Indholdsfortegnelse for Oct-15 i House Beautiful

I HUNG A PAIR OF MIRRORS on my kitchen cabinets the other day. It was a happy accident—I realized the width of each mirror was about the same size as the end cabinets. Hammer, nails, done. And why not? Just because the kitchen is a functional space shouldn’t mean it’s exempt from the occasional inspired zhush my other rooms get. While researching this, our annual Kitchen Issue, I discovered that designers Benjamin Dhong (whose home is on this issue’s cover) and Betsy Burnham both like to put a table lamp on kitchen counters for a little ambience. Why, I wondered, hadn’t I considered decorating the space beyond tile and cabinet choices? How did my kitchen make it out safe? And then I opened a cupboard. Turns out, the kitchen may…

Our Favorite Wallflower It was a welcome moment when a batch of beautifully uninhibited flowers took over our Instagram feed. We tracked it back to @kateschelter, who used her brush and Dorothy Draper–meets-Bloomsbury sensibility to revive the San Vicente Bungalows in Los Angeles. Now she’s taking her kit of Farrow & Ball paints and flower pics to her new home. “So many white walls!” she says. Not for long. A Look Back The wall has been a canvas for self-expression since the very beginning. Let’s Hang Can’t host an artist-in-residence? These mural-style wallcoverings range from bespoke to grab-and-go. ONE DESIGNER’S TAKE “Murals can work wonders! They’re solutions for tricky spaces and funny angles. And you can use one to tie together all the colors in a project.” —Molly Luetkemeyer…

AN ELEGANT SPOT TO DINE Deep in the throes of applying to law school, Rivers Spencer began fauxfinishing antique furniture in her grandmother’s garage as a creative outlet. Before long, she was hooked. “I read everything about design I could get my hands on after that,” says the 29-year-old Mississippi native. In 2011, she opened her shop in New Orleans, and an influx of jobs followed. For a recent Garden District project (right), Spencer created a romantic dining room around a collection of rare Biedermeier klismos chairs. But the luminous smoke-colored walls are the showstopper. “I love how it feels like a little jewel box,” she says. A PEEK INSIDE RIVERS’S WORLD “White is crisp, clean, and uncomplicated. It creates a beautiful canvas for antiques.”…

1. SIZE IT UP “I like to play with scale, creating things that are unusual in proportion. It brings humor to a room. If a room is serious, it’s dead!” 2. ARTIST’S HAND “This is an original artwork I made of an African mask. My art influences every fabric I design.” 3. ‘FANIMAL’ “I’ve drawn animals since I was a child, and I never stopped. They can make you feel like a happy kid again!” 4. STROKE OF GENIUS “I paint all the color chips for printing—my palette is bright, never muddy, for a positive feeling.” 5. ABSTRACTED “Nature always inspires me. Look closely and you’ll see that this is a deconstructed landscape with trees.”…

THE BEACH is right outside this house in Marina del Rey, California, but you’d never have known it from the dark and cramped master bath. Designer Daleet Spector reconfigured the space and added large windows to let in more light. “The clients don’t like a lot of color, so we worked with different textures instead,” she says. Plain shiplap on the walls, painted pure white, reinforces the casual cottage theme. And there’s something almost Japanese about the vanities, which manage to be rustic and sophisticated at the same time. They’re made of cast concrete, in two smooth blocks that seem to float over the oak cabinets. “Concrete can be a very sensuous material, almost soft to the touch,” Spector says. “And the surface has a beautiful irregularity that feels organic.”…

ALICE GORDON: Serenity seems key to your design. When your own Beacon Hill house was featured in House Beautiful [March 2014], one style blogger wrote, “Is this what heaven looks like? Wowza!” NINA FARMER: Serenity is important to my work. Most of us want to come home to a relaxed atmosphere. It’s a balancing act—finding the right amount of color and juxtaposition of different styles. Rooms need to flow and feel natural. Nothing should be jarring. Your clients for this project also wanted a house in your neighborhood, which took a year to find. That can’t have been relaxing. I went to every showing in the area for them, which was very interesting! It helped that the wife and I grew up together in Connecticut, and I understood what she…

THE SYMBOL (T) = TO THE TRADE. “To the trade” means a manufacturer sells primarily to design professionals. Many design centers offer hourly decorating and shopping services that can assist you; some fabric shops, workrooms, and websites may be able to place an order for you as well. PAINT BENJAMIN MOORE benjaminmoore.com C2 PAINT c2paint.com FARROW & BALL farrow-ball.com FINE PAINTS OF EUROPE finepaintsofeurope.com GLIDDEN glidden.com PRATT & LAMBERT prattandlambert.com SHERWIN-WILLIAMS sherwin-williams.com VALSPAR valsparpaint.com FABRIC & WALLCOVERING ARABEL FABRICS (T) arabelfabrics.com BRENTANO (T) brentanofabrics.com CAROLINA IRVING TEXTILES (T) carolinairvingtextiles.com CRÉATION BAUMANN (T) creationbaumann.com DE LE CUONA (T) delecuona.com DEDAR (T) dedar.com DUNE dune-ny.com ÉLITIS (T) elitis.fr FROMENTAL fromental.co.uk GALBRAITH & PAUL (T) galbraithandpaul.com HINSON LIGHTING (T) (through Donghia) donghia.com HOLLAND & SHERRY (T) hollandandsherry.com JANE CHURCHILL (T) (through Cowtan &…

CHARGREEN C2-694 C2 PAINT “Forest green calls to mind hunting lodges, gentlemen’s clubs, and smoky billiard rooms. The lower the lights, the darker and more sultry this color gets, until it’s almost black. Then, when the sun hits, it brightens up quite a bit. It’s a traditional color in a modern room—a calm, curated space where a man would want to hang out.” WILL WICK CHAPPELL GREEN 83 FARROW & BALL “Rather than going for the immediate ‘wow,’ men tend to like something more modest and understated. And they appreciate the complexity of a color like this, which sometimes reads as blue and at other times green, depending on the light. I see it in a study, where I would pair it with an aged-leather chesterfield sofa and gold or…

1. Ariana Salad and Dinner Plates. By Blue Pheasant. From $28. thepicketfence.com. 2. Entertain 365 Sculpture RoundDinner Plate. $86 for a four-piece place setting. lenox.com. 3. Looks LikeWhite Porcelain Textured Salad and Dinner Plates. $155 for a threepiece place setting. food52.com/shop. 4. Ashlar Round Dinner plate. $90 for a fivepiece place setting. wedgwood.com. 5. Incantro Stripe EuropeanDinner Plate. $46. vietri.com. 6. White Salad andDinner Plates. By Felt + Fat. From$42. the-commons.us. 7. Seagate Dinner Plate. $21. canvashome store.com.…

“I always keep the cook in mind when designing a kitchen,” Wolf says. “It’s all about placement.” Focusing on both practicality and charm, she included a La Cornue stove from Williams-Sonoma, an unlacquered brass gooseneck faucet by Waterworks, and geometric cement tiles by Granada Tile. “The antiqued-mirror backsplash helps distribute the light nicely, and it’s easy to clean.” “A pot of tea simmers while the kids, happily perched at the island, work on craft projects.” LOVE NOTES “Great for grocery lists and recipes—a nice piece to have in any kitchen!” Farmhouse Chalkboard, $50. worldmarket.com LIVEN IT UP “Fresh flowers in a simple vessel soften the space with an organic touch.” Farmer’s PitCher, $150. farmhousepottery.com A LIGHT OVERHEAD “It’s essential to have an effective downlight over an island.” GAREY SMALL HANGING…

1. THE ESSENTIAL ROUND TABLE “The table is a great place to splurge, but be sure to buy one that fits with the way you like to entertain. A dark, glossy stain is more formal than a lighter, washed finish. If you have the space, a round or oval table, with its soft shape and inviting curves, fosters conversation among guests. It has a the-more-the-merrier feel, as you can always squeeze in one more chair.” 2. TWO FOR ONE “Make the space feel more dynamic and less fussy by mixing in a bench or banquette with several different dining chairs. A table with a pedestal base rather than one with individual legs makes it easy to scoot in and out of the banquette. Allowing at least two feet surrounding the…

JOSEPH GIOVANNINI: How did you make a 1980s generic builder house in wine country look so Napa? BENJAMIN DHONG: This is an agrarian area, so I tried for an updated farmhouse feeling by keeping the simplicity of Greek Revival houses in mind—but without getting too historical. I didn’t want the place to feel old. So I combined flea-market hand-me-downs with straightforward utilitarian pieces from regular stores, and I mixed old and new, East and West Coast, low and high. I applied wabi-sabi—that Japanese idea of imperfection, irregularity, and serenity—to keep it all informal. Was designing for yourself different from designing for clients? It wasn’t, actually. My home reflects exactly what I do for clients, and that includes a great respect for the budget. I don’t like rooms where every item…

Entertain Beautifully Entertaining can be done anywhere, on any scale. And success costs nothing, because it’s all about thoughtfulness. Setting a table in a guest room (à la Colefax and Fowler, above) affords privacy and a change of scenery. Start thinking of your house as a palette, a place permitting playfulness, and the entertaining possibilities will be endless.” BOUGHT AT A MARKET IN ENGLAND. IT SEEMED AS IF SOMEONE HAD SKETCHED PARIS ON A SCARF AND WALKED OFF. Live Passionately “It’s imperative that your interests, what sparks your curiosity, the items you collect in your travels, and the fruits of your hobbies become critical components of your decorating style. It’s these items that distinguish your rooms from others and allow you to be unique and to live freely and without…

FOR EVEN MORE LELA... In her charming new book, Rose presents dozens of inventive ideas for year-round table-setting and party-throwing. Prêt-à-Party: Great Ideas for Good Times and Creative Entertaining. Rizzoli, $40.…

“An appliance wall—standard items mixed with specialty add-ons—is the ultimate control panel for your kitchen.” If you’ve ever spotted a pair of dishwashers (clean! dirty!) in a couple’s home or an entire refrigerator drawer dedicated to Diet Coke, then you’ve seen the trend toward hyperpersonalized kitchen design in action. When appliance makers like Thermador first trotted out 18-inch wine towers and stand-alone freezers, they were installed all over the house: library, garage, basement. But appliances are returning to the heart of the home, and the big deal in kitchens right now is the “appliance wall,” where standard appliances are mixed and matched with specialty add-ons—ice makers, warming drawers, coffee systems— for the ultimate control panel. A raw-foodist cocktail connoisseur may decide to install a True ice maker and a Liebherr…

Serves 6 INGREDIENTS 1 T sesame oil 4 green onions, chopped 2 T peeled and minced fresh ginger 2 cloves garlic, sliced 2 tsp. Chinese five-spice powder 3 quarts chicken broth Salt Freshly ground black pepper ½ lb. rice vermicelli noodles, cooked 1 lb. sliced cooked meat, such as brisket Leaves from 1 bunch fresh cilantro Leaves from 1 bunch fresh basil 2 handfuls bean sprouts 2 limes, quartered Hoisin sauce Sambal chile paste 1. Heat the sesame oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the green onions, ginger, garlic, and fivespice powder and sauté for 2–3 minutes. Add the broth, raise the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Taste and season with salt and pepper; cover the pot. 2.…