December is wearing its lovely winter colors, the perfect backdrop for Christmas decorations, family feasts and thoughtful gift-giving. A season where we carefully layer in some of our most favorite beautiful things, we want our homes to be just right. We tuck in a banquette under a window for a quiet breakfast with the morning sunrise, or a raucous board game with the kids. New fluffy white towels and fragrant soap for the guest bathroom, a basket of Paperwhites in the entry ... nothing is overlooked. Paying close attention to design, details, and how to live beautifully in a home is how I would describe the work of designer Suzanne Kasler. I am taken with and inspired by the lifestyle she creates for her clients, the passion she has for houses, the deep desire to design a home where family memories begin, the process of creating that she learned from her beloved war hero father, "For designers the process of creating a home can be described just that simply. We envision it in our minds. And we stay the course." Her new book Suzanne Kasler Sophisticated Simplicity is a personal tome from an award-winning designer sharing her approach to the art of the home, and would be a wonderful hostess gift for your next holiday dinner party, or a "Merry Christmas to me." She has collaborated and designed home furniture and decor with Ballard Designs making "How do I find that look?" just a click away. It's a beautiful book... I hope you order it.
"We took a more traditionally English approach in the library. The creamy/taupe-y palette provides a wonderful stage for their red and blue Oriental carpet, horse sculpture, pheasant, and the oil painting of English spaniels over the classic, neo-Georgian mantel. These references seemed absolutely right in this more casual, cozy room, and so appropriate to Richmond's English heritage."
"This custom-colored, hand-painted silk wall covering from deGournay repeats the blue-gray tones that echo throughout the house. That touch of pink beaded trim on the drapery picks up the pink flowers in the wall covering."
"One of the challenges in a historic house has to do with proportions. Your tendency is always to scale pieces down because the rooms are smaller than today's and the ceilings are usually lower. But by building up the scale, and even sometimes going overscale, you can bring great energy to a room that would otherwise look to traditional."
"The kitchen is modern and tailored, with a sleek central island, open shelves above the counters, and gray-painted contemporary cabinets below. It flows into the main, two-story room, and also to a fabulous pantry where we continued the open shelves. All of the lower cabinets are stock cabinetry. Painting them gave them a special, custom look. We used the open shelving because of the window placement, and allowed the dishes and glassware to become part of the overall composition."
"Four sets of black-painted doors punctuate the flow on the ground level. This pair opens onto a dining room done in champagne tones. The deGournay wall covering at Bergdorf Goodman inspired her chinoiserie wall treatment. The antique table was hers. With chairs in linen velvet, corded in purple, and sisal on the floor, the room is effervescent, but in a muted, timeless way. "
"The minute you walk into this house, it's all about style. This entry is my ideal of sophisticated simplicity. Everything is painted high-gloss white, with the front door accentuated in a lacquered Farrow & Ball black. The marble floor is a bold, Chanel-inspired riff on a traditional entry hall patterns. For a note of sophisticated whimsy, we hung a Murano chandelier. Standing proudly against one wall is a nineteenth-century Italian walnut commode."
My sincere congratulations to
Designer Suzanne Kasler on her beautiful new book.
My sincere thanks to:
Lizzy Hyland of Jill Cohen Associates for the opportunity.
As well as Rizzoli New York.
It has been my pleasure.
I wish you all the best of everything.
~Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas~
x Rie
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