the walls, that is; amazing.  been working on a masculine palette; thoughts of texture, rich, deep colors, contrast and material mixes—the smooth and the rugged.

fresh take on a classic color and material combination—new scale, smooth texture, raised relief;

a departure from depth with a feathery white flavor…who knew tires would compose so lovely herein?

optimal balance….enough said;

sometimes continual material is a brilliant answer to an age old question;

perfection—narrowness and length topped with a solid of equal grace and depth; richness personafied;

Peace

all images via Mutina

I’ve been working on lighting for a few projects…these clients are on the contemporary end of the design spectrum.  Their spaces, however, are not architecturally modern per se, so it’s a balance to infuse clean contemporary lighting in the home while respecting its structural bones.

At first glance, these fixtures might appear overly sleek for many interiors, yet they work brilliantly in so many interior design venues as illustrated below.  I’d love to hear your thoughts and preferences.

These fixtures are not for the faint at heart; they are investment pieces, works of art if you will. I look forward to sharing a bit more lighting as the week progresses, with a feature on sconces of the modern variety.

Until then, smile and thank you for being here.  We are experiencing a bit of fall weather today and I absolutely love it; boyfriend and I prefer this time of year over any other season; for some reason, it energizes me.  I love the actual change of season and all that comes with it.  G turns 3 years old this Saturday….He’s turning into such a magical, colorful, richly playful boy.  I can barely believe how lightning fast time has flown by since he blessed our lives and our home.

I’ll leave you with this thought for today, which I had in my inbox this morning and found particularly fitting.

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all
the others.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero
106 BC – 43 BC, Politician, Orator and Philosopher

Lighting designers: foscarini, alturo alvarez, axo, terzani, brand van egmond.

Working on tile selections and layouts for a a couple of new clients.  There is a lot of product on the market now that is absolutely gorgeous, contemporary, sleek and smacks of good style.  The idea of travertine and limestone used so predominantly a few years ago seems to have given way to other options, many of which are porcelain—I am having fun working with the variety of options available within the last few years. I’ll show you just a few.

I love this tile design…it comes in a few color combinations—I used the black/blue aluminum version for my bath flooring in the studio—love love love it !!  

Random, large scale patterned layout on a fairly monochromatic, matte finish body tile…this works well; it does get expensive to coat and entire wall in the material, but doing a focal point wall also results in a lovely dramatic effect.

Love how large scale rectangular tiles positioned in a parallel orientation create interest but don’t distract the eye or add too much patterned stimulation in a space.  Smart :)

large scale square tiles, laid straight, but with alternating pattern positioning adds just enough pop to quietly soothe your eye.  This particular tile has very small scale pin stripes, so alternating the direction in a layout creates a slightly different and impressive look.

Another example of rectangular tiles, a staggered joint installation, warmer base color, with tone on tone small pin stripes…in this case, the pattern is maintained directionally, which is smart and subtle.

Large tiles, installed, on the straight with thin joints (grout lines), no border design and no baseboards; perfect for this application, with the exposed rock and concrete wall and rich simple color palette.  I like the subtle color distinction of the walls to the flooring—definitely complement, but more tonal in nature.

All images are via Tile City website.

Have a lovely weekend; I may return before the weekend is over to post some additional interior inspirational images.  I have several small projects going on in tandem…it’s fun, refreshing, a challenge and keeps my interest peaked for inspiring ideas to spark my creativity.

I hope you find something here that makes you smile or soothes you somehow.  

Peace.