Effortlessly Chic

Miles Redd, designer extrordinaire, Danielle Rollins, hostess extraordinaire, and Richard Lambertson, tastemaker and design director for Tiffany's, spoke about the synergy between design mediums. Moderated by CJ Carey of NYC & G Magazine, we got a peek inside the minds of 3 very chic, stylish people.  The discussion took a fortuitous turn when I realized that Danielle wrote the beautiful  book SOIRÉE,

and Miles Redd are very good friends.  Miles, by the way, also has a book due out in a week or so.  It is aptly named, The Big Book of Chic, which he is, and everything he does, is!  Their friendship was solidified when Miles designed the interiors of Danielle's home in Atlanta.  Boxwood is a famous 1920 estate in Buckhead.  I remembered that home, as I had seen it in Town and Country and was blown away by its beauty.  I dogeared the pages to write about it at some future date.  Well, that day has come.  They both easily chatted about how they came together to design this classic home, each influencing the other.

Clearly, the house had beautiful bones.  Miles respected that and added that certain je ne sais quoi that is signature Miles Redd.
As designers we ask ourselves, who is the client?  How to they live?  What are their are fantasies and how can we translate them into an interior of a home, or in the case of Robert Lambertson; a handbag?

While Miles came up with the extraordinary design ideas, it sounded like Danielle, with 3 kids and several dogs made sure function and practicality were also considered.  They can co-exist!

Danielle told the story about when she got a call from Miles saying,"Let's tent the dining room." Danielle replied, "As long as we can laminate the walls to protect them from the kids and dogs."

The library is very similar to the famous lacquered jewel box that Albert Hadley created for Brooke Astor, replete with brass trim; an inspiration for everyone.

The ruffled curtains were inspired  by an Oscar de la Renta ball gown.  Miles works with Oscar on a fabric line for Lee Jofa.  Everything is intertwined!
                                                   

Everyone agreed that style is not about money, it's more of an attitude--the confidence to be adventurous, take risks, but stay true to who you are.  It doesn't matter if you are creating and executing a theme for a party or respecting Tiffany's past while taking it into the future.  Chic is Chic is Chic....

phs: Francesco Lagnese, first photo: Assouline, last ph:CLI

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It's Going to be a Colorful Fall

 As predicted, Tangerine Tango has proven to be a very popular color this year, and I think it has legs.  While we wait for the color of the year 2013, Pantone has provided designers with a trend forecast for this fall, as published last year.  We are seeing it take shape, and these more bright than muted colors happily coexist with almost anything!

Jeffery Bilhuber

If enveloping yourself in one of these colors seems like too much of a commitment, like anything else, a little goes a long way.  Know thyself; there's something for everyone.  Add touches of these saturated colors for an instant update.  Take a cue from these pictures and mix these colors together.  They're wonderfully complementary ~

Christian Leone via Lonny

Amanda Nisbet

Miles Redd

Amanda Nisbet

Miles Redd

Jamie Drake

Melissa Ruffy

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Kitchen of the week: A Miles Redd Kitchen

This kitchen designed by Miles Redd for a family in Connecticut is in the July issue of Architectural Digest.  I love how the blue of the walls and wood color of the cabinets contrast each other.  Enjoy!

Sorry about my iPhone photo. 

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They've got their 10,000 hours or more

If you have read Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers: The Story of Success then you're familiar with his theory about how all successful men and women besides having wonderful and enduring qualities have a continuous common factor among them which is an incredible amount of hours at practicing and getting perfect at what they love and what they are passionate about.  Gladwell claims that in order to be an "Outlier" one should complete 10,000 hours doing what one wants to excel in.  The book is way deeper and more explanatory and it goes into greater details about his theory and how everything makes totally sense, so if you haven't read it, I strongly suggest that you do.
I can't help connecting everything I read to design, so the first outlier in design that came to my mind was Albert Hadley and with him some members of what I call "The magic circle."  No I don't mean Palates, you!, I mean all the successful designers who once worked for Albert Hadley and seem to have enduring success.  I'm not going to go into detail as how I calculated the hours because it could be tedious but only the period from 1962 to 1999 during the time of Parish-Hadley partnership He seems to have had under his belt more than 72,224 hours; business hours only.  That is not counting the times when a designer keeps working mentally and takes every detail of the work home.  Isn't that amazing!? 

Bunny Williams who worked for Alber Hadley for 22 years.  During that time she had only 42,944 hours.  Amazing!

Miles Redd, even though he didn't work directly for Mr. Hadley but he got some of the magic circle through Bunny.  Miles opened his firm in 1998 and before that he worked for Bunny Williams for 5 years and before that for John Rosselli.  That is approximately a total of 23 years.  You do the math...

David Easton  worked for Parish-Hadley from 1967 to 1972 to then found David Eston Interiors.  He's been working ever since.  Yes, that many hours!  Uhm... I wonder if blogging counts.  ah.. I don't think so.  :(

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New Images from Miles Redd

Yesterday I went into Miles Redd's website and was more than happy to find more and new images of this amazing Atlanta home designed by him and featured in Town and Country a few months ago.  What seems to be a girl's vanity (down below) is simply adorable.  Enjoy!

Photos by Francesco Lagnese

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Wednesday Classics: Upholstered Doors

Helena Rubenstein's Paris apartment 1937.  Image via Corbis.

Upholstered doors are perhaps the crown jewel of detailing.  One thing is to add moldings, dado rails and/or to cover a wall with mirrors but upholstering one door is the epitome of attention to details.  Although most commonly used in the glamorous times of the ‘30's; according to Suzanne Rheinstein, upholstered doors were also used in kitchen doors of the English Estates to keep the sound and the smell of cooking from spreading.  Very clever!  One of the first old images that come to my mind is Helena Rubenstein's Paris apartment ca. 1937 where sumptuous satin fabric covered the doors in her bedroom.  In the time of glamour and exuberance of the ‘30's, doors were a lot more elaborate with patterns that not only emulated the shape of the door but were more like plain canvases where different designs patterns were created.

John Saladino did it a little bit more like the old times when doors were more elaborate.  He covered these doors in leather creating big squares with x pattern inside with nailhead.

Suede covered doors.

How tranquil and gorgeous is this bedroom.  I don't know if the doors are upholstered but I think it's a good pattern to recreate.  Image via.

 Miles Redd amazing zebra doors.  Stunning!  Below is a view of his bedroom's more elaborate door.

 Miles Redd

I don't know the source of this image but the doors are absolutely beautiful.  Love the drop pull handle in the middle.

I have very plain, uninteresting doors in my bedroom closet and I've been thinking about revamping them up a little bit.  I think these doors did it for me.  It's time for another small project in the house.

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