Thursday, February 16, 2017

DESIGN | Moutain House Project - Living Room

If you follow me over on Instagram, you have probably seen my updates about a project I'm working on for friends out in Colorado. They are building a ski house (lucky ducks) and have asked me to help design the project, which is a dream come true! I'm designing the whole place, so I will have many rooms to share, but today I wanted to show you my plan for the Living Room.

My friends didn't want a traditional ski house vibe. They just wanted the house to be a cozy comfortable place for the family to escape to on the weekends. With that in mind, I have kept the giant carved bears and elk horns to a minimum. The Living Room design really started with a pair of chairs we scored on Chairish. I had originally wanted the room's accent color to be a bright chartreuse green, echoing the color of aspen leaves, so when we spotted this pair of chairs for sale in the Denver area we jumped on them!

The wife was also was dead set on navy couches, so that informed the basic palette of green and blue, a combo I love!

Here is the plan for the space.  Since they want to be able to seat a large number of people while still maintaining this as a slightly formal space, I opted to do two sofas facing each other rather than a sectional. Another seating area with the chartreuse chairs will be at the end of the couches.  


Here is my design board for the space.

The deep navy velvet sofas will be a nice balance to the bright green of the chairs, and I'll weave in cooler shades of green in the throws and pillows. I also wanted to bring in an accent of burgundy through vintage lighting and eventually an oriental rug to lay over the large jute area rug. My friends have two kids, and there will be many more visiting (like mine), so we had in mind durable materials and child friendly touches. We opted for upholstered ottomans to keep bumps and bruises at bay, and they will be topped with trays to collect spills. Like I said before, the "mountain vibes" are kept to a minimum, with just a few touches in the tartan and wood stump cocktail tables.

*Note in the sofas. The one pictured here is from Anthropologie, which up until recently hasn't had a showroom for their house and home collection. When you are going to invest some money into a sofa you really want to sit on it, right!? Well, I just checked the mail yesterday and what did I see but an announcement that they are opening a House and Home showroom right here in NYC at 195 Broadway! So if you are hoping to see some of their goods in person you don't have to wait long. 

So there is your first peek here at the Mountain House project!  Stay tuned for more designs coming your way.

xo, Kate


Thursday, February 2, 2017

DESIGN | ART INSPIRED ROOMS - Rustique Figuline Kitchen

One of the greatest things about living in a city like New York is access to some of the finest museums in the world. I try to go as frequently as possible, often I just duck in with Mads in tow for a few minutes here and there (thank god for memberships). I have a design-nerd game I like to play with myself, where I try to visualize a room based around a work of art. It is a little exercise in fantasy decorating, taking the colors and mood of a piece and creating a livable space around that.

Until now I've never planned it out further than my head, but I thought it could be fun to post them on the blog.

My first 'Art Inspired Room' is a kitchen based off this remarkable 16th century French pottery platter from the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  

Rustique Figuline (Rustic Pottery) Lead-glazed earthenware, Follower of Bernard Palissy (1510-1590), France (Paris), late 16th Century

Something about this piece got me thinking about a kitchen design. Snakes might be a little off-putting to some, but every room can use a bit of quirk, I think, even a kitchen. The color scheme is moody and subdued with glossy blue-green cabinets, rich wood and stone, lush greens and an accent of mustard yellow. I'm completely in love with this "Seba Snake" fabric designed by Adam Charlap Hyman. Check out his website and you can see it used in his NYC apartment. To die for!



tile / butcher block / countertops / stool / leather / chandelier / paint / fabric / prints

xo, Kate