mood board: Tropical Style

As humidity and heat soared to tropical heights outside, I naturally turned to some indoor relief.  How can I enjoy the exoticness of the tropics without the wilting heat?  By doing a little tropical restyling of my interiors, of course!  Continuing our mood board series, this July we head south for our Tropical Style. 

When I imagine the tropics – I think of the Pacific islands of Fiji and Bali or Southeast Asia – Thailand, Burma and the Philippines. Furnishings tend to be simpler – natives use many of its native plants and trees to create their furniture, such as rattan, abaca, and bamboo. In contrast, many of the Southeast Asian countries were colonized by the French, British or Spanish and their influence is reflected in the heavier, yet sturdy wood furniture of mahogany, rubberwood, and teak. 

Our first mood board shows the tropical island theme: the tall peacock chair, called the Crinoline from B&B Italia, presides over a cocktail party. The bench is made of ebonized mountain pine from the Philippines and is available from Tucker Robbins. We also have a small side table called Driftwood Flats from Stanley, great for moving around the room and for serving food and drinks.

To complement the exotic tropical flowers throw some Thai-themed pillows from Koko on the bench for that pop of color. All plants are housed in rattan baskets from Crate and Barrel. For lighting, we have the Kata lantern made of walnut-stained bamboo from Oriental Furniture. 

Our second mood board above reflects the colonial influence in tropical countries.  The Fiji lounge chair from Padma’s Plantation is made from a combination of rattan, abaca, and tropical hardwoods.  The stool or accent table is from the Royal Kahala collection from Lexington and is made of bent rattan and coco shell.  Our desk – Poets Crossing from Lexington– is designed in the British campaign style with brass fittings.  To light the room, we have from Palecek the Ikebana Sphere lamp.  For the floor we have the rust Lotus rug from the Foundary, providing color and warmth to the dark wood furniture. 

Interested in learning how to create mood boards?  Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design.  At Sheffield, you will learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories.

Designing Outside the Box: Bookcases

(Sherwood Bookcase from Khaos Italia)Even with the proliferation of e-books, many booklovers still love to own physical books and show them off in their home.  After all a shelf of books is a sign of culture - even if you haven’t read them! I also prefer to display books in a special bookcase but find most of them to be utterly utilitarian and ho-hum. After a thorough search, I discovered these unusual bookcases to be worthy of my books!

Khaos from Italy offers a whimsical design - see above - in its wavy Sherwood Bookcase. You may feel a little dizzy looking at it but it certainly is a showstopper! If you want a little Oriental theme, Khaos  offers their Asian bookcase with its yin yang interconnected shapes of the circle and the square. 

(Asian bookcase from Khaos Italia)Haworth designed a stylish bookcase with contrasting colors that incorporated waves in their shelves.  Thus a static piece of furniture suggesting movement becomes a more dynamic element.

(NC-B Resonate bookcase from Haworth)Not to be outdone, Antonello Italia created their version of a wavy bookcase called the River.  The River comes in sections and can be added end to end to create a longer bookcase, showing off its wave pattern. 

(River bookcase from Antonello)One of the most functional and best designed bookcase I’ve ever seen is this design from Danny Kuo, called the Staircase.  If you ever thought: how can I reach that top shelf for those books without dragging out a ladder? Then this bookcase is for you.  The bottom shelves slide out and form a step that allows you to climb up and reach the upper shelves – ingenious!!

(Staircase by Danny Kuo)You don’t have to settle for that boxy bookcase - just think outside of the box with these styles. There’s a lot more unique bookcases!

Interested in learning more about furniture?  Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design.  At Sheffield, you will learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories. 

More Interiors from Kips Bay Decorator Show House

(Sitting Room by Charlotte Moss)A walk in the French countryside inspired designer Charlotte Moss to create her sitting room at the 2012 Kips Bay Decorator Show House.  Named “Behind the Hedge”, the space gloriously captures the French outdoors with a trompe l’oeil mural of a chateau garden and flourishes of greenery.  The walls are sensuously draped in green velvet by Arabel fabrics and box hedges breathe life to the room.   (The trompe l'oeil mural is by Osmundo Echevarria). 

(Living Room by Bunny Williams, Brian McCarthy, and David Kleinberg)Design team Bunny Williams, Brian McCarthy and David Kleinberg envisioned this bold living room. Providing the main focus of the room is the colorful tapestry by architect Le Corbusier.  Its red, black, and white colors are reproduced in the Dupre-Lafon sofa, the zebra rug, the red-upholstered wood chairs and the bright draperies. The parchment wrapped waterfall coffee table is by Vosges.

(Library by Jaimie Drake)Green was the dominant color in this year's Kips Bay and designer Jaimie Drake dreamed up this jungle mood for a library room. Snaked across the walls is an emerald grasscloth wallpaper. The glacial cocktail table from Lorin Marsh further plays up the green motif. Below, green painted bookcases line the walls. Palm trees emphasize the tropics.  To give an air of sophistication to the library, Drake enveloped the ceiling in hammered silver paper. Dominating the room is a phantasmagoric oil painting by Andy Harper called Winter Gate.

(Library by Jaimie Drake)Charles Pavarini designed this ultra-chic "Black, White, and Red All Over" bedroom full of decorative delights.  The leather wrapped platform bed custom designed by Pavarini floats over the Ironwork carpet by Stark. A resin painting by Damian Robinson provides red fire to the room as sculpted butterflies dance across the mirrored walls.

(Bedroom by Charles Pavarini)

Bonus

Click here to read A Day at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House.

mood board: Art Deco

Elegance, sophistication, and glamour describe the Art Deco era, but this was just the frosting on a multi-tiered cake.  Art Deco culminated from the convergence of global culture and tastes – with motifs that included modern geometrics, Egyptian, Babylonian, African, and Aztec styles and Greco-Roman classicism.   For the latest in our series of mood boards, we’ll rediscover the glamorous world of Art Deco style. 

Art Deco was the nickname given for the style that arose from the influential 1925 world’s fair that occurred in Paris, France called the Exposition Internationale des Artes Decoratifs et Industriels Moderne.  Legendary designers, artisans, and architects contributed to the World Fair, including glass designer Rene Lalique, furniture designer Emile-Jacques Rhulmann, architect Le Corbusier, to name a few.

In our first mood board above, we show a French Art Deco console table from French Design, Inc. made from macassar ebony, a popular rich-looking wood of that era. Its center leg displays a gilt and silver artwork of geometric shapes.  On top of the table we have accessories that are globally inspired – the muscular Eve with Serpent sculpture from Renaissance Man is created in the Greek tradition and the vase, Biches Bleues, designed by Charles Catteau reflects African influences. The vase is from the Modernism Gallery.

For seating, we have a streamlined lacquered club chair from French Design, Inc.  The delicate side table, reminiscent of furniture designer Emile-Jacques Rhulmann, is made of rosewood and covered in shagreen, available from Gary Rubinstein Antiques.  On top of the table from TFTM Gallery is the coffee service from ocean liner, Il de France, and designed in the iconic Art Deco geometric shapes.  For lighting we have a French chandelier designed by Petitot and available from Versailles Antiques.  Petitot created an octagonal shaped light made of nickeled bronze and frosted glass insets with a sunburst design. The rug, though not Art Deco, is very geometric and is from Safavieh. 

For our second mood board on Art Deco, we have a lighter look with the furnishings.  The hemispherical desk is an American art deco style using mahogany with a sunburst inlay on its writing surface and figured maple veneer on its drawers.  The club chair is upholstered in gold velvet and both are available from Antiques of River Oaks.  The tall secretaire from Paul Stamati is made of macassar ebony inlaid with ivory detailing – see the diamond pattern.  For artwork, we have a cubist tile panel designed by Harris Strong and is available from Greenwich Living Antiques.  Lighting the room are half-moon lacquered sconces from Maison Gerard. 

Art Deco may have had its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s but the look is still being reproduced to this day.  These Art Deco furnishings may be mixed with more contemporary pieces that share the elegant and glamorous mood. 

How Diane Paparo Started Her Interior Design Business

We love to pass on success stories, and designer Diane Paparo from Diane Paparo Associates sat down with me recently to help share her experiences with our Sheffield students and Sheffield Says readers. Diane's known in the industry for marrying luxury, quality, beautiful detail, and thoughtful functionality in her designs. And with Diane, "design" means interior design and product design. 

The key to my personal style is a clean, sensible use of space. Scale and proportion, flow, sight lines, acoustical requirements, and light sources play a primary role in my design schemes.

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