Books Books Books

Organizing books can be very personal.  Really the person who’s books they are needs to be part of the organizing.  Now some of you may be saying to yourself- “yeah, of course who else would do it?”.  Well as an Interior Designer, I am asked very frequently to reorganize peoples built-ins to look really Fab.  This is tough if the person is really into books.  Which have they read, which are in cue to be read, does this person need them by subject or author?  This is very important to most people, and is very different to how the book shelves will look best.  They look best if arranged by color:

When they are arranged by color there is a visual calm that's achieved.  Otherwise they seem chaotic and visually cluttered:

If you need your books to be by topic, author, or been read or not, then making smaller collections of those categories and separating them with some interesting objects is a great way to visually organize them:

or spread the arranging to other areas of the room as well, like the mantle:

 

Or the coffee table or console/hall table:

When people visit your home they are unconsciously looking for personality cues on the people who live there.  Who are they, what are they passionate about, where have they traveled?  By giving them those cues (books,accessories,art) your home instantly has more character, depth and warmth, not to mention instant conversation topics.  Without these things your home resembles a furniture showroom void of all human touches.

I am also (very often) asked to shop for all accessories, picture frames, art and books for a home owner that currently does not own anything.  This can be interesting, I am essentially creating the personality of the client, which people will see and adopt as the client’s identity.  Usually by this point in a project, I have a very detailed idea of who these people are so I’m not pulling personality out of thin air. 

There is the rare client who makes me wish there were more books on garden variety sociopaths – that way I could help them portray their true personalities to their visitors.

Piles of crap!

Ok, so after my last posts I've been asked what it takes to organize a house effectively.  My thoughts are that you must build upon a few foundations:
1) Everything must have a place.  If you have piles of ‘stuff’, sort them until it all has a ‘place’, then continue through the whole house.  Set goals: “I will attack two piles a day until my house is pile free.”
2) The ‘place’ needs to be located right where you will partake in the activity that requires that ‘stuff’.  If you trim your fingernails in the bathroom when you exit the shower, then don’t keep the clippers in the junk drawer in the kitchen- this makes more work for you.
3) It needs to be easy to put in away (or you’ll put off putting it away).  If the phone book goes under the cookbook, that goes under the newspaper recycling, then IT’S NOT EASY!  If it’s not easy, you will not do it, or at best you’ll just throw it in the cabinet somewhere.
Think about the processes of living your life- the little things you do everyday.  How are they done, where are they done, do you have the necessary components to complete the chore?  Are you searching for stuff- losing stuff, are people misplacing stuff?
For instance if you tend to think about what earrings you would wear while looking in the mirror to apply makeup, then locate earrings and makeup close to each other.

If you make your kid’s lunch for school everyday, then locate the sandwich bags, grab snacks, Tupperware, thermos’s and lunch boxes under a counter that you can assemble on.















If your Husband trims his fingernails after the shower in the bathroom, but you do more of a manicure process in front of the TV in the family room – then buy more than one clipper (think of the arguments saved, all for under $10.00!) and keep one in each place.
Do you and your daughter share the same hair brush (you know, the really good one…not the other sucky one)?  If so, I’m guessing it’s usually misplaced for at least one of you daily.  BUY A SECOND ONE!!!  Does she brush her hair by the front door under a thunder of threats by you before going to school? 

Well then, keep a second brush in a drawer in the front hall table.  Why send her back to her room to dilly-dally for twelve hours to brush her hair?
This train of thought is the basis for kitchen organization- activity centered storage areas and work spaces (and my husband insists I mention, the basis for Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing and Balanced Scorecard).  All baking supplies together, kids lunch stuff together, sink and dishwasher near the cabinet where the plates and cups are stored etc..

The more you break down all the tiny processes of your family's day and provide what is needed, where and when it is needed, life will be less stressful.  Even more important (???), your house will look better.  This is no easy task and takes a ton of time to complete, but is totally worth it.  Professional Organizer Dana Arkinzadeh cites a Newsweek magazine article that claims Americans spend an average of 55 minutes a day looking for something they know they own.  So keep in mind, organizing a house is more than just purging what’s no longer needed, being able to see everything and making all your drawers and cabinets look beautiful.  It’s about aligning your things so they match the life needs of your house’s occupants.
One last thought.  Once you go through this Herculean task, pull the family together and tell all of them where the ‘place’ is for all the ‘stuff’ in the house.  If you don’t do this and insist that everyone be responsible for keeping the ‘stuff’ in its ‘place’, the whole project will be undone in about 2 weeks.
Stay tuned for a future post on what really well designed organization looks and feels like.

I’ve Been Swamped!

I have not posted for a week or so - OK, so two weeks - we have been flooded.  We got water (a lot) in our basement -for the first time - during the huge rain storm a week ago.  The fire department came to pump us out and realized that there was nothing they could do until it stopped raining.  Instead they shut off the gas to the house (furnace floating was kind of bad), so we had no heat, no hot water, no way to cook.  The house was yucky and freezing.

(below, see my tres chic turquoise leather golf bag- FLOATING!!!)

As luck would have it, my dear friends Carol and Jerry were on vacation and their house was empty.  When they heard about our problem they offered their house.  Now that’s a good friend.  So my husband, two kids, two dogs and I moved into one of the most spectacular houses I have ever laid my eyes on (did I mention good friends!).  During the day we would go work non-stop on saving the basement at our house (so stressful and un-fabulous)  and by night we would enter this amazing house and the stress would just fall away- it was what saved us from losing our minds.

(Meg Braff)

It was so interesting to live at a friend’s house for a week.  You think you know someone- but when you live at their house you see details of them and how they live their lives that most are not privy to.  I will report that my friends are surprisingly normal!  What did hit me about how they live is the amount of organization in their house.  Built-ins everywhere, not just your average built-ins but the most well thought out, detailed and space saving built-ins I have ever seen.  I have always felt that instead of the bigger house, bigger rooms, bigger garage, bigger basement, etc., houses can be small, as long as things have been planned properly.  That upfront thinking means that everything has a place (and doors to close!) so you don’t look at the storage (clutter).  It can be so much more effective. 

Carol and Jerry had thought out their storage so beautifully they had quick access to everything they owned.  For example, if we want to go ice skating I have to unearth the ice skates in the basement, find warm sock in the bowels of someone’s dresser - god knows who's - and a bag to transport all this stuff from somewhere else.  Ultimately when we think to go ice skating- the process of finding the right stuff is so arduous that we nix the idea.

 

At Carol and Jerry’s house they want to go ice skating, they go to the cabinet, open the door and choose the bag from the shelf that contains each person’s ice skates, socks, ice skate guards, then below, they pick the hat, mittens and gloves need and they are off!  Wow, that is so awesome!  Think of the activities we could all effortlessly do on the fly if it were all that easy.

This weekend I am reorganizing for sure!

The Big Reveal!

So here it is, my daughter Tyber is 10 years old – wow, the big double digit!  I think you all may remember (from Monday) the picture of Tyber’s old room.  Here it is below:

So girlie!!!  Well my girlie girl got a new room redo for her 10th birthday.  She asked for tonal cream and white with accents of silver.  She wanted traditional mixed with contemporary and a little ethnic for good measure.  This is what she got today:

Charli and Bella have a new hang out place!

It’s so much better then our room my husband Kevin is threatening to move in - maybe this will be the new punishment to pull out when bad behavior is looming.

Can grown ups live with pink?

Well - Yes!!!  First of all I love to see men wearing pink- it evokes a nice confidence about them and flatters almost all complexions in such a healthy way.

This is taking it farther then I expect for most men but how Fab are these guys?

(Carlton Varney and friends)

Pink in decoration of our houses usually starts with a girl’s room - until they outgrow pink and want the space to reflect the grown-up they are in their own mind.  But at what age can we accept pink again.  Some just never get back to it and dislike the color but then their are some - like me - who really love the color.  How can it fit into our current houses with husbands and boys running around who may not gravitate to pink?

Maybe it’s just an irreverent splash of color in a masculine setting (above - Ned Marshall) or as accents (below - Brad Ford).

This (immediately below) is a picture of my Dining room and another picture (below that) of my Foyer with splashes of pink (thank goodness my husband is secure - if not daring!)

 

So, if you liked pink once – maybe it’s time to revisit pink again. 

Mom, no more pink!

My Daughter is turning 10 (yeah OMG!!!) and for her birthday she wanted a room redo, OK- that I can handle.  She currently has an over the top girlie pink and green room- see below:

Her room has looked like this since she was born, I’ve gotten ten great years out of this room.  When she was younger she LOVED it and certainly everyone who sees it falls in love and wants to be a little girl again for a few minutes (ok- so most of the men who see it don’t have that reaction- or maybe they do… hmmmmmmm). But at ten years old- “pink is so not cool anymore”- she is “so over it!”  My little girl who was such a girlie girl is now 10 going on 25.  She designed the new room’s color scheme as “tonal creams and whites with accents of silver”- holy shmoly who’s kid is this???  Ok- so at least she has not asked for a cave with a black light and Zeppelin posters, although maybe that's next.  She has designed a tranquil, sophisticated room with a very eclectic mix of traditional, contemporary and ethnic.  We are half done with the room and will show pictures on the blog in a week when it’s finished, as long as my husband and I can put in the extra 5 hours of work a night to get it done by then.  Stay tuned this week as I examine kid’s rooms, pink as it pertains to adults and the finale- the finished room!

I’ve Been Clocked!

If you don’t know by now I have a pretty healthy obsession with the color turquoise.  It all started with a tiny French carriage clock given to me by my grandmother (who also LOVED the color)  This tiny clock was a gift from her father after he returned from a long trip to France in the early 1900’s.  He brought back three clocks for his three daughters, all somewhat similar- except for the color.  My grandmother Alice had turquoise, her sisters Ines and Winn had pink and yellow.  See my beloved clock below:

This clock started my obsession with turquoise, as well as a collection of Guilloche with enamel.  According to Wikipedia:

Guilloché, phonetically pronounced gee-oh-SHAY is a French word for the process of engraving either by hand or by machine intricate repetitive patterns.  Guilloché, is an engraving technique in which a very precise intricate repetitive pattern or design is mechanically etched into an underlying material with fine detail. Specifically, it involves a technique of engine turning, called guilloché in French after the French engineer “Guillot”, who invented a machine “that could scratch fine patterns and designs on metallic surfaces”. The machine improved upon the more time-consuming practice of making similar designs by hand, allowing for greater delicacy, precision, and closeness of the line, as well as greater speed.  Yet another account is that it derives from the French word for an engraving tool, not the engine turning machine.

Further details on Guilloche from e-Bay:

Although Enamel and Guilloché was used, pairing-first, applied by Peter Carl Fabergé on the Faberge eggs in the 1880’s-they are nevertheless two separate techniques and were not applied to one another until Fabergé.
Below is a picture of Guilloche with out the applied enamel:

Next group of pictures below are examples of Guilloche after enamel:

The machines used to create guilloché designs are no longer produced. Today true guilloché can be found in mostly luxury watches and then only a very few companies practice the art.  The guilloché technique can be seen in various antique and vintage jewelry and vanity items from compacts, pocket watches and  dresser sets to charms.

 And then of course, there is my favorite- CLOCKS.  See below a bevy of clocks to delight the eyes:

    

Because this process is no longer practiced, these items have become very desirable, expensive and hard to find.

White Ceiling Beware!

Some call it the ceiling, and some the fifth wall.  Thinking about the ceiling as a fifth wall encourages you to consider it in a decorative way.  Why not?  Who else is sick of boring ceiling white?  Oh me, me, me!  This is not a new concept, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel from 1508-1512. 

Now that may, of course, be too much for some people to tackle.  Let’s look at a simpler variety of ceiling paint.

My friend Carol has a deeper version of this sky in her kitchen and no one walks into that room without gasping in appreciation at the gorgeous and fun ceiling.  Yet still some may still want an even simpler approach- say a solid color.

(Melissa Gulley Style)
Above is actually a picture of the family room in my last house.  Let me tell you, the ceiling made the room so warm and fun - it changed the feeling of the room entirely.

(apartment therapy blog)

The above all white rooms get a huge boost of character with the red and orange ceilings.

(Sherrill Canet)

Dining spaces, like the two pictures above, are a great place to play with color on the ceiling.  People are so absorbed in what’s happening at eye level while eating, that this can provide just a pop of the unexpected.  It pulls the eye up so one can appreciate the entire space.

 

(House Beautiful)                                                      (Inspiration for Decoration Blog)

Often people want the feeling of outdoors- a blue sky has a wonderful effect on people’s moods, so why not steal a little of that for the indoors?

(making arrangements blog)                                         (Melissa Gulley Style)

This incredible porch (below) is from the amazingly talented Amanda Nesbit.  We have all seen the aqua painted ceilings in porches - well, Mrs. Nesbit took it up a notch with this fabulous purple.  Do you know why porch ceilings were painted blue like the sky?  I didn't either, until my contractor and old house buff told me.  It was to fool the spiders into thinking it was the sky so they wouldn't settle there.  Hmmmmm, not sure spiders can even see color? 

Grey sucks!!!

Grey as used by Mother Nature between winter and spring.  I do like grey for interior design, it’s calming, chic, sophisticated and it makes other colors pop insanely well.  Check out a post by another great blogger: http://habituallychic.blogspot.com/2010/02/mellow-yellow-and-grey.html .  But where I'm going with this, is that I am sick of grey outside.  It has rained in New England everyday for 5 days- maybe more, I stopped counting.   My basement flooded, my hair has settled into a permanently disastrous state, my dogs do not like the rain and thus will not stay out long enough to poop (yeah, guess where they go), my kids are bouncing of the walls and outside the world at large all over New England is just ugly- no matter how beautiful it is in summer.
So here are some colorful pictures that just really make me happy- enjoy!





(Jane McGarry)