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Archive for the ‘home’ Category

Many women have literally never had time to look around at the home-furnishings market to see what they would like if they could redo their own houses. Harried young mothers and ambitious career women fall into this category. They work so hard and focus so narrowly on one aspect of their lives that they forget they deserve a beautifully decorated home. I remember Leslie, an intelligent and bubbly young woman with a demanding job and two small boys, who presented herself at our studio. “I want to redo my living room,” she announced happily. “I’ve saved my salary for two years.”
“What style do you like?” I asked, and she exploded with laughter. “I’ve been so busy making the money to do it, I haven’t even thought about what I want.” We had to spend several weeks going through design magazines and furniture catalogs and many afternoons going through the showrooms until she got an idea of what her taste really was. Suddenly one day the phone rang.
“I want a dramatic, modern living room in antique ivory and black, with lacquer red accents. I want a clean-lined black lacquer hanging unit on the fireplace wall, and I want to cover the fireplace mantel with ivory travertine and brass trim. I want an ivory sofa and a big French chair, maybe done in red. Accents of brass and glass. Maybe a brass and glass coffee table and Japanese screens behind the sofa. Just big, simple calligraphy scrolls.” And after two months of looking, talking, thinking, and experimenting, it all came tumbling out: Leslie’s MAGIC ROOM. After this breakthrough we put the room together very quickly. It was a knockout—sophisticated with black marble tiles in the entry and a stunning color scheme. The heavy contrasts of black and ivory made a fabulous background for art and flowers.
So take heart, too-busy mother you can develop your own taste rapidly once you direct your energy toward design appreciation.

The MAGIC ROOM is the room we all deserve. Look at the rooms in the home fashion magazines—these are MAGIC ROOMS. We can imagine living some kind of wonderful life in each of them. One room says, “I am glamour, I am fun, I am all white satin and cream for rugs and clear Lucite tables and a single orchid.” Or a
family room says, “I am all masculine leisure—stone fireplace, bear rug, antiqued leather sofas, and oak-paneled walls.” Another room breathes, “I am the nursery, I am innocence and lace and lullabies, a soft tinkle of Brahms on an antique music box. I am love and pink fuzzy blankets and little pillowcases embroidered with ‘Now I lay me down to sleep’.” We’ve all admired rooms like these, so why not have one of your own? Anybody can. Believe me, it’s just a matter of reading on and tackling the problem step by step.

Failure of the imagination is a terrible kind of mal
Lose that grips us when the living room is covered with dust and old magazines and children’s train sets and cat hair. It is a disease that strikes the unwary Messie who thinks that if she could just get it all cleaned up once, everything would be all right. But then what would she have when she’s done? Perhaps a tidy, bare living room. Inoffensive—yet uninspiring. We need to be uplifted and buoyed by the beauty of our surroundings, not bored and depressed. But before we can even get the energy to clean out a space, we have to have a beautiful mental picture to inspire us toward getting out the wheelbarrow and going at it. This vision is of the MAGIC ROOM.