Behold the “no color” home of designer Jill Sharp Brinson in Atlanta, Georgia. Brinson is also known as the Creative Director of Ballard Designs (catalog) which is famous for it’s tasty other world European flavored home decor items. If you don’t know Ballard, you really should check it out! The living room pictured above is a graceful and curious mixture of rustic beams, high warehouse style ceilings and french curved furnishings. The color palette throughout the home is a variety of mushroom tones set alongside crisp white. the touch of magenta seen here in the flowers and throw can be easily changed out to another color accent. A clever way to add ?color to an otherwise neutral landscape. A good rule of thumb is to never use a color just once. Always repeat it once or twice as the designer does here, to create balance.

Here is one end of the European flavored dining area. The metal divided pane windows which look like they could have been salvaged from a turn-of-the-last-century factory provide a running theme through the house. The industrial table is covered with a large cowhide of all things. Not something I would have thought of….that’s for sure. The cabinet finish is a multi layered mix of white and gray glazes creating a limed or pickled look that echoes the taupe-y wood floor finish. Seeing dishes through chicken wire conjures up ?a country French marketplace.

This dramatic arched kitchen window reaches 14 feet high and dominates the kitchen….in a beautiful way. Though the metal table looks antique, it is actually a?Martha Stewart design which came with a cherry wood top that has been swapped out with a piece of white polished marble. Again, the happy color accent of bright orange flowers and repeated with the bowl of fruit can be instantly changed to something fresh and new when the spirit moves you.

In the kitchen, upper cabinets were eliminated in favor of the garden view. This house is infused with light through oversized industrial style windows in every room.

The living room features one door trimmed out in the traditional style and the other in barn beams. In the designer’s words “It’s wonky, and it looks like a million bucks.” I agree. It’s a fascinating idea that’s assymetrical but balanced!

The tub looks like a trough surrounded by old barn siding complete with it’s retro style faucet emerging from the wall. Just the look they were going for.

The custom made bathroom vanity is modeled after a French draper’s table complete with Rohl‘s Bridge faucets in Tuscan Brass. That nifty mirror is from Target and works like a charm next to the vase of the same polished pewter finish.

Photos courtesy of House Beautiful / December-January 2010

Sleek and sculptural, many of the new gas fireplaces on the market today are also portable, smokeless and environmentally friendly. There is nothing that adds atmosphere to a room more than a warm flame. Candles are excellent. Fireplaces are divine! It all falls under the category of “lighting”…the sexiest part of interior design.

Thanks for?Furniture Fashion (one of the most fun design websites I know) for these great photos. Please click the link for sources.

It’s summer vacation week for us, so here is a great place holder to inspire until we return next week to our usual schedule of posts. If you have a passion for animal prints like I do, I am always tempted to use too many. A little tiger and leopard go a long way. Barclay Butera created the following stunning rooms for one of his own homes. He has mixed tiger, zebra and leopard prints in one room, but he has stopped just short of too much. In other words, just right. Notice the small touch of leopard pattern on the book in the foreground. All photos are from the book Inspired Styles put out by the fabric and furniture company Kravet.

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