Point of view interiors
Designing your home from your personal point of view will always be on the IN list
I remember the first time I walked into the home of a former boss and instantly felt comforted, surrounded not only by beauty but by a marked point of view. I was working as a design assistant, and her office was in the lower level of her home. As I passed through her dining room, painted in a sumptuous carnelian red with a pair of screens upholstered in an antique Italian fabric flanking two corners of the room, I followed the notes of classical music softly emitting from a radio located in the adjacent kitchen.
There was a Jacobean antique eat-in table with the morning newspaper and a coffee cup still lingering from breakfast. Past the table, a pair of French doors opened out onto her small, charming garden. An energetic Irish terrier suddenly bounded around the corner, greeting me with an attempted tackle. It was a home that had been thoughtfully and beautifully designed, yet didn’t feel contrived. It left space for the daily doings of life. It was a home where the owners’ story was foregrounded, layered on a well-appointed background.
I adhere to the rule that there are no “shoulds” in decorating, BUT with a few caveats. How we design the spaces we live in should always start with your {the client’s} point of view. This approach will always create the best possible design—one that is interesting, beautiful, and authentically you.
I know for many people the idea of decorating a space can feel overwhelming, which is why they often hire a professional designer. And a large part of my job when starting any project is to learn about how my clients live or even how they aspire to live, and to help them dial-in on their aesthetic preferences.
A few years ago, I renovated a penthouse apartment for a couple who had just moved back to the US after living abroad for 20 years. They had most recently been living in Thailand and had come to love the Thai culture and Asian design. When we began discussing the design direction for the renovation, they said they wanted it to feel like a luxury Asian hotel, and they brought back with them a container full of art, sculptures, and Thai silk textiles. It was a fun creative exercise to find ways to integrate into the design the influence of Thai culture along with their personal art collection, while at the same time maintaining the tension around the fact that their penthouse apartment was in the US. We weren’t going for a Disney World version of Thailand in America. When the project was completed, the result was a beautiful home that visually communicated the couple’s history and passion for Thailand, but in a way that felt geographically appropriate for their American address. Furthermore, all the items they had collected while abroad wove together their unique story.
Another project I worked on was for a well-traveled family who were Francophiles, and the wife had studied Art History. They lived in Virginia but wanted to incorporate a French influence into the designs. I used a painting by one of the wife’s favorite artist, Modigliani, as a jumping off point for the colors and the feel of the overall design. Side note - art is a great way to refine what you are drawn to, and even if you can’t put words to it, you can find a work of art that makes your heart sing and use it as a guide to designing your own space.
What I love about these two projects above is that they could not be more different, and that is the beauty of designing with your point of view (POV). It’s YOUR story, and it’s one of my favorite aspects of my work - to explore the who behind my clients and help them to visually communicate their story in their home.
So where do you start to find your design POV? Think about all the places you have traveled, the hotels you have stayed in, the homes of friends you have spent time in, and the art you gravitate toward (whether it’s fine art, film, books, etc). Note what makes your heart sing, and I think you’ll start to find a thread that weaves through them all.
“Your home is the backdrop of your life, whether it is a palace or a one-room apartment.” “It should honestly be your own—an expression of your personality.” -Dorothy Draper
The other design rule I follow is that we are allowed for our point of view to evolve and change. Life is dynamic, and so are human beings. Our experiences throughout life influence us. I know my aesthetic preferences have certainly changed since I was in my 20s.
I worked as a design assistant for two very different designers for several years before hanging my own shingle. My very first job was an assistant to a designer who worked for a larger company that specialized in English and French country style. It was in the early 2000s in Washington, DC where the word conservative was applied to almost everything, regardless of a person’s liberal or conservative ideology. Perfectly coiffed news anchor-hair paired with pearls or a navy blazer was a dime-a-dozen on the streets of the Capitol. While the projects I worked on matched this traditionalism, the designer I worked with had exquisite taste, and I was introduced to beautiful brocades, silk lampas, antique English pine furniture, and Oushak and Aubusson rugs. This was also during the period when the American magazine, Domino, was popular among the young adult set. Conversely, the magazine had a more playful, youthful, colorful, and vintage vibe reminiscent of the early Kate Spade ads and the Jenna Lyon/J.Crew era.
When my husband and I bought our first home in Washington, DC, I designed it with a mash-up of these two aesthetics. It was a bit of European antiques meets vintage Palm Beach. I was only 26 and in the process of figuring out my own personal aesthetic, but I was clearly being influenced both by my work settings and the current trends of the day.
I left said design job when my husband and I decided to take a two-month sabbatical to Europe. My time in Europe would prove to be the next formative experience in my interior design education. We traveled throughout the UK, France, and Italy, and I fell head-over-heels in love with the history, the architecture, the antiques, and above all, the craftsmanship. I was attracted to the color and pattern play of British design, the insouciance and collected design approach of the French, and the use of rich textiles by the Italians.
Fast forward almost a decade, and I find myself living in Paris. And now, after another decade of having lived in France with several notable life experiences in between, my own home now is nothing like my first home on Capitol Hill. I’m now drawn to prioritizing sumptuous textures over pattern, I prefer an earthier palette, and I now have to consider two rambunctious toddlers who love jumping on the sofa.
Will my preferences change again? Maybe, probably, but I’m allowed. Maybe we will leave Paris and head to the countryside, where I know I would design a country house very different than my Parisian apartment. There is no “right way” of decorating - sure, there are some good rules of thumb when it comes to proportion and combining color and pattern, but within those rules, there is a lot of play to be had.
Below are a few of my favorite homes that leave a strong imprint of the homeowner, and you can tell they had a lot of fun creating their personal havens.
The last rule I follow is don’t follow the trends. The interiors that celebrate you, your penchant for (fill the blank), and a home that doesn’t need approval from others, is always going to be “in.”
Introducing Contributor, Kathryn Ivey:
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