Since Madeline arrived a couple of weeks early, I was able to make it the IPC Home Tour this year. The houses are always fabulous and it's always fun to see how the other half lives.
Interior designer Andrew Brown's home was featured on this year's tour and although I don't have any photos of his house, you can get a glimpse of his style in the photos below. Its very tailored, elegant, neutral, crisp, edited, intentional, meticulous.
As I left his home, I was so envious at how put together and perfect his interior was. I run around my house picking stuff up at least 8 hours of the day, I cannot imagine living in a space that was so clean and uncluttered. I think it would be pretty sweet. But then my friend countered with "it doesn't feel lived in".
Coincidentally, I just got Celerie Kemble's first book To Your Taste and she writes:
"...in life as in design, it is not perfection you should be after. There's beauty in the faded and worn, the well loved, and the sentimental. Your home should be like a loosely woven fabric of desires, memories, practical notions, and even compromises."
Some of the things that make a home feel lived in:
Snapshots stuck in the corner of a mirror, a stack of favorite books on display, a camera hinting at a favorite hobby, and a chair upholstered in a Mexican blanket picked up as a souvenir from a trip
Design via Nick Olsen in House Beautiful
Snapshots displayed en masse above the mantel
Domino
or in a tight grid of matching photo frames
Domino
The traditional arrangment of family photos by the staircase
This might be my favorite post of yours yet! Love the photos of the lived-in spaces...lots of color. Gives me hope for my own well-loved furniture and other pieces!
ReplyDeleteI'll have to agree with your friend. I have been in houses where the decor is spare and impersonal and the people that lived there were impossibly uptight. I like neatness but I like personality more.
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