There is so much to love about this living room from designer Betsy Brown. It is a cohesive look but each element is beautiful on its own. Of course, much of this room is very expensive, but with some patient and savvy shopping trips, you too can capture at least some of the room's underlying elegance.
This room is bathed in light and white but dramatically punctuated with black and white and small but potent bursts of mossy green. The tone is crisp and tailored but far from stark, thanks to playful animal prints, warm leather and the rich patina of honey-colored woods. And, like many of my favorite rooms, this one embraces both old and new, from the old-fashioned barley-twist legs of the demilune console table to the magnificent geometry of the Serge Mouille floor lamp. One of the most inspired elements of the rooms is the extra long velvet bolster on the couch. Without this pillow, the room would be far less spectacular, a reminder that it is often the small touches (and sometimes the least expensive) that make a room. In fact, this room works in part because there is no obvious "theme" or style.
Images:
1. Industrial wood bookshelf from Hudson Goods, $1,895. Or the Industrial Empire bookcase from Home Decorators, which is much cheaper at $299.
2. A fun sculptural or architectural piece adds character. Keep your eyes open at thrift stores and Craigslist. Or splurge on this cast resin chalice from Hudson Goods, $225.
3. For a splurge, go real antique for something like the lovely barley twisted demilune console table shown on the left of the room. This elegant table is from Antique & Artisan Center on 1st Dibs for $1,800.
4. To complement the round motif in the room--and offset some of the sharp geometrical lines, find something like this Sur sculpture from Jayson Home & Garden, $160.
5. Serge Mouille floor lamp from Switch Modern, $7,395 or Gueridon or Design Within Reach. Or a reproduction imitation from White on White, $575.
6. Fill Palmetto vases from Crate & Barrel ($24.95+) with with a spray of branches or greenery.
7. Sunburst mirror from Embellished by Mahsa, $79.99.
8. Louis XV Salon chair from Ballard Designs, or Louis XV arm chair from Wisteria, $300. Louis armchair from Jayson Home & Garden, $1,795.
9. Looks a lot like the B& B Italia "Frank" sofa. Though a few other sofas could do the trick for less, including this Kivik sofa from IKEA, $399. I was not able to find a similar lovely green bolster pillow but you could buy an insert and cover it with green velvet fabric like this from. Fabric by the yard from Pottery Barn.
10. Gus Modern Drake coffee table at Bobby Berk, $750. To splurge, there is also the Jonathan square coffee table from Hudson Goods, $2,200.
11. Hide rug from Hides & Co., $250. Or Koldby cowhide rug from IKEA, $199.
Images: 1: Betsy Brown., 2: As credited above.
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The only substitution which upsets me is the fake Serge Mouille lighting.
I will probably never be able to afford Serge Mouille myself, but the knock-off is disrespectful and cheapens the original. I'd go with something different, but original. Perhaps a Tizio light on a stand -- not as graceful, but a different beauty in its own right. (and the original is very affordable).
The only substitution which upsets me is the fake Serge Mouille lighting.
I will probably never be able to afford Serge Mouille myself, but the knock-off is disrespectful and cheapens the original. I'd go with something different, but original. Perhaps a Tizio light on a stand -- not as graceful, but a different beauty in its own right. (and the original is very affordable).
Can we get over the dead cow on the floor thing? Why would people want to walk on part of a corpse?
I'm kind of on the fence about the Mouille repro (ok, fake). At around $8000, it seems to me borderline unjustifiable (for me, but anyone can do what they want with their money.) It's actually my favorite lamp, but I wouldn't begrudge someone buying a repro (fake) because the price differential is just so vast. But there are also great lamps like the Grasshopper lamp and the AJ Floor Lamp that cost a few hundred more than the repro (fake) Mouille (rather than thousands) that, though smaller, might serve a similar purpose.
It is a beautiful room also. It doesn't feel overdesigned or fussy.
Animal pelts, whether on one's back or on one's floor, are repellent.
The clean-lined shelving made me think of IKEA's Vittsjo: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20213312/ . At that price you invest a little more to sub out the shelves with wood planks.
Where is the original coffee table from?
@rustypatina, I am not against all leather. It's the pelt part of it, and the use as a rug in particular. I see no difference between that cowhide and a bear skin rug, or a zebra pelt, or a lion rug. Yet people who would never accept the latter animal pelts are accepting of the former. Why?
Leather is durable, versatile, long lasting, renewable (provided it is farm raised) and biodegradable. I have a twenty-five year old leather sofa that looks better now than it did when I bought it. I have leather coats that have lasted for many years. I have a fur coat that is twenty years old. Using leather holds down replacement costs and allows me to use less because I don't have to buy as often. A cheap Ikea sofa will be in a landfill before it is ten years old. Particle board falls apart and leaches toxic chemicals. Plastics will last in the environment for more than a thousand years.
S. Mouille is gone -- a long time, sadly -- and all that remains are the forms that sprang from his imagination.
Even if the form of the lamp were copyrightable, half a century since its inception is plenty of time for Mouille's heirs to profit from his artistry. Everything beyond that, and especially in editions of $8K, is simply a pretentious wish to create exclusivity -- to corral beauty only for the pleasures of elites.
Happily, software and easy replication are ridding the rich of their pretensions every day! The old promise of modernism to be mass produced for the masses is being realized, once again, much to the horror of 1%ers and their intellectual hangers-on.
As for "going with something different, but original"...you go right ahead. Be sure to visit your local Wal-Mart and IKEA where originality spreads like kudzu.
longtime reader, firsttime commenter, I found a site that sells those velvet bolster pillows. I wont post a link but they're called thevelvetlab. They allow you to customize your pillows with all kinds and colours of velvet.
Where is the brown leather magazine holder from? I love it.