JPG LTD at Home

Designers
March 6, 2012

My dear friend Janet Gregg, and one of the chicest jewelry designers around, just launched a new website today at www.janetgregg.com. You all should definitely go and check out her pieces – they are amazing. If her jewelry design isn’t reason enough to understand Janet’s fabulous sense of style, below are pictures I took of her absolutely beautiful cottage on Charleston’s famed Stoll’s Alley.

Is this your dream house, or what? All of the different paint applications on the walls of the cottage were done by Janet herself! The living room is one of my favorite rooms of all time … which is your favorite?

Books and the Recipe for my Aesthetic

Designers
November 1, 2011

There are those decorators who you wish that you could be a bit like. Rooms that you wish you could create, places you wish you could live. I have a list of decorators that I love; and whose style I hope that I can emulate. Combined, these decorators illustrate the way I would like my design aesthetic to appear … Amelia Handegan, Tom Scheerer, Darryl Carter, Albert Hadley, and Jeffrey Bilhuber. Over the weekend I bought Bilhuber’s new book, The Way Home – and its great. The interiors included are beautiful, but it is the stories behind the projects that are the most fun to hear about. Below are some Bilhuber rooms that I love.

Who do you wish you could emulate? Do you have a list of favorite decorators that combined, you feel best describes your style?

Are You a Spartan? or a Victorian?

Designers
October 27, 2011

What kind of decorator are you? Do you like minimalism or do you like more “stuff”? I am never sure what type of decorating I like best, because I am constantly drawn to different things. As a preservationist, and lover of architecture, I find that certain spaces call for certain types of decorating. Typically, more modern architecture calls for more minimalist type decorating, and a traditional architecture calls for a busier look. However, that is not always the case.

Darryl Carter, one of my favorite decorators, typically works in spaces with more traditional architecture, but he decorates with an understated minimalism using both traditional and modern furniture. What I love about his take on traditional architecture is that many people forget that historic colonial homes had very little furniture. Drapes and carpets and wallpaper and bric a brac is something that was brought on in the 19th century, and taken to the next level during the Victorian era. So when Carter decorates either an 18th century space, or a colonial revival space, he is actually decorating the space like it would have been originally.

Here is Bunny Williams’ NYC apartment. I also love this look. Stacks of books on chairs, under tables, bookcases, flowers on the mantle, and several smaller seating arrangements. For some reason, I always love this look for a New York apartment. I don’t know what it is about our apartment in NYC, we have so little space, but I want our apartment to look more like this. And that is easy, because I have stacks of books everywhere and no shelves to put them on!

But this, this is the ultimate. Somehow this Copenhagen living room manages to have both a minimalist appearance, as well as having tons of stuff in it. I love the stacks of paintings on the walls and the bookshelf brimming with books. And yet the room does not feel cluttered with the minimalist furniture and doors opening to the outside … I love it. Also helps that this house sports 12 over 12 windows, my fave. What do you think? What type of decorator are you?

Images via DarrylCarter.com, BunnyWilliams.com, and Marie Claire Maison Italia