In my opinion, it takes guts to paint a wall a color like this. (Benjamin Moore’s California Breeze) and to have the room still be livable. The reason we can live with it is because it is balanced out by lots of neutrals and darks. There is plenty of white in this room. This cuts the turquoise like tonic cuts gin. The golden area rug, deeper golden leather ottoman, and rich brown velvet sofa are neutrals that pale out that big turquoise statement. The room has symmetry, and we all love that. Two large paintings on the wall, pairs of objects on the mantel, and more. But the designer has surprised us by interrupting the circle of chairs with a single red contemporary chair (the famous Egg Chair). Unexpected? Totally! Are we thrown off balance? No! One reason we are not thrown off balance by this is that the red color is repeated elsewhere. The back panels of the chairs are upholstered in a red ikat pattern and a vase of red flowers sits on the table behind the chair. This keeps the color in balance.

The pair of artichoke paintings are by Sarah Graham. I don’t know the exact size but I am guessing 42′ wide by 54″ high. Bold of scale. This designer is not afraid to go there, and it certainly creates drama. I encourage people to use larger scaled accessories than they think will work. Take what’s “appropriate” and double the size. Do this once or twice in each room and see how it makes you feel.

A front view of the brown velvet sofa with its nail heads and narrow arms, shows a display of loved appliqued fabrics. The wall color is repeated here, which enhances both the wall and the fabric. The other major bright color in the room is this lovely mango/orange. Notice the very high oversized urn behind the sofa, and the large contemporary metal sculpture on the wall to the left. The brown picks up the sofa’s color. This kind of color repetition makes us happy (I’m not joking) and is one of the reasons this room is so great.

This is a view of the other end of the room. The golden/mango fabric on the dining chairs beautifully echoes the sisal rug and throw pillows and even the honey colored floor. Of the size of the bookcase, Williams said “You’ve got to get your proportions right… I had the fireplace and the big strong botanicals, so I wanted the other end {of the room} to have the big strong bookcase.” The room itself has great bones including an extremely high ceiling which the designer wanted to show off to its greatest potential. Hence, the large scale and tall furnishings and the pale gray paint above. This next view shows us another angle of the dining table with its extraordinarily tall planters.

Pulling off an interior like this really takes confidence and vision. Extreme color. Extreme scale. And a fascinating combination of furnishings, antique and new.

Photos from House Beautiful August 2009

We are gazing through three arches here. Standing outside the office, we look over its’ tile table, through the central courtyard, and into the loggia on the far side. Careful attention was paid to creating the longest possible view. Notice how the painting is centered on the very farthest wall.

Surrounding the border of the library the boldly painted motto “The Eye Sees What the Mind Knows.”?Tile floor, darkened wood, and an drum shaped rustic amber pendant lamp repeat the theme and carries through the finishes with consistency.

The kitchen is a lighter brighter room, featuring a pair of wonderful inverted lampshade fixtures in stitched parchment. I love the oversized cactus in terra cotta pots. Exaggerated scale adds quirky drama to any space. Imagine if the cactus were only half the size…..ho hum, right?

Another great addition to a space is a collection of something…almost anything will work to entertain us. In this case, vintage dishes in bright colors make delicous eye candy.

For the fireplace, a simple arch of bricks with a brick hearth makes a modest historically accurate statement. The sofas are actually vintage Monterey pieces. The painting on the far wall is William Ritschel’s 1912 Desert Wanderers.


It’s always fascinating to see the exterior of a house after viewing the interior rooms. This one looks like a big old Spanish mission at festival time. ?Spanish Colonial Revival is one of the most ubiquitous and charming architectural styles in southern California. ?It is easy to spot because of the trademark red tile roofs with (usually) white stucco walls, arches, wrought iron grates, center courtyards, terra cotta tile floors, cactus and bouganvilea. And if they are lucky houses, they will have an owner who treasures them.

Photographs by Scott Frances from Architectural Digest / November 2008

Ahhhhh. What a sensational picture.?I can smell the lavender… and I can feel the warm sunlight bathing my skin.?This outdoor room features a single solitary piece of furniture. It’s a 10-foot-long 17th century cast iron table with a slate top. It stands alone beautifully and provides a generous amount of “negative space” around it. Using empty space in interior design is a good rule of thumb because we humans need a place to rest our eyes. This view is of St. Helena in Napa Valley, California in a home designed by architect Wayne Leong and interior designer Erin Martin.

This kitchen really got my attention. The decorative painting, done by San Francisco artist Michael Dute’, is really extraordinary. The designs swirl across the vaulted ceiling and down the walls in a large open pattern. Backsplash blue and white tiles are French but with a Moroccan flavor. The countertop is classic white Calacatta marble.

Wait. Am I in an ancient castle? The stone walls in this room create that feeling. ?But remember…we don’t have to live in an old stone house to have stone walls. We can easily apply stone to our sheetrock walls to create this effect. The over-scaled antiques from France, Spain and Italy are chosen precisely because they bring perfect balance to the massive wall stones. Blue (the favorite color) is carried from the kitchen into the dining room.

Blue appears again in the bedroom. What lovely continuity. Other than the neutrals, it seems to be the only color in the house. The hand stitched French needlepoint headboard came from a flea market and is paired with a canopy bed from Ironies. The settee from Dennis & Leen is a wonderful reproduction. Stone floors travel throughout the house enhancing that old European feeling.

The guest bedroom with it’s large French armoire also has a little Spanish writing table with it’s classic spiral turned legs and Spanish Colonial chair.

The guest bath features an antique marble double sink. Is that blue marble?

I had to show you this gigantic bee-hive pizza oven on an outdoor patio. It blends consistently with the style of the house, yes? It’s European looking with it’s rustic stone. And it’s over-scaled. “All of it shaded by native oak trees and manzanitas in the summertime – the trees that were there before time began.”

Photos from House Beautiful May 2007

How would this fireplace look if it were breathing flames? Fascinating! This big mouthed god of sorts is the creation of internationally influenced artist Pedro Freideberg who is of German heritage but has lived in and studied in many of the world’s cultures. Hence, he has absorbed the dreams of others and has given birth to many visual fantasies of his own. The fireplace lives in Casa Diana, a bed & breakfast/gallery in the small artsy colony of San Miguel de Allende, north of Mexico City. It’s owner, Carmen Gutierrez, has created rooms around her former husband’s art and it has become a gallery of much interest.

How did they pull off this great example of eclecticism? An over-the-top ornate guilded mirror next to a cow hide upholstered loveseat . What makes the loveseat work is the fact that it’s frame is ornate…similar to the mirror. This creates a graceful transition that we always seek in interiors. The cow hide is a wild idea. Who would have thought of it?! But it works because the colors are all from the same section of the color wheel in the white-gold-brown range…another graceful transition. This is a beautiful mixture of “same and different.”

The artist is often asked to explain his repeated use of hands. Hands everywhere. What do they mean? But he does not explain this. It is his surreal visual expression. Did Picasso explain his guitars?!?! The Louvre has one of his hands and we are told that his work is followed by many a discerning collector.

The exterior of Casa Diana is “alive” with Pedro’s art. He has framed the windows in slithering snakes, and an Aztec looking mask with his signature hands has the personality of Mexican folk art.

Atop the building, a cast head of Michelangelo’s David stands watch over the town of San Miguel.

Here is another beautiful plaster fireplace in an equestrian theme. The dynamic horses are Italian Renaissance inspired. And scroll down to see some other pieces that are housed at Casa Diana. Art commentators observe Indian iconic forms and colors as well as Hebrew, Islamic and Chinese symbols in Freideberg’s work. Regardless, it is obvious that this artist knows how to use visual language for a powerful impact.

It would be quite an adventure to stay in this B&B/Gallery but we are told that there remains only one room for guests because all of the others have been crowded out by the art.

Photos from The World of Interiors March 2008

In my continuing exploration of artist’s living/working spaces, I stumbled upon the functional and beautiful loft space of artist John Alexander in New York’s refurbished Soho neighborhood. It’s functional because half of this city-block-deep space houses Alexander’s painting studio. It’s beautiful because Alexander and his partner Fiona Waterstreet are naturally aesthetic. Like most lofts, this space is vast. Almost a planet unto itself! The furniture is interesting because it is of normal scale and rather homey and tranditional, striking a strange contrast to the cavernous volume of space. The project designer, Lorraine Kirke understood that the place was to be kept fairly raw, simply brightened and lightened up. But it was not to look “designed.”?

Layers of Lower Manhattan’s dingy grime were scrubbed away and the paint splattered wood floors were polished. Walls were torn down to expose long vistas. Remaining walls were painted a warm white, the best backdrop for the artist’s huge expressionist paintings, as well as their collection of other artists’ works. Our eye travels through the ?high ceilinged space as it follows red and pink accents repeating and repeating in different ways. Here a vintage embroidered blanket. ?There a bold red and white stiped chair. Over there a classic mid century red kitchen stool.

The little kitchen is functional but certainly not fancy. Stainless steel appliances and chrome shelves expose the tools of living and cooking that a busy informal family enjoys.

The paint studio houses a vintage velvet sofa…….who doesn’t love a velvet sofa! I’m glad the parrots are red! Had they been green or blue and I would not be saying….”ahhh….balance.”

Their son’s room features a lovely ?collectible Empire bed and big splashes of red.

The space seems to go on forever, does it not? This round Biedermeier table’s ebony finish and dark wooden sofa legs punctuate the space, and repeat the dark tones of the artist’s canvases hanging behind. The industrial track lighting used throughout the space makes reference to other times and other occupants. Perhaps a factory. Perhaps a warehouse. These walls have lots of stories to tell, no doubt.

Here’s a glimpse of our artist, John Alexander, in the blue shirt. He purchased the loft in 1979 when Soho was just beginning to come up in the world. “It was grand and funky,” says the artist. And now it is grand and very liveable.

You are looking at an image of the new sushi restaurant Katsuya in Los Angeles. Dramatic isn’t it??I don’t usually blog about public places like restaurants, but I could not resist this one which I found in Elle Decor March 2008 (I know…it’s not even February yet!). The designer is the brilliant Philippe Starck who?is known for his interiors as well as his unique design of everyday items such as toothbrushes and computer mouses…mice? ?We are told that the restaurant features oversized photos of kimonos and other geisha images, including these succulent red lips. Why is this interior design so compelling? Let’s take a look at what it is composed of. First of all, there is something very edgy about the geisha tradition….the sexual energy of elegant women hidden under layers and layers of silk is quite intriguing. While this interior is something that one would not want to live with day in and day out, the designer has approached it with the same solid “design principles” that he might use for a residential space. No kidding! ?A very limited palette is used…the tables and chairs are all light neutrals and then POW! the red lips! A limited palette is always easy to be with and provides a perfect backdrop for the shiney red which literally lights up the room. Imagine if the tables and chairs were not neutral, but red or purple with patterned tablecloths and banquettes. The whole effect would have been entirely different.

Another “design principle” employed here in a beautiful way is the wide variation of scale. The furnishings are normal sized… simple and minimal with sticky legs. And then BAM! The photo is gigantic. (If anyone has the name of this photographer please let us all know. Perhaps it is Mr. Starck himself). Again, imagine if instead of this dramatically overscaled photo, there was a row of standard sized (20 x 30″) framed photographs. Hmmm….not so wonderful. The designer knew better and we design junkies and sushi eaters receive the benefits.

I am already planning my next trip to LA and this spot will definitely be on my list.

What makes this vignette so powerful? So dramatic? New York designer Bunny Williams has combined a number of fascinating objects with genius and flair. The giant scale of the tortoise shell takes guts, does it not? However, it works when balanced against the graphically bold black mirror frame. The curve of the apron on the Italian table softens the look. Further softening happens with more delicate fabricates and inlaid chairs from India. Notice that the palette is neutral. It spans the range of black to caramel to brown…all played against a crisp white wall. There’s lots of texture here!!! I can’t take my eyes off this picture.