Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Your home should be an extension of you and who you are as a person. If you can come home, and actually feel at home... that's fantastic design.
When designing - whether it's a living room, event space, or tablescape - I always want guests to feel as though they are part of the experience.
For summer soirees, I recommend being bold. Add a flavorful herb or a fresh, exotic fruit or vegetable to transport your guests to another place.
I don't think unlacquered brass is going anywhere. And I hope the trend of mixing metals continues to live on. The trick to mixing metals is balance.
With small spaces in particular you have to really follow the rule that if it's not absolutely beautiful or absolutely functional, then get rid of it.
Always play with the size and scale of the items on your bookshelf. Stagger the heights of books, vases, and picture frames and try to group in odd numbers.
Adding throws or blankets that have great texture over the back of a sofa adds some interesting personality really quickly and will visually change the room.
I have such deep appreciation for artists who have the ability to create something from within, something completely unique and original to each piece of work.
Every day working for Rachel Zoe, Inc. is surreal for me. I have the amazing opportunity to be around beautiful clothes and smart and talented people. Whats not to love!?
The thing that nobody talks about with nurseries is that it's also about creating a beautiful place for you. You spend so much time there, it needs to be a soft place to land.
Bookshelves are the most natural places for displaying your personal photos and picture frames. I always print our photos in black and white to keep a classic and cohesive look.
Not only as designers, but as creatives, we're all about the importance of creating that super chic space that feels like a million bucks without having to spend a million bucks.
My parents both flipped homes. A typical weekend for us was walking through model home units. I loved walking through interesting floor plans and seeing different design aesthetics.
It's strange the way Instagram has become a really crazy sourcing opportunity for me. I never thought I'd be saying that, but you see these amazing vendors halfway across the world.
I never thought that I would be a parent and have kids. It is the layer to my life that I never knew I would need. You are around honesty and vulnerability every day - it's so good.
The sofa is a really important investment for anybody, and I don't mean financially. You need to find a really great sofa that can transition with you, and you can build from there.
The concept of having staple pieces with clean, basic lines, and adding accessories to funk it all up is one that applies to both fashion and decorating. There are so many parallels.
I think it's really important, especially with the work space, to create a place that makes people feel creative, where they feel safe, and they feel like they're instantly connected.
I personally love mini bouquets randomly throughout my bathroom and my dressing room. I'll put a small bouquet on a dresser or on a round marble table in my bathroom next to the sink.
So many people move in with somebody and try to hold on to who they were before they were with that person and that's not what the space is about. You have to allow it to become the both of you.
I did everything, I thought I was going to be in marketing, then I thought advertising then I thought I was going to be an architect and then I was like 'you know what, let me just be a soap star!'
I recognized that the passion I have and feel for interior and design and furniture was not organically there for styling. The fuel that drives you when doing something you truly love... wasn't there.
Don't take anything too literally. When throwing a coastal theme dinner, don't just put seashells on the table. Instead, think about the colors and tones of seashells, what they remind you of and go from there.
The beautiful gift of my husband is that he saw me the way I've always wanted to be seen and there's something really powerful to that. When you find true love I really believe that that's what it is at its core.
People are understanding what it means to really create a space that feels like a direct reflection of you and I think with brands like Living Spaces, you can really start to take those chances for the first time.
When I look back, there was obviously the arch of my creativity and when I was young, I used to go to open homes with my mother and I used to imagine how I could make the space better and how people would live in it.
I've always had a fascination with interior design. As a kid, I used to go to real estate open houses with my parents on the weekends. Like a nerd! I would think of how I would piece rooms together at those open houses.
We've always read to the kids, every night both kids get books. That's really important, and they love books. Our daughter is obsessed with reading and books, so it's really sweet. She has her own little personal library.
I have no life! People always ask me, "What time do you check in and out?" But, the truth is, you never really check out. I have an office at my house, so when I go home I am always pulling inspiration and putting ideas together.
I became interested in building furniture, because I couldn't find pieces I really loved for myself and my clients. I picked stuff up from the street, and tweaked those pieces to make them what I really wanted. It became a career!
Having been married and having stood up in front of people and had my own wedding, I understand the importance of that ceremony and the choice that you're making to spend your life with somebody and tell everybody in your life why.
In my opinion, there's not really a 'worst' flower; however, you do have to do some research based on the people whose space will hold the flowers. For instance, there are some flowers that are poisonous to have around kids or pets.
My love for pottery started completely by chance when a good friend of mine recommended I take a class. When I sat down at a pottery wheel, it was like love at first sight. It was so deeply meditative, and I felt connected right away.
I have a philosophy that you've always got to honor the past, acknowledge the present and leave room in your space for the future... Talk to the person you are in love with that you're sharing with, understand what's important to them.
It's important to pull tons of pieces! If you have lots of options to choose from, you can play around and see that things that you wouldn't originally have expected to work together actually do! That applies to both clothing and decorating.
I don't have formal training at all, but I did grow up around design. My parents both flipped homes. A typical weekend for us was walking through model home units. I loved walking through interesting floor plans and seeing different design aesthetics.
It's so funny because as a parent you kind of just fall into your roles. Nate loves to change a diaper more than anybody should because he knows he's instantly solved something. I'm the one that's up all night and in the morning because I need barely any sleep.
I started out taking any project that I could because you want the work. You want the opportunity to create, and I'm glad I did because it forces you to really get an understanding of your vision and your voice as a designer when you have to be scrappy like that.
My entire twenties were filled with decisions that make me think, 'You had to go there, huh?' But that's part of exploration and I think a lot of the most beautiful moments of my life and a lot of the most amazing things have come out of some of the most tumultuous times.
I think that's the great thing about interiors is that they can be treated like a great wardrobe. Choose a sofa and chairs that are staples in clean shapes that will keep for the next couple of years or decade. Then an easy way to bump up your entire room or your interiors is accessories.
People want to create a space that feels like them - one that's deeply rooted in their personality. That's important. Your space is an opportunity to tell your story and showcase your experiences. That's why I think every material - down to your faucet - needs to serve a function and feel personal.
If I host something, even if it's just dinner at my house, I like the event to move. So that means cocktails in the family room, and then moving outside and having appetizers on the patio, and then moving to dinner at the dining table. It's just the idea of the event being curated to every little detail.
Once I was hosting an important dinner party at our house - everything was perfect, candles were lit, the house smelled amazing with great food and drinks ready. We lit a fire and the flue wasn't able to open, unbeknownst to us. We smoked out the entire house and the fire department had to come - it was a mess.
When I first became really interested in building furniture, I went to Toys-R-Us, and spent $200 on Transformers toys. By taking the toys apart and studying how they moved, I was able to figure out how to hide a table leaf, what type of contraption I'd need to slide it under the table. I'm a really visual learner.
The beautiful gift of my husband is that he saw me the way I've always wanted to be seen and there's something really powerful to that. When you find true love I really believe that that's what it is at its core. He makes me want to be a better person, but then he also sees me and reminds me that I am a good person.
My biggest word of advice that I could give to people that are dealing with a home renovation or decoration is to not think about design as it's been presented to you before. I think everybody needs to start designing based on the moments they imagine having in their home and that is what has guided me as a decorator.
I've had parties where I found photos of whoever is coming, put them in a cute little woven frame and used that as their place card at dinner. Then they get to take it home afterwards. It's the little things that make people feel special and like they were a part of the thought process that went into assembling a dinner.
I once hosted a dinner party where I had two guests with some serious food restrictions - one was vegan and the other didn't eat red meat... steak and fish were our dinner. Now I always serve family style with a variety of food groups - so there is something for everyone. Always ask your guests if they have any allergies.
I really think that parenthood cracks you open, which sounds so vague, but it is a different type of vulnerability. That's the bottom line. There isn't a second that I'm with my daughter that I don't appreciate every moment we have. All you want to do is protect her and create the best bubble possible for her to view the world.
At about age 25 I had a bit of a quarter-life crisis and expected to be at a certain place by then, which was unrealistic to some extent. I used to have a lot of passion for interior design but I somehow lost it along the way, and so fashion was what I thought to be a new beginning, but in the end it just solidified the love I have for design.