Elevated Eclectic - Artist Retreat, part 1
Every client has a design problem that leads them to reach out for help. In the case of this client, it all started with their living room. A long, rectangular formal living room in a traditional historic house is often resolved here in the South with a traditional color palette and endless symmetry. For this accomplished, artistic couple, redefining a traditional living room needed to reflect their eclectic tastes and be a welcoming environment for entertaining other artists in the community.
So how do you shake it up? This home was all about balance and carrying specific elements on throughout the rest of the house. Moments of symmetry - like the tall iron etageres along the back wall, and the black and brass lamps on the mantle - are enlivened with groupings of objects and different types of seating. The thin lines of the etageres also create a graphic quality against the wall, adding much needed height and a layer of depth to the room, while balancing the visual weight of the other furniture pieces in the space.
What we have now is a room that feels elevated, eclectic, and curated, but not overly stuffy and staid. We accomplished this through the Naive Peach paint color on the wall to enrich the blue-green tones in the living room. Decorative accents, like this orange pillow and orange blown glass objects on the mantle, make a similar statement as the wall color, but bolder. This duality of color, you will see, continues throughout the public spaces of the home.
One of the easiest ways to bring about a sense of play in a room is to introduce an element of the unexpected. On the mantle, we incorporated this brass owl into the design.
This luxurious velvet sofa is flanked by identical steel drums. We pulled the sofa off the wall and added a small console behind it for a landing spot for drinks and small sculptures. A brass arc floor lamp on one side of the couch, and a circle brass table lamp on the other side both echo the form and shape of the coffee table in the center of the room.
A matching side chair is waiting to be moved forward when the couple is entertaining, and the white lacquer console is a perfect spot for drinks. Want to see more? Stay tuned for more posts about this fantastic, eclectic house.
All images were styled by the Team at Catherine French Design, LLC. All photographs were taken by J. Sinclair Photography.