TRENDING-- WALLPAPERED CEILINGS ON THE RISE

Lacquered, wainscotted and stenciled, ceilings have gone from flat to fabulous bringing the eyes upward making "the fifth wall" decors latest star. Kelly Wearstler kick started the trend by featuring her bold and graphic designs on top. Her graphic stripes, bold geometric designs and whimsical spatter's have graced the ceilings of stars like Cameron Diaz bringing an added layer of energy and artistic elegance to the room. 

Wearstler's mod and playful girl's bedroom

Love the horizontal lines juxtaposed with swirled granite

Cameron Diaz's muted bedroom gets a boost from gold caned wallpaper

Malachite on the ceiling? Yes! Shelly Johnstone Pashke has embraced the trend with gorgeous results.

Muted wallpaper balances the rich lacquered walls.

Cole & Sons Hicks wallpaper looks gorgeous paired with blue kitchen cabinets

I'm ready to jump on the trend. My latest design project includes a sitting room layered with texture in soothing shades of cream and white. The element of surprise? A wallpapered ceiling-bold and graphic or subtle and sophisticated?  I'll keep you posted...

SUNNY SIDE UP

“Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot; others transform a yellow spot into the sun.”

Pablo Picasso

 

Bold and vibrant, soft and mellow, yellow reminds me of warm summer days and seems to hit the right note with this cold, blah January weather. Wishing you a warm and wonderful weekend, sunnyside up!

Kelly Wearstler

Amanda Nisbet

David Hicks

Cole and Sons wallpaper

New York's finest

Alex Papachristidis

House Beautiful

KWID

The perfect breakfast-

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

first image Jeffrey Bilhuber, last image the Sunny Girl blog

 

OFF THE WALL CLOSETS

A Jonathan Adler design

I've been researching dressing rooms for a client recently and for inspiration, I've rounded up a list of envy worthy photos that I can't wait to share with her (and you!). Plans have already been developed, but we still have to choose carpet, lighting and furniture, those design decisions that can take a room from great to extraordinary. Her dressing room will be diva Mariah Carey worthy, crafted from beautiful milled wood with rows of shoe cubbies, lined jewelry drawers, mirrored doors and a gorgeous custom desk set beneath a picture window. I'm ready to move in and it's not even built yet! Chic and glamourous, sleek and sophisticated or hopelessly romantic-what does your dream closet look like?

One of my favorites-the Ikat paneled doors, silk bench and leather pulls are so sophisticated. Designed by Stephen Gambrel

Kelly Wearstler's dressing room features bold patterned carpet and glossy gold paint are super luxe

Beautiful millwork, marble floors and a crystal chandelier is so glamorous

 Jeffery Weisman's dressing room is light infused with a gorgeous fretwork door.

 Laura Bohn's creates a luxurious retreat with texture-

 Luis Bustamante's sleek Deco inspired dressing room features lacquered cabinets and a modern nickel light fixture.

Massuco-Warner-Miller's sleek dressing room features a beautiful carved custom pocket door

For the girl who can't live without a little pink!

THERE'S ALWAYS ROOM FOR BLUE

I'm always delighted to see new installations at my favorite shops in the D & D. Designer staged rooms provide great inspiration and I always seem to find a fabric or trim that would be perfect for a new project. My trip to Lee Jofa yesterday did not disappoint. Kelly Wearstler's edgy Hollywood glam was tuned down a bit with a chic homage to the color blue. Her rich Bengal Bazaar fabric is the backdrop for an elegant pairing of deep teal and stark white. I love the larger than life white busts that flank the fireplace-great conversation pieces! The room is masterful mix of cool Hollywood Regency pieces and my favorite color blue-when can I move in?

 Chaise covered in Sora velvet in blue

Side chair covered in Fuji Modern in teal

Walls covered in Bengal Bazaar in teal

JUST LISTED

It's one of my secret pleasures to scour the real estate listings and see whats new and just listed. I'm always looking for classic estates with wonderful architecture and interesting pedigree and was happily surprised to find the Beverly Hills home of uber designer Kelly Wearstler just listed for sale for $46M. The 11,300-square-foot estate is called Hillcrest Estate, and the Georgian/Hollywood Regency-style home was originally built for actor William Powell and his wife at the time, the actress Carole Lombard. Talk about pedigree! Wearstler hired architect Brian Tichenor to preserve much of the home's Art Moderne details, and the space was profiled in the October 2009 issue of Vogue magazine. The interiors are classic Wearstler: masterful use of color, black-lacquer and an assortment of overscaled sculpture, statuary and statement pieces.  It's Wearstler maximalism at its finest, but is it for you? 

NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK

Hot House Floral

Choosing fabrics is a part of the design process that people look forward to most.  It's a chance to express yourself through a room filled with colors and textures of your choosing.  Certainly, there are days when the fabric choices for a room comes together with relative ease, but more often than not, it takes a certain amount of patience, fortitude and luck to find the right mix of colors, textures and styles.

I'm currently working on a project for a young Manhattan family with three children under the age of seven. They wanted a living room that read young and modern but didn't want to sacrifice style for comfort. Plans were drawn for two separate seating areas with two sofas and several upholstered chairs. My client fell in love with Celerie Kemble's Hot House Flowers, a modern, large scale floral that is smart and contemporary with a soothing palette of silver blues, beiges, browns and blacks. We decided to use the fabric on two club chairs and using the colors in the print as an anchor, we chose a palette rich in neutrals and texture.

 This smart Kravet love seat will be upholstered in a handsome chevron print with a double row of polished brass nailheads running up the sofas arms.

The room's large windows will look fantastic surrounded by Kravet Couture's Velvet Gate linen and velvet fabric.

The Schumacher chocolate velvet was both a luxurious and practical choice for the modern Robert sofa from Hickory Chair.  The dark velvet will keep little fingerprints and errant dog hair nearly invisible.

My favorite piece is the sophisticated Oly Benjamin chair covered in cobblestone leather. The smaller scale is perfect for apartment living.

The room was coming together nicely.  All that was left was the ottoman, which would be positioned between the club chairs and chevron print loveseat and used as a coffee table. But the two yards of fabric needed proved to be elusive-we wanted a print that would compliment the floral and not overtake the sporty chevron print.

We came very close with:

 Manuel Canovas Tate in Noir

Kelly Wearstler Katana by Groundworks

But everything was just a little off.  A little bleary eyed but still optimistic, we found our needle in the haystack on the second floor of Clarence House with the beautiful linen print in ink and beige with a free flowing, natural design-perfect for the room.

Alfonso in Ink

GOLDFINGER

"I am an idealist. I am certain that very soon now humanity will arrive at a marvelous epoch totally devoid of Knoll chairs, jogging pants, tennis shoes and baseball caps sideway use, and the obscenity of Japanese rock gardens five thousand miles from Kyoto." Pedro Friedeberg


I first came upon artist Pedro Friedberg's iconic hand sculpture chair a few years ago on the cover of Metropolitan Home. I was intrigued by the chair's organic simplicity, but also a bit confused-while the chair was placed in a traditional seating arrangement, with its artfully curved fingers cupped into a cozy seat, surely this was not a chair for family lounging. I imagined the sculpture in my living room, playful, elegant fingers shining in the morning sunlight-until someone threw their book bag or tennis racquet into its golden grasp. Oops, time for a reality check. Clearly the hand will have remain an object of desire, along with the voluminous pale blue Scalamandre silk, a wish for another day.

 Jamie Drake's sleek apartment featured in The New York Times

The whimsical hand chair, first introduced by Friedeberg in 1962, has enjoyed a near cult like following over the years with a list of bold faced designers from Kelly Wearstler to Arnold Scassi collecting the artists pieces. The sculpture was recently featured in a piece on designer Jamie Drake's sleek Manhattan rental apartment in The New York Times.  Drake kept his color quotient at a minimum, allowing the thoughtful sculpture the attention it deserves.

 The fluid lines of the hand contrasts the stark New York skyline.

 

Nate Berkus designed home for Brian Atwood, Elle Decor

 

Jonathan Adler keeps it cool in his Florida pied-a-terre, Met Home.

 

Pop culture! A striking tableaux featuring a pair of hand and feet chairs and coffee table. Photo courtesy of Paul Friedeberg

 

Designer Kelly Wearstler's entry foyer.

Foot and hand table, photo Pedro Friedeberg.

 

Remember to enter my First Time give away, just leave a comment and suggestion with your email address--your chance to win your choice of  one of my favoirte Hampton inspired books: Weekend Utopia, Barefoot Contessa, Back to Basics,  Michael S. Smith, Houses or Houses of the Hamptons. Winners will be announced next Wednesday!