change of scenery: made by girl

Showing posts with label made by girl. Show all posts

Thursday, September 1, 2011

An Emily Chalmers and Francesca Herrera love sesh.

I couldn't decide which one of these lovely ladies to write about first so I'm just going to write about both. Despite having two extremely different styles and two entirely different set of rules, these two designers are the latest to have caught my eye.

Emily Chalmers
If you can't tell by the pictures below, Emily appears to have just as big of an obsession with chotchkies as I do. But it's her ability to place, choose and feature these random tokens of happiness that sets her apart from the rest. I'm way into the way she layers pattern, combines color and picks the most interesting furniture shapes for her spaces. She's a true bohemian with a beautiful, eclectic aesthetic and new book out called Modern Vintage Style. To summarize, lady has it going on.

flickr

oh joy

Francesca Herrera

Introduced through a Made By Girl post, I actually like Frances for exactly the opposite reasons I like Emily Chalmers. For example, Frances describes her approach to interiors using words like "understated", "polished" and "refined". She has the ability to edit and her spaces are always bright, full-of-light and have just a touch of quirkiness. Kind of like the girl version of Thom Filicia. And while I ~~love~~ appreciate the kitsch of Emily's style, I get the want to keep rooms from looking like you purchased everything at an estate sale. Cleaning it up a bit and making choices as to what should be displayed gives you more of that balanced, pulled together, all-grown-up kind of look. With great style combinations, timeless furniture choices and very well coordinated patterns, Frances is definitely someone to keep an eye on.

all images from Francesca's site

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Putting off the chevron.

This was supposed to be a post about my newly finished artwork for above my bed. But instead of finishing it, I decided to head to my local watering hole and made absolutely zero progress. Ugh.

Dying to know what I'm talking about? Well here's a hint and hopefully some inspiration to tackle - and actually complete - a similar project of your own.

chapman interiors

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Good old blue.

Oh, blue.

One of my favorite colors to work with and probably THE most versatile color out there. I mean, if I could paint my walls, I can easily commit to saying that at least 4 of them would be blue. You can dress it up, dress it down, make it look vintage, make it look victorian... whatever.

But picking a hue can be tricky. Personally, I'm drawn to the more turquoisey hues with real taupey undertones. But then again I also like really pale blues - so pale that they can almost be mistaken for an icy white. So how do you choose the right hue?

Pick a tone. For calming more serene rooms, go with a softer blue with gray undertones. Energetic, entertainment worthy ones - choose an aqua or a turquoise that's really saturated and bold.

Choose multiples. Blue is one of those colors you can get monochromatic with while still adding depth and visual interest within a room. The key is keeping the saturation level consistent while switching up the overall hue. Take the first room shown as an example. Each blue in the space is very bold and vibrant however one's aqua, another is teal and another colbalt. All blues are different but at the same time compliment one another because they are all consistent in saturation. Make sense?

Use as a neutral. Blue is just one of those colors that creates a fantastic backdrop for other colors to pop off of. It's just one of those colors that seemingly matches everything you put next to it and really the only way you can go wrong is by choosing a country, powder blue. Try getting a statement piece in a rich blue hue or paint an entire room your favorite shade and then accessorize with completely different colors like orange, green or even red.

Go geometric. Blue is also one of those colors that looks really good in a pattern. Especially more angular or symmetrical ones like chevron, honeycomb or greek key patterns. An easy way to add visual interest without going over the top.