“People tend to want to place their sofas right against the wall,” Lovett says. “I always try to float the sofa a bit and give the sofa some breathing room. Here, we didn’t have floor outlets or any eye-level lighting. Incorporating table lamps allows for mood lighting and ambiance. We placed a console behind the sofa to bring in large-scale lamps, which also helped fill in the negative space between the sofa and the bottom of the windows.”
Add Table Lamps Placing table lamps in strategic spots is a great way to add indirect lighting and create a sense of warmth in your home. Take a look around and see where you need good light for reading, knitting, playing games or other tasks. Chances are there is already a side table or an end table nearby. Place a lamp on it and adjust the shade and height until the light is in just the right spot.
She doubled the amount of lights from 150 feet to 300, climbed her ladder and spent hours stringing them while Zack helped call out areas where there should be more or fewer bulbs. Once satisfied, she stepped down and they switched on the lights — and every bulb blew out. “There was the issue of power that we didn’t factor in,” Gabrielle says. “All those lights were connected together at one outlet.” Determined, Gabrielle climbed back up the ladder, took down all the lights, threw them away and started again. This time she connected the lights to three different outlets. “My thought was, the messier and less planned it looks the better,” she says. “I love those lights.”
Zack spent about a month working every day to build and assemble the bookshelf, and then buy and arrange about 1,000 books of literature, which include first editions of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden (Zack’s favorite book) and Grapes of Wrath and titles by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Cormac McCarthy. Zack had always wanted a large book collection but never had the space for it. Before moving in, he had about 300 books, and he built up the collection from there. The books are arranged based on “what he thought looked pretty,” Gabrielle says. “I’m not allowed to touch the bookshelf,” she jokes. “It’s his baby.” Gabrielle’s baby, you could say, is that intricate collection of string lights. When the Akers moved in, there was just one hardwired light in the entire loft, in the kitchen, so they had to come up with a clever way to light the place at night.
Colors, warmth
Ceiling
If your walls are already a shade of white and adding a new color isn’t in your comfort zone, look to neutral creamy whites to give the room a warm and refreshing look. Creamy white has an undertone of pale beige or greige, without being too yellow. The added warmth can give a stark room a welcoming glow without adding color. Wall paint: Elmira White HC-84, Benjamin Moore
Colors, wall, pillows
soft area rug
Now a library occupies this end of the room, while the other end contains a seating area and grand piano, at which one of the homeowners practices opera. At one point, the homeowners considered adding pilasters in the middle to divide the space, Hamilburg says, but she instead talked them into further unifying the room with color. “My suggestion to paint all of the woodwork and walls the same color, as opposed to having contrasting woodwork in a creamy white, was embraced, and helped unify the two spaces,” she says. The plan was to pick a dramatic shade, and she narrowed the scheme down to two contenders: red and blue. Farrow & Ball’s Stiffkey Blue won, with bright red and camel becoming secondary accents. Before painting, Hamilburg had the walls and ceiling professionally replastered. Ceiling paint: White Dove OC-17, Benjamin Moore
The more vibrant the color, the simpler I like to keep the rest of the colors and elements in a room. This chair is the perfect dash of color in this comfy-looking warm and minimalist bedroom.
Any sofa can be bold and beautiful in a contemporary pattern like this stripe (or another fun geometric), but the particular shape of a roll-arm sofa helps soften the edges of a bold print, making it feel livable instead of purely dramatic. This sofa calls out to be sunk into, not just admired from afar (although you’ll want to do that too).
painted mural
Small shrubs. Don’t forget to consider appropriate shrubs for wall and crevice planting. Heathers (Calluna spp, zones 4 to 10) and low-spreading junipers, such as shore juniper (Juniperus conferta cvs, zones 5 to 9), are good choices to consider.
Ground covers. Many of the shorter spreading plants generically referred to as ground covers are well suited for planting in wall crevices or between boulders. Mediterranean plants are the best choice in sunny, dry locations. Consider thyme (Thymus spp, USDA zones 5 to 9), prostrate rosemary (Rosmarinus officianalis ‘Prostratus’, zones 7 to 10), and cheddar pinks (Dianthus gratianopolitanus, zones 3 to 9), among others. Plant in well-drained soil.
Plant rocky surfaces. Similar to asphalt and concrete, even naturally occurring rocky surfaces will quickly shed water. The rock outcropping shown here is also part of a steep slope, which means water whisks right off it. You can plant rocky slopes with alpine species that thrive in low soil volumes. Even a small pocket of soil is enough to carefully establish plants that will spread among a rocky surface. Over time, those plants can spread within the rock crevices to break up the surface and slow water runoff.
Exposed venting on another custom metal hood accentuates the utilitarian aspect of a renovated 1915 cottage kitchen.
the white on white look
Another hood made of reclaimed wood embraces its natural weathered patina, a finish befitting this kitchen design.
Hood: Accents of Warm Wood A wide range of materials are being employed when building and fabricating hoods. In a design mixing modern lines with a rustic material, this custom made hood by Sullivan Building & Design Group features a band of a reclaimed beam wrapped around its lower edge. Tip: Look for reclaimed wood at salvage building material stores, and hood inserts from appliance stores or hood manufacturers. And don’t fret over any airborne cooking deposits on such a surface; it has weathered the outdoors, it will weather anything else that can be thrown at it.
shelves
pot rack
the ottomans featuring faux animal legs
Mat scale. Boris Smorodinsky of Striving Artists Framing and Art Services in Los Angeles says there’s no hard-and-fast rule as to how wide a mat should be in relationship to the artwork. In fact, framing in general is subjective and depends on the piece and the client’s personal preferences. However, Smorodinsky usually starts with a minimum width of 2 inches.
If you want a large, luxurious piece that doesn’t overpower a breezy room, choose one with a lot of exposed white background, or buy a large, simple frame with deep white matting and fill it with a simple photo. It will exude museum character, even if you aren’t a professional photographer.
Be open to the possibilities. If you want a less traditional look for your bookshelves, consider a series of open shelves. They provide just as much space for storing books, but feel lighter and tend to work well in modern homes.
Tree trunk side tables look equally at home in a traditional environment, providing a small surface for a cup or a book in a spot where placing a larger accent table would block the flow in and out of the room.
The room’s placement near the back door meant that the dogs would come in after playing in the yard and immediately rub against the sofa, though, so a durable upholstery material was a requirement. A marine-grade purple vinyl from Kravet adorns the frame and is impervious to the dogs’ abrasion, and a Teflon-coated velvet keeps the cushions cozy for the family.
stools: smart and sleek, Wisteria;
wishbone chairs: Oslo
Pottery Barn; counter stools:
the frames, soft color
the stools and floor
Pick one main background color. Mixing too many colors together in a palette without a main color theme might make your room look busy and disorienting. The orange here holds the scheme together and gives it a sense of solidity because it’s a similar value (relative lightness and darkness) as the other colors used in the foliage design. If these walls were painted white instead of orange, they would contrast greatly with the design, and likely make the entire installation feel ungrounded and overwhelming.
the suzani throw on this sofa is a prominent piece with an equally bold design. The two throw pillows on the right side have a simpler, small-scale design that almost reads as textural. Meanwhile, the medium-scale floral pillows on the left serve as a good go-between.
Red amps up the energy in a room and gets your heart beating. It’s an excellent choice for a dining or living room, as it stimulates social interaction. These lively walls are painted in a high-gloss Million Dollar Red by Benjamin Moore.
Outdoor fabric used indoors.
buttoned linen sofa: Rose & Grey.
Wall paint: Chalky Downs No. 4, Dulux.
Viceversa light fixture by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance for Kundalini Lighting designers likewise paid homage to the natural world. Several exhibits at Euroluce (Milan, April 9-14) worked plant pots right into light fixtures. The International Contemporary Furniture Fair also showed off fixtures inspired by natural forms. Euroluce 2019: 6 Features of Cutting-Edge Lighting
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