Thought for the Day...

Neither good taste nor wealth... can transform a house into a home, for a home does not consist of the quality of its architecture or decor, but in the quality of the lives that it expresses. 

                                                                                                              Philippa Tristam, Living Space 

My girls, at 2, on the back stoop of our old house. (Please do not re-print this photo.)

I try to keep this in mind every day.  I'll admit I'm a bit obsessive about what I can do next with my home, what color I can change, how I can use a fabric that I just spotted for a steal...There was a time, when my girls were toddlers, (now teens) that my husband never new what colors he would come home to when he left for work (my man -- a pillar of patience!, and for those who know me -- I hear you laughing at and agreeing with these truths!). Being a passionate decorator, a freak for fabric and color, is often a lonely road to travel -- not everyone gets it!   But, at the end of the day, it is what love there is within the walls, not what's on them, in front of them, or how much they cost,  that makes all the difference.

I hope your beautiful house is indeed a warm and memory-making home!

Talk to you soon,

Carol

Clutter and Accessories Are Not the Same Thing

There are those of us who love "stuff" (accessories) in a room, and those who can't stand clutter.  But clutter and accessories are two very different things.  Clutter messes things up, detracts from the loveliness of a space, needs to be cleaned out (or thrown out!).  Accessories enhance a room's furnishings, lend personality, interest and even intrigue.

I came across the book cover below in my research for this post, and laughed out loud.  Ok, women out there, I think we all have to admit that this is funny...

In my mind, clutter comes in two forms -- visual and material.  Material clutter is just too much in a space, be it furniture, collections, kids toys, even stacks of bills (guilty of that!).   Most of us battle material clutter all the time.  But visual clutter, that's an entirely different beast, but it can be just as irritating.

Visual clutter is when there is just too much going on at once in a space -- your eye can't rest anywhere, and it can make you physically uncomfortable.  The picture below is an example.  The clients told me they wanted to redo the room because it wasn't relaxing.  They knew how they felt about being in the room, but they didn't know why or how to fix it.  This is visual clutter:

 The greatest offender is the window treatment.  Why?  The dark red against the pale wall is too high contrast, and, enough already with the too-short,  inverted roller coaster!  What you can't see from this photo, unfortunately, is that the wall on the left had a different ceiling height, a tall mantle, and built-in bookcases on one side of the fireplace that were yet another height.  When you were in the room, your mind could not focus, for all the distraction in horizontal lines.

I hesitated to show the in-progress after picture (because the photo quality is so poor, you cannot see all the detail in the fabrics, which look like they don't work together, and the client insisted on matching frames, which I did not suggest).  The drapery panels have a gorgeous tone-on-tone bamboo pattern, and the Asian-inspired benches in the back have the same blue-green as is in the sofa (no thanks to the flash), the rug, and the invisible (!) dot pattern on the chairs.  The sofa also got a big down pillow upholstered in a red chinoisere pattern with golds and blue-greens in it. To help with all the differing horizontal lines,  I had the window treatments hung at the same height as the bookcases across the room.

I hope you can see how the visual chaos/clutter is now disappearing...

On to accessories.  They come in many forms -- artwork, lighting, pillows, throws, vases, books, and on...  When carefully chosen, they simply look like things that are meant to be there, and they help tell the story of the room and the person who lives there. And, when artfully edited, never feel like clutter.

All of the following are from Elle Decor's LookBook.

Pay careful attention to how the sum of the parts makes the whole...if you took away the accessories, these rooms would loose their wow factor.

Michael S. Smith

Rose Ann de Pampelonne

Charlotte Moss

Elizabeth Martin

Martial

So, do tell...are you smothered by material or visual clutter?  Or do you have accessories that support your room and help tell your story?

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Joan Rivers and Her House -- the Girl Next Door

Huh?  I know, but let me explain.  I was looking through Architectural Digest on line and came across a 2003 article on Joan Rivers and her house in Connecticut.  I was intrigued because her property in New Milford, Connecticut, abuts my in-laws' property, although there are acres and acres between their homes.  I've always wondered what her house looked like, having heard that there was a lot of work going on over there some years ago.  When I saw these pictures, I thought they would be fun to share.

All the interior work was designed by Joe Cicio, whom Rivers apparently gave carte blanche in redoing the entire house.  Here is a before of the living room:

photo: Billy Cunningham

I love this picture because the view is so indicative of the area -- the Litchfield County hills of western Connecticut makes for some of the most beautiful scenery in New England, I think.  This area of Connecticut is peppered with celebrities who take refuge from New York City to a "country house", as did Rivers.  Here is the amazing after...

photo: Mary E. Nichols

 

Cicio  transformed Rivers' home into a true country house.  I am in love with the effect the warm wood beams have on the space, and how they, along with the stone, create the casual tension between the rustic and the more elegant in the furnishings.  I could move in there in ten seconds flat.  Another before...

photo: Billy Cunningham

And after...

photo: Mary E. Nichols

Another before...

photo: Billy Cunningham

And after:

photo: Mary E. Nichols

Brilliant transformation, don't you think?  Even if it's not your style, the structual difference with the windows is something to behold.  The entire character (or lack thereof) of this house was reinvented.  Below is a before and after that really blew my socks off.

photo: Billy Cunningham

photo: Mary E. Nichols

Can you even believe that hallway change?  Brilliant!  From conception to design to execution.  Word around town at the time all of this work was being done was that Rivers was great to the local help, so I heard from my mother-in-law.  Just a little gossip to share.

Now for the question you've been tossing around in your head, you can admit it -- are my husband's parents celebrities?  To my two girls, perhaps yes, but to the rest of the world, no, they are just ordinary, nice folks who happened to have bought a home years ago in an area that was once pretty much undiscovered.

I do believe that Rivers sold the property a year or two ago.  Someone definitely benefited from all of Joe Cicio's work, don't you think?

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Kitchen Dreaming and A Guest's Recipe

A friend asked the other day when he'll see more food on the blog.  "When I have time, which will be never at this rate," is what I wanted to say.  Instead, I said "coming soon."  Uh-huh.

In the meantime, I thought I'd find an image of a kitchen of my dreams, and share a little cooking day-dream.  I came up short, though.  I found images of kitchens I like, but not my ultimate this-is-where-I want-to-cook-every-second-of-my-life kitchen.  So, let's look at a few, where if certain elements collided, they would  perhaps come close to that elusive kitchen in my mind...

Better Homes and Gardens

I really love the warm brown in here and the texture of the brick around the pizza oven -- it makes you want to sit down and stay a while -- maybe with a hot slice of artichoke, pesto and white bean pizza with a nice glass of wine on a rainy afternoon.

Better Home and Gardens

Minus the corbels on the counter bar, this is talking some of my language, too.  Cream, glazed cabinetry is my favorite, and those floors...I want to kick my slippers off and walk barefoot there in the morning.  There's coffee in my hands at that table, the dog across my toes, and a warm blueberry scone on my stoneware plate.
But I digress....

Eliza Gatfield and architect Stuart Disston

The island in this one -- pa-lease....how much would I love that?  Not the color, really, but the mix of all the elements -- wood, paint, marble. 

Southern Accents

This is the kitchen, above, that I want on days when I want my house to feel super clean, no clutter, no mess. (This is a day-dream post, after all.)

Traditional Home

I love love love black countertops.   I'm seeing pie crust and flour on that island table.  Can't you just smell an apple pie in that kitchen?

Traditional Home

The floors, the beams, those tables -- they absolutely sing to me in this kitchen above.  My heart stops over it.  And you know what I'm serving from this kitchen, while I drink champagne out of Waterford flutes (because the cut crystal is such an elegant foil to that stone floor)?  I'm serving this, below, from my friend Abby at Abby & Her Boys .

Abby & Her Boys

And when I bring my silver tray of these into the living room to have them with my friends, this is the living room we'll be hanging out in, while the autumn wind whips leaves outside and a fire roars (courtesy of my pyromaniac husband :) in the fireplace...

Better Homes and Gardens

And when this day of dreaming is done, and someone else has cleaned my dreamy kitchen, I'm cozying up in this bedroom with my man by my side (this is so not his dreamy room!) and the dog at the foot of the bed.

Better Homes and Gardens

Back to reality for now, my friends!  Enjoy your day, and I hope it's filled with a day-dream or two of your own.

Talk to you soon,
Carol

The #1 Most Dreaded Question in a Design Consultation

Clients are sometimes taken aback by it.  Designers are sometimes uncomfortable asking it.  We all have to deal with it.  The client-designer relationship, the project outcome, the entire process depends on it.  Here it is...

"What's the budget?"

What prompted me to talk about this today?  A friend of mine whom I've know since the 7th grade (that's a really long time), emailed me that he'd just thrown out almost everything in his dining room and wanted to start over -- would I be interested in helping....I instantly shot back an email: when do we start and what's the budget? His immediate email back: whenever you're ready.  No mention about budget.

This will be an upcoming before and after! 

I pondered this for a few minutes -- did I really need to ask him that?  He's not a paying client, did I make my friend feel awkward, and on and on ran these thoughts through my head.  Bottom line?  Yes, I need to know, and here's why...

Designers ask what the budget is for some pretty simple reasons:

1.   It tells us how much we can actually accomplish for you in the space.

2.   #1 helps us set the appropriate expectations for what can be done -- we never want you to be

      disappointed.

3.   We won't show you the Mercedes if your budget is in line with a Honda.

4.   We don't want to waste your time or ours (kind of tied to #3).*

      

     *Read that as we all have incredibly busy lives, we need to make the most of our time; not if you don't have gobs of money, I don't want to work with you :)

 

Let me address these reasons (and there are more, but this is a blog), starting with the two rooms below.  At first glance, you'll think they probably had pretty different budgets.  But, maybe not.

Southern Accents

Maybe this room was in a new house where all the money went to furnishings and custom work. If there was a "before" picture, perhaps it was just a new room, already carpeted, and maybe the beds were inherited.  The "after" -- this gorgeous bedroom, dressed completely in custom details.

 Southern  Living

Now this room -- totally different story.  The before was actually a garage!  Lots of the budget clearly went into the basic structure -- flooring, murphy bed, ceiling beams, etc.  My guess (an absolute guess to make a point) is that most everything else was not custom,  unlike the first picture.

The budgets?  They could have been  close to the same.  But the second room couldn't possibly end up like the first because "the bones" of the room -- it's structure and basic needs, like new flooring, had to be considered.  A frank conversation about budget would help the designer in the second picture set the appropriate expectations for the client as to the end result - i.e. your room will be gorgeous in custom building, but not in custom bedding, upholstery, etc.  By the way, both are completely beautiful, don't you think?

When it comes to talking money, if you're the client, you need to be honest.  "If I like it, I'll pay for it," or "Well, let's see what you come up with," or "I don't know," just doesn't cut it.  We're not trying to sell you a car, where no one shows their hand until the end.  (Sorry car folks, but you know what I mean.)  Holding back on the budget ties the hands of your designer for all 4 reasons above!  If you say you want custom silk draperies, and you give your designer a budget that she knows will cover cotton ones,  she can let you know from the get-go what your beautiful options are.

Laura W. Glenn

I believe the client's biggest fear can be: "if I tell her what I can spend, she'll spend it all even if there's a less expensive option."  That's just not true for a designer with integrity.  Let's face it -- a beautiful room, done within budget, gets the designer not only a happy client, but most likely, referrals.  We want happy clients.  Period.  Our livelihoods depend on it.

So what about the decorator's comfort level when asking for the budget?  I think it takes a while to find a way to say it.  Maybe it's the flat out question.  Maybe it's "what are you comfortable investing in this room?"  Or maybe if  a client really doesn't know what it might cost and is looking for guidance, it's "what you're telling me you'd like in this room will probably cost about $XX -- is that doable?"

While I talk about a whole room project as an example here, the budget discussion needs to happen for anything we do, from simply windows or a sofa to that finished room.  Beautiful end results can happen at many different budget levels.  Working together, knowing the budget, makes for happy outcomes! :)

Budgets always bring up questions.  If you have one,  comment and we'll get a conversation going.

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Ever Have a Day Like This?

Today wasn't the greatest day.

photo: carol beck

The clock was wrong, so I got out of bed thinking I'd overslept.  I went to an appointment at a client's home, the client's name wasn't on the lobby dial-up list, so I reached for my cell phone to give a call.  Oh.  Right.  I left my cell sitting in a cup of left-over coffee in my car the night before, so I couldn't call up to say I was there, because my new, expensive phone is dead. dead. dead!   So I left.  When I got back to the office (1/2 an hour away) and called to apologize, the client told me -- no problem, we're not there anyway, we're in Michigan, I had us on the calendar for next week.  Ok, so that's how the day started and it just went down hill from there.

Most days, I am happy, upbeat and positive.  Today, I felt like the world was looking at me with the attitude of the cows above.

But I'll leave you with a happy message as I end this day:

"Be the best You, not the You it’s easiest to be." 

Sean Platt on copyblogger

I'll be a better me tomorrow!

Talk to you soon,
Carol

What You Need to Know About Hanging Window Treatments

Window treatments hung right -- glorious. 

from Southern Living

 
Window treatments hung wrong -- disastrous. 

Ok maybe you'll think it's unfair to show a department store window treatment below something custom from Southern Living, but I want to make a point.  When you look at the green drapes and valance above,  what makes them right is that they are mounted far above the window, which always contributes to the illusion of high ceilings.  It is completely acceptable, and many times preferred, to hang a valance at ceiling height.  Or, if there is a crown molding, right up against its bottom edge.  The "leading edge" of drapes (the edge that would touch the other drape should they be brought together to close) should usually only cover the window molding, and not come into the glass more than a couple of inches.

Let's say the purple drapes above are in a little girls room.  How much better they would look, and how much more light would shine in the room, if the valance went up about 6 inches, and the drapes were pushed back from each side of the window so that they just covered the molding.  This would, of course, require a longer rod, so that the drapes were almost completely on the wall.  Can you see the change in your mind?  The smothered window just became beautifully framed, and it looks like it can breathe.  Ready-mades can look great, they just need to be hung properly.

Here are some images of drapes hung at the right heights...

Designers: Van Chapin, Charles Walton IV

Designer: Dominique Verillon

The image below I believe is a ready-made.  What's right -- it's mounted above the top of the window casing (please, I beg you, never mount a rod or valance right on the casing!).  To my eye, I would have hung the rod up another 4 inches or so.  Why?  Because the height of the rod is the same as the height of the armoire -- taken in by the eye together, it "cuts" the wall at that point and visually brings the ceiling lower and makes the window look more squatty.

Ready-mades usually come in standard lengths.  Buy the longest drape you can afford so that it can be mounted at a "custom" height. 

One more thing to consider.  The picture below shows the underside of a drapery panel at the "header" where the pleat is.  Headers are typically 3 - 4" long, sometimes more.  You never want the back side of the header to show through the window to the outside of the house.  (Like having your slip hang out from your skirt.  Does anyone even wear those any more?)  That's one reason why panels are typically hung at least 4" above the casing if possible.  (The wood below is the valance cap over wood blinds, not the casing.)

Carol Beck

So, as with all guidelines, there are exceptions.  Just do your best to mount your treatments above the casing, and you'll be on your way to a great look.

I hope for some of you, this helps you to look at how you dress your windows with a more educated eye.   I have a particular passion for window treatments, having had a custom business in the past.  I'm looking forward to posting more window do's and don'ts.

As always, I'd appreciate your comments.  And, if you have a question, I'll be sure to post a comment back.  Just click on "comments" in the gray bar below.

Talk to you soon,
Carol

You've Never Seen Faux Painting Like This...

Ok, maybe that's not true for all of you, but I was so blown away by the talent of Regina and her family crew at Garay Artisans, I had to show you some of their work.  I found her blog, Fauxology,and had bookmarked it for a time when I could sit and really read it.  Today was the day.

If you are a designer, you need to know about them as a resource.  If you just love getting inspiration, you need to see these, too...

Fauxology

Above is the after of a ladies room of a commercial client.  Check out those gorgeous roses!  Below is the before...

Fauxology

Just a small difference, huh? 
The cabinets below were once pickled oak (eighties ouch! I can say that -- I live with 80's amber oak).  It may not be the most exciting of their work, but it's great.  Can you believe the magical transformation? Cream with a glaze.  Can you hear my heart pound? (Sorry wood lovers, I'm just a paint and glaze kind of girl.)

Fauxology

Now for the joy of Trompe l'oile...

Fauxology

 

 

They do exteriors, too...

Fauxology

And what about this coffered ceiling -- think it's wood?  Sorry, my friend, it's faux over plaster-- who would know?

Fauxology

Lastly, a small image (I couldn't enlarge it) of mirror patina -- you need to check out their gallery to really get a sense of how gorgeous this work is.

I'm telling you, if you are looking for inspiration, you won't be disappointed.  To connect to Regina at Garay Artisans, click onto their blog Fauxology.

Talk to you soon,
Carol