that collected look

i think many of us struggle with the notion of how to incorporate that slowly curated and collected-over-time look into our homes.

i know i do. 

i buy one thing because it's such a pretty color and then i place it around my house and hate it everywhere because it sticks out like a sore thumb. 

so the other day i stumbled upon rebecca de ravenel's nyc apartment featured in vogue.

i had seen it before and always thought it was pretty. but i looked at it differently this time. 

maybe because the shine wore off a little...but i noticed something i hadn't noticed before:

just how brilliantly collected it is. 

but the thing for me is this-

it all looks personal, like it's been carefully collected over time and yet, it's still stylish!

rather than hoarded without thought and then thrown together.

maybe the key is just editing.

because the truth is this woman comes from 2 antiques dealer parents and her upbringing was shuffled between paris and the bahamas with loads of travel to far off places in between.

so she certainly had the opportunity to not only hone her eye but to be subjected to the prettiest things on earth. 

so in that sense we are all fucked. 

maybe it works so well because it's primarily blue and white.

easy to shop when you have parameters in mind.

so how do you get this look without a lot of money and without access to probably a stash of antiques in your parents' home(s)?

my advice is this:

have a color palette. sounds easy enough but do we all really stick to it once we have it?

i think this alone would help us all tremendously when we were out "collecting".

yes, buy what you love but make sure you really love it. 

shop your parents' house!  even if they live modestly, or have very different tastes than you there are things there that hold special meaning to you that they'd probably be happy to give to you.

don't be myopic. find interest in odd things...old photos, special birthday cards, costume jewelry, books, blankets etc...

group, stack, layer, lean.  repeat. 

have somewhat of a theme....rebecca's theme is clearly "beachy".

i use "theme" loosely as i don't want you to pick "trains" as your theme.

the theme itself should be loose.

and lastly...work with a decorator to help you hone and reign in that loose theme. 

if blue and white is your theme your decorator can help you pull fabrics and accessories and get shit rolling for you. 

 






many things in brain

i am sort of on a cleanse but not really telling anyone. most people would just call it eating  healthy. i call it giving up wine for a spell (god help us all) and eating well over 5 veggies a day or at least that many and limiting my meat intake. 

i am sort of, loosely following this one here. 

i haven't lost any weight, but that's not really the goal.

well, maybe a little bloat.

i have noticed a sharper mental focus and a lot more energy.

2 things i couldn't need more of. 


i painted this beast for a client and i am having a hard time saying goodbye.

it is huge at 72 x 60 and it was a labor of love-

plum, lavender, amethyst, cobalt, prussian, deep turquoise, brown and pale peachy pink love.

it's going to hang in a bedroom with dark charcoal walls and chocolate velvet upholstery.  

i am currently looking to do this again, so if there are any takers. holler at me. 

 

i am a little ashamed to admit that i have the christmas bug. 

i'm not usually infected with it until after thanksgiving. and sometimes it doesn't hit me at all. 

i am also obsessed with wit and delight's perfectly angled beeswax pillars.

 

and this tree skirt..

and this tree basket..

ho ho ho.

 

and finally...

feeling a little glum?

this never fails to lift my spirits...

 

 

 

art series

hi. 

it's kind of silly that i don't talk about the art that inspires me. 

i talk about the interior design that inspires me why wouldn't i talk about the art?

that's just dumb and i will try to do this more.

i have hordes of artists in inspiration folders and am discovering new (to me) artists all the time. so...now i share. 

 

today we look at the work of raoul dufy. 

"my eyes were made to erase all that is ugly"- raoul dufy

dufy's style of painting was called fauvism.  

fauvism derived from the french word fauve meaning 'wild beast' was a movement known for its radical use of vivid, contrasting colors. (wiki)

some quick facts:

dufy was born in le havre france in 1877.  he moved to paris in 1900 on a scholarship to study at the ecole des beaux-arts. 

he was super interested in impressionism and post-impressionism but 3 years later abandoned impressionism and moved into his signature style of fauvism..."works with glowing colors and sweeping brushstrokes". matisse was another fauvist FYI. 

dufy did lots of other cool shit too...

such as wood-engraving, ceramics, textiles and wallpaper, and he was a dope as hell interior designer, apparently. 

dufy was known mostly for his seaside and racecourse paintings. 

in 1935 he began working with oils and went on to create a 70 thousand square foot painting called la fee electricitie (the electric fairy) at the palace of light international exhibition.

it is badass and you can view it here. 

later on in life his vivd, colorful work was abandoned in favor of more muted, monochrome tones.

by 1950 he got a bad case of R.A. and couldn't hold a brush to paint. he had to strap those motherfuckers to his hands. 

he underwent experimental cortisone treatments which proved successful. (yay)

he died in 1953 at the age of 75. 

 

i love dufy for the same reason i think most people do...his use of color.

but i also love the loose nature of some of his landscapes..they are slightly abstract. 

 

here are some of my favorites:

 

the more you know. 

 

do you love dufy?

are you goofy for dufy?

(drops mic)