I’ve been immersing myself in home design studies lately (one of my many obsessions of 2013). And suddenly Pinterest is incredibly interesting and useful to me again.
Primary online inspiration
- My Scandinavian Home
- Freunde von Freunden
- The Selby
- The Socialite Family
- Industrial, loft-inspired Tumblrs, like Blood and Champagne and Sojorner (even if they are all just re-posting the same images over and over)
Favorite books
Of the 30 or so I’ve devoured, these are my favorites.
- The Architecture of Happiness, Alain de Botton
- The Comforts of Home, Caroline Clifton-Mogg
- Domino: The Book of Decorating, ed. Deborah Needleman
- Good Bones, Great Pieces, Suzanne McGrath and Lauren McGrath
- Lotta Jansdotter’s Handmade Living, Lotta Jansdotter
- The Perfectly Imperfect Home, Deborah Needleman
I do wish our library had more books by the real, traditional designers (e.g., Dorothy Draper; even want to read Edith Wharton’s book on home design), but the hefty stack I’ve gone through so far has certainly refined my personal taste.
Opinions I have only very recently formed
- I don’t really like American interior design blogs. For one, all of their homes tend to look the same; and two, I don’t like the way they look (every room is a different color; chevrons and Marrakesh patterns on every conceivable wall and rug; unnecessarily painted furniture, etc.). Three, not everything you buy has to be subjected to some DIY project. Often, it is good and pleasing to leave things alone.
- Accordingly, white is the only acceptable color for walls. (Although I could tolerate extremely pale, washed-out colors in some small rooms. Or a light gray.)
- We do not need more things.
- Countries whose interior aesthetics I generally admire: France, Japan, any country considered part of Scandinavia
- Beware of trends.
- A room that looks like it was designed by someone is not a room I want to live in. Rooms should be real and livable and welcoming.
- Deborah Needleman knows everything that is useful to know.
Home aesthetic goals
Aspiring to a home that is…
- Welcoming and comfortable.
- Outfitted with only the beautiful and necessary pieces. (Loving the Shaker dictum: “Do not make anything that is not both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, be sure that it is also beautiful.”)
- Replete with allusions to nature.
- Capable of eschewing the principles of wabi sabi. Whatever that means in actual practice.
- Creative.
Again, have no idea how all of these things would be realized. But they are what I’m thinking about right now. I don’t pretend to know anything about all of this. But I like learning and forming (bizarrely strong) opinions just the same.
Love. It.