Good design is like putting together an outfit: have one statement item and build everything else around it. So say the people in charge of photographing and styling some of the most mouthwatering interiors in the world. What tricks can they share with us when it comes to revamping our own homes? The interiors website remodelista.com prides itself on spending months tracking down the minutiae we spend hours trawling the internet for – just the right paint colour, sofa, bathroom tap – in its sumptuously illustrated online pages.
The website is admired by renovation addicts and Hollywood leading ladies alike, such as Oscar-nominated actress Julianne Moore, who “moonlights as a design junkie” and has called it her first source for interiors information. She used it to find everything from light fittings to several shades of white paint, taking inspiration from the “steal the look” section for her makeovers. In her “pre-Google days” she would trawl charity shops and hardware stores to help renovate her 19th-century Manhattan town house, following her mother’s edict that “everything in the house be put to use”.
Moore installed an eat-in kitchen in her former living room, without compromising on the historic character of her building, although you won’t find anything resembling the standard functional style, with overhead cabinets or a fridge on view. Everything from the wooden chopping boards artfully stacked in open shelving, to the free-standing, blackened white-oak cabinetry, is designed to look like elegant drawing-room furniture. A fibreglass cast of Julianne’s body and a chair bought from the set of her film Blindness are the few clues of her movie stardom.
The “less is more” mantra is top of the Remodelista list. “The people we feature have a few favourite items on display. They know themselves so well that they have pared everything back. They don’t overclutter a room,” says Julie Carson, co-founder of the website, who has curated a huge collection of images, do-it-yourself projects and interiors stockists into a new book (see end).
“A good start is to have unusual areas in which to store the paraphernalia of everyday life,” says Christine Chang Hanway, from the Remodelista team. “Shelving over windows, for example, is popular as it plays with the light in a room.”
Trend setters: A sitting room shoot for Country Living (CATHERINE GRATWICKE)
Small changes can have a big impact, they say, such as swapping ugly plastic light switch plates for metal or ceramic versions for an instant room upgrade; introducing “odd couples” in a space, such as a humble tin container on a marble counter to create visual interest; and being mindful of the tiniest details, such as using copper nails for a polished look.
Casting a photographer’s eye over proceedings could also make you look at your home through a fresher lens, highlighting the areas that might benefit from more colour or treasured objects.
Simon Bevan, lifestyle photographer, has worked on a number of glamorous shoots. For a space to work, he says, allow your personality to shine through and get the composition right. “As a photographer I always think about colour, texture and light and how they conform through the viewfinder.” Bevan has photographed Clouds Hill, the hugely atmospheric Dorset retreat of writer T E Lawrence. “The cottage, though tiny, exuded personality through all the objects he kept and treasured. It felt as though he had just walked out and left on his motorbike.” A film director’s home he photographed had a wall of coloured wine bottles as a room divider. “Even battered old leather boots left on beautiful tiles in the hallway created atmosphere.”
For Ben Kendrick, home design editor at Country Living, putting together the interior pages for the magazine is very much like “creating a stage set”. Ben uses colour as a starting point, a specific period paint from Farrow & Ball, favouring paler tones from Paint Library. “Mustard and strong citrus shades can be warm and uplifting, combined with black and white, navy or grey, or warm woods and natural tones. Generally it is easiest to limit yourself to one or two colours in a room: try a theme of different tones of reds and pinks against off-white or blues and beiges together, but then I’ll often add a rogue element of a green or yellow to stop a room looking too ‘done’. Temper all these combinations with whites, off-whites and creams to provide a rest for the eye in any room.”
Ben recommends a mixture of open and closed storage. A glazed wall cupboard can show off prized possessions. “Natural elements – flowers, foliage, fruit, found objects from a country walk, or even a stack of logs – always add another dimension to a home.”
An ‘Ikea kitchen’ with bells on featured in Remodelista: A Manual for the Considered Home (MATTHEW WILLIAMS)
Emily Chalmers, an interiors stylist author with a quintessentially British, eclectic bent, says people focus on colour when texture is just as important. “Even with an all-white house, look more closely and there will be woven white fabrics, white leather, a textured white rug and white gloss floor paint, which will make it look incredible.”
The trick is to “think of a room in layers, like clothing. Visual interest comes from having furnishings in different lengths and textures. Stagger heights: three low-hanging lamps over a dining table looks wonderful, or a collection of mismatched prints and plates on a wall creates a visual feast.” For fabrics, “reupholster a chair or sofa in a woven material; layer two or three rugs over each other in similar colours but different tones”.
To make a room look less formal and more cosy, she advises keeping one element slightly off kilter. “It might be a very tidy area with a beautiful mirror – drape a fabric or garland over it to soften it. On a coffee table with neatly arranged books, plonk a vase there with rough flowers. And remember, if you really like two contrasting objects, have the confidence to show them off. You are the thread between them so they will always look well placed.”
For more inspiration: Remodelista: A Manual for the Considered Home by Julie Carlson (Artisan, £25.99). Photographs by Matthew Williams; oliverfreundlich.com; countrylivinged.com; caravanstyle.com
Originally posted January 22 The Telegraph