Design Exercise: What's Your Personal Style?

I’ve been doing a lot of design-soul-searching lately, trying to really get a handle on my personal style.

(Image from Carlton Varney's Wisconsin lakehouse featured in House Beautiful)


While always evolving, I think it’s really important to hone your personal style or design philosophy into something you can wrap your head around & define. It makes us better designers/ decorators/ homeowners & more equipped to make decisions. When you really know who you are (or who your client is)and what you’re trying to achieve, it’s much easier to look at an object, a color or any other type of design-decision & know if it’s right for a space or not. Check out my first apartment (Ah! I can't believe I'm showing you this!!! haha I found lots of cool Asian objects & just decorated the room around the objects instead of what I actually loved. I used lots of bold colors because they created that "wow" effect I was after.) But looking back I really can barely stand this picture because it's just so not me & I've really found my style since then:

Now compare it to my townhome (below) & you'll see how much I changed & was able to sort of find myself (That was a summer pic of my townhome & even looking back at it I can see how I leaned towards a cottage feel. I still wouldn't say it's "totally me."):

Once you know your design style or philosophy, you can ask yourself some really important questions: Do I love it? Even if I think it's amazing, does it fit with my design philosophy? (Which was my problem with all the Asian objects- they were really cool & interesting, but they didn't strike any notes within me & as a result, the design rang hollow.) What’s the overall impact it’ll have on the space? Will it add or detract from what I’m trying to do? (For example, "If I want an uncluttered space, even though I love this set of antique prints, I know putting them in the room will make it feel too busy.")

(By Carleton Varney featured in House Beautiful)

But how do you figure out your personal design style/ design philosophy? Well, most of us crazy bloggers are doing it daily- writing posts about rooms we love, objects we think are beautiful, designers we admire… Scrolling down any blogger’s posts, it’s really cool to see how the collection of images (even from separate posts) creates this really telling ‘whole’ that gives us a peak into the writer’s style. Many of these bloggers have an amazing handle on their personal design styles. --- But I think it can be helpful to go further than that & really try to get our design philosophies into words.

(Philosopher from fineartprintsondemand.com)

As I’ve written in the ‘About Me’ section on the blog page, “My design philosophy, "pure style," is based on keeping things simple, beautiful & fun. “ But I’m in need of breaking it down & defining it further. I’m talking something deeper here. (And I don’t mean “Early American” or “Modern Asian” or “British Colonial” …. I mean something that can be translated across styles… Something more core, more innate.)

I think it’s really cool to see yourself begin to have a signature look that can be translated across many homes & styles. If you really get down & dissect what it is you love about rooms & what your recipe for a great room is, your personal style can translate across other design styles & I think that makes you a stronger designer. For example, what designers personally do in their homes is usually not exactly what clients want in their own homes, but there’s something about the designer’s style that clients see & love. – a signature look, a design philosophy, a personal style that comes across in every room. (Think Darryl Carter, below)

I think the more rooms you do, the more experience you have, the more your signature look will become apparent. I’m noticing this in my own work & it’s a really cool discovery. But it takes a lot of time & I’m SO not even close to where I hope to be one day. Blogging really helps you get a jumpstart because people start to say “Oh that’s so you” or “your style” and you start to realize that you actually are developing a concrete style. (Just scroll down blogger’s entire pages, quickly through all the posts & see how cool it is to get a glimpse of that blogger’s style!) -- Like Eddie Ross's signature style very apparent in his gorgeous living room below:

There have been some elements I’d never thought about until I started blogging. Here’s what I’ve got (SO FAR) for my ingredients in the recipe for a perfect “pure style” room: sculptural elements (such as spheres, large lamps, branches in a vase, certain furnishings that are just beautiful on their own like this table (below)from a Belgian-style home in House Beautiful:

A green element (such as plants/ flowers or moss) Here's a gorgeous fern in Carlton Varney's home:

A natural element (such as raw wood or coral or seashells or animal or nature prints,) like weathered wood & olive branch in this photo from House Beautiful:

White (& lots of it!) or another neutral or “huetral” (remember that article from House Beautiful?) like the white bowl (made by one of my best friends, Lindsey Augustine) combined with the white sofa & table:

A touch of pretty or maybe even something a tad fussy (such as an antique compote or a vintage plate, a fabric or a luxurious throw) to add some interest, like this pitcher in a room I did for my in-laws:

A hint of a Neoclassical/ Garden feel (I love topiaries, busts, urns & putting them in unexpected places or having fun with them). I love the feeling in the conservatory at Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown (we were supposed to take our wedding pics there but it rained-- no poured!! )

A raw or rough element (such as weathered wood, linen, burlap), a feeling of age (architectural details in a home, an antique table, etc.,) like the table below and weathered finishes below from House Beautiful:

Style contrasts (a modern painting hanging over an antique console) like this modern stainless oven paired with the antique linen dishtowel & botanical prints in my dad's kitchen:

A “WOW” element (like a huge hutch or tall ceiling or an insanely gorgeous mirror over a mantle, or beautiful furnishing or fabric or a striking color scheme) like this tub from Ina Garten's home:

Something quirky/fun or unexpected (like cute little porcelain busts on a dining room table or the flea market froggy) Check out this lady we've had in our family for years. She used to hold fake fruit (My Grandma Maestranzi was an old Italian lady who put plastic on the sofa) & I stuck her in my dad's bathroom to hold the soap as a joke but we actually ended up loving it:

A clean, well-edited look like this room by one of my FAVORITE DESIGNERS, Nate Berkus:

"Something off" like this surfboard in the picture below from Leslie Klotz's home featured in House Beautiful:

And, finally, enough room for change (I never want to be “finished” and our rooms are constantly evolving, be it seasonally or just when I feel like it… I love having a neutral base that I can inject punches of color or pattern into.)

Ok, so here goes my attempt at defining my personal style, or shall I say "pure style" haha. Pure Style is clean & simple, well-edited, natural, beautiful, sculptural, a blend of old & new, neutral with splashes of color/pattern & a little quirky & fun.

That was hard for me. Haha. It's a mouthful! I'm sure it'll evolve just like my rooms but it feels really good to define my style & really break it down. So, what I’m asking of you is that you tell me your personal style. Think hard & really dig deep. Whether you're a design enthusiast, do-it-yourselfer, designer or decorator, this can really help. If you’re reading & have never commented before, please do!! List your ingredients for YOUR perfect room recipe. If you can break your elements down into a philosophy, go for it!! (If you feel you need pics to explain like I did, you could always do a post on your blog & come link it up here in the comments section too!! :) I can't wait to hear everyone's!!!

xoxo,

Lauren

Florida Flea Market

This antique Chinese console at the 2007 San Francisco showhouse was dressed up by Suzanne Tucker of Tucker & Marks. If you'll remember, it's from that same "Neautrals" issue of House Beautiful that we all loved so much. Of course this vignette totally jumped out at me because I loved all the white, the mix of the rough antique Chinese altar table & the refined brass dolphin hurricanes, the cement spheres (we know how much I love to decorate with balls), the greenery, the modern element of the charcoal print and finally the adorable white frog planters.

The frogs really made this table for me. They add that little quirky element I love. Anyway, since I saw this image I never really got them out of my head & look what I found this weekend at a flea market in Florida!!!!:

There was only one & he was $4 and the first purchase of the day! Below, I cleaned him up & thought he would make a great little addition to the kitchen to put herb cuttings from the garden in. He could just stay under the sink & come out for fresh herbs.



I also found some other copycat items at this crazy Swap Shop Flea Market in Fort Lauderdale, which is huge:

The furnishings & home accessories seemed to be few & far between to me but I still had some luck. Check out all the goodies:

Do you remember the lion print from Lucketts? (Below):

Well look what I found for $2.50!!

And check out this beautiful drop-leaf table! If had been near home, this baby would be mine!

Below, I found this crazy vintage chandelier for only $8!!

I didn't really have a place for it so I gave it to my cousin & suggested she put it over her bed. She has promised to send me after pictures so I'll post them when I get them :)

And I had to have this great little chrome stool for $8. I sent it home with my dad (who had his SUV) to Illinois to go in our lake house, I think in my bedroom there :) I'll be reupholstering it & will post 'afters' on the whole room when I've finished it. (almost!!!) I think it would be a great with a tray on it for drinks, books, or at the foot of the bed for luggage &/or a pretty throw.

I thought this china was really beautiful. I didn't ask for the price & I totally forgot who makes it (sorry Eddie! :) but isn't it just really special? (haha it's hard to keep coming up with adjectives for pretty & beautiful when you're blogging!! ;) The blue was so gorgeous though.

And finally at the end we got our coconuts!! (Christian, of course, was fast asleep under his blanket in the stroller- Momma trained him well!- so he's not in the picture ;) My husband, Dave, loves these & drank 2 himself.

Blog Love: Thank you Blog Friends!

I wanted to thank Michele from "My Notting Hill" SO MUCH for doing a post on me. I'm super-flattered & really excited! :)

And ~No. 35 Style ~ also did a great post on adorable cottage lighting & put a link to my blog on there. She has some great ideas for ways to use it!!

Lindsay from LEB also set up a link to pure style home & wrote a fun post about moss and all the great ways to use it!!

Joni from the famous Cote de Texas wrote an amazing post on kitchens & included the kitchen from Beach Dwelling that I'd written about & a link back to pure style home. Thanks Joni!!

And I found myself on Room Lover which was pretty cool. I wrote a comment on there but I'm not sure if that's type of blog. But it's a very cool site she's set up. She does bios on a bunch of interior designers. It's a great reference.

And thank you to Camila from High-Heeled Foot in the Door, for a really sweet post she wrote about me. She was one of my first non-family member readers haha & has pretty much taught me how to blog. I remember emailing her after her first comments & asking her how to blog haha. And she told me! :) Thanks so much Camila!!

And how could I have forgotten, one of my FIRST EVER blog mentions (I went nutty when I got her email alerting me that she'd picked some of my posts for her favorite posts of 2008!) Things That Inspire!

And finally, Eddie Ross for his mention in his first flea market trip post. He & Jaithan carefully documented the whole trip & wrote about it on their blog, even putting a link to my website on it. Since then we've become friends & had the best time revisting them again at their (beautiful!!!) apartment in New York.

Ayway, thanks so much to all of you & I'm just having the best time getting into blogging & meeting so many new, sweet & extremely talented people. Everyone just includes everyone & it really has been a great experience. I was afraid to write comments when I first started because I thought no one wanted to hear "oh i love that!" but I realized how happy it makes me to get that from someone else & now I'm so much less self-conscious about leaving comments than I used to be. And I'm definitely looking forward to some type of blogger reunion one day!!! (Let's get thinking!! :)

xoxo,

Lauren

ps- Off to Florida to visit family for the long weekend!!! wahooooo

Betsy Brown

The vignette above is my idea of perfection. It might possibly be one of my favorite compositions ever, if not the favorite. The house belongs to Birmingham, Alabama interior designer Betsy Brown & was featured by House Beautiful in the Summer of 2007. I remember it clearly: I was on the beach in the Outer Banks, my baby was only 3 weeks old & asleep in his seat under the umbrella & I had an unopened issue of House Beautiful featuring neutrals. Could life get any better for me? (Ha! Yes! I could have been back to my pre-baby size already! ;) But I opened it & saw this & was in Heaven. (Check out the Queen Ann's lace in the beakers!!!)

I love this vignette because I feel like it has everything. The lime washed oak plank floors, the antique demilune table, crazy ornate mirror, modern art & a little piece of nature, the seashell. You're not forced to choose between wood finishes & this shows you can have it all! I think it really pulls you outside of the box. It's so perfectly "off." Sometimes people fear the mixing of all the woods & this shows just how beautiful it can be.

Above, she created a modern boxwood garden. The roof is gorgeous.

Below, Betsy Brown's use of all-white with restrained accent colors is amazing. The tiniest pop of green in the living room, below, gives a playful edge to the room (as does the huge wooden ball!) The best part is, you could change your color scheme at any time!

How simple & practical is her kitchen? Check out the saw horse legs under the table. She used a limewash on all the oak throughout the house.

Oh wow. The table top is a massive piece of weathered wood. You know that's on my COVET list. ;)

The bathroom is just so fresh!!! Again, her limewashed oak is gorgeous. I love it paired with all the white. It's so sculptural.

Her family room is laid-back yet kind of glamorous. I love all the layering: the fur throw and all the art:

Check out these magnolia blooms!! I can imagaine how good they smell & can't wait for spring!! (I def have the bug already!)

Her daughter's bedroom is the perfect teenage girl's room. The purple pops so much against all the white, yet it's still not crazy... Just fun & a little swanky!

How great is her office? She had this Moroccan design stenciled around the room & puts her inspiration photos in the lines. Talk about a blank slate! What a great inspiration room. Even her piles of magazines under her desk look good in there!

Some drama:

The floating vanities in the bathrooms are just incredible. The gray veins in the marble floors & countertop looks beautiful against the limewashed oak. It's just so pristine & simple & raw.

Her bedroom is so luxurious. I love the juxtaposition of the modern nightstands & headboard against the chair & the ornate gold mirror. (I also love that layered effect of the mirror in front of the draperies... I like it with art too.)

But you could just sink right in that bed. And, shes got a little bouquet of peonies. Maybe she's getting it ready for me?? ;)

When asked about her predominantly neutral pallete, Betsy says, "To me it just feels appropriate and comfortable. I love color, but I think it should either declare itself as the major player in a composition or quietly add the crucial notes that balance a room and make it intriguing. I usually opt for the latter."

Go Betsy!