Jonathan Adler designs... be still my heart.
For as long as I can remember, my favorite expression of personal style has always been the home. A collection of rooms and spaces that exude the essence of the person living in them, where you choose to spend your life. Fashion is fickle and you can change it with your mood, weight, whatever. But paint colors, furniture, light fixtures, these are long-term commitments. The rooms you live in reflect more than how you feel that day, or what’s trendy. They speak to the things you value most in life: comfort, style, organization etc. – the kind of person you are.
I’ve never quite understood people that could just walk into Pier 1 and buy whatever the sales girl told them would look good on their coffee table. But then again, I never really understood Pier 1 as a whole. Anyways…
Growing up, my mom ran her own interior design business and, being the mini-me of my mother that I was have always been, naturally I preferred to spend my free time with her, looking at design magazines, shopping for fabrics, picking out molding… the list goes on and on. When girls my age were dreaming about normal 9 year old things like, oh I dont know, body glitter and Delia’s, all I wanted was a house of my own that I got to decorate, any way I wanted to. I would collect paint chips and carpet samples, tear out pages from Architectural Digest and Elle Decor, and hoard them in my room as inspiration for future design projects. Mind you, at 9- 12 years old, the “future” where I got to decorate a house, was a long way away. Nevertheless, I loved it. Genevieve Gorder from Trading Spaces was my idol, my mom was my best friend, and I had a propensity for breaking my glasses. This should be painting a pretty accurate picture of my adolescent social status for you.
Appropriately enough, my favorite activity is still surfing for design and style inspiration online and in print. If you raided my bedroom you’d find monthly stacks of magazine tear-outs, my email is congested with daily blasts from Dwell Studios, Design*Sponge and etsy, and HomeGoods is my idea of a bitchin’ Saturday afternoon. Doesn’t matter if it’s modern, rustic, feminine, nautical, french country, etc, I love beautiful spaces and appreciate a well-done room. But after browsing and swooning over so many gorgeous examples, you can start to lose sight of what you appreciate vs. what’s actually you.
So today’s RoomLift Lesson is: “DO YOU”
My deepest gratitude to the Jersey Shore for introducing that phrase into my personal lexicon. But seriously. If a space should look like the person inhabiting it, then your RoomLift should come out looking like you. Or at least the you you’d like to wake up to every morning.
Check out my Pinterest page to follow my ever expanding board of RoomLift Inspiration.
Samantha Says... 