“Begin at the beginning and go on til you come to the end: then stop.”- Alice in Wonderland
January, the first month of the new year, beckons the desire to begin something new - a project that’s been on the backburner or a new hobby you’ve been eyeing - those ideas that have been brimming in your mind and crowding your brain cells. When your canvas is blank and it’s time to get started, one of the first questions is always, where to begin?
When we start a new design project, this same question crosses our minds. There are numerous considerations - the style of the home, the client’s aesthetic, and of course, the budget. Oftentimes all it takes is a color swatch, a piece of art, a gorgeous fabric or a fabulous rug and the perfect solution reveals itself. It can feel magical!
Our January Notes ushers you through a few of our projects where we share the beginning point for the design of each room. Ultimately our goal is to listen to the client’s desires, provide them with various ideas and execute a stunning and liveable new space.
As always, keep scrolling and you may find something that inspires you to begin your next project.
Here’s to beginning!
Terrell and Joyce
“To begin, begin.” - William Wordsworth
It was this beautiful overscaled Schumacher Feather Bloom wallpaper that started the design of this client’s bedroom. To keep the space from slanting too feminine, we juxtaposed the wallpaper with a handsome plaid Holland & Sherry fabric headboard. Once this was established, the room came together beautifully.
Design: Perfitt Richards Design / Photo: Meghan O’Brien
In this client’s open floor plan ranch style home we started with a patterned drape. When you love a fabric, don’t be afraid, use it as the anchor of the room and build from there. Because of the open floor plan, everything had to have a common thread but yet feel interesting. It all started with this beautiful drapery fabric!
Design: Perfitt Richards Design / Photo: Meghan O’Brien
We had always wanted to design a bedroom with two matching headboards. And we really wanted to use this beautiful bubble light fixture designed by Julie Neill for Visual Comfort. When asked to re-do this guest room, and add two double beds, we already knew where to start!
Design: Perfitt Richards Design / Photo: Jess Isaac
It was this drapery fabric that kicked off the design of this dining room. The fabric is reminiscent of artist Donald Baechler’s sculptures, a favorite artist of the client (and designer!).
Start The Year With A Desk Refresh
Ready. Set. Go.
Clear the decks, get rid of the clutter and refresh your desk with some of these dazzling accessories.
Put away your plastic Scotch tape dispensers and set out this timeless brushed brass tape dispenser. Now your desk is ready for business.
Toss that clutter in a stylish waste bin.
We all know, organization starts with filing things away, to deal with later. File your piles away in these cheerful alternatives to boring manila.
If you are like us, you can’t remember what day it is half the time! Use this classic Stendig calendar to keep you up to date.
Cut the crap this year with a new pair of acrylic scissors.
Remember, your work tote is an extension of your desk. Carry your desk out of the house in style.
And if you a paying a bunch of bills this month, sign those checks with these colored pens from M0MA collection.
Swap out those ugly black cable cords with one of these fabric colored extension cables in a variety of gorgeous colors.
To Do:
Make those lists! Here’s a great set of notebooks for all of yours.
What We Are Reading
Kevin Starr is an author of the eight volume series, Americans and the California Dream.
Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963
Covering the entire social, economic, political and artistic history of California during the era the author brilliantly illuminates these forces in California during pivotal years.
“Starr examines such issues as the overnight creation of the postwar California suburb, the rise of Los Angeles as Super City, the reluctant emergence of San Diego as one of the largest cities in the nation, and the decline of political centrism. He explores the Silent Generation and the emergent Boomer youth cult, the Beats and the Hollywood "Rat Pack," the pervasive influence of Zen Buddhism and other Asian traditions in art and design, the rise of the University of California and the emergence of California itself as a utopia of higher education, the cooling of West Coast jazz, freeway and water projects of heroic magnitude, outdoor life and the beginnings of the environmental movement. More broadly, he shows how California not only became the most populous state in the Union, but in fact evolved into a mega-state en route to becoming the global commonwealth it is today” - Oxford University Press
This series should be required reading in California History Classes!
What We Are Watching
You may have seen billboards around town advertising this documentary, American Symphony.
The film follows Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad, a married couple experiencing the best and worst of life’s experiences. You may know Jon as the band leader on Late Night with Stephen Colbert and as a grammy winning musician. Suleika is a cancer survivor and author of Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, a memoir that follows her cancer journey and ultimately her travel across the country.
The filmmakers follow Jon as he produces a uniquely American symphony for Carnegie Hall while Suleika re-enters the hospital for her second bone marrow transplant.
Watch it here on Netflix.
Here’s to 2024…ready, set, go!
Joyce and Terrell