This year, we decided to design a space that says, “This is Wilson Kelsey Design’s Style.” The vignette will be quite unapologetic about who we are.

We have been given the prime location at the entry to the show house gallery, a space that is about 10’ x 15’. As you enter the gallery, the 10’ wall is directly in front of you and the longer wall is on its right. I thought it would be fun to share my idea sketches and thought processes as I developed and finalized the design concept for our space. As you look at the sketches, it will become very clear that we love older things, yet we like to blend them with newer pieces and styles. You will sense we look to Europe for much of our inspiration. Ironically, we are searching for the adjectives that describe our style and who we are. It is not Old World or Belgian or French, but you can see and feel their influence. Nor is it Modern, even though we use several modern pieces of furniture in the design. We do know that it is not the quintessential New England look you see in any of the regional magazines. We feel that there’s an international flavor to our style.

 We’re very interested in hearing how you see us. After looking at these sketches, reading my thoughts and knowing the kinds of posts we do, what would you call our style? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

 Let’s start with the floor plan. The gallery entry is on the right.

We envisioned our space as an intimate, friendly sitting area – part of a much larger home. Think Saladinio’s Villa. Facing the linen slip covered sofa that is tucked in the niche at the top of teh plan are two fully upholstered chairs, fairly modern and tailored. To their right, is a small open pull up chair – old, with character, but not Colonial. Painted or natural wood is unclear right now…But I think it will end up being wood. The coffee table will be modern. I am designing a table with a sleek wood top and a hand wrought iron modern base. In the niche to the left of the seating area will be an antique side board – maybe Elizabethan in influence, bracketed by two tall topiaries. Gardenia in bloom, if we can find them. Two floor lamps of my design stand by the sofa, fabricated by the same blacksmith shop that will be making the table base. There is a small niche to the right of the sofa that is part of our space. While it is somewhat of an accessory to the seating group, we will need to design a solution that visually contains our vignette. In addition, it falls on the other major axis of the gallery space, which means it too needs to be a focal point… Flooring will be a natural sisal weave with a neutral area rug on top, anchoring the seating group.

The stage is set. Here we go…

Scheme A – I will always start with the short wall, (see above) which is what you first see when you enter the gallery. That’s our major impact wall. There are three keys to this wall, the artwork, the topiaries and the side board and how they relate to each other as a focal point and act as an anchor for the vignette. Get this right and we pull people right into the gallery and our vignette. The side board works great, as do the topiaries. My idea of botanical prints, brings too much green into the elevation and flattens it out. Not enough strength in the artwork and there is no energy. Maybe the grouping of four is too busy?

The long wall with its small sofa (Actually a recamier covered with a slip cover and big pillows for a back.) is grounded by two antique French oak doors propped up against the wall. I love how that arrangement has great visual strength in its simplicity while giving lift to the space. This gave me clue for my next go at the short wall. Or so I thought…

 The small niche, with its rustic bookcase, needs to help terminate and contain our design. I did this by repeating the topiary and artwork, but at a scale that is suited to the niche. There was something about the niche that wasn’t quite right, but I couldn’t immediately put my finger on it.

With these thoughts in mind, I laid out Scheme B. I thought by shifted the doors to the short wall lift and strength could be achieved. However, the doors by themselves weren’t visually strong enough to pull you into the space. Yet, when I put artwork on the doors the inherent beauty of the doors was lost. This was not working…

That feeling continued as I looked at the long elevation. The sofa felt weak and ungrounded without the doors. The four pieces of art weren’t strong enough by themselves to hold that elevation together. I did like the niche in this scheme, especially shifting the topiary to the right side and I liked the added height of the bookcase.

With Scheme C, knowing that I needed to put the doors back behind the sofa (That just works!), I felt I needed see to see something that was as wide as the side board and that went to the ceiling above the sideboard on the short elevation in order to achieve the lift and visual strength I was looking for. It was to no avail. The relationship between the two large niches became static. You need more tension/contrast there. There was no “conversation” going on back and forth across the space.

On an up note, with the sofa niche’s large scale issues settled, Sally wanted to see how the recamier’s wood arms expressed and what adding colored pillows would feel. We liked the wood arms, but felt all that horizontal color was a bit much. Color may offer the clue for resolving the other large niche.

I could now reach across to the small niche with colors from the sofa, integrating it into the overall design. But as I looked at this sketch, the niche felt too crowded with the tall bookcase. Back to the short one…

As I began to sketch Scheme D, I felt pretty good. I knew the answer to my focal point niche. Put the four square tightly grouped paintings back over the side board – full of color. (They may work better if they are modern.) With this composition of topiary, side board and paints, I had the strong focal point I needed to draw people into our vignette as they entered the gallery. We will need to sort out accessories for below the side board and the color/texture of the topiary containers in the future.

In the sofa niche, I needed to address too much color. I sketched in a long single “body” pillow and a couple small toss pillows. Nice, calm and quiet. The entire sketch felt serene, which apparently was on my unspoken and unconscious agenda. The toss pillows will bring color intoto this elevation and enable me reach across to the small niche. If Sally and I do this right, there will be a glorious sweep of color around the entire vignette, becoming the fabric that ties it all together.

The lower bookcase and the two pieces of art above better definitely are a better solution. Being able to bring color up on the wall, repeating in a smaller scale, the same theme from the focal point wall is terrific. The verticality is much better, giving the niche lift. We now have consistency from niche to niche and the ceiling and soffits won’t feel like they are sagging visually. (I’m beginning to see milk paint as the paint of choice inside the niches to add subtle luster and texture.) I accidentally drew the small topiary on the left side. It now is a perfect reminder why it really, really does belong on the right side. The niche now truly contains the vignette and is strong enough to be a focal point for the rooms other axis.

Viola!!!

Now that you’ve seen and read about our vignette design concept, how would you describe our style? Sally and I would love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers,

Have a great day!

From an old Veranda. Sadly I didn’t note which one when I tore it out of the magazine. I feels like a potting room. What caught my eye was the modernity of the cabinet doors juxtaposed against the rough texture of the floor and wall. (And that the styling is superb!)

I find a great deal of elegance in the simplicity and honesty in this foyer image. From Country Homes and Interiors.

Another image from Country Homes and Interiors. Again, the beauty of the honest, simple and direct solutions to storage resonate strongly with me. I can imagine the meal being prepared, kids sitting around the table. Conversation flowing back and forth…

I love the the paint/fabric/color combination and how antique and modern play off of each other. Delightful tension.  Veranda, October, 2010,  Timithy Whealon, interior designer.

Enough for this evening. Time to call it a day…

Cheers,

Sparkly Clean

I love the colors of Sparkly Clean, above. A black and white floor in the kitchen is one of my favorite choices for a kitchen, and red as an accent color makes it POP! Do you see any similarities between your mother and Leslie’s model? (which might be Leslie herself.)

I love her paintings for their peppy and fun depiction of home life – which reminds me of the 1950-60′s. Can’t you just see Lucille Ball? Who wouldn’t want to be reminded of that seemingly innocent and idyllic time? Leslie, however, explains on her website that she is doing something deeper, she strives to “create striking aesthetic images that explore deeper questions related to family life.”

Soft and Clean

Stirring Things Up

Left to right: Mark Brunetz moderator, Susan Anthony,  Sally Wilson, Emily Winters, Greg Holmes The panel addressed the design trade business and what designers are facing in today’s market.

We took a day to walk “the strip”. (Very sore feet…. I don’t recommend this without a very good pair of walking shoes or sneakers…)  The Swarovski Chandelier at the Cosmopolitan was amazing…

We had lunch at Emeril Lagasse’s Table 10 in theVenetian, concluding the meal with the very best banana cream pie in the world!

We stayed at the Mandalay Bay, where we took in the Shark Reef tank.

The tunnel through the tank was amazing!!!

On our last day, we took in the Surfaces flooring convention, where we made several very good connections and discoveries, particularly from The Natural Carpet Company.

Braided rug samples.

Out door and wet floor area rug samples using Sunbrella fabrics.

We saw many samples of blends of wool and natural fibers. Wool is definately making a comeback!

We especially loved this contemporary sample. The tip shearing used to create the field pattern is incredible!

Lots of fun, long tiring flights, new friends and good memories.

Now it’s on to Designer Show House proposals and catching up on work deadlines.

Cheers,

Every home has a story to tell. If you’d like us to help you tell yours, contact us here.

 And so I salute and thank you, Maureen. This post is for you.

Fabulous Reds

Soft Bieges and Neutrals

Rich Chocolates and Browns

Glorious Greens

Regardless of how many irons you have in the fire Maureen, take the time to enjoy your morning cup of coffee!

Cheers,

Wouldn’t you expect a charming rustic interior?

The central fireplace has been reworked as part of an open floor plan.

Tucked around the corner… Antique keys.

Fantastic!!! A 1769  schrank & 18th century church pew play vs. tuxedo style furniture.
What’s a schrank you ask??? The short answer is it’s an antique wardrode.

Love the sweep of the shelves and counterpoint of modern tufting and practical  period furniture.

What a compostition – modern island between antique painted chairs and rustic shelves - brilliant!

 Look at the different thicknesses of the shelves. Real understanding of scale and weight!

Cantalevered shelves again. The antique windsor chair looks so alive! Context!!!

Saarinen Womb Chair, modern quilt, folded tin sand pipers, antique basket having a conversation.

A singular vision throughout. Beautiful!

 Could you live here?

 All images from Architectural Digest, Architecture by French & Crane and Jeanne Scandura. Interior Design by Lauren Sara.

 In spite of the fact that time is one of the few things you can’t get back, I’ve made the seemingly incongruous decision to take a certain amount of time in the morning, around noon time and in the evening making it sacred, where I will not talk or think about work. I believe in the long run, it will enable me to work more efficiently and effectively.

What prompted this decision was that I found myself looking at very particular kinds of images as I was going through more old design magazines this past weekend. They were all restful and serene.

In one, I might imagine myself reading a book,

while in another; it would be sipping a morning cup of tea or hot chocolate as I backed myself into the day.

Maybe a little inspirational reading before the day begins.

A place to read at the end of the day.

I suppose a nap here and there would be most restorative…

I put this in because I love butterflies. Butterflies make me feel good.

Hope you are all having a wonderful Wednesday!

 Cheers,

Note: Other than the second to last image,which is taken from John Saldino’s book Style these are from old design magazines I’ve been purging. I realized after the fact that I didn’t note which picture came from what magazine.

Here’s Mathew with Lavinia, not Mary

I’ll bet if cocktails HAD made it to the countryside at Downton they would have been served with cloth napkins.

I was rumaging around in my linen drawer the other day and found my cocktail napkins. Real, made-out-of-cloth-ones. These have been saved from obscurity by virtue of having been passed down to me, from my mother and my aunt. My mother taught me what these were when we were downsizing my aunt’s house. I might have been confused by their size, as to their purpose.  They are actually a little bit bigger than a coaster. So I asked my mother, “What are these for?” Thus my education.

One of my favorites is this little natural linen with fringed edges. They are about 5″ x 7″, including the fringe. It’s fun to get them out for small parties, because these days most people are used to paper napkins.

I think it is fun and festive to serve cocktails on a footed tray. Here are my favorite cocktail napkins on my favorite footed silver tray.

Love this Rococo style silver foot:

Another Fun set of cocktail napkins are from the 1950′s, the era when cocktail parties were so popular and chic. Look at the embroidery on these – each one with a different cocktail and its name!

They are made out of simple linen, like a handkerchief linen, and are each about 5″ x 8″ long. Notice the little hand rolled and stitched hem. So cute. Here they are on a tray, ready to serve our guests.

And last, but not least, another of my favorite color: yellow. These little napkins are big enough to put in your lap, if you are carrying an hors d’oeuvre plate, but folded they are only 6″ x 6″ including fringe. Aren’t they cute? I love them for their fringe and their engaging color!

Here they are with champagne flutes, ready to entertain with style.

Now, your task: take a look in YOUR linen drawer and see what you come up with! One of my readers was inspired by my last linen blog post to get out her linens and use them again! Way to go!

Until next time,

Which brings me to another thing I occasionally wonder about, that being, “What ever happened to all the professors I had in design school? Where are they now? What are they doing?” As a student at Cornell’s College of Human Ecology, I was very fotunate.  The Design and Enviromental Anaylysis Department was blessed with a group of absolutely brilliant professors – “Crazy” Jane Van Alstyne (She helped design the ’63 Split Window Corvette.), Alan “If it moves, chrome it.” Bushnell, Joe Koncelick, Steve Mensch, Michael Boyd, the list goes on… Do you ever wonder about a former professor or mentor?

Well, I found Steve Mensch, published in  Architectural Digest’s 2006 June issue. I couldn’t believe it! As a professor, he was always a little larger than life in what he did, how he spoke, carried and presented himself. And he was a ruthless critic in the studio classes he taught. I always wanted to prove him wrong!

His severe classic modernist approach to design and architecture seems to have softened somewhat with time. Not surprisingly, he is still thinking on a grand scale, similar to the old Adirondack Great Camps. This is his residence, located in the Catskill Mountains, north of New York City or as AD says, his family compound.

Here’s the link to the story in AD. (The entire issue is full of gorgeous projects.)

Cheers,