...about signature style: 13 cues from Design on a Dime 2014.

There are some designers whose style is so recognizable you can spot their rooms 20 paces out or 2 pages in. John Saladino. Vicente Wolf. Darryl Carter. Geoffrey Bradfield. Over decades of fine-tuning their process, they’ve arrived at go-to palettes, styling trademarks, and furnishing combinations that work for them and for clients seeking that signature style.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

But to me, the joy of interior design has been uncovering and then celebrating the passions and loves of my clients, in rooms that shout or whisper their names before they do mine.

While of course the bulk of my work has been for (mostly!) wonderful clients, I’ve also been lucky to work on projects where style or function restrictions have been nearly nil, for pure show or charitable cause... the Bloomingdale’s Big Window Challenge, Holiday House, and this, my fourth year doing Design on a Dime, the annual fundraiser to benefit Housing Works, where 50+ designers solicit merchandise to craft, collect and curate a vignette, art installation or mini room, all sold off for charity. 

But in each of these events, it’s basically just me (well, me and the amazing donors, artists, antiques dealers, volunteers and craftspeople who make it actually happen!).

There’s no client to say, “We have to keep the rug,” or “Anything but green.” Style-wise, I get to fully call the shots (and then, in the case of Design on a Dime, beg, cajole and wish, then cross fingers and toes that vendors will say yes and it all arrives on time.) 

It’s what makes these type of “no-client” events so thrilling. And so terrifying. It’s just me. And, ohmygod, it’s just me. No one to throw under the bus but myself if the collection of items that looked so cool on Pinterest fails to translate in the 3-D world.

Each year, I’ve let myself have more and more fun with the unfettered prospect. My first room for Design on a Dime was quiet (but a debut I’m still terribly proud of). The next, alligator walls and egg yolk yellows. Three years later and one year ago, I was hanging a giant green parakeet on a flamestitch grasscloth called Zippity Doo Dah. Quiet? Notsomuch. In my fourth year, I’m layering floor length white fringe panels over “Brazilian Blush” walls.

It’s been fun, but it made me wonder: am I a design Sybil? What’s the common denominator, of my client work (whether on short or long leash), the Design on a Dime vignettes, and the other opportunities (like my own home) when there were no clients at all?

With or without a client, do I have a signature style?

When I stopped to think about it, I realized there are some things I love to do, some tenets I try to hold fast to, some groundwork I generally lay for a room, myself, or a client. So, by way of this year’s Design on a Dime vignette, here are the thirteen things that, to quote the Pet Shop Boys, “left to my own devices, I probably would.”

Photo: Jody Kivort

1. Natural elements

Pardon my French, but Mother Nature kicks ass.

I love what the rich irregularity of nature brings to any room, whether wood grain or glittering frozen fractal. This year, it was a calcite geode and two beyond-belief rock crystal spheres from Pagoda Red. Two years ago, it was the spectacular and herculean “Painter’s Stone” (also from Pagoda Red. They’ve been very, very good to me.).

Pieces from nature, whether seashell or fossil, petrified wood table or selenite lamp, temper a modern room, and bring a note of color, shine or texture you simply can’t man-make. Same goes for plant- and vegetable-based dyes, like those in the silk “Double Portal” rug from Carini Lang. Nobody does color like Joe Carini. Or Lady N.

Nature brings grace, ease and a settled, well, nature to any room. I even love the power of photographs of animal, vegetable and mineral to bring it. But it can also be as simple as a vase-full of flowers.

2. Art as palette-driver

As I said when I had the opportunity to speak on the subject recently at the New York School of Interior Design, if I could, I’d start every room with art. It’s hard though, since finding perfect art that a client loves as much as you do is like finding a pair of shoes someone else thinks is comfortable. It’s usually too personal to project.

So when no client is around to say, “Ummmmm...” art is very often where I start. This year, Dan Romer’s “Lord Rick” set the tone of the room, with both his princely nature and unique clay-pink, gold, silver and black palette. The Bloomingdale’s window, my first year of Design on a Dime and Holiday House all started with the room’s main piece (or collection) of art.

Photo: Jody Kivort

3. Repetition

Since I very often work in smaller confines for Manhattan clients, repetition, whether of shape, theme, color or texture, is a way to bring cohesion both within a room and from room to room.

Dan’s drawing, and my second donation, that crazy-spiky-cool Spore mirror from Barry Barr Dixon for Arteriors Home shared an organic, elongated oval, paving the way for the irregular oval of the River Stone cocktail table from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, the Mobius sculpture from Oly, the foreshortened disks of the Revelry lamp from Currey & Company, and even the silvered Jordan almonds. 

That thorny crown worn by Lord Rick, and the spikes of the Spore gave me yet another royal and wicked motif worth repeating (in the pointy little crowns of the Lily candle sticks from West Elm, and the base and finial of the Currey & Company Minaret lamps).

By way of intentional repetition, the string panels from The Shade Store made way for the chainmail-inspired Rojo Stainless hurricane courtesy LampsPlus, which had the double bonus of also royally relating to knight’s armor, and the magic act of the room's artwork floating in mid-air, courtesy the genius of my new best friends at iLevel.

Black and white (more on that later!) was repeated in the traffic-stopping diptych from Karina Gentinetta, the Conor zebra chair from Bernhardt, and the pair of fuzzy Frida chairs from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams.

4. Wall-matching the big stuff

Again, a small space trick: steal the potentially overwhelming mass of a room’s largest pieces, whether upholstery or casegood, by matching or relating it to the wall color. This year, the champagne upholstery on the Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams Henri chairs wasn’t as direct a match to the walls as last year’s orange leather settee, but these two chairs would have seemed even bigger in this tight 10 x 12 footprint if they were bright blue.

Photo: Jody Kivort

5. Console(ation) Prize

To anchor a wall, or hide AV equipment, and do it while providing places for all those lamps and tablescaping, while hugging a wall and not hogging the floor, who you gonna call? A console. Closed or open, it’s a great casegood. And while this year’s star Jules console table didn’t match the wall, its openwork base, glass top and super slim profile stole the thunder from its considerable length.

6. Animal magnetism, and a horse of a different stripe

With apologies to my vegan friends and PETA (and no comments from the peanut gallery, please), I like leather. Well-tanned and au naturel (shush!), aniline dyed and hair-on-hide: I love what the non-fabric nature of hide and its hardwearing (and kid-proof, pet-friendly) properties can bring to a room.

And to me, any and every room benefits from the exotic and graphic pattern of zebra. Just legally vintage, woven in rug or fabric, gilded onto the Gold Carnaby Zebra Stacking plates from Jonathan Adler by way of D.C. designer E. Wayne Breeden, or printed on cowhide, please. The best use of zebra is still on a living, breathing zebra.

Photo: Jody Kivort

7. A “bridge piece”

To make sense of bright- and off-whites I knew were coming but wouldn’t see until cracking open the boxes during install, I relied on two things already covered to make sense of the range: art, and nature. I knew there’d be bright whites and creams among the arrivals, so Karina’s paintings (which combined both) and the natural whites of the cowhide chair and geode were the pieces that made the mismatch look intentional. Another of my usual go-to bridge pieces is an area rug, making sense of a room's disparate tones.

The astounding, castle-worthy frame from Lowy was also a bridge piece. Its white-gold gilding made sense of the mix of metals elsewhere in the room, as did the champagne tones of the Henri chair’s upholstery, and the Crate & Barrel Orb champagne bucket.

Photo: Jody Kivort

8. White (and black) as color

White should never be a default, even if it’s the builder’s basic on your rental walls. It’s the non-color color worth running with (just ask Benjamin Noriega Ortiz.). The designers at Apple taught us that white could be an oh-so-intentional style choice, as white ear buds sprouted up like snow drops in the spring earth. 

I’ve always agreed. White can temper a riot of color, or draw your eye in from dark corners, making the edges disappear, as they did at Holiday House. Last year at DoaD, white frames made sense of a crazy-quilt of a gallery wall, while holding their own against the wallpaper. The white shag underneath all that jazz calmed things down like sour cream on spicy salsa.

Same goes for black: it can ground, steady and de-sweeten an otherwise frothy confection. Without black in this year’s room, it all might have read far more spoiled Tween than the intended (and more mature) “Wicked Queen.”

9. Are we all lit? Statement lamps... and get me to the pharmacy

Why does furniture always look great in showrooms? Lighting. Direct, indirect, shaded or spot, incandescent, LED or halogen. And lamps. A room’s best friend is the glow of a paper or fabric-shaded lamp, and people never use enough of them.

As a testament to the power of lamplight, even in the bright lights of the Metropolitan Pavilion, the crackling and spot-on color work of booth neighbor Miles Redd only really came to life when his lamps where finally lit.

Aside from the lighting they provide, lamps are truly the jewelry of any room. Lamps add color or shine even when they’re not even on. And don’t forget to consider the color of the shade. White or ivory, silk or hardbacked, basic black or foil-lined, consider the shade’s color when the lamp is off and on. (Thank you, e-tailers, who photograph product shots both ways.)

I’ve also used at least one version of the classic pharmacy lamp in every single room I’ve ever finished. The perfect kind of light for readers, and when table-tops are in short supply. (This year's pharmacy lamp is just out of frame, sidled up to the Conor chair.) 

Photo: Jody Kivort

10. Masculine/feminine mix

I’m not thrilled with assigning gender roles to things like straight line versus curve, bold versus delicate, floral versus geometric (and ESPECIALLY not color), but “masculine/feminine” is still a kind of universal shorthand for these types of style attributes.

Any kind of mix is important to keep a room from feeling like it all fell off one truck, but nothing’s more important than the mix of (for lack of a better term) of masculine and feminine.

Every room needs both, not only to make everyone feel at home, but to create the good kind of “sexual” tension that makes any room far more sensual.

11. Wall power

I’ve relied on statement walls mainly at Design on a Dime for two reasons: I’ve had a donor, and wallcovering, while it slowed up the install, always turned “booth” to “room” as soon as the last seam was matched.

Along the way, I’ve been fully converted to the power of paper (or vinyl or grasscloth, or this year, fringe). I’ve also watched brilliant designers year after year at Kips Bay use paper, lacquer or paint treatment to camouflage flaw, and take the edge of the white box. What’s the message? It seems obvious, but don’t overlook your walls. A nearly-empty room can feel far more finished if the envelope it’s in is carefully considered.

Photo: Jody Kivort

12. Invest, Splurge & Save

It’s been my mantra, and a way to ease the minds of first time clients, afraid their new interior designer is hell-bent on spending all of their money: “Invest, Splurge and Save.”

Every room, even with all the money in the world, should be a mix of Investment, splurge and savings (of course, that’s all very relative). Some pieces should be picked for longevity, others for pure lust. And even when I have no client, that’s how rooms come together, with bespoke and custom rubbing elbows with Crate & Barrel and catalog finds. 

Areas where I encourage investment are major upholstered pieces and rugs, with splurges dictated by love and whim. As far as savings, sometimes an end table is just an end table (Although not here! Both the Oly Bruno and the tiered table from Bernhardt are pretty special!), and some categories (like lighting) have a true range of pricepoint that allow a more budget-friendly decision.

13. Go with the flow

I started writing this even before the first boxes arrived for Design on a Dime, so I had planned on making this last point “Tucking you in.” In most rooms, I love tucking floating and secondary seating under consoles, (or at Holiday House, a bench under a high-rise coffee table), doubling up the value of precious Manhattan real estate. 

But this year, the two pieces I intended to tuck together didn’t arrive in time, so this last point became more about process than pick: Interior design is an art, not a science, and even calculated and precise floorplans can get derailed once the wrappings are off. 

So, if you’ve hired a designer, be prepared to see things unfold organically, with some changes as pieces get delivered. And if you’ve not hired a designer, be easy on yourself when the lamp towers or the side table seems shrunken. It happens. It’s all fixable. And that, gentle readers, is perhaps the greatest common denominator of all our work.

Before we go, a GINORMOUS thank you to this year’s roster of intensely generous donors, who let me show off some of my signature moves:

Arteriors Home, Assouline, Bernhardt; Brian Rose, Carini Lang, Carter Ferrington, Charles Flora, Currey & Company, Dan Romer, David Sims/No'La, DwellStudio, FiveStripes, Gloria Sanders, iLevel, Joel Woodard, Jonathan Adler, Karina Gentinetta, LampsPlus, Laurence Jansen, Lenox, Lowy, Lynda Quintero-Davids, M+N Installation, Matthew Patrick Smyth, Michael Morris, Michele Taylor Interiors, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, NDI/Natural Decorations, Nicole Haddad, Oly Studio/Oly Atelier, Pagoda Red, Robert Ricard/Frieze Savannah, Ruth Gottesman, Steve Thompson, and The Shade Store.

Additional thanks to Mitchell Gold, Eloise Goldman, Robin Reitzes Kern, Bethanne Matari, Rebecca Vicars, Erik Retzer, Annette Huval, Joe Carini, Jan MacLatchie, Alan Leo Bounville, Paul Patropulos, Chris Ann Paternostro, Mel Alvarez, and the entire Housing Works family.

So what’s your go-to move, trademark look or signature style? What do you think about the "Identifiable Designer"? And do you see anything "signature" in my work that I've overlooked? As always, I'd love to hear from you!

Get social! Find Housing Works, The Shade Store, Mitchell Gold + Bob WIlliams,  E. Wayne Breeden, Carini Lang, Frieze Savannah, iLevel, and Currey & Company on Facebook!

Follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.

Lead image, and photos as noted: Jody Kivort. Addtional photography: Patrick J. Hamilton

...about meeting in the middle: when monochromatic isn't entirely in the cards.

It is great compliment, and very flattering: New York reader Brett writes: "I really like your work and am hoping that you can help me "Patrickfy" my bedroom. I got inspired by your blog ("...about a beige bedroom") and tried to do my bedroom in shades of black/dark grey.” 

Well, he’ll get no argument from me: my very favorite room in the house to build from one notch on the color wheel is the bedroom. It’s calming, it’s soothing, and you can get a LOT of high style look by keeping color constant.

Brett continues: “I like a clean contemporary type room. Simple lines. I want it to look sexy and confident, but it has to be practical (i.e. sufficient storage space).

“I don't mind spending money on something that I will take along with me when/if I move, but would like to kind of get options or pieces at different price points.” Sounds like we’re on the same page: my philosophy has always been “Invest, Save, Splurge,” for any room, at any stage of your life, rented or owned.

But while Brett wants a possibly-all-black bedroom, he’s not giving me carte blanche. There are some givens, some starting points and some “client request,” all fairly familiar situations with my real-life Manhatttan clients. So let’s see where we’re starting before we see where to go.

Working with What’s There

Brett is off to a GREAT start with his headboard, Calvin Klein bedding, the side table and that rug (which I WANT, by the way). So we’ll start there. No problem, no argument, no returns.

Coming Up Short

Like most New Yorkers, Brett wants more bedroom storage, and the bane of everyone’s existence— laundry bins!— have to be addressed. I like his idea of banishing the bins to the closet by introducing a dresser. Sold. I'd leave the tall wall next to the closet empty, except for a sexy, sculptural chair and a piece of art or mirror.

Renter Madness

I’m no stranger to designing for renters. But while some renters in Manhattan will tackle a rental just like a long-term or more permanent residence with paint, minor renovation, installed lighting and swapped out hardware (I’ve done almost all of that to my own rental), Brett doesn’t want to paint, and is reluctant to make any change more permanent than fleeting. Okay, we can work with that. Sort of. We’ll come back to this one.

Now that we know the givens, let’s start to talk style.

To Tone-on-Tone or Not to Tone-on-Tone?

It’s a clunky intro but a valid question. When we’re talking monochromatic—a room made up from just one color, or very closely related colors— it’s all about repeat, repeat, repeat. But don’t be fooled: a monochromatic room can be “mono-ANY-chromatic.” It doesn’t mean beige, and it CERTAINLY doesn’t mean bland. (Take a look at the work of my friend Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz to see how his all-one-color philosophy means there is NO compromise on drama...)

Making monochromatic rooms really work takes a full commitment, and that’s true of rooms that start beige, taupe, white, red or even black, like Brett wants to do. To stop short of full-on color commitment looks like you ran out of steam, or just chickened out, and you lose that seamless, buttoned-up look.

So would I tell Brett to go ALL black? You bet your paint cans.

I LOVE dark bedrooms. They’re sexy, cave-y, in this case, appropriately masculine, restful and did I mention SEXY? So why not all black?

But Brett doesn’t want to paint (and to be honest, having to paint BACK an all-black room to deposit-returning Builder’s White doesn’t sound fun). Our first hurdle. And that means the basic rules of a monochromatic room have to be tweaked right out of the gate.

Dark done right: The bedroom of San Francisco designer Agustin Sanders, as featured on Apartment Therapy

Connecting the Envelope to the Love Notes Inside

I tend to think of rooms in two parts: the “envelope” and the “contents.” The envelope is made up of the actual structure of the room, but in addition to flooring, molding and drywall, I extend the concept to the first layer past that: rugs, window treatments, anything else “installed” (like built-ins or drapery hardware, and (if you can) paint.

I think any good room is then a connection of the envelope and what you put in it. Even if the shell is a traditional Brooklyn Brownstone, and you want a polished modern interior, you can do that if there are some nods between the envelope and the furnishings, with transitions made with fabric at the windows, shared color and textures. Sure, you may have great and ornate original moldings, but modern sconces start to transition between built-in and brought-in.

But what does that mean for Brett? Well, with all the introductions of all-black content in a white box of a room, there’s never going to be full and cohesive connection... and the furnishings might end up looking like funeral guests at a wedding.  But fear not: there’s a solution to this awkward party.



Meeting in the Middle

It’s a lesson Congress could benefit from, too: when faced with polar opposites, the only way to cohesion is to meet somewhat, somehow in the middle. (I think there’s more chance of that happening here than in Congress, but let's move on.)

So for Brett, we may have to back off on the all-out monochromatic, and embrace the black and white, with some strategic grays and most importantly, some elements that marry two ends of the spectrum.

Even so, I’d still make the case for a little paint... knocking the walls down just the slightest with even a light gray on the walls is worth the paint (and lease-end repaint).

If there’s more interest in paint, I’d do at least the headboard wall black. But if that’s not in the cards, that wall needs another layer. I’ve done temporary installation of fabric stretched across a frame, like a stretched painter’s canvas as the headboard wall, and that could certainly work here.

 

Brett Should Go Bi

With big expanses of black and bigger expanses of white, we need a middle layer of things that are both black and white. If he didn’t already have a headboard, I’d push hard for Z-Gallerie’s James headboard, perfect with his existing bedding, too. Even his main addition, the dresser, can be “bi-color”: the Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams Westwood dresser is a great graphic way to make the room’s two color parts look intentional, not the product of rental limitation. I’d see that dresser paired up with the Pool side tables from DWR, if he wants to really ramp up the modern. Otherwise, I’d love an old-new mix between vintage and high modern with dresser and nightstands.

But a little goes a long way. I’m not proposing that EVERY new addition is both black and white. A little zebra goes a long way (and if you’ve been paying attention, you know I loves me some zebra). One black-and-white pattern, like these Ballard Designs Hayden Upholstered Side Tables done C.O.M. with Edelman’s Cavallini Embossed Black and White leather, one black-and-white or gray piece of art, and that’s probably enough of a marriage to make sense of all the rest.

By the way, those tables are a HUGE trend now: applying upholstery to Parson’s and waterfall tables, a well as extending the upholstery all down the leg, like Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams’ brand new-for-spring Trent chair.

Layered and Layered and Layered

Monochromatic, or here, “dichromatic,” really relies on getting the depth you might not be getting out of color with other things, like materials and texture. And layering.

So behind that headboard, and to beef up the bed, I’d get a fabric folding screen back there, like Mitchell Gold + Bob William's Eve Room Divider, flattened against the wall, in an all-black or nearly-black fabric, like Weitzner’s Estuary, in Chestnut. That will start to take some of the thunder away from the white walls, and get one step closer between the envelope and the content, since a screen like that, used in that way, has one foot in both camps: it talks to the room as architecture, it talks to the bed as a upholstered furnishing. It’s also something Brett can take with him when he moves.

Or bring INSTANT layering, with either those Nevelson-inspired Constructionist wall screens (one behind the bed, a pair flanking it) or the Curved side table, both from Weisshouse, one of the best-curated ready-to-wear furnishing outlets around. I could also see those screens behind the dresser, or soldiered up on each side of the window.

Spit and Polish

I love the starting mix Brett has: Soft and sharp, matte and shiny, traditional and not-so. He’s really wise to bring in some shine, super important in all all-dark or nearly all-dark scheme. It’s also, itself, a step between black and white of sorts. So the next steps should also bring in more shine, either with glass, lacquer, chrome or mirror. Or all of the above. The darker the room, the more it benefits from some shine.

Get Your Drape On

Even in a rental, and even with a killer view like Brett has, window treatments are worth the bother. I’d flank the window with panels of West Elm’s Velvet Grommet  drapery panels in Iron.

And even though Brett was on the hunt for in-window tension rods, DON’T DO IT. Step AWAY from the windows with tension rods. It will make your window seem smaller, and even expensive drapes will look cheap. Get those rods up and out of the window well... as far across the wall as you can, as close to the ceiling as you can manage. Your window will look bigger (I promise) and you will get far more mileage out of the fabric’s impact. Simple hardware can go up with minimal drilling, and it really makes a difference even if your light and privacy controls are already addressed. 

Suddenly, with softening draperies, the bed and the window are speaking to each other (and I think the biggest connection in a bedroom should be between the bed and the window treatments). Plus, a thin black rod or a thick chrome one and you've already started to knit your room elements together.

In the very least, an inside-mount Roman shade, in black. But even then, I'd flank it with panels that match in color, but vary in fabric, like a nubby black linen shade and black velvet or silk drapes. Super swanky.

Lighting

Even if you like a dark room like I do, you’re going to need lighting, and lots of different kinds, especially in a bedroom, über-especially in a DARK bedroom. Lamps (black shades are great in this scheme), indirect, incandescent and halogen all have a place, and a role here, whether you’re sorting your navy and black socks or when you are engaged in, um, other pursuits that require lighting more flattering.  

If there’s not room for two nightstands, get a standing floor lamp for the window side of the bed. Get an uplight in a corner. Decide if you read in bed or not, and determine the best kind of bedside lighting (don’t dismiss wall-mount, either) based on what you do in bed. Wait. You know what I mean.

And lighting is ALWAYS a place I encourage the splurge. You can take it with you, and a classic lighting choice will stay with you for years (I’ve had my first Tizio since college).

Mixing it Up, Finishing it Up

When you limit your palette, you can have a LOT of fun with the mix. Geometric and curvy. Found and finessed. And don’t “set up” the casegoods: it's more interesting when the nightstands and the dresser don't match. I'd love to see Weisshouse's BLACK GLASS Chest of Drawers paired with Ballard Designs Small Serpentine Chest, as just one example. If there’s room for two nightstands, I’d do it (and those I don’t mind as a matched pair.) But adding a nightstand doesn’t mean tossing the mirrored stool. Let that sit just in front of a stand that gives you some storage (see “Layered, Layered, and Layered,” above.)

And on finishing up, I'd keep building from what Brett has: Although it needs some reframing love (match the whites, ditch the black bevel, beef up the outside frame... or mirror it), the cheetah print he has works nicely. I'd give it one other reference in the room: A bolster of Edelman's Cavallini Embossed Snow Leopard cowhide with a simple black leather welt would be a sexy, sexy note on the bed. Well, when Brett's not already on it.  

So, yes Brett, there’s good news and bad: you can get one step closer to a monochromatic scheme without a total blackout. And without losing your security deposit. And, unlike many things, the answer here IS black and white. Well, mostly.

Which pieces from this batch would you pull together for a sultry, sexy men’s bedroom? What tips made you go HMMM or WTF? Could YOU live in a all-black bedroom? I want to hear from you!!

And head over to Pinterest, where I've pinned all the items shown here (and then some!) so you can recreate the look.