Global Warming

Living area by Molly Luetkemeyer of M. Design Interiors

Don't you just love a home that has that far-away flair? There is something so energizing about interiors that can create a fantasy, making you feel like you are a world away from everyday life.

Molly Luetkemeyer does just that in the living room above with a carefully selected mixture of modern, traditional, and exotic furniture and accessories. I love that rug and the fabrics on the sofa pillows!

Bedroom by Greek designer Tetty Stefanou

From the suzani on the wall to the antique curtain fragments that make up the bed cover, this room's design is sure to carry you away to distant lands. (It's location in the Greek isles doesn't hurt either!)


Bedroom by Peter Dunham

Designer Peter Dunham has been a world traveler since he was a child, and his sense of the exotic is certainly reflected in his interiors and fabric collections.

Bedroom by Kemble Interiors

How great are these vintage suitcases? The pairing of chocolate brown and blue is quite classic, but the pattern of the fabric and texture of the wall gives the room a more modern allure.

Jacques Grange gets playful in his own home, displaying a wild assortment of art and objects.

Could you work a feathered headdress into your interiors?


Bedroom by John Robshaw

I originally came across the bedroom above when I was looking for inspiration for a friend's bedroom, but I fell in love with the room's combination of patterns and wall color (and green is not something I would normally gravitate to). Travelling to places such as China, India, and Thailand, Robshaw has perfected the art of creating exotic, block-printed textiles.

Bedroom by Lisa Fine

Here is a bedroom by yet another textile designer, Lisa Fine. Aren't those green bed posts intriguing?

Vignette by Schuyler Samperton

Love the bone-inlaid chest, love the blue and white vases, and love the fiddle-leaf fig tree peeking in the side of the photo!

Living area by Sara Gilbane Interiors

I think this last room of the day perfectly illustrates what exotic accents in interior design can achieve in a room: interest and warmth. Combining a rich wall color, an unexpected light fixture, a zebra rug, and some striking textiles gives this room a cozy, yet worldly look, and creates quite the romantic reverie!

Style Definition

William Yeoward's most recent book

William Yeoward is quite the creative personality. He has collections of china and crystal, lighting and linens, even furniture. He is British through and through (and was even granted a Royal Warrant of Appointment as a supplier of glassware to HRH the Prince of Wales), but he is not the least bit stuffy or pompous. His homes showcase his playful demeanor and joie de vivre, as well as his love of nature and graciousness to his guests.

Margot cushion on chair covered in Louisette Damson fabric

Yeoward's collection of fabric for the exuberant Designers Guild firm (helmed by Yeoward's colorful - but kindred - spirit, Tricia Guild) showcases his style: velvets and linens mingle to create patterns bursting with personality.

Collection of cushions from William Yeoward's line with Designers Guild

I've been flipping through my copy of his wonderful book, William Yeoward at Home: Elegant Living in Town and Country this morning (which displays much of his fabulous fabric collection), and I realized how much I identify with his style. I think he is bit more daring than me (and, perhaps, a bit more modern), but his love of playful, comfortable, and colorful interiors certainly hits close to home.

One thing that Mr. Yeoward does not shy away from is the mixing of patterns. Here I have brought together my own random assortment of pillows (some old, some new) on my newly inherited settee (casually covered in a blush-pink slipcover/sheet).

The lamp is antique (a lovely hand-me-down from my mother), the vase is actually an old jug from my family's milk business, Turner Dairy (which was sold and renamed in the early 20th century), the aqua shell dishes are by Bamboushay Pottery in the BVI, and the picture is one I took in Portofino, Italy, just a few days after my 21st birthday.

I have turned my dining table into a library table, of sorts, covered with a vintage barkcloth drapery (in a fabulously colorful ostrich-feather pattern), some design books (Michael S. Smith's Houses, Elle Decor's Style and Substance, and a vintage English interiors book I found at a discount store recently), and my lovely tulipiere.

Connected to my living room is a small, bright, breakfast room where I house my dining chairs and a small table for quick meals. Both tablecloths are vintage: the pink one is from the home where I grew up whereas the blue-green one was found in an antique shop in my hometown. The pillows are custom, the prints are also from my childhood home, and the plates on the wall are vintage Franciscan.


My living room couch with custom pillow and Sferra throw


I can only aspire to have the creativity that is so brilliantly illustrated in Mr. Yeoward's homes and creations, but I am thankful to have them as inspiration all the same. 


William Yeoward "Gosford" Dinner Plate


This plate, alone, epitomizes the whole color scheme for my living room: blue, purple, green, and orange surrounded by gilded accents. Perfection!

Here's to those who inspire us!

Have a lovely weekend!

Thrill of the Hunt

Living room design by Miles Redd and Gil Schafer

I'm sure many of you out there have experienced this: you see a picture of a beautiful room in which you find that perfect fabric that you've been searching for. But only then does the adventure begin. Who makes the fabric? What is it called? Where can I find it? You will search for hours on the computer, hunting determinedly to find that gorgeous material.

Both my mother and I are experiencing just such a labor of love, hunting for a Cowtan & Tout cotton (upholstering the tufted chair shown in both pictures above) and a Kravet silk, respectively.

My mother's living room is not unlike this one so cleverly assembled by the spirited Mr. Redd. It is grounded with a similar, massive oriental rug, punctuated and structured with warm antiques, and doused in natural light from a broad wall of windows. The chair fabric, enigmatically called "Rupert Cord Cotton" (where they find these names I do not know), would be a natural fit in such a room.

Design by Alex Papachristidis featured in Elle Decor

This is where I first saw my elusive fabric: in the latest Elle Decor. (Please excuse the terrible quality of the photo above.) The interiors Papachristidis created for this space are intriguing, glamorous, and even a bit sensual. My own bedroom may only aspire to be these things, but I cannot help but feel that this fabric would bring my room far closer to that ideal than any other could.

This photo shows one side of my little bedroom. Would the warm browns and exotic ikat on that Kravet silk not be a perfect complement to my happy little collections? (By the way, the walls are painted with quarter formula Cliffside Gray by Benjamin Moore, the lamp is antique, the tiny painting is by my father, and the bust was a recent hand-me-down from my mother. You may recognize the other objects from a previous post of mine....)


Kravet "Passage" silk/wool in Stone 


I believe this is the color Papachristidis used in the London apartment above, although his version is admittedly more extravagant due to the hand-beading and embroidery he added in order to make them "sing".

Bedroom by Garrow Kedigian

Another designer with similar style (who is also a favorite of mine), Garrow Kedigian, used this same fabric in a different colorway to frame the huge iron casement windows in a Manhattan bedroom, which was featured in the latest House Beautiful.


Kravet "Passage"silk/wool in Bluestone 

I love how this fabric provides the only cool tones in this warm and rather neutral room. The combinations of patterns and textures, however, are anything but boring: the furry blanket, the lattice-like print on the rug, the striae composition on the armchairs, the gilded paper panels on the wall. Ahh, to wake up in such a place!

Many discoveries-cum-searches like this are, inevitably, in my future, but isn't the hunt all part of the fun!




Pattern at play

Design by the fabulous Hal Williamson

I may experiment with color, but, for some reason, piling on the pattern has always intimidated me, whether in fashion or interior design. It is a shame because, as these designers show, that layered look creates warm, engaging, and, often, dramatic rooms.

Design by Omniarte

Whether using a bold pattern like the wallpaper above, or a combination of prints, the effect is really dynamic and interesting.

The pic above is from decorator Milly de Cabrol's New York apartment as covered in New York Social Diary. I love how she piles on the printed fabrics (and books and art!) in this room, draping the table and settee in hand-blocked prints, giving the room a really cozy feel.


Bedroom by Katie Ridder


I love the subtle patterns Ridder uses above. Isn't that headboard just lovely? The room feels so airy, but textural too.


Den by Raymond Boozer from Apartment 48

I am a huge fan of a chevron pattern. Doing the couch in tone-on-tone greens keeps it from being too bold, while still mimicking the pattern in the rug.

Dining room by Schuyler Samperton

Schuyler Samperton combines traditional and trendy patterns here perfectly, using an ikat on the dining chairs over a gorgeous oriental rug. (Check out the beautiful wall panel in the background!)

I really can't get enough of Phoebe Howard's designs! She is so talented! The vignette above is so well-composed: the splash of color, the textural tortoise shells, the mirror, the avian prints. Look closely and you will see that the wallpaper has the most subtle pattern on it, giving even the walls a woven effect.

Our last two photos of the day come from designer Stephen Sills.

Now this is the way to bring energy to a room by using pattern! Love the rug, love the throw on the back of the couch, love the stripes on the ottoman. (And I totally love that leather chair!) This room is warm and comfortable, but artful and stimulating as well.

Another space by Sills is featured in this month's Architectural Digest (which is newly helmed by ex-Elle Decor editor Margaret Russell) and the interiors are so amazing, you must go get a copy immediately! It looks like Russell is really going to up the ante and makeover AD in the best possible way. I can't wait to see what's next!

Here is a taste of Sills fabulous AD-featured design.....

Heaven!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!