It's no secret that fine art is an essential element in a well-decorated room. "It's that final cherry on top that's just crucial," says New York-based ELLE DECOR A-List designer Danielle Colding. But an artwork has a different emotional and intellectual power than a sofa or a paint job they are not the same. So the task is how to orchestrate a delicate dance between the two.
As Billy Cotton of the eponymous ELLE DECOR A-List design firm puts it: "Art is so personal. It really doesn't have any function aside from beauty." Cotton's method- let's call it respectful distance being wary of designing around it too closely. "That turns the art into decoration," he says.
The solution for some big collectors is what Cotton calls billionaire beige, which recedes completely to let trophy paintings shine. "I tend not to take that approach," he says. "The furniture can be quieter, not trying to be the loudest object, but that doesn't mean it can't be a color."
Esta historia es de la edición March 2024 de Elle Decor US.
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Esta historia es de la edición March 2024 de Elle Decor US.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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The Empire Strikes Back - A 19th-century gem in Cambridge, Massachusetts, gets a tour-de-force restoration thanks to Frances Merrill of Reath Design.
Is it possible to simultaneously go back in time and leap forward? This was the challenge a couple set for themselves upon purchasing a salmon-pink 1869 house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from Longfellow House, the National Historic Site that served as George Washington's headquarters during the revolution. We loved all the beautiful old details of this house, the homeowner says.
Just Like That, But Cheaper. -One writer tried to replicate a classic ELLE DECOR interior in his apartment. Could he do it for $500?
It was all about the green curtains. In 2008, to my great surprise, I was offered a ninemonth fellowship based in New York City. I had lived there twice before, both times unsuccessfully, meaning I had failed to create any kind of significant social life, and so this was a chance not only to do research for my new novel, but also an opportunity to get things right. I swore I wouldn't let the city break me a third time.
And How! - Decorator Nick Olsen transforms a Sag Harbor home into a Hamptons retreat with an irreverent humor.
If you must go to the Hamptons, however-because it is devilishly good fun, after all-you may notice an apparently modest, low-slung cottage on Sag Harbor's Main Street and think, with a comfortable sort of feeling, Now that is how a house should look. Nestled amid the Botox bars, helipads, and club-staurants, it could almost set the sordid world aright both a rebuke and a solution to the chaos that surrounds it. A real home.
