Creating Curious Displays

Vintage martini glass planting – Apartment 46

There’s a romantic crispness to the air right now. Night comes earlier and it’s the perfect time to cocoon under warm blankets in candlelit rooms. It’s my favorite season of the year. As the last days of summer disappear, creative souls start bursting at the seams with ideas for their Halloween and Fall displays. I’m not known to be a thematic sort of girl and I don’t “do” holiday specific windows at Apartment 46. However, I’m all for unpredictable and imaginative displays, and I am nearly always designing some take on a cabinet of curiosities. In fact, our whole shop is modeled on what I believe a curious collector’s apartment would feel like.

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Kittredge Home

Pravina and Perry Kittredge are a well-traveled, well-educated, and super interesting couple with three young children. As a scientist, Pravina loves interesting objects and odd things. Perry, a middle-school math and social studies teacher, likes a relaxing and uncomplicated space that is both comfortable and functional. The challenge was to take on two previously unused spaces and turn them into something the family could enjoy.

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We’re An Official One Kings Lane Affiliate!

We are so excited to announce that we’ve been approved as a One Kings Lane affiliate! We have been in love with OKL since the day it began and being able to offer their collection of products through our site is just another way of helping you create an amazing space.

If you’re already a fan, all you have to do is click the banner on the home page of our site and book mark the link and there you go! Each time you log on through the bookmarked link, you’ll be supporting small business as zero extra cost to you. How awesome is that?

If you’ve never been to OKL, then get ready for a double-helping of “yes please!” You’ll wonder why it’s taken you so long. You can join the site directly from my home page. Click the banner, create an account and voila! You’re a super star!

We have some other fantastic things cooking with OKL so we’ll keep you posted. Until then, thank you for loving us as much as we love you.

Melisa

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The Art of Creating an Eclectic Style

Janel and Dave Lehman’s California Home

I’ve written before about eclectic style, and it occurred to me that it was definitely time to revisit the topic. With the increasing popularity of HGTV, and a slew of shows like Design on a Dime, Dear Genevieve, and even American Pickers, people are more daring than ever when it comes to tackling their own decorating.

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Modern Romantic – Simple Seductive Style

Room in Fontana Park Hotel - Portugal

How would I describe a romantic room? I don’t think of it as a room where the romance necessarily happens, but a space that inspires a romantic feeling. The Fontana Park Design Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal (above) is a perfect example for me. Luxurious, other-wordly, and deceptively simple and elegant. It’s like roaming around on a cloud.

Design by BNOdesign

Romance in design is about lighting, textures, colors and overall ambiance. While sexy spaces are very similar, they’re a little darker, edgier, and secretive. A romantic space is more airy, melancholy, sweet, and ethereal. Think medieval maiden mixed with Flokati rugs and billowing linen window coverings. There is usually an element of fantasy in a romantic room intertwined with soft fabrics. Benjamin Noriega Ortiz does an amazing job of creating beautiful rooms that are modern, eclectic, and interesting.

Courtesy of Apartment Therapy

Although pink, fluffy, ruffly, and floral are usually associated with the word romantic, there are many ways to interpret those design elements and keep it modern and fresh. Featured on Apartment Therapy, Cynthia and Oliver’s San Francisco flat has all of above but it was done in a chic, warm, comforting, stylish way. The lines of the furniture are soft and curved, the materials – leather, ceramic, lacquered wood – are sleek and smooth. It’s all pretty seductive!

Photo courtesy of Elle Decor

Modern Romantic is as much about the physical aspects of a room as it is the way a room makes a person feel. Above, the mix of heavy and curved lines, spare but elegant accessories, and pink tones creates a blend of feminine and masculine that is a little mysterious and a little melancholy. It’s a contemporary but romantic interpretation of a sitting room.

Courtesy of Apartment Therapy

I am madly in love with this bathroom.  The industrial + glamor combination is heady stuff for me. It’s such a small gathering of things but it invites you to imagine an interesting, complex and impossibly chic person living there. Velvet, vintage, glass, warm wood, cool steel…it’s all completely romantic.

Grace and Dennis Hu's Living Room

Grace and Dennis Hu’s living room is a good example of Modern Romantic. The raw silk curtains, deep sofa, velvet pillows, brushed nickel and crystal accessories, tufting…Of course, style is subjective. My definition of romantic design is tied to my own likes and dislikes. I absolutely hate chintz and fringed sofas but many people think it creates a romantic ambiance. I think of it as elderly. For some, candles are romantic, but putting them in a Super 8 motel room won’t transform it into a romantic room (sorry).  In the end, a room is a room and it’s very much about the memories you create in it and the things it inspires you to do.

Melisa

 

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