We have lift off! After years in the planning, our new collection with Century Furniture is on its way to retail stores and showrooms across the globe. I couldn’t be more excited. Every design carries a part of me, yes, but more than that, this collection holds my long-held dreams for how to put emotion and connectivity back into the DNA of the rooms we call home.
Most of my silhouettes are connected to history. From neoclassical to midcentury cool, these pieces condense a time line of inspiration. My motive for bringing the past forward, however, is to rethink the now. From every unexpected combination of form to every unlikely pairing of materials, I want to stir up our senses and reorient us to the moment at hand. Sometimes what shifts our perspective forms into a bodily nudge. The arc of our Daybreak Sofa (right), for instance, is calibrated to throw side-by-side seating a curve, pivoting our attentions ever so slightly toward one another.
Looking back on how this collection came to be, I can only describe its evolution as pure alchemy. Defined as a “magical process of transformation, creation or combination,” alchemy is exactly what I’d love for these pieces to conjure inside their destined homes. Modern living is never static. It’s a constant push-and-pull for our attention where choices are farther and wider than ever before. In one sense, it’s easier to find beautiful things. It’s harder, however, to forge meaningful and lasting environments of today’s vast array.
That’s exactly why I couldn’t approach this collection one piece at a time. I needed to make choices easier by gathering a wholly modern assortment within which anything goes. This collection’s mix is bold, yet its pieces effortlessly combine into chic, personality-driven vignettes precisely because they belong to a tightly edited whole. Isn’t that what we all want? To be uniquely ourselves, while still feeling connected to a larger story?
Individualism, modernism and tradition: yes, I believe all three can coexist beautifully. Classic or cool, the most elegant rooms are always innately soulful and reassuring. I want for this collection what I want for any space I design: the room to realize not just who we are, but who we want to be!
The secret to using gold in rooms is that it’s only “glitzy” in small doses. Swathing expanses of walls and upholstery, however, turns gold into a surprisingly confident, stealthily seductive neutral. The right shade of gold, that is… Nothing lights my fire like the blaze of this Phillip Jeffries gold leaf wallcovering (above, center) with enough earthy red undertones to cast a natural aura on rich charcoals, iron grays and coffee-brown woods. Contrasted with bright creams and milky whites, sheen like this creates a mood so enveloping we carried it onto pillows, a few fun accessories (yes, that’s a gold plated slinky), and the smooth Buttercup Gold leather of our new Iridium Chair for Century Furniture
Originally designed as a one-off for Century Furniture showroom floors, this soft new colorway now joins the lineup of available designs by Windsor Smith for Jamie Beckwith Collection. Alternating our “gris” and “blanc” washes with a new mid tone ash gray, this deftly tonal version of our “ColorBlocked!” pattern (named “Cendré”) plays a bit more coy with our illusionistic design of push-and-pull squares.
You’re known for building homes without dining rooms. How does that change how you fashion dining furniture?
That’s true! I much prefer mingling dining pieces into rooms with a variety of seating and entertaining options. And that changes how I think about every seat, table, console or bar cart. My Meadows chair, for instance, sits just a smidge lower than dining’s standard seat height, while its arms and back wing open for the slightest embrace. The difference in height is almost undetectable save you feel more at ease, more grounded, while its wings manage support while preserving a feeling of openness. The goal is a change in posture and attitude.
Sounds like a cross between a dining and lounge chair?
Exactly! Think perfectly appointed cocktail lounge, with a mix of seating and serving options. That’s the kind of scene that works for today’s more relaxed, more up-and-down style of entertaining. Elegant, yes, but nothing to lock us in place.
The back of that chair is also lower?
On purpose! I didn’t want it peeping over. Empty chair backs staring each other down from across the table can put the freeze on a room’s approach. I much prefer the drama of tall armchairs or the sweep of long benches around the room’s perimeter. Pull a dressy drinks table up to that bench, or add a bar cart (taller and more dramatic than dining’s oft-tired sideboard), and you’ve created the relaxed, yet extraordinary feel of a hotelier’s receiving room…the kind of place where you’re drawn to dine just a few chairs over from where you cozied up for drinks
Any thoughts on the table itself?
Scaled up and beautifully sculpted is my preference. A big round, or a long multi-pedestal table that stands on something artful enough to take center stage. Go as large as you can. In my own home, a dining table that comfortably seats 12 is a natural gathering spot in lieu of a kitchen island. Bench or chair, everyone has their favorite seat to come and go, or sit for hours on an ipad. More length means space to be together even while our attentions are pulled elsewhere.
How lucky are we to show off our new Enigma cabinet for Century Furniture against our Zip It! floors and walls for Jamie Beckwith Collection? Sporty, yet sophisticated, we imagined these designs fashioning the dream loft for a skateboarder-turned-internet mogul. Each interlocking notch makes art of joinery or, in our cabinet’s case, jigsaw seams that hinge open with one touch.
Colleagues and friends, you know who you are! My forever gratitude to the artisans at Century Furniture for their sense of adventure and willingness to go every extra subtle tweak. And to my other licensees—Kravet, Arteriors, and Jamie Beckwith Collection (those oors!) — how lucky were we to debut this new collection alongside your lighting, surfaces and accessories? I’m thrilled to have shared with you all this labor of love, and beyond excited to learn we’ve earned the America Society of Furniture Designers coveted Pinnacle Award as the Top Major Collection for 2017 !
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Let’s take a breath. With Fall almost fallen and the hustle and bustle of the holidays just around the corner, I can’t think of a better time to store up on some essentials. Like air. And space. And light…. And everything a luxuriously soothing room offers if we can just bring ourselves to put every buzzing, flashing device out of sight to fully take in its comforts. My dream is an unplugged room, but not completely so. The key is cutting the right cords while dangling a few new lines of sight to invite eyes, then minds, to wander.
Some make their “do not interrupt” zones clear—a dedicated yoga room, reading room, workout space or meditation retreat. Others impose rules, using a catchall drawer to collect and recharge devices in bedrooms or during family meals for example. The greater majority of my clients, however, don’t need the added pressure of being told when and where to power down. For them I like to play shaman, laying access to inviting realms of escape right smack in their path.
A neutral-hued family space off the kitchen (above), for instance, is ready for repose with deep, sprawling sofas, a cocktail table built with custom cubbies for pull-out floor cushions (right, bottom), and nubby blankets stored handily near in a vintage, handcarved wooden trough. Add some greenery, oversize Minimal art for focus, and the mood is set. But even zen candles need a match. The spark comes from contrasts: moments so subtly incongruous as to break through technology’s starts and stops and inspire extraordinary moments of stillness.
Inside lofty heights, for instance. lean, long, low-slung furnishings and smaller, darker niches are especially sublime. Likewise an ethereal palette of dreamy pale blues and silvers is set off by the strong dark of a black-marble top table propped with art books, a white driftwood branch and chunky Tibetan prayer beads (right, top). More objects of intrigue lay on this same room’s center ottoman, covered in a handwoven indigo textile to appear as an exotic guest beside a formal French limestone mantel, skirted sofas and dressy Venetian mirror.
Build the path, and minds will travel! My advice: lay your breadcrumbs in varying proportion, and never in a straight line. The goal is to land eyes, then guide them on your shaman’s journey meandering toward greater depths of not just rest, but renewal. Or as I like to say, the bigger the “oooh” the more recharging the “aaaahs!”
Meet…drumroll…House of Windsor’s dapper new mascot, SUR ! Sounds distinguished, which he is, but note the spelling. Sur is named for “Big Sur,” that rugged, majestic cliffside stretch of coast along the drive from his former home, a San Francisco area fraternity house, and his forever home keeping watch on the stone pavers of our foyer floor. Seeing him there, keeping his cool, or catching some wind in his ears riding in my husband’s ‘66 convertible Corvette, I’m struck by how the depths of his dark, lustrous coat cast blue in sunlight. That kind of mystery just suits Sur. Like any large, lumbering male puppy, he hit us like a crashing wave. But it’s the stillness and depths of his love, his wit, his trust that lured us to dive in so very, very deep.
It’s a Zen tradition to express natural beauty through asymmetry. Our new bench achieves that balance between simplicity and dynamism, weighing an off-center cushion and matching bolsters with an open platform handy for resting a book, a glass, or in true Zen fashion, nothing at all.
Do we spy a hint of Harry Bertoia in your new Chasca lamp for Arteriors Home?
I’m just wild about Harry! And Pablo (Picasso)…
And a range of Modern artists who broke the rules of sculpture with inventive, improvisational drawing in three-dimensional space. Bertoia said his works, “are mainly made of air,” and even experimented with how they resonate sound. I’m more interested in creating something graphic and playful that layers soft, ethereal color inside of space and light.
Why white gesso and stained glass?
The gesso is, in part, a throwback to another hero—Alberto Giacometti. But it’s pure white, artisanal texture is also the perfect canvas for a composition of sundrenched color.
“Chasca” is named for a Meso-American goddess of dawn and its color-stained glass echoes light’s effects on golden sands and ocean blues. I like to picture Harry and Pablo sipping mojitos beachside with their Latin contemporaries like Pedro Coronel and this prismatic sculpture as their cocktail napkin doodle!
Our latest nod to Midcentury style is as cute as its buttons! Petite yet full-bodied, our curved back chair offers a gentle body hug. Short, splayed legs add extra kick. Perfectly scaled for company, use these chairs wherever you want to feel nestled while also engaged with the person seated across. Try several circled around an ottoman and watch the conversation flow.
Our Room in a Box clients call this their yoga room. But one look at their list of wants suggested an alternate living space. A retreat snug for one, and playful to gather as a couple. Add some paperbacks and a record player (yes, vinyl!) and you have the opportunity for three R’s: rest, recreation and reconnection. Unplugged from what distracts, yet with sensory land lines to reconnect with each other and their shared homefront. !
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Picture that mischief-making Max who crowns himself “king of the wild things!” Or my personal favorite, Harold and the Purple Crayon… The spaces our kids want to take command of exist somewhere between real and imaginary places. So when it comes to designing children’s rooms, I like to build toward that most elusive measure of good design… a genuine sense of discovery.
You can’t buy a wardrobe and tell a child it’s magic. But you can carve out niches and hideaways that feel on the verge of calm and quiet and a curious something else. Achieve that mix and the room invites their powers of transformation. As a parent, I learned that encouraging my kids creatively meant giving up on preconceived notions of how I wanted them to grow up. As a designer, it means creating an environment that’s simultaneously protective and a model of daring.
I love maps and vintage photos for the way they offer windows onto other times and places, and I’ve played with the scale of both adapting each to oversize art or as floor-to-ceiling wallpaper. I’ve hung mobiles of universes as adults would a chandelier, strings of pompoms, a medley of colorful paper lanterns…anything to dangle tactile lures just out of reach. If creativity’s the goal, these items can alternate with art of their own making, hung with dignity in frames or encouraged with a ready roll of craft paper bolted straight onto the coffee table.
Playful gestures are paramount, but so is order. Here breaking the rules isn’t as critical as imparting the power to set them. Organization is key. Storage has to be on their level, and with a variety of fun bins, baskets, and ledges to encourage their own evolving sense of order. Growing up is chaos enough, let’s take away the everyday distractions. Focus on their essential needs to rest, rule and reinvent (the rrrrrs! of any well-designed kids room) and the paint can easily change from lavender to way cooler pink, then back again next year.
Think soft, soothing places to hunker down, a few colors, patterns or textures to claim the space as uniquely their own and, ultimately, a sense of shared importance. Much of the furniture I use for kids is sophisticated enough to move to any room in the house. One reason is practical: Parents want timeless pieces. But the larger motivation is my tiniest clients themselves. They want what we do: a nurturing sense of place and belonging inside the mysterious world at large.
Who can resist a playdate?The best summer gatherings in our house ask friends to either get their game on, or have some fun cheering on those that do. Tennis is our favorite but I’d do the same for a game of hoops. Two grecian stone goddesses decked out in vintage beads and acquired party bling handle the difficult line calls. Brunch or early supper, I like to set it all out before as a come-and-go thing, nothing plated and nothing complicated. The unstructured nature of it all is modern-day but pull out a gorgeous silver serving piece, a pop of bubbly and my favorite charcoal-gray striped paper straws for the iced coffees and our mind’s clock ticks back to an era when we made time for ritual pleasures.
Sporty stripes and sturdy leather straps transform this folding cushion into a deliriously cozy, oh-so relaxed alternative to the usual convertible sofa. Simply unzip the seat from its rolled-arm pillow frame for more surface area to sprawl. Shaped like a life raft when open, it’s a cool save for overnight guests or for long lazy days when you just want to stretch out.
We’ve noticed a few holes in your designs lately. What about pop art graphics has you feeling punchy?
Picture Alice falling down the rabbit hole. . . these designs are part fun and part mystery. I think this wall decal by artist Dan Golden for Los Angeles graphics company Blik really nails it. One big spot that says, “Hole to Another Universe, Come on In!”
Punch that hole in a crisp rectangle or square and it’s proof that opposites attract. Doubly so in the room above, where we paired a pop-art style bookcase inside venerable, historic architecture. Our new wooden nesting tables also use holes, but this time in order to unfold like a puzzle piece for varied use.
I love that kind of style wild card. I also love how the simple sculptural gesture of carving a hole creates a truly alluring interplay between surface and shadow. My Flora Vase for Arteriors did this in marble, and now I’m looking at the light shifts created by bold recesses in all kinds of lustrous materials. Now that’s niche appeal!
We loved this glossy white lacquer center table so much, we had to put a ring on it! Two, in fact. The rim of its flat, concentric base is repeated as a detail halfway up its base, and again as a thin, metal underline to its disc top. Combining clean, modernist form with pure industry, it’s perfect alone or stacked with books and treasures.
Ultimately my favorite kids rooms play to all Like the clerestory-lit room, above, which clears space for boundless energy yet also calibrates down to a quiet, restorative getaway. Every hammock seat suspends time of our own making, whether reading to the little ones or flying solo with a good novel. Because what kid among us (or, rather, inside us) can resist a swing? Minds can soar, while a few shaggy tuffets below beckon back to earth. Just ask Max in the middle of all that rumpus. Even when you’re king of the wild things, there’s still no match for the comfort and love of home. What better gift can we give then room to explore both, from fantasy to sureties then back all over again!
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I like to play Cupid when it comes to bedrooms. Like that mischievous little cherub sharpening his arrow, I often find myself deliberating exactly when and where to take aim. Because as much as we need and expect a sense of calm and sanctuary to round out the day, this is also the room we look to for special magic. And sparks can’t fly without a little friction.
That saying “opposites attract?” Like yin and yang, they also balance us. So when I hear “soothing, soft, and serene”….that trio of adjectives topping the list of what clients tell me they want in a bedroom, I like to think what else about a room will make them take pause. Before going all soft on the subject, I recommend some hard thinking. Soft, billowy linens under a blackened iron canopy? The respite of cloud gray walls and night-sky, silk velvet upholstery behind a single, long bolster pillow in glossy lipstick red?
Modern-day living is demanding, yes, but it can also be desensitizing. For bedrooms I’m always on the hunt for a truly special mix of hues, textures and sheens that rest as well as reengage the senses. Time references are important to calibrate as well. Nothing clashing, and no juxtaposition too forced. But, in bedrooms as in romance, intrigue builds with tension. Not the stress-you-out kind, but a more natural marriage of opposites that illuminates the beauty in both.
Often, I’m looking for that same ebb and flow from the same piece of furniture. How can a bed feel warm and cocooning, while simultaneously modern, sexy and strong? That was the goal behind sleek lines and snug curves on our Yvette bed, bottom right, which looks dapper in deep blues and so very lovely in pale lavender.
My own bed is a canopy of satin embroidered filigree, rising from a frame upholstered in a faux-zebra striped hide. Part Renaissance with just a sliver of come-hither, I love it set in solid cotton sheeting and shams layering pale pinks and powder blue. The mix is worldly enough to make us dream of far-flung times and places, while still exuding the peace of mind that comes from wrapping oneself in something soft, relaxed and familiar. And when those opposites beautifully meld into one? That’s when I know Cupid and I have hit our mark!
REFLECT ON THIS. Arranging a table for the pleasure of my guests is always a shuffle of variables—finding that just-right level of lighting, choosing centerpieces uncommon enough to interest eyes without diverting conversation, and mixing seating types as I’d mix guests, aiming for a common thread amid surprising juxtapositions. Placing a single upholstered setttee in a long line of silvered chiavari ballroom chairs is, for me, the equivalent of a guest list with engagingly diverse interests. Perfecting a mise en scéne deserves redoubling for max rewards. Propping an oversize mirror outdoors captures the night’s ambience and enhances it times two. When guests see the sparkle of activity flashing in a mirror, they relax into the moment. Everything looks better upon reflection.
A rolled-arm chair with a portion of its back scooped out combines two of my favorite opposites—striking gravitas and sultry curves. Like an off-the-shoulder gown, its unexpected asymmetry flirts with formality. Sit up or lean in? This modernized riff on a Georgian corner chair begs to question. So why confine it to a corner? I love these chairs alone, or bookended for a tete-a-tete moment.
What specifically about these textiles is inspiring your new creations?
I’ve never been big on pattern for its own sake…but I do love the big graphic bang of these earthy weaves, tapestries, brocades and embroideries. They feel ancient and modern all at the same time.
Q: What kind of things are you sketching now?
A: Zigs, zags, swirling roundels and calligraphic marks! I’m playing with everything from vintage kuba cloths and Egyptian hieroglyphs to a modern comb and spiral earrings by Alexander Calder.
Q: The artist who invented the mobile? What does his jewelry have in common with swatches gathered from every port on the Nile?
A: I don’t know if Calder looked looked to the Nile or not, but the common thread for me is a more relaxed geometry. My existing textile collections are crisp and clean. This time around I’m looking for a layer of imperfection—soft brushstrokes, irregular contours and lines that bleed over catch-your-eye graphics. Materials—linens, jutes, silks and wools—are organic, some crushed and others with just a bit of sheen. Got to have some shimmer!
This bed’s slim, sleek take on tradition is part rigor and part romance. Asking “how thin can we go?” quite literally, raised our expectations. Every inch we pared off its frame grew the canopy’s illusion of height twofold. Finished in ebony with just a hint of gold proves the forever allure of that dreamy combo—tall, dark and handsome!
I suppose the most important element of any bedroom is surprise. After all, the right mix of yin and yang is never constant. It’s a beautiful flow between what restores and what brings us to take that bold next step. In the home above, that entailed pulling down doors to reframe its entrance with a sense of splendor and mystery. The solution always lies in opening myself to the energy of the clients, and to the architecture itself. Cupid never shot from the hip, but his arrows left us suddenly, unexpectedly, lovestruck nonetheless.
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I’ve always thought of closets as a rich, untapped vein of gold when comes to lifestyle and design, For me, the act of dressing is so rich in the colors, textures, and unexpected treasures that inspire and feed my soul..
I blew the doors off my own closet years ago, needing so much more than a place to park my clothes. I wanted a space that celebrates this essential daily routine. Without doors meant applying the same organizing principle to my clothes that I did to my library bookcases, which I arrange by color. Hanging garments from light to dark, and by category and length, not only looks lovely but helps me find things in a hurry. Rolling racks are another favorite tool I use to put archival or favorite pieces on display, and to help me see old finds with a new appreciative eye. My favorite vintage Chanel chunky gold chain and other loved accessories hang in plain sight on a tall vanity counter nearby. I can grab those pieces standing, or sit at a pink leather counter stool to fully weigh the possibilities.
My fantasy closet is based on a Parisian salon: An open room that has everything neatly tucked away behind boiserie doors. It’s a beautiful experience to open doors and look at each piece individually instead of being overwhelmed by so many colors and textures at once. At the room’s center is whatever you want wrapped into the moment. A tête-à-tête or double chaise like our De Wolfe (top, right), a sectional for t.v. watching or, better yet, a gorgeous clawfoot tub to unwind from the day’s frenzy with a favorite book in hand (above).
For clients we do all kinds of things that are unorthodox, where it’s not just a closet. There’s an increasing demand for rooms to combine both closet and office, where a beautiful desk floats at center. The mix melds a little business with the pleasure of seeing all ones pretty bits concurrently. One client I had adored his beautiful wife and all her pretty dresses so much, that we built a wall of mirrored closets down one wall of their dining room to create a cabinet of curiosities out of her couture. Okay, it might not seem practical, but it certainly is for them. The flicker of light off mirrors during a dinner party is irresistible. And after the last guest leaves for the evening, they can open a bottle of wine while she tries on all her dresses!
I can’t remember if it was a nostalgic, glossy-white paneled country club, or a fabulous grand hotel where I first spied lacy fabric doilies wrapping the stems of cocktail glasses. Something about this thoughtful touch just echoes classic hospitality. For me, every stem wrapped at home is a lacy remembrance of a civilized time when cocktail hours were a time-honored ritual of relaxation versus today’s too often, grab-quick-after-work libations . As a bonus, I love how these pretty stem dressings protect our furniture finishes without having to (ahem) ask guests to use a coaster. Now that’s beauty with purpose!
I admit it, I’m obsessed with equestrian design. It’s the rare mix of ergonomic forms and contrasting materials that inspire me to the drawing board every time. For our latest lounger, we saddled up! Marrying lean contemporary curves with luxurious velvet and leather corner buckles feels so now, and so timeless. Its very sight is a warm welcome to hunker down…
What specifically about fashion inspired your new line of flooring and wall paneling?
Fastenings, buckles and rivets….In architecture as in fashion, I’m fascinated by brilliant moments of joinery.
Behind the scenes planning our new “Couture” line of flooring and wall surfaces for Jamie Beckwith Collection, we spread out a virtual runway of inspiration on the kitchen table: Gucci chain links, the intrecciato weave of a Bottega Veneta bag, Hermès saddle stitching… Viewed together, it’s amazing how great fashion creates such strong, unique style statements in reduced form. What seems so simple can be so distinctive—and still so very adaptable over time through great artistry.
“Color Blocked” (top, left) is our remix of a classic cube pattern, inspired by fashion as well as modern art. Crave a larger foyer? I love how its optical illusion stretches space! Try it in two carefully choreographed trios of finishes, and watch how its quick color shifts create a push-and-pull effect for high volume impact.
“Hot to Trot” takes its cue from the nipped waists and fastenings of dressage. I love its interlocking tiles in all six hues (top, right in “rouge” and center, right in “noisette”) or in alternating colors for contrasts as sharp as a stirrup’s strap!
“Nailed It!” (right) imagines a weave inspired by woolen menswear fabrics punched up with embedded nailheads and color stain inlays. An industry-first, the amazing minds at Jamie Beckwith Collection pioneered how to marry nailheads with wood surfacing. The result? A mix of classic warmth and urban cool!
I’m big on petite stools with strong graphics. A pair of these faux-zebra stripe beauties sit side-by-side with pony hair upholstered cube chairs in my own home. Stacked with a tray or a few books, they serve as side tables most days, and as seating in a pinch. In brown and cream—versus starker black and white—those racy stripes surprisingly fade to a neutral.
Really, who doesn’t love dressing up ? The thrill of wearing something special and unique can feel as fresh as the first time we snuck into mom’s closet to stumble in her heels. Our closets are personal places, off-limit hideaways where we keep all our best treasures and secrets… where we try on new visions of who we are and want to be. No doubt that’s why they’re such a classic metaphor for our lives—and worth reinventing every time !
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Rooms are emotional to me. They always have been. And very few things can elicit emotion as quickly, or as powerfully, as a well placed piece of art. What we respond to says so much about us individually, making the question of what to hang on walls a true gray area. Can a home’s art really exist in a separate silo from its overall architecture and design? Or, as designers, can we build in a certain freedom to collect while also balancing a room’s colors, textures, overall feel and purpose?
As a designer, my job is to create a collection of spaces that unfold, room by room, to tell an individual and unique story intimately connected to the lives of my clients. Art has a natural role to play in that story. I’ve had the privilege to provide backdrops for works by the likes of Picasso, Warhol, Cy Twombly and Ruth Asawa. The daunting part is how to feature each piece, creating those interesting juxtapositions that catch eyes without competing for appreciation. It’s a fine line. Hanging a petite Picasso alone over a silver-silk paper painted with gouache florals wasn’t the obvious choice, but proved to be a magical one over time. There’s a magic hour when the sun sets on that side of the house and the sky’s pink light reflects to cast a warm copper glow behind this single important piece. It’s truly a religious experience…That perfect pairing of decoration and art coexisting beautifully together!
As a designer I buy art on many levels, whether working with the curator of a seasoned collector or selecting works to introduce younger clients to the art experience, The challenge of both is to find what feels essential to an individual and their room (without pandering to the color of the couch!)
Some gallerists may wince at a decorator’s involvement but the best find collaboration helpful. Recently, I experimented by asking to meet with a client’s curator from the start. We met before renovations began. I assured her that our plans for the house wouldn’t dictate the art on its walls, but wondered if it wouldn’t be helpful to share our dreams for the space visually via pinterest boards. We never spoke specific palettes so much as the effects of color, space, light and mood. As dedicated as I was to creating supportive spaces, this curator valued the visuals helpful in sourcing art that our client not only felt a connection to, but that felt in sync with the daily rhythms of spaces designed to serve him. Seeing her discoveries fueled our designs in turn, while introducing me to a few new art crushes.
I’m inspired by the daring, unique language of contemporary artists like Nazafarin Lotfi, Yves Dana and Valerie Jaudon… But to be honest, after years of scouring flea markets, my favorite artists are the ones who remain anonymous, Line studies of nudes in folios long forgotten, portraits in oil on an aged canvas….. There’s a sullenness about them that moves me and I feel I’ve liberated them somehow by placing them in a new setting honoring that moment in time.
I’m always on the prowl myself for that favorite art “find” that excites me. I love the breadth of exposure Art Basel offers, and the juxtaposiitons of the Venice Biennale where contemporary artists start their ascent to prominence against ancient settings. I’ve even designed a super slim lit easel (right) to place newfound art treasures front and center. It’s for those moments of discovery when a work feels so much a part of my story, so essential, I’ve just got to draw it in closer!
T.V.’s get a bum rap these days. Yes, we all need to unplug. And gardens are a natural choice for seeking quiet moments of zen. But outdoors is also the only place where my family freely lays down its numerous screens and devices to watch a film together. Something about pulling a lever to reveal a big screen lowered from the eaves of our poolhouse creates a sense of escape so apart from the day’s usual barrage of images. It’s not the everyday ritual of our parents hovering around the home’s only set after dinner. But it draws on the best of that. Togetherness without routine… and with an ever-changing backdrop.
A center table can double as a dining surface, but the reverse isn’t necessarily true. For a table to take center stage, it needs to look as stunning isolated in space as the art and objects it displays. A client’s art-filled home inspired our new Millepied table, with a lustrous brass base reminscent of contemporary sculpture and an antique black mirror top for extra shadow play.
What is smocking and why is it inspiring you?
It’s part nostalgia, and part architecture. As a kid, the fronts of our Easter dresses were usually smocked. I never really thought about why until seeing smocked details pop up on some pretty modern runways.
Both pretty and practical, this embroidery technique alllows garments to be form-fitting and flexible. In the days before elastic, it was a beautiful solution for cuffs, bodices, and necklines. For me, it’s another example of fashion’s genius for manipulating materials.
Lately I’ve been thinking about the parallels between smocking and Directoire trelliswork, which inpsired our Corinth Table for Arteriors (right), as well its possibilities for upholstery, furniture joinery, interior surfaces and more. Next month we’ll release a wall paneling series where planks of wood are seemingly “cinched” using nailheads! Buy
Clean, crisp and cushy is sometimes a difficult equation. Channel tufting is one of my go-to solutions, helping cushions as large as those on a family room sofa hold its firm shape while also delivering sink-down comfort. Mostly, however, I love mixing channeling with smooth surfaces, as we did on our new DeMille sectional, where tufting relaxes a tight seat and back pillows can still be moved and fluffed.
How exactly can design and art work together? For me, it helps to think of every room as a frame for living. Some art is better appreciated inside that frame while other pieces ask to stand in bold contrast. In this room that meant adding soft-hued woods to accentuate the atmospheric effects of two very clever Uta Barth photos, each showing different light shifts on the empty wall space over a modern sofa. And around the corner, the surprise of a bright psychedlic nude over a Regency rosewood chest. Because you really can live and laugh around serious art!
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One look at my own jumpseat and I see my days in miniature: jewelry pulled off the day before, my phone, laptop, chargers…not to mention the designer’s usual stash of fabric bolts, blueprints and finish samples. In my car I can pivot from one role to the next. I can think and recharge or go at full speed. Why wouldn’t we want our homes to do the same? My goal for elegant rooms is so much more than a refuge at the end of the day. I want to create rooms that help us navigate modern life’s constant push-and-pull for our attention. Rooms that don’t just accommodate us, but drive us. Rooms that frame who we want to be.
And what better place to start than the front door? Welcome to the House of Windsor! Like my own foyer, this newsletter is a space created to linger. A place to explore big ideas and rest in the small pleasures that make homes worth sharing. My own homefront has always been a laboratory for new designs and my friends and family its fellow inventers. So buckle up. You’re on board and we’ve got new trails to blaze! I’ve got some bold ideas for how we can live more beautifully and more succinctly in our homes and solutions won’t come without a shared portal to think, watch, listen, question and digest.
That round settee in my foyer? Or my new squared ’œtete-a-tete’? I drew up both imagining decades of glamorous types perched on similar seating I’d seen dressing the lobbies of vintage French Riviera resorts. In our foyer, however, it’s an interrupter. Like the two-sided sofa at the center of our living room, it places itself inside everyday traffic to redirect life as we want to live it. Yes, it’s still the place where my friends drop their handbags. But unlike a bench in the corner that’s no longer a quick, unthinking gesture. It’s a decision. Drop and rush on? Or linger a little longer…
No one likes to be corraled. But who doesn’t love to be lured? House Of Windsor won’t blast daily emails. Instead, we’ll reach out monthly to question everything that’s routine in the search for how home design can be more purposeful, more supportive and a more active force in the lives we want to live. If you liked my book, Homefront, join us in the trenches! Jump in! Click on!
Wanna make romance stay? Build it in! When it came to my own kitchen, I wanted that mix of hardworking and elegant. A place where we could cook up a storm, run around barefoot, and still feel inclined to pop a cork! Whether Valentine’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries or a dang special Tuesday night, this room had to say, ’œMemories are made here…and…how about right now!.’ So over the arch that leads from our kitchen to living spaces I inset this little shadowbox niche, where we keep every cork from every milestone bottle of bubbly. Always a sucker for beautiful packaging, I also keep the pink lacquered boxes special bottles arrive in shelved alongside cookbooks above.
Sit together? Sit across? Favorite reply: curved sofas! Adding the gentlest of arcs to our new Pavlova sofa invites a body to play coy. Instead of sitting side by side, you find yourself ever so slightly eying each other…. For even more swerve, try two back to back!
Does every sofa really need another floor or table lamp?
Not if you can dangle some gold chainz to the task!
Behind the scenes planning new lighting designs, some days I couldn’t decide whether to wear a chain necklace or hang it on the wall to study…
Chain links and a man’s octagonal watch bezel inspired our handsome Atlas wall light (above, left) for Arteriors. Buy
Adding a litte feminine mystique to the Athena sconce (above, middle), also for Arteriors we opted for a glowing crystal sphere’” lit from above’” in place of the usual bulb. Because ambient light should have all the romance of a caged diamond! Buy
Finally, thank you Tom Ford! Your gold chain heels (middle, left) got me thinking about the possibilities of stacking…and stacking…
The result? Our new Solas lamp for Boyd Lighting! She’s the result of imagining stacks of bangles lit from above, as well as from inside! Light inside its column peers through every chain link for a sexy, hard-to-define glow. Available in a range of finshes from dapper blackened brass to, of course, gossamer gold! Buy
Étagère. In French, it means ’œgrand tower’ and what’s more grand than stacked treasures? One of my go-to table types, I use these everywhere. Not just in living spaces but bedside…or tubside! Elegant silvered galleys keep objects from falling, whether you’re grabbing for a scrub brush or a martini glass!
Back to that car idea… Maybe a better model for today’s rooms is yesterday’s drive-in movie? A destination that holds a sense of shared ritual, but that allows us to park ourselves where we feel best. We can tune in or out, some of us watching the show while others snuggle in corners and a few more come in and out for popcorn. That’s how I’d script the perfect gathering space. Full of choices, but with one big gesture that says “together.”
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