When the chance to participate in the Style Cure again came up I jumped at the chance. This year has been a whirlwind juggling work and planning our recent wedding, and now that things have settled down a bit I can’t wait to give our neglected apartment the TLC that it needs.
Style Cure Interview
1. Favorites:
- Actor/ Actress: Can we make this Director instead? Wes Anderson, The Coen Brothers, Sofia Coppola.
- Artist: I could go so many directions with this but these are the artists whose work I would love to collect now. Jason Borders for his intricately carved sculls, Jane Mount for her custom «Ideal Bookshelf» and Clare Elsaesser for her beautiful paintings.
- Writer: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I loved The Little Prince when I was young and I love it now.
- Music: Janelle Monae. I love her music but I also love that she has spirit… Her energy radiates through everything she does and she puts on a great show.
- Restaurant: The Salty Pig. It’s this great little charcuterie place in Boston we used to frequent on Sunday afternoons. You choose your cheese, your meat and your acumen and they bring it all out with crostini. Add a Bloody Mary and a seat on the patio and it’s the perfect afternoon.
- Automobile: We’re currently shopping for a new little city car and are looking at a Fiat or Mini Cooper. They’re compact, which is important when it comes to street parking and the design just makes me happy.
- Movie or Television Show: Scandal, True Detective for television. The movie «There Will Be Blood» has some of the best cinematography and the line «I drink your milkshake.» which gets tossed around our apartment often.
- Clothing: Quality over quantity, you’ll reach for great classics more often than anything else in your closet. I purchased a beautiful pair of Frye leather OTK boots last season that I can’t wait to pull out again this year (it’s hot in California!) My Madewell transport tote is still going strong after four years and is a constant go to and I have a serious thing for dresses, they make up almost half my wardrobe.
- Furniture (pieces, designers or stores): I love the classics. We have the Eames Eiffel chairs and recently splurged big time and ordered the Saarinen Tulip Table. I also love beautiful textiles, a trip to Morocco is on my bucket list, I would love to come back with a beautiful rug or a traditional wedding blanket.
2. Personal style: Feminine, a little edge, current.
3a. Favorite room from a childhood home: I’m not sure that this qualifies as a room exactly but when I was little my dad built a playhouse for us in the backyard that was a like a tiny version of our house. He used all of the real finishes left over from renovating our home like the shingles and paint and I absolutely loved it. It felt grown up but was sized down just for me.
3b. Favorite room from an adult home: My bedroom when I lived alone in Boston, it was my retreat. I had decorated that apartment with glossy white, soft gray and a few touches of muted color. It was simple, pretty and soothing.
4. Role model: My grandmother. She always had stories when we were growing up about things like being sent home from school for wearing pants (and not a skirt) before that was acceptable for women to do. She also started her own business running a salon when I was a little girl. I also found out, a little more recently, that she was a wing walker. She was fearless. She taught me you can do anything that you want and never to let anything hold you back.
5. Three «just right» spots: I love our existing bookshelf, a ambitious DIY that we tackled just after moving in, it created so much additional storage. Our leather sofa is beautiful and comfortable and was well worth the investment and we have a ton of great, hardy houseplants that bring life into the space.
6. What I want friends to say: Beautiful, comfortable and collected.
Based on my responses, here is what stood out to me:
I love things that are visually inspiring and beautiful that draw you in but with a little bit of edge. I want to feel energized and inspired by my surroundings and I prioritize a classic foundation with quality, tactile pieces. I also love things to have a sense of being collected over time.
I want a space that feels like home to me. Quality is important and I crave a sense of respite from the outside world. I should focus on bringing in beautiful touches and finishes and lightening up our existing design, which can feel a bit heavy, especially in such a small space. Curating pieces that we’ve collected over the years will help them fit the design and keep it from feeling too big box.
I should be embracing the things that feel right to me instead of following trends and hard and fast rules and prioritize finding pieces that I really love.
(Image credits: Kim Lucian)
