The Simply Luxurious Life - October 2010 - Creating A Luxurious Home

Published: Fri, 10/01/10

"He is the happiest, be he peasant or king, who finds peace in his home."

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

No. 4 October 2010

Creating A Luxurious Home

Is Your Home Making You Happy?

Click here to find out.

Holly Golightly's apartment from Breakfast at Tiffany's (courtesy of From Me to You)

ne's home should be a sanctuary. A place in which you find instantaneous comfort and peace. A place that allows you to shed any facades, outer shells and just be yourself. In essence, you should be able to recharge, relax and unwind upon walking over the threshold into your house each day.

As our lives become filled with responsibilities, over scheduled day planners and excess demands of our time seem endless, it is a necessity to create an environment within our home that allows us to sigh with relief, to be filled with beautiful memories and to know we are safe and secure. The power of our home's aesthetic is amazing, as you will find if you visit Oprah's link above on Making A Happy Home.

October's newsletter is filled with galleries upon galleries of specific rooms throughout the house, inspiring home tours found in Elle Decor, Harper's Bazaar, House Beautiful and more, as well as simple ways to add more comfort and luxury to any room. And I couldn't be more excited to introduce this month's contributing writer Slim Paley. She will be sharing with you helpful ways to create a home in which your true personality and design abounds. So without further ado, let me introduce you to a very talented, kind and engaging blogger.

I've said this many times before, but it bears repeating as I feel very fortunate to have found Slim Paley and to have found her at the beginning of my blogging adventure. If you haven't visited her blog, you will discover a woman who has exquisite taste throughout her decor, her garden, fashion and travels. Recently, you may have enjoyed taking a tour through her home on the beach in House Beautiful's September issue . With crisp whitewash interiors furnished with plush slipcovered sofas and armchairs, her ability to combine classic style with comfort is very apparent.

Click here to see the entire tour of her beach house.

A beautiful bathroom in her Santa Barbara home . . .

. . . and a stunning marble-top kitchen.

You can also follow her on her many travels and adventures via Twitter.

She has graciously been willing to take time to share with The Simply Luxurious Life readers five tips on how you too can achieve a luxurious home that you can call your sanctuary. Thank you again Slim for your time, expertise and sense of humor. It is a pleasure and a treat to be able to include you in this month's newsletter. Welcome and take it away . . .

Never Underestimate the Importance of Lighting

Great lighting plays such a pivotal part in the ambience and comfort of our surroundings that I must put it at the top of my List of Golden Rules. You may design the most gorgeous home imaginable, but if the lighting is ill conceived it will never feel harmonious. One needs only to study a George Hurrell photo to appreciate the importance of great lighting.

Consider the role light plays in a room both night and day... strive for balance between natural, overhead and seat-height lighting in order to achieve success. If you are designing a room with little or no natural light, there are still many ways in which to bring the sunshine in; of course skylights, when possible, will have a huge effect. They may be fully visible, or coved to achieve a more subtle source of natural light. Solatubes are also a fantastic and inexpensive way to bring reflected natural light into a dark room. If neither of these possibilities are an option, light or the illusion of it may be created by using mirrors, reflective materials and surfaces such as chrome, pewter, nickel or mercury glass.

There are also many fabrics and wall coverings that reflect rather than absorb light - 'Shot silk' and lacquered walls are just two examples.

If your room is crying out for a cozier ambience it can be as easy as adding some warm toned lampshades.

Speaking of lampshades, revisit yours. Are they looking a little eighties in scale or perhaps discoloured from the heat of bulbs or sunlight? Are you lighting art and objects of interest to maximum effect?

If you haven't already done so, invest in dimmers - hands down the most inexpensive and simple way to completely change the ambience of a room.

Lastly, think "Barry Lyndon" and use your candles! There's still nothing better than the dancing light from a crackling fire or a grouping of candles.

When in doubt, go for Drama rather than Interrogation :) Remember, it doesn't necessarily have to be bright, just right.

An example of how just the one "right" light can really set the tone.

Candlelight, firelight,and reflective light (in the pewter fireplace surround, Depression Glass plates and beveled glass doors) and warm lampshades on the wood chandelier- just a few of my favourite ways to create a warm, inviting ambience.

Design For Yourself

A) Have Confidence in Your Own Taste

Imitation may indeed be the sincerest form of flattery, but it doesn't foster an environment that truly speaks of YOU. I believe one of the most important Golden Rules of Design is to stay true to your own taste. Resist being swayed by the Style du Jour, or the urge to carbon copy someone else's space, even if you love everything about it.

We all know God is in the details, but just make sure you're in those details too! By all means find inspiration everywhere. In travel, magazines, films, homes you visit...just filter the ideas through your own prism and let your home be an extension of your personality.

B) Be True to Your Authentic Lifestyle

I've been guilty of breaking this rule and more than once. When we bought our c1895 home, what it lacked in closet space, it more than made up for in the size of the formal dining room (How our priorities have changed!) This resulted in me purchasing a beautiful but humongous antique dining table better suited to the Welcome Home dinner party for Lord Stanley than to a family of four who rarely entertain. What was I thinking, that parties came automatically with the house?! The real estate equivalent of Gift with Purchase? I had invested in the room size and an imaginary lifestyle rather than what was realistic and authentic to us. We almost always eat in the kitchen, even with company. The large table is used only a few times a year, the rest of the time it sits mocking my lofty aspirations and demanding large centre-pieces to feed the vast plain of its existence.

Keep It Fresh

Approach your home as you would your wardrobe. Endeavor to see it with a new eye each season and adjust accordingly. If you aren't particularly a clothes person, imagine, instead you're putting your home on the market in order to see it as others do. Are fabrics looking faded? Window treatments outdated? House plants seen better days? You just know we are all guilty of this in some way! Only recently I awakened to the fact that a window treatment and an indoor tree in my home hadn't been replaced since the last time Haley's comet passed through. Just because you've managed to keep a plant alive forever doesn't mean it has to live in the same spot forever! In removing the draperies I realized the windows didn't really need them anyway. Now the space feels much bigger and brighter and I see more of the garden below...where the tree will soon find his new home :)

PS. Don't forget the fresh flowers! Probably the second most important Golden Rule after good lighting. What else brings more life (and safe colour) to a room than a beautiful arrangement of flowers?! There's no better way to acknowledge the seasons in a fresh way and say "I love you!" to a room!

Edit, Edit, Edit

I love this rule because you can actually apply it without having to spend a penny. One thing in, one thing out. Regroup, disperse, gather together...the point is; there are no hard, fast rules. PERIOD. Just the discipline of forcing yourself to wipe off your lens and see things anew. I never, ever thought of mixing my cranberry glass with amber glass until I saw the combination working so beautifully in a flower. Look no further than your own garden or the local farmer's market for inspiration.

-Move your art and tablescapes around

-Reframe old photos.

-Pull those digital photos off the computer!! Pick 1/2 dozen or so, print them in black & white and hang them together in a hallway or entrance.

-Redo the books on your shelves. Mix up the verticality and display some sideways with a framed photo or object on top. Be forewarned though, bookshelf reorganizing takes up a lot of time as you reacquaint yourself with your old friends!

-Mix up your dishes and cutlery, pull out old linens, stack candles on the mantle with branches from outside (but not too close!)

Indulge Your Inner Sense of Whimsy

It's in there- don't be afraid to let it out! Everyone appreciates a smile. How dreadfully boring are those rooms that take themselves too seriously. ZZZZZZZZ. Who wants to hang out with those people?! All your framed photos don't have to be 'posed' pics. The quirkier ones are the real conversation starters. I like my friends and family to feel they're in a home with some real personality. I have a Pith helmet on my shelf of 19th Century Adventure in our library. I let roses climb into my office through a second story window (right beside our owl's nest) We have an antique Jockey's weighing chair in the front hall alongside my grandfather's walking stick and an original photo of Mark Twain hangs in the hall powder room, where we kept the porcelain toilet original to the house. I don't mind that it doesn't have a seat cover or has a flush that rivals Niagara Falls. I like to think our home has character and a touch of humour . . . just like Mark Twain :)

All images our courtesy of Slim Paley

I hope you've been able to garner some inspiration and ideas from this month's newsletter. May October bring with it lovely autumn days with opportunities for walks among the leaves, bountiful dinners followed by pumpkin desserts and much time to simply enjoy. Be sure to look for November's newsletter on the 1st of next month, as we will be focusing on all things cozy - books, fashion, food and more. Until then, I'll see you on the blog.

-Shannon

Ideas For Adding More Comfort