In Progress: Setting a Tone with a New Entryway
Matching Fur Approval
Letting go of perfection
As July ends & August begins, it’s lovely how these two themes dovetail into each other. In July I was working on highlighting progress over perfection, and August is all about letting go ….. so here is me, letting go of my desire for every damn thing I design and publish to be perfect and bringing you along for the ride. With that in mind, I’m happy to share some progress on a long-time project in Brooklyn: My Entryway.
The Struggle
The entryway to my Brooklyn apartment has always been a struggle. Because of the layout switch previous owners did, it’s a rather large space that has zero natural light, and just sort of ends up collecting crap. Through the nearly 7 years I’ve spent in this apartment, it’s lived many lives. (I won’t go into the initial Pinterest Ombre Wall Fail of 2012…) None of which were particularly happy, but I think we’re on the right track now.
What’s Not Working
I always start sessions with clients asking “what’s working in this space, and what is not working?”. This has been a huge collection of “not working” over the years.
At first it was my “office”, which was dark and depressing (I don’t even have any photographic evidence of that time). Then I had a treadmill (that I used a handfull of times for pre-dawn pre-flight runs). Then it started making more of a statement …. but it was a bit mixed up on what it was trying to say…
Let’s take a walk down memory lane…
Setting a Tone is a Multi-Step Process
Clarity around what to do in this space came in waves. First, I cleared out all the crap that was making me sad (buhbye treadmill), and went for an open feel with storage where it was needed.
In the midst of this attempt, my apartment as a whole was having sort of a vibe existential crisis. The open-airy Scandinavian vibe I’d been seeking hadn’t ever really come to fruition … and then I bought a house upstate that was aching for that vibe, so things shifted.
After spending a good amount of time in SoHo Houses in London and New York with my friend Kelly (and re-discovering Ilse Crawford), I started to realize my whole apartment wanted to take on a moodier, edgier tone.
I’ll go in depth on each of these projects, but my bedroom and closet became nearly black. And my bathroom deep deep green. It started to make sense to start that moody, luxurious, dinged-up but perfectly curated tone from the moment you step into the door.
So, What’s the Mood
And Here’s the Progress
Still WIP, but I’m loving where it’s heading! The deep green walls are super moody with the lights off, but have so much color when it’s brighter in the space.
I still need to finish up painting (all of the doors will be green to match the walls when I’m done), install a new rug from Lulu & Georgia and work on the adjacent hallway to finish things up.
Stay tuned for the final reveal!
x