apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Blech. I didn't like the 70s the first time around. More ominously, does this mean the 80s are due for a comeback too?

Yuck. I think I'll pass. I think there are certain things from every era that have staying (or comeback) power, however I don't ever like to walk into a room that looks like it actually WAS decorated during that era...unless I'm in a house museum.

Sorry, this does not do it for me.

not a fan of the over all look, but i like the room divider in the first pic.

your 15 minutes are up, lady!

Wait, Hollywood regency is out? Why is everyone I know still reupholsterying those lovely carved sofas? I understand trends in clothing, although I think fashion comes and goes too fast, but with decor? Those cycles should really move very slowly. I maybe they still do for those of us whose homes aren't featured in glossy magazines. Afterall, my mother has had the same sofa for 25 years. She's starting to talk about recovering it and having a few of the springs retied.

Wearstler is wacky, but I hardly think this room is "unfinished" All those prints together make my stomach turn a little. The lighting really sucks too, so maybe if there was a better picture of this room we could all appreciate it a little more...or not.

I love it

Gross. I am so bored by Wearstler's ultra-contrived approach to decor.

Gross. Looks like a page out of that book "Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible '70s"

I seriously think Annimal is joking. If you didn't say that it was Wearstler and you put that your Great Aunt Marge had this room we would all be barfing!

Well said michpc, there's "good" 80's design and bad 80's design.

In any case, I'm usually not a big fan of designers "moving into" a particular decade so exclusively. That said, the general movement towards the 70's isn't Kelly Wearstler's idea alone... the "collective retrospective" (in design, fashion, etc.) is already cycling in that direction with or without her.

Eek! That mountain print! In those colors! My EYES!

Kelly Wearstler does so many things that I do not understand, yet I am drawn to her work. Her rooms do inspire me. I have been checking her site for months wondering what she'd do next. West Elm and even Target have already done their Kelly-inspired trellis prints.

The hotel in Miami that she did last year is completely brilliant.

The first room shown here is gorgeous in that KWID way. I don't see it as such a deviation. The bedroom makes me laugh. It's a bit Haute Boca Raton. As always she uses important collectible pieces.

Purples are the greens and yellows of 5 years ago. It's important to remember that places like Pottery Barn have just caught up to her. Look at the early reviews of her first projects when people could not grasp the idea of her maximalism and color.

First, Jonathan Adler tried to co-op on her perspective and then all the chains fell in-line.

It'll happen again.

I love her! She's definitely got it.

BTW- That bedroom, minus the headboard, has some very early 80's elements to it. She's did the 70's in the Hard Rock High Roller's Suite a couple of years ago.

I think it's really awfull. Especially the lightning in the second pic and the wallpaper. The first pic is not so bad. But the room is totally overloaded for my taste.

Ick. This makes me NOT look forward to getting my issue of Domino (though that's been somewhat the trend recently...)

About the only thing I admire about KW is her confidence. She's a train wreck in both this project featured here and her personal appearance. When I see her on Top Design I am stunned at what a mess she is from head to toe. And when I saw this guest house in Domino yesterday I was more than shocked at how disgusting it is. If someone put me up in this guest cottage I'd take my suitcase to the closest hotel.

The light is possibly Sciolari. Fixtures of this style have been selling at top modern auction houses like Wright and Rago for at least 5 years. Adler has a knock-off of a different Sciolari design with his Meurice chandelier.

At a West Elm near you in two years.

Ewwww...I hate brass.

I look at all KW's work and I spell cigarette smoke. They just always read 'boozey mother-in-law never without a smoke' to me. Better for a hotel lobby than a bedroom.

Still, I dig that she's doing her own thing. You can always tell her work a mile away.

The sad thing is we all hate it now, but in a year or two we'll all be clamoring for the source of that butt-ugly fabric...

Yes, definitely early 80's. I remember a coworker telling me about her kitchen tile and the mauve colored grout, and my manager picking colors for the building we moved into. All 80,000 square feet, ALL MAUVE AND PEACH.

These colors make me want to run away, far far away.

And brass? 80's meltdown.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

I already survived it once, maybe that's why it burns my eyes. My husband, who missed it, seems to like it.

Who is she? Is she from cable? I think this looks like a bad motel near the airport. Part of the problem is that people who are stuck in a rut still think this is "with it." One of the surefire tricks I've seen time and again is to pick up on something so dorky and dated, declare it chic and sell the shit out of it so someone in command tells us schmucks this is what we're all doing now. This is not innovative at all. I don't know who she is or why I don't know why she seems to be famous, and I'm glad!

I love it! Especially the kitchen. A refreshing change from the sterile modern look that is so prolific these days.

Domino magazine has all the pictures, which are great.
http://www.dominomag.com/galleries/2008/10/kelly_wearstler?showall=true

Although I love Kelly Wearstler, this is not working. She should stop exploring decade thematics altogether and hone her own style.

Clearly she has it, she just needs to start taking risks and stop relying so heavily on mark hicks and tony duquette in her designs.

I don't like that wallpaper but I find so much of what Wearstler does beguiling, simply because it is so unexpected to me. When "threadbare" described her as maximal above it makes sense to me. She really pushes things.

A lot of player haters here. I'm not a complete fan of hers, but to dismiss her while you sit in your one-bedroom apartment in Van Nuys is a little harsh. Okay. That's unfair, but you get the point. She had the drive to go from being a Playmate to having an empire. If you can do better, you should.

In the top two pictures of the post, what looks unfinished? Um, nothing. Threadbare is right; KWID is a trend setter, like it or not. I for one am glad she is moving on as I am a fan of a more pure Hollywood Regency a'la William Haines, but I think attacking her like she's the next contestant on American Idol is a little petty.

Seaside- David Hicks?

the screen is nice looking---nothing else makes me happy. Over all I do not cotton to the 70's.
I do like that Hollywood Reg. look---it should always be around.

The thing to really take from this, for the masses, is that brass/bronze is back, like it or not.

Threadbare, does that mean I can finally bring my brass deer sculptures out of storage?

P.S. - The desk in the first picture is very Blanche Deveraux's boudoir...

the thing is, she has talent. but she works a 'look' in a very contrived way. i prefer designers and stylists to be a little bit more natural. doing a 'look' in a room is the best way to make sure you will hate it in two months. what i have never gotten from her design is a sense of ease. its all very rigid, even in the way it 'explodes' all over the place. i mean, ok, what is she doing now? channeling the late 70s. what did she do in the past? channel the 30s. hmmmm... i see a pattern emerging here.

and by the way, brass has been the new black for a long while already. but who cares if its trendy or not? if you like it use if, if not...dont.

Eyesore. But then again, KW has always been a bit too Emperor's New Clothes for me.

Naah, no hate here. Not for KW, but for mauve and peach.


And brass.

I meant to add also that I enjoy what I see at her website, even though it's a little, er... "rich" for my taste.

"Rich" as in fattening, I suppose.

Interiors trends rarely seem to ease from one to another. We went from the ultra austere masculine cement block symmetry of the 90's to the drag queen camp of a faux luxury Hollywood Regency revival. When things really change, it won't be a simple matter of adding brass and adjusting the color palette.

To my eye, this looks like classic Wearstler just in different patterns and colors. It is still over the top and completely artificial. I suppose that is fine for a guest house. No one has to live with it for long. But it would have been refreshing to see her do something that wasn't akin to smothering a room in "style," to find out if there was any humanity behind the thick veneer of all the lacquer, pattern, and shiny surfaces.

On occasion, less can be best. It allows room for the people who live there.

Sorry--this seems more 80s to me. Especially that bedroom(shudder). But I would love that desk chair.

Hate it. Don't understand why all these magazines adore her. I have never liked her decorating style or accessories design.
Please, Domino, Elle Decor, find some new talent.

This is why interior magazines are failing....they are so out of touch with their readers it's not even funny.

Is it so impossible to invent something new. Must we revisit yet another tired dead century. The 70's were new and original in their day. But, c'mon folk. It's been done. And better.

The creativity is slowly seeping out of the design industry. And precisely because it has become an industry with corporate moguls replacing the edge dwelling artist.

p.s. to Kelly. Try Nexxus Humectress!

I got my copy of Domino on Saturday and I can honestly say that this is the ugliest feature article I have seen in the magazine in the year I've been subscribing.

Waste of space where they could have been telling me something interesting and relevant.

I got my copy of domino this weekend too. Funny that my first reaction was dislike but I couldn't stop staring at the pictures!

Why is it Kelly Wearstler's responsibility to invent something new? I wouldn't want to wake up in that room everyday but can appreciate her point of view.

And to those criticizing either her alleged botox use or hair: grow up.

I think she's great, and has an amazing eye for objects.
I would love to have that brass dome lamp or that desk chair or even that wall fabric in a very small dose.

To me, her rooms are sort of like looking at fashion shows...you get inspired by a certain mood, but never wear/use the same look head-to-toe. Pick out elements and make it your own.

And she always looks unique and different than anything else out there...a real original!

Rock on, Kelly!

Wow, I remember suddenly watching Loveboat with my sister, or staying in expensive hotels in Montreal or Ottawa in 1984.

I have been fascinated by KW's work for a long time, and have both of her books. Her rooms are theatrical, impersonal, and stuffed with the objects she is trying to sell. As petiteflea says, her rooms are like a fashion show, or a pic in Vogue where they pile ten necklaces on the model-not to be copied literally.

But...in the Domino article, her solution to decorating the space without changing the architecture is not good. It looks like an old motel room that has had the surfaces redone in patterns so you won't see the dirt. And that dressy blue and gold screen next to the window with original builders hardware. Eek! Actually, her new fabrics have some beautiful Japanese inspired designs, and Japanese-ish might have been a good look in that space, but you have to balance the busy with some calm!

Consciousness has yet to catch up to this former Playboy Centerfold. She's always ahead of her time - and yet rooted in tradition. That's a hard paradox to hold! Love her boldness and personal flair.

I hope she does a line for Target. I visited her sunburst sculptures (timeless, hefty, gorgeous) at Bergdorf Goodman and they are even better in person... and VERY expensive.

thank you easynyc.
another AT Wearstler diss fest--
why has no one said that even within its vulgar elements, there is a refinement and depth of beauty in her work (i might as well say this as some of my recent posts reveal a jerk) that SOME of you arbiters of good taste might never grasp. Others, well, taste, to each her/his own, okay.

my apologies for this obnoxious outburst (juvenille, from overwrought frustration...sheesh; i might have just said, "can't more of you see the beauty?" in all of her work?)