I am off to NYC! Check @thepottedboxwood on instagram and @pottedboxwood on twitter for fun design updates from the city. See you back here Tuesday!
Pugs and Kisses!
XO- CD of TPB
A past and favorite cover of the New Yorker by Ana Juan
Month: October 2014
A NYC Townhouse With A Twist
Continuing with my NYC trend, I wanted to feature one of my favorite townhouses that was built in the 1870’s and designed by Jeffrey Bilhuber. Bilhuber is one of my favorite designers due to his creative elegance and playful approach to decor. He arranges his furniture traditionally, but adds patterns and colors that are extremely current. His strong jewel tones compliment bold neutral patterns. Who wouldn’t want a townhouse rich in texture with a classically strong foundation. Bilhuber makes it work, and his legacy in design is just getting started.
Photos by William Waldron for Architectural Digest.
Jewel tones and furniture that is wonderfully placed and patterned.
Love this aerial shot of the leopard sofa in Brunschwig & Fils fabric.
A high-sky gallery wall leading to the stairs plays off of the colorfully adorned living area.
A hallway that is collected and intimately chic. Bilhuber is masterful with his consistent pops of red throughout.
A high gloss den with sweet potted topiaries for the mantle. I adore the white trim of the windows that contrasts against the walls.
Get it Gingham. A traditional pattern used in a very non traditional way. A lot of everything going on in this dining room, but it blends together so perfectly.
Here is that Bilhuber red again, acting as a muted tone of whimsy and divine design.
A sweet and green girl’s room. Look at the exact match of the curtains and wall color!
A fun a collected vignette. Bilhuber gives top notch design without anything looking stuffy and overly staged.
A serene and lightly textured canopied master bedroom.
Mirrored wall cabinets and a chic rolling latter on this animal print carpeted closet.
The bathroom maintains it’s original timeless appeal with an updated elegance.
Urban Gardens
I am excited to announce that I will be going to New York City at the end of this week! It has been some time since I have been to Manhattan and I look forward to sharing my favorite design spots with you all (up to the minute updates on my instagram @thepottedboxwood). In the spirit of heading to NYC, I have decided to share some urban Manhattan designs for the rest of this week.
Today, I want to focus on city terraces and rooftop gardens. Their chic simplicity can pack a powerful punch. The thing about small spaces is not to overdo the amount of landscape, but to place things in functional spaces and with aesthetically pleasing colors and tones. If you want seating, add pots, but be smart about the width. No one appreciates a cramped space, but everyone enjoys an intimate setting. These patios below show how cityscapes can be immaculately created and wonderfully fun for entertaining!
Oh, and one thing you will notice is lots of perfectly potted boxwoods.
Fairfax and Sammons are phenomenal architects in the New York City area. They created this tiny garden terrace full of lovely topiaries and oozing with charm. Photo source: House and Garden UK
A lush patio with gorgeous greenery on the terrace of the Manhattan duplex of Guido Palau. Photo source: Architectural Digest
A Jonathan Adler designed patio abundant with color and classically laid back. In case you didn’t notice, look at the “LOVE” on the chairs. So JA! Photo source: My Luscious Life
A pop of red in this immaculately designed trellised garden designed by Jeffery Bilhuber. Photo source: Architectural Digest
Yellow strikes against this grass turf rooftop patio. Photo source: Lonny
Now this is garden from above. An urban outdoor space full of potted perfection. Photo source: NY Curbed
A spacious rooftop oasis complete with hedges and fantastic wooden furniture. Photo source: Architectural Digest
A tiered Manhattan rooftop garden with an organically cool approach to landscape design. Photo source: The A Estate
Guess why I like this the best? A perfect entertaining tablescape on a patio designed by Angus Wilkie and Len Morgan. Photo source: Architectural Digest
Who wouldn’t want to spend a crisp fall morning in the backyard patio of this NYC townhouse by Susan Wisniewski. Photo source: Archinect
A fresh white shuttered bench on this patio overlooks Central Park by John Saladino. Photo source: Elle Decor
Mirror Mirror
When I was a little girl, my grandmother had mirrored walls in her kitchen. I would spend hours just staring and playing in front of the mirrors (In my defense, I was an only child….). There is just something so mesmerizing about mirrors that keep people looking in them and for them.
Mirrors are the super fruit of design, they add nothing but fantastic benefits to a room. They can make a room seem bigger, bring in light, replace artwork, and add dimension. The shapes of mirrors can also benefit a room. From porthole mirrors to starburst mirrors to large antique mirrors, there is always a way and need to incorporate the reflective shapes in a gallery wall or a bathroom wall.
An important thing to remember when choosing where to place your mirror is to see what if reflects. A mirror that reflects on a pretty landscape or vignette in a room is wonderful, but if your mirror reflects a bathroom door or blank space it needs to find a new home on the wall. With that in mind, here is a round-up of some of my favorite mirrored spaces. They are the fairest of them all.
Mirrors for Inspiration and Purchase
Casually elegant with multiple mirrors as a gallery wall. I love the fringe trim sofa! Photo source: Domino
A glamorous and plushly feminine bedroom. With a mounted mirrors acting as headboards. I surely hope those are securely fastened!!! Photo source: Elle Decor
The thing I love about mirrors is that they are neutral to your style. Replace this more mid-century chair with a toiled antique chair, and the bathroom would have a completely different look. Design by Trisha Reger. Photo source: Architectural Digest
This piece alone is incredible, and the fact it is paired with velvety deep blue sconces against gorgeous chinoiserie wallpaper is the icing on the cake! Celerie Kemble is genius. Photo source: Elle Decor
This. Mirror. Is. Everything. Smokey, antique, and incredibly sophisticated by Hubert Zandberg. Photo source: Architectural Digest
The bathroom that doubles as an ideal dinner party setting. Miles Redd’s superbly mirrored bathroom. Photo source: Elle Decor
Another flawlessly mirrored bathroom with classic wood wash cabinets and a beautifully cut marble tub. This London bathroom is by designers Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen via AD.
Bold turquoise antique chairs with a mirror on mirrored wall backdrop. Look at the great light in the room designed by Beverly Field. Photo source: Veranda
Drama, drama, drama. Fifty shades of gray texture in this sharp and sophisticated room by Lee Ledbetter. Photo source: Architectural Digest
Mirrored wall meets wallpaper magic. Neural tones and reflective light give this seating area a garden ambience. Photo source: Veranda
Paneling perfection. Look at the beautifully reflected mirrors against this dark wall featured in House and Garden UK.
Antique mirrors panel this wall with a simple and effective vignette in the home of Michael S Smith. Photo source: Architectural Digest
Ridder Me This
Katie Ridder knows how to make every room camera ready. Her years spent working at House & Garden and House Beautiful prepped her for an incredibly successful career as an interior designer. Her style is sophisticated and comfortable with punches of bold color, vivid patterns, and welcoming warmth.
Her use of color and pattern is so remarkable that she developed her own line of wallpaper and fabric that are swoon worthy in every way. I hope you let her eye-catching, bright, and confident rooms inspire you into the weekend…
See you Monday!
BOOKS: Katie Ridder ROOMS
PATTERN: Katie Ridder Fabric & Wallpaper
Soft texture and flawlessly blended color in this perfectly chic bedside. Photo source: Flickr
Katie designed this child’s room in perfectly good taste and with incredible simplicity. Photo source: Chic Little House
Modern art, classic furniture, and bold colors of texture make this living area elegant and opulent. Photo source: Habitually Chic
Exquisitely patterned dining room that is classic and current. Photo source: Quintessence
I love how Ridder is able to go heavy on color and pattern in some rooms, and scale it down to simple simplicity in others. This kitchen is equal parts relaxed and refreshing. Photo source: The Rustic Modernist
Ridder’s pattern and color choices with wallpaper is unparalleled. Photo source: Elle Decor
Pattern Perfected. Seriously, how does she do it? This room looks as if it has been in place forever, collected and distinguished. Photo source: Rooms by Katie Ridder
A feminine and worldly daybed room by Ridder in Elle Decor.
One of my absolute favorite kitchens by Katie that encompasses timeless elements (bar stools, lighting, ladder). Photo source: Elle Decor
A casual and coastal space in this Nantucket home. I appreciate her use of a very soft and pale blue/green against the sofa wall. Photo source: House & Home
The tile work in this hallway is phenomenal. It is unexpected with the use of more traditional pieces and prints. Photo source: Mark D. Sikes
A light and open landing with a very glamorous light fixture and casually colored striped runner. A perfect juxtaposition. Photo source: Pinterest
A Manhattan bedroom that encompasses all of the fantastic ways that Ridder uses color, pattern, and texture. Her scale makes all of her decor function with variety and vigor. Photo source: Elle Decor
Green framed windows in this cheerful kitchen of windows and color. Photo source: Rooms by Katie Ridder
Blue moroccan tile in this bathroom bursting with bold and bright life. Photo source: Elle Decor
Ottoman Empire
Sorry for my lack of post yesterday, I have had about a million things going on…Ebola not being one of them (talk about NOT so chic in Dallas). Anyways, while my brain has been going a mile a minute, I have not quite been able to catch up with that speed. I definitely could use a lazy weekend kicking my feet up and catching up on my favorite Bravo with a nice glass of Pinot Noir. This got me thinking, shouldn’t everyone have a nice place to rest their feet? Shouldn’t everyone have a nice, and of course pretty, ottoman?
I was a huge fan of the ottoman turned coffee table in college. Afterwords, I grew into an official adult coffee table that requires two large men just to move it an inch. This often leads me to missing the versatile ottomans that could double as extra seating, extra space to lay a drink, and an extra shot of fabric personality.
I recently purchased two Jonathan Adler ottomans (1/2 off!) that claim to be a brown cafe color, but really look more like a deep, dark olive green. They are crossed at the legs and velvet to the touch. They are perfect in every way, but I use them for decorative purposes (basically not for any of the uses I mentioned above). While I can always bring them to the living room for extra seating, they work well under my hall table. That is the beauty of ottomans, they are multi-purpose, multi-function, or can have no purpose whatsoever. They provide texture, detail, and an added life to space whether they are the main event or just a side-gig.
Just see all the fantastic spaces below…
A chic and large blue tufted ottoman in the home of Lucky Brand’s David DeMattei and Patrick Wade’s home via Architectural Digest.
Francois Halard captures this very patterned and lived-in room for Vogue.
A rather large ottoman is placed under this hallway table. Unusual since the size of the ottoman is so much greater than the table itself, but the scale works wonders in this photo. Photo source: Veranda
Multiple blue ottomans are lined together in this dining room to create a bench-like setting. So incredibly smart since benches often feel cramped.
A large and open space with light white and neutral hues in Vince Camuto’s Long Island home. I love this oversized white ottoman that is great for extra seating. Photo source: Architectural Digest
These are incredibly similar to my recently purchased Jonathan Adler ottomans. The only difference is that mine are much darker. Don’t they inject a lively shot of personality, texture, and contrast?! Photo source: Elle Decor
A fantastically different ottoman in this room of blue by Katie Ridder. What a interesting use of pattern and color. I admire how they just used the pattern on the sides and tied in the top with the sofa. Photo source: Elle Decor
This large squared ottoman makes the space in Gennifer Goodwin’s LA home. Photo source: Elle Decor
Moving on to a dark and circular plum ottoman. A nice use of soft texture in this bathroom by Rela Gleason with large ceilings, windows, an neutral tones. Photo source: Architectural Digest
Madeline Weinrib uses a superb blend of patterns and texture to create a worldy atmosphere in this room. Photo source: Elle Decor
This rolling rectangular ottoman adds a breath of fresh air to this royally purple room. Photo source: Architectural Digest
Ottomans in the kitchen? Yes, it is possible. Yes, it works in perfect harmony with this kitchen featured in Traditional Home.