This month’s Lonny Magazine has a very helpful article chock full of advice from George Nunno and Jon Maroto, owners of FLAIR. They give tips and suggestions on how to achieve that polished, put together look for your vignettes.
In the article, Nunno of FLAIR says: “It’s important that accessories feel cultivated and that you have a connection with them. Try unexpected combinations; break rules by mixing periods, colors, and finishes; and keep spaces fresh by changing things often. Remember, varieties in scale and texture create energy in a space.” They share a few lovely before and afters and explain what wasn’t working about the space and what they did to improve it. Here are couple of their tips that I found the most helpful:
- Don’t have limitations. Always mix it up! Don’t be afraid to mix eras, styles, or colors. Brass looks great with chrome; modern looks great against classical.
- Your home is not a stage set. Is should always evolve and change with you. Don’t be afraid to move things around, try new combinations, add new pieces, and put some old favorite away for a while. They’ll look new to you when you take them back out.
It left me inspired and ready to shop around my home to create some fresh, new looks. Check out the article for the rest of their helpful advice.
Image: Lonny Magazine
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While I agree with their tips, the vignettes shown in the article are too cluttered for me.
Just do what makes you feel good! There are no 'rules'
EXCEPT the "Rule of Three"
Are there living boxwood balls as oppose to artificial ones? I've been looking and I just keep seeing artificial ones.
IKEA sells live myrtle balls, which look a lot like the boxwood ones. except they have a tall thin trunk, so they are more like a little tree with a round top.
@bethaneebee - thanks for the tip.
A few other ideas: Fresh flowers and beautiful (healthy) sculptural plants can really revitalize a vignette.
Also, consider using unusual (or geometric) patterns, vibrant colors and the tactile textures of fabric to make an otherwise simple vignette really come to life.
The basis if a collection might be any number of things but some identifiable quality (shape or subject matter,for example) allows the mind to connect to the objects through repetition. The variety within that repetition is what excites our brain. Avoid cliche' collections unless they are really outstanding and you adore them.
1/ To get that personal look, pay others to style your home
2/ Buy special items as you find them all in one store at the same time, rather than as you live - and from an expensive store, not IKEA
3/ Use colour rather than B&W, it always looks perky
4/ Leave the paraphernalia of a stinky, nasty, cancer-inducing addiction around for a sophisticated style
5/ Hide the remotes, no one really uses them
6/ Make sure you have someone else to do the dusting
7/ and no children or pets to break or move the vignettes
I LOVE Flair's style, but I don't understand why people make vignettes on their coffee tables. It renders them useless as a place to put snacks, feet, remotes, etc.
P.S. If the answer is that higher quality people never use their coffee tables for snacks, feet, and remotes, then why is there a table there at all?
No one puts their feet on my sofa table. If they did, there would be hell to pay.
I don't believe in feet on tables, but I also dislike surfaces that are too cluttered to serve their intended purpose. I also think vignettes should just "happen" as life happens. It's not as though a professional photographer is just going to show up wanting to take beautiful close-up shots of details in one's home. Homes are for living!
My coffee table is for feet. If that makes me wrong, I don't want to be right!
I find it so funny how some people get all pissy about how others live. Who gives a shi# if I put my feet on my table.....IT'S MY HOME.
Like sally305 and Lisa(Montreal), I can't see the point of a vignette on a surface that has a lot of regular work to do (eg. coffee table) unless the vignette contributes to that function (eg. nice box to store remotes and keep them dust free). I've got a smallish house, without much in the way of surfaces to vignette-ify. For the ones I do, the main lesson I'll carry away from the article (though I do like MissHeliotrope's list) is to create a focal point for the display, rather than just strewing things across a surface.
Way to cluttered- but those kind of homes always make me think of some "upper east sider" homes (to quote Gossip girl) that was styled, used mostly to show off (and not actually live in - you have other rooms for that) and is cleaned by a house maid. For people without a maid, with kids and pets those vignettes are not.
@MissHeliotrope--- LOL! this is why I come to AT on a Sunday morning...for a chuckle and a wink.
@MissHeliotrope: Amen!
I agree the vignettes shown are cluttered looking, but I do think it's a good idea to put your (smaller, simpler) vignette on a tray, especially on something like a coffee table. That way it doesn't stray all over the place and more to the point you can clear it out of the way in one go if you need the surface for something else. (For me this especially works for all the remote controls I apparently need)