There are things I notice, things I love, things I hate and things I can't live without. I thought, pondered and even stewed about letting in a bit of mixed culture into my home and life, you know, to stir things up a bit and create new vignettes and moments into my everyday life. I have thought hard and deep and realize that those things that I like, even love, have no place in my home or work life. For instance, I love when great photos are perfectly framed and hung cluttered on walls. I especially love when photos are clustered on walls from floor to ceiling. However, I just don't like it in my home, at all. Perhaps its the clutter? Perhaps its the daunting task of the actual act of hanging them all. But, in thinking hard and deep and even laying out a perfect plan to hang the collected works of photography and art, I happen to realize that I just don't like pictures. I have one photo picture of an old French, 1930's mannequin set upon my mantle at a resting tilt. That is my extreme of photos. No friends and family pictures clutter my tables or walls either. I find them to be freaky and weird as they stare at me in the same gaze day after day, so they all have been edited to a box in the closet. Thus, I love a good wall of pictures hung in perfect harmony in someones home, work or hotel, but I will never allow such wall covering in my home.
Green Walls!!! I LOVE them! When the color green is the perfect blend of depth and vibrancy, magic happens and life begins. Again, not in my home please. I have admired walls like these since, well, I think I was a teenager. I love the guts it takes to take a white wall to big levels. This boldness acts as the walls make-up. Its like that daring green eyeshadow I have seen only a select few women wear..and it works for them. I prefer a muted color palette in my home and I go as bold and deep as warm charcoal Grey. I have often collected deep, bright paint swatches and hung them in all rooms in my home thinking I would jump off the pantone bridge. I always come back to and realize my daily waking, occasional lounging and peaceful slumber requires paint colors of timelessness and understated composer.
My all time favorite, as a guest in a home or hotel, is white furniture. Clean, bright, aloft...white furniture is, to me, an all time F you to commitment. I get it, yes, some love to live a life of bright white and void of color, much like those who choose black as their safety zone. I, on the other hand, prefer, again, muted colors or textures like Belgian linen and colors like coffee, grey, taupe and dove. I was once told that the color white is the beginning of making decisions, a non-commitment, the start of moving forward or changing. Could it be that the homes of white and hotels of the same decor are places of rejuvenation and self-discovery? Not sure about that, but I do know its not right for my home and I will admire it from afar. Side note: I love white sheets if that matters.
Finally, flowers. Okay, about a decade ago the trend to tilt flowers en mass from the tops of vases became all the rage and still, to this day, I have noticed that many of my colleagues still choose this design to create "edgy" and "big statement" event decor. HAAAAAAAA!!! I laugh at them all. A couple things before I digress into dogging the competition: First, I love the was this flower design looks at the George V in Paris. Its truly amazing and a must see on anyone's visit to the City of Lights. Why it looks good there? Because of the generous budget. Also, I like Jeff, the designer behind the global trend. Here, hotels/floral designers, copy the "look" halfheartedly. How boring to walk into a hotel and see the same flowers as the competing hotel around the corner...ahh, yawn. They clearly don't have the budgets to perform a ballet of en mass "tippy" flowers, thus losing the impact and "wow". Same goes for weddings and events, if you're going to do it at all, do it right or leave it in the pages of a book. I don't even attempt this design for the main reason of not copying someone's signature design. I choose to create a style of flowers that are more beautiful and just as interesting. So, again, although I admire the work of Jeff Leatham, I won't tip my flowers.
I sometimes wish I could paint a room grass green and load the walls with pictures and paintings and fill it with blank faced furniture and red roses bundled and tipped to one side out of a vase on the coffee table, but as I look around my environments, I take pride in my solace and simplicity. In fact, because I have a muted private world for which I live and work, I am more creative, more ambitious and more focused. Those are the integrated "who I am's" that I can't live without.
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