Recently I featured Annette Tatum’s gorgeous new bedding collection from her interior decor lines House and Little House in this post. Today I am thrilled to interview her and giveaway her new book, The Well-Dressed Home. This book is an inspiring resource that merges fashion and home decor styles. It also guides you through beautiful images how to decorate your home by embracing your fashion sense.
SB: Where did you get the inspiration for your new bedding collection? Do you have a favorite print?
Annette: I get a lot of ideas from fashion. I love the way the that industry forecasts new looks. I also have a library of architectural components such as tile patterns, iron gate designs that I source new ideas and patterns from. And then there is the one of a kind textile documents that you can find at a flea market or little store that hold a treasure of ideas to be put into print.
SB: How would you describe your personal style?
Annette: I tend to like a little of everything, but for the most part I am pretty classic. I like designs with historical references and that have stood the test of time. My own home is full of traditional design but layered in are the bohemian and vintage elements that I love. A little bit of Audrey mixed with Alexander McQueen is my favorite. The expected mixed with the unexpected.
SB: Has your personal style changed or evolved over time and how?
Annette: My lifestyle has definitely changed over the years from single girl to mother of four. So my personal style has changed from everything to what I wear to how my kitchen is laid out. Where I am in my life has such an impact on how I live. Four small kids.. easy to wear furniture and clothing.. When I was single.. much more mod and sleek. So just like my wardrobe I have stopped wearing mini skirts just like my home I no longer have such a formal dining room. I think as that as time goes on I find myself more attracted to simple yet elegant design. Both in my own personal style and my home.
SB: In your own home, what is your favorite room and why?
Annette: We have a little room off our master bedroom that is probably 8 x 8. We all love to hang out in there and watch TV or click on the computer. I just added seagrass to the walls and the book cases are a Wedgewood blue. It feels like a very cozy little English den.
SB: What trends are you seeing in your projects right now?
Annette: In my new book, The Well-Dressed Home I cover eleven different styles in home decor and fashion. I am seeing that the two are more and more blended and using that for inspiration. What ever is on the runway makes its way somehow in some form to the home decor market. Fashion adds drama and exciting to design and that trend is what I am looking at for my own line.
SB: You have been a successful interior designer, author and business woman with decor lines House and Little House. Do you enjoy one more than the other? What is next on your career agenda?
Annette: It has been quite a ride and I am often looking for ways to slow down! But recently we designed a group of one of kind dress forms for the book tour that are amazing. Dresses made out of home decor materials such as wallpaper, tile, hardware and more. They were so fun to work on and the hands on creating is what I really miss. I hope to do more of that in the future. I love the idea of ” bespoke” tailoring and think that adding more of that to the products I make is exciting.. and maybe another book! {for “The Making of the Mannequin Exhibit” go to Annette’s blog here}
To celebrate Annette’s book, Simplified Bee will be giving away a copy of The Well-Dressed Home to one lucky reader. Here’s how to enter:
*Leave a comment.
*Extra entry – Follow Simplified Bee™ Blog (by adding yourself to the follower group on the sidebar) or follow Simplified Bee on Twitter.
* Extra entry – mention this giveaway in a post or tweet and leave a comment letting me know you’ve done so.
* Please post a separate comment for each extra entry.
* Entry period closes at midnight PST, Sunday, April 11, 2010 and the winner will be announced Monday, April 12, 2010.
*Note: The winner will be drawn randomly using Random.org, notified directly via email and listed back at this post using first name only.
This beautiful living room designed by Tobi Fairly of Little Rock, Arkansas recently featured here and on Odi et Amo had me thinking about one of my favorite colors, green. Last year, I featured a post on living rooms in the hue of green and wanted to share some more great examples.
Speaking of Tobi Fairly, she was recently interviewed on The Skirted Roundtable. Tobi is so talented and charming too.
Lauren Liess, an interior designer and fellow blogger of Pure Style Home features green in her own living room shown above. She bought {scored} the Lee Industries sofa off Craigslist and had it reupholstered in a bright green velvet {her favorite color}. The sofa looks amazing paired with her lucite coffee table, table lamp from Pottery Barn and mirrored reproduction French flea market nesting tables from Crate & Barrel.
In this living room the designer {unknown – let me know if you know!} a traditional sofa in green looks sharp with coordinating graphic pillows. The white shag rug and glass round coffee table provide modern elements. The beautiful yellow blossoms behind the sofa adds height and pulls the yellow accent from the middle throw pillow and books on the side table. Photography by Anna Williams.
Jonathan Adler creates a beautiful living room in a green, yellow and brown color scheme. The sofas are covered in kelly green which contrasts nicely with the yellow trim detail and white legs. Adler mixes vintage, modern and traditional styles with ease. I particularly like the dramatic floor length drapes, white lacquer coffee table and yellow and white geometric rug.
Interior designer, Pheobe Howard is known to use green throughout her creations. This gorgeous living room by Howard showcases green with both dark and light furnishings. The airy white upholstered sofa is beautifully contrasted with heavier dark wooden casegoods and carved chair. The pair of green and white geometric slipper chairs adds a fun contemporary element. I am also loving the natural bamboo stools!
The living room beautifully painted in leaf green by Billet Collins is reflected in a stunning over-sized mirror. To balance the color scheme, upholstered chairs and the rug are in a neutral white.
Do you love green too?
Do you remember this cover of Veranda January/February 2009? The sitting room features a stunning painted floor by Washington, DC’s most influential decorative painting studios, Billet Collins.
Billet Collins is known for their innovative hand painted finishes and dramatic patterns as shown in the dining room above and previously featured in Designer Dining Rooms and Decorating Tips.
In addition to painting gorgeous murals and textiles, Billet Collins loves to create painted floors and it’s one of their specialties. Kellie Hodges of Billet Collins explains, “The layout is extremely important to us so we use a lot of math and geometry to make it layout, and to make it perfect we practice a little illusion!” The foyer above is a beautiful example of one of Billet Collins’ geometric painted floors.
They do not use stains, but use custom tinted glazes to coordinate with the wood tones that give the artists better control. This allows for the grain to still come through and a natural progression of colors.
In this foyer, Billet Collins painted the wood floor in vibrant colors that are also either sheer colors or opaque for a more painted effect.
The process is easy. First the floors are first “screened” {a light sanding} to provide some tooth. The the floors receive one coat of sealant to keep the glazes from running into the actual wood, which keeps the colors from bleeding and the pattern crisp. Next the pattern is applied {usually a couple of days} and then the top coats go on. Billet Collins also likes to use a water based urethane so our colors don’t yellow.
I am loving this look. How about you?
If you’d like to use or publish any photos or material from this site, please contact me, credit Simplified Bee™ and kindly link back to this blog.
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