Bradley Duncan's recent home tour intrigued us with its direct and appealing simplicity. In contrast to the oft-expected masculine abode, this one is low on the usual suspects — black leather, dark wood, door-sized electronics — yet it exudes an appealing and rugged sensibility we wouldn't mind appropriating for our own home. Some tips and resources for recreating the look in your space.
LOOK FOR:
- Wooden pieces with simple lines: Farmhouse tables and nightstands with square lines made of solid wood. Old cabinetry devoid of flourishes and curves. imperfect finishes welcome and encouraged.
- Choose rustic (but not itchy) fabrics for upholstered pieces: Generously upholstered furniture in natural linen, devoid of details like piping and welting, is inviting and not fussy. And yes, your grandmother's camelback sofa can translate to your home: strip the wood (a mix of paint thinner and denatured alcohol gets the job done quickly) and swap its fussy florals for a natural colored linen, canvas or denim.
- Metal office furniture makes a good counterpart to soft furnishings: Industrial style chairs and stools (think medical office, classrooom, lab).
- Stay away from strong vibrant color: Soothing tones of brown, beige, grey and cream are the foundations for this look. Find washes of color in the faded blues or greens of painted and distressed furniture or in the subtle red or blue stripes often found in linens.
- Accessorize from nature: plants, terrariums, rocks, shells, skulls displayed in simple clay bowls add a tactile and intriguing touch
RESOURCE LIST:
- Farmhouse tables: Big box stores like Restoration Hardware, Crate & Barrel and even Ikea carry boxy wood tables. They can also be found at flea markets and antique fairs. Look for simple lines without too much embellishment. Pounce on distressed or worn finishes. Or have one custom made. Pine furniture fabricators exist in many cities. In Los Angeles, we like Arbor Exchange for tables made of reclaimed wood from local resources and built to your specs.
- Metal furniture: Rehab Vintage and Grizzly Metal Furniture are two resources.
- Office task lighting: At the low end, try Ikea (the Forsa lamp resembles an expensive French lamp from the 40s); classics that are well worth the money include Jileide, La Lampe Gras. For antique resources, try Early Electrics.
- Mounted staghorn ferns: Buy them readymade at specialty garden stores and nurseries or mount your own.
- Linen couches: Basic couches can be found at all price points. Reupholster antique, Goodwill or flea market finds. Gray Line in New York is a good resource for linen and linen blend fabrics.
- Accessories: Check flea markets or try Red Chair Antiques for vintage linens, often from Belgium or France. For new linens, high end cookware stores like Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma are good resources. Look for rough texture and red or blue stripes. Gold bug in Pasadena and Evolution in New York both carry a variety of natural curiousities.
Check out the rest of Bradley's home: House Tour | Bradley's Mini Historic Echo Park Home
For similar looks, check out these posts in Marketplace:
Image: Marcia Prentice from Bradley's Mini Historic Echo Park Home
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Paxton Gate is a shop for accessories, too.
http://www.paxtongate.com/
*great
I loved this home tour!
althought I'm not sure why the Ikea rug is on the table.... But the place looks cozy and rustic! Nice!
Here’s a (kinda) DIY resource for a relevantly studly combination of metal furniture/task lighting:
I grew up with my dad, a landscape designer, who had an office full of drafting tools and ample functional lighting, including these beautiful orange metal utility lights. They might have actually been ugly, but the nostalgic haze of my childhood made me want to recreate them.
I bought a few metal utility clamp lights from Home Depot and spray-painted the exterior of the shade with engine enamel paint (which withstands high temperatures), leaving the clamp bare metal. The enamel fortuitously came in that brilliant safety orange color so often seen both on highly visible tools at the hardware store and highly visible accent pieces at IKEA. The color makes the lamps more unique and attractive without diminishing their functionality (which seems to be what most people refer to when they speak of a “masculine” style anyway). As you can see in Duncan’s home, that mega-manly exposed metal with orange accents is a comely match.
The lamps are also multi-functional in that they provide swell mood lighting when pointed at the wall or ceiling, and impeccable task lighting when swiveled to point directly at the job in question. Thus you can go from taking a splinter out of somebody’s toe to mackin on em with the flick of a wrist, should you so desire. Plus, you can clip them just about anywhere.
I have received many compliments on these lights from visitors. I recommend them heartily to those looking to make some handsome lighting on a shoestring.
This is a very neat. Love the rustic simplicity, neutral colors, wood, and the sofa table is awesome. And not one "it" piece in sight. The use of plants is interesting. Everything is so great, totally my style even though I'm a woman, Okay, maybe I would leave out some of the tortoise shells and the scary statue with a hole in his head. Wouldn't want to scare my daughter -or myself in the middle of the night.
great place. have been leaning more bespoke and vintage industrial (a sort of non cog 'steampunk') rather than mcm lately, so this was right on the mark.