Sleek and sculptural, many of the new gas fireplaces on the market today are also portable, smokeless and environmentally friendly. There is nothing that adds atmosphere to a room more than a warm flame. Candles are excellent. Fireplaces are divine! It all falls under the category of “lighting”…the sexiest part of interior design.

Thanks for Furniture Fashion (one of the most fun design websites I know) for these great photos. Please click the link for sources.

This wonderful old farmhouse on 350 acres can be found in Millbrook, New York…a tiny town north of Manhattan. The owners, celebrity hairstylist Frederic Fekkai and his wife, Shirin von Wulffen fell in love with its charm and simplicity and asked interior designer Selina van der Geest to help express their vision. One thing that distinguishes a great designer from the rest of the pack, is the ability to make a house FLOW from room to room. This designer sees the house as one organic whole and uses repetition of color, style and form tie the rooms together. Let’s take a look and see how it was done here.

These two views of the living room feature a big luscious tangerine colored sofa and an old kilim rug of blues/reds and oranges. These same brights pop out of the bookcase, the flower arrangements and the accessories. It seems that all warm tones are welcome here…no need to match the exact shade of red. Use ‘em all….what the heck! And I agree. Creating a palette of closely aligned colors (such as red, orange and pink) can really add a great element of surprise and depth.

The original kitchen mantel was saved, stripped and given a nice coat of oil. Tucked amongst the antiques that blend so well with this old home, inexpensive new pieces were added. For example, the metal dining chairs are from the Sundance Catalog. Other accessories came from the Conran shop, Anthropologie and Design Within Reach. Warm toned dishware and bouquets of cut pink dahlias connect this room to all of the others with a common thread of color.

The dining room is a masterpiece, in my opinion. I wish I could have managed to show you the whole long painting all in one piece, but alas my technical knowledge prevents this. It’s quite impressive as you can see. Using gigantically over-scaled elements within a space is one of the most dramatic ways to make visual impact. I would almost go so far as to say the size of the painting is AS important as the image itself….almost. The antique chairs (Renaissance Revival) certainly have a story to tell…just like the house itself.

The color palette in the room is all neutral except for red flowers  which tie this room in to the others. Notice the shed antler chandelier. It’s a bold reference to nature (and we know darn well that there are deer in ‘them thar’ Upstate New York woods).

Photos from Elle Decor July/August 2008

Often when we meet a “cool and clean” space we feel bored and uninspired.

But not always….and not this time. This minimal sleek space is filled…but not too filled…with character. WON-derful combinations of contemporary and ethnic! Just the right amount of color and contrast to give it a heartbeat, yet keeping it calm and peaceful at the same time. This is exactly what the owner wanted.  The owner is Hollywood jewelry designer Loree Rodkin and she, her inciteful eye and her ability to travel, pulled this place together with truly a magic touch. Notice the polished limestone floors and macasser ebony bookcase displaying petrified wood pieces.

Neutrals can be so fascinating. How so? This is not simply gray, white and black. This room contains atleast twenty different grays and blacks. And white for contrast. In one glance our eye takes in gold at least four times…the Thai temple fragment leaning against the wall, the distinctly asian mudra hand on the coffee table, warm color elements in the framed photo images and the hanging basket lamps. A good designer will always plan a composition as if looking through a camera lens.  The repetition of gold and the balance of black, white and gray give this room a tranquil sense of balance.

Isn’t this room beautiful? All pieces are good, but the combination is exquisite. And that’s the key. The carving of the 17th century Chinese daybed brings pattern to the space. The silver silk pillow reflects light. The woven rope stool and large teak Buddha are further reminders of an “artist’s hand.” All floating in a sea of neutral… as the Edward Lentsch contemporary artwork creates continuity by tying all of these colors together.

This is a simple master bedroom. A calm place to wind down. In keeping with the rest of the home, there is nothing too flashy here except for more luscious silver silk pillows set against a luxurious and tactile gray suede headboard.  The walls are wrapped in striated raw silk. Another fabulous large scale Buddha sits against a pair of inlaid bone Indian mirrors. The huge variety of scale from e-NOR-mous to very very small brings drama to the space and that wow! factor that makes an indelible impression on our minds.

Photos from Elle Decor October 2007