Design Inspiration
You have great ideas when it comes to design, but don’t have the creative eye and attention to detail to bring your vision to life. That’s where a skilled interior designer comes in…
A good designer encourages clients to follow their hearts in finding their own high style, creating interiors that both align with their creative vision and work with their lifestyle. She’ll draw on her personal experience and help guide clients’ decisions, so it is important to know her aesthetic and working style.
UNLIKELY PAIRINGS
INTERSPECIES FRIENDSHIPS
A gorilla and a donkey. Tortoise and elephant. Cats and dogs. These unlikely couples have learned to co-exist and even form affectionate bonds. Indeed, unexpected pairings can move us profoundly—an apt metaphor for interior design, too. More
FASHION
DARING. REFINED…
For better or worse, Barbie and I were born the same year. Her fashion sense (and green convertible!) emboldened girls like me to imagine our futures like never before. Fast forward 20 years to a sojourn in Rome, where I learned the true meaning of haute couture—both in fashion and interiors: a reverence for dressmaker details, old world craftsmanship, and confident women with daring yet refined taste. More.
HIGH ADVENTURE
PARTS UNKNOWN
This city girl needs her space: Icy space. Boundary waters. The Appalachian Trail. When the Eagle Scouts needed a chaperone, I couldn’t say no.
Of course, a weekend road trip or even an exotic dish can satisfy a desire for adventure or something new.
With interior design, it’s easy to latch on to the latest Instagram trend, or misconstrue terms like gutsy, shabby, or boho. This is why I shun labels and encourage clients to follow their hearts in finding their own high style.
Charlotte draws inspiration from many different sources. Visit her on Pinterest, where you’ll find boards such as True Blue, Cabin Fever, Sister Parish-ish, and Polka Dots. Enjoy!
COLLECTIONS
MORE IS MORE
Shells, dolls, buttons, stamps. You likely started collecting as a child, because with multiples, you had more to play with and dream.
Each object stands alone but is more charming amid company.
Over the years, I’ve grown, edited, and refined several collections—seagrass baskets from coastal vacations, mismatched table settings spotted at New England fleas, salt glaze pottery won on eBay. I love the hunt. These objects hold little monetary value yet are precious to me. Eventually they’ll pass down to my children and, perhaps, continue to grow.
What captivates your eye? It’s never too late to start collecting.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
BEATRIX POTTER
As the daughter of a librarian, fiction captured my imagination as a young girl, especially the magical stories of Peter Rabbit. Writing in Victorian England, Beatrix Potter learned to keep her stories short and sweet, employing small formats to entice publishers. Perhaps her genteel interiors and animal illustrations explain my penchant for cozy spaces and the natural world. (Her lesser known botanical and fauna watercolors are worth exploring.) Read this fascinating article, The Surprising Feminism of Beatrix Potter.
MOOD BOARDS
HUMOR
FUN WITH ROZ CHAST
I can never get enough humor, so pile it on! New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast makes me laugh aloud. I especially love her domestic family scenes, often involving curmudgeonly couples living among oddly--shaped inanimate objects, like lamps and accentuated wallpaper. Look closely and you’ll observe that much of the humor in her cartoons appears in the background and corners of her frames. Check out “My Dream House.”
DREAM ON…
Personalize Your Space
Find one corner of your home, just for you. Then imagine what makes you smile. A bold stripe. A comfy ottoman. You get the picture…