Debbie Travis
When it’s time to make plans for decorating, whether it’s a small room or an entire home, begin with what motivates you. A world of inspiration is available. Internet access, magazines and specialty books show every style from traditional to trendy. Travelling offers insight into what delights you, what makes you comfortable, and even what to avoid. How you live should help to steer you in the right direction. What makes you smile.
For me, it’s old houses and ancient buildings. I am drawn to the history that survives and want to become part of it. But this doesn’t mean that I don’t clamber after bold new designs. New and old can be great friends, as you can see in From Classic to Contemporary: Decorating with Cullman & Kravis, written by Ellie Cullman and Tracey Pruzan and published by The Monacelli Press.
In this book, homes vibrate with luscious furnishings, brilliant contemporary art and design know-how that makes each room special and personal. “We believe in the alchemy that happens when old meets new and when new meets old,” says Cullman, founder and principal of the venerable New York City-based design firm Cullman & Kravis.
This is a gorgeous reference book for those who love interior design. As life moves ahead with all its modern conveniences, our world is becoming streamlined. Design tastes today include a sleek, linear esthetic. We are decluttering our interiors. “We want curtains without heavy valences, furniture without skirts and fringes, art displayed without heavy frames,” Cullman notes.
In the chapter titled Southern Hospitality, a magnificent home demonstrates how a sense of place steers the architect and designer. Thirteen-foot ceilings ensure an airy atmosphere, with high windows that let the light flow from room to room. Cullman explains that the minimalist palette of whites and sherbet tones helps maintain a balance between the more formal architectural elements, the gardens and the sculptural furniture and modern art. In the living room, the period furniture pieces were chosen for their straight-line quality, which meshes with the homeowners’ collection of modern art. The Tabriz rug is infused with pale shades rather than the usual saturated colours to complement the pastel palette, and link traditional with modern.
The homes each provide unique design ideas. The walls in the entry hall of a posh pied-a-terre in Manhattan are Venetian stucco decorated with swirling lines of gold. The ceiling is painted in highgloss peacock blue, drawing the eye up and into the next room, where similar shades of blue show up in curtains and cushions.
The master bedroom in a family home in Miami demonstrates how to decorate over a king-size bed. While Cullman and Kravis usually look for a large piece of horizontal art or a group of smaller pieces that can hang in a grid, they discovered a large sculpture made up of many smaller pieces that hang in glorious shapes and colours over the headboard.
A beachfront vacation home utilizes slim lines of bronze bands as crown mouldings and as an inlay on the entryway walls.
As I lingered over the stunning roomscapes, 13 projects in all, I noticed blue appears in almost every scene. I asked Cullman about this, and she said blue is the most universally preferred colour in the spectrum. “Blue in all its incarnations, from pale ice to vivid sapphire, resonates with so many people in a variety of locations and with a variety of styles.”
That’s one more decorating tip to keep in mind.
Debbie Travis’s House to Home column is produced by Debbie Travis and Barbara Dingle. Please email questions to house2home@debbietravis.com. You can follow Debbie on Twitter at twitter.com/debbie_travis, and visit Debbie’s website, debbietravis.com.