makeover of her room. I'm hoping I can show you how we'll nail down her style, soon.

Do you like this room? Any aspect in particular? Let me know in the comments.

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Copy That: Navy Blue Sofas

I have been wanting to slipcover my couch since the very expensive upholstery job we had done about ten years ago started failing--about eight years ago.

Until recently, I'd always thought I'd just do white cotton. Tough to live with, perhaps, but easy enough to throw in the washing machine to clean. Or so I was told.

But I never quite believed it. If I had, I would not have procrastinated this project for years. First, by inclination, and now by necessity, I need a slipcover that can co-exist with convenience --and the dog.

Enter the navy sofa.

There is no doubt that velvet is da bomb. But it is hardly dog friendly. When I saw this room by Ralph Lauren in House Beautiful (Sept. 2014) with the sofa covered in indigo denim, I was sold.

design by Ralph Lauren in House Beautiful, September 2014, photography by William Abranowicz

of note: chiefly monochromatic with warm touches of cognac and pops of red

ratio of dark to light: 4::5. Medium to low contrast room.

I've been collecting images of rooms with lots of navy and dark blue. I want to see if I can figure out how light rooms and a dark sofa can happily co-exist.

 design by Lee Ann Thornton  source

of note: lots and lots of cognac, in the wood and the leather. Lots of pattern.

ratio of dark to light: 2::5 Mostly medium tones. The navy acts like punctuation. It is not the main event. Bold contrasting pattern livens up a fairly low contrast room.

design by Victoria Hagan source

of note: if not cognac, then a paler cousin, seagrass and other natural fibres are making an appearance.

ratio of dark to light: 1::5. Again, the dark is not the main event, though the coffee table is the darkest thing here. Light floor balances light walls. Medium toned sofas tip this into a low contrast room.

design by Orlando Soria and Emily Henderson source

of note: cognac and natural fibres. Sofa is the focal point. 

ratio of drk to light: 1::3. High contrast room.

 design by Victoria Hagan source

of note: a monochromatic room with unobtrusive touches of pink. 

Ratio of dark to light: 3::5. (Maybe 2::5? The floors, though covered by a rug, are dark.)

Very high contrast room. There is next to nothing in medium tones.

design by Nate Berkus. source

of note: colour scheme is navy, cream, grey and camel. (All the neutrals). Texture abounds.

ratio of dark to light: 1::5 Low contrast. (Lots of medium tones present.)

design by Klara Wesot(?) source

of note: the reds liven things up. Wall adds enviable texture.

ratio of dark to light: 2::5. High contrast.

design by Emily Henderson, source

of note: cognac! and red and white.

ratio of dark to light: 3::5? Lots of medium tones present. 

And I could not resist:

Rothko source

Ratio of dark to light: 3::1 

I think I prefer a high contrast room: though I do want to introduce some cognac in my upholstery--or in a natural fibre rug (though I'm not sure that's dog friendly?)  I love the pops of red. My ottoman/coffee table is darker than I would want it to be with a indigo or navy sofa. The left end-table is also too dark. 

My Mmmmmarvelous Mantel: or the Importance of Colour and Scale

Edie Wadsworth has thrown the gauntlet. The challenge? To decorate the mantle and have something to photograph by Friday. She laid out the rules:

“Something alive, something to lean, something you love, something with sheen.” 

I chose to accept. Since I removed 90% of my decor during Nester's tchotchke challenge last summer, I have been quite content with practically bare surfaces.

Yet, the urge to decorate has been slowly returning. So when I read Edie's post, I decided the time had come. I scoured Pinterest for guidance. I wanted something simple, yet dramatic--and something I could easily ditto with items I already had. This was the winner:

source

And this is how I interpreted it:

My first pass wasn't nearly so good, however.

What's the difference? An extra small painting, one more book (with a pink spine) and a switch of candlesticks. Bam! The whole composition sprung to life.

Let's break it down:

Something alive:

In both the inspiration image and my interpretation, the thing "alive" is huge. It is over-scaled to the space--and that adds focus and drama. The only thing I have that would do that are my beloved peacock feathers. I love flowers, too, but I haven't the time to pick them up, let alone arrange them. True story: my husband brought home a bunch of red carnations in early January --and they sat on my kitchen table for two days before someone plunked them in a vase with water still wrapped in cellophane. I still enjoyed them--but I haven't had any since.

Something to lean: 

Ok, so the mirror has been here in what feels like forever, but whenever I think about replacing it, I can't think of anything better. I did add a painting by a friend of my daughter's though. That introduced some much needed colour into the vignette.

Something you love:

Well, the books, of course. I concentrated on pulling books with blue, green and yellow spines. Once I'd added the painting, I also slipped a book with pink binding into the stack. I needed something to "speak" to the painting, to make it look like it belonged rather than placed randomly for effect (though it totally was). That brought the whole thing alive.

Something with sheen:

I started out with these candlesticks. But everything just looked too staid, too polite. Sometimes "sheen" is just not enough.

Sometimes you need sparkle.

So, I ran downstairs and replaced them with the coloured glass.

Ta da!

why yes, that is a pink volleyball in a green bowl there on the left

You cannot imagine how happy I am. I feel as though I am falling in love with my house again. I certainly wish I had more time to spend with it.