I am insanely in love with Joe Nye's Beverly Hills apartment featured in the August 2009 House Beautiful. If you missed it, here it is, along with my list of why it captures so well the aesthetic I adore in interior design.
1. Lots of books
2. Blending antiques and modern pieces
3. Chinoiserie everywhere
4. Silk curtains
5. Farrow & Ball paint
6. Needlepoint
7. Stripes
8. Drama
9. Comfort
10. Elegance
11. Fresh flowers
12. English decorating
13. Pretty clutter
14. Wallpaper
15. Accessories
16. Color
17. Pattern
18. Colored silk lampshades
19. Balance
20. Pink
21. Live with what you love!
Posts
His rooms say, "come in & enjoy me". Love him!!
ReplyDeleteI say yes (repeat that 20 more times). I thought the contrast between Nye's home and BW's room was so interesting. I absolutely hated BW's room—almost everything about it. And then the pages turned and Nye's room came into focus and I felt yes.....this is what I love in a room. It is a home filled by a person who is comfortable in his own skin. It is handsome, durable, comfortable, elegant and liveable. It is a how to lesson that living in small space does not mean having small dreams. I actually preferred this feature over the much ballyhooed Miles Redd the month before and I love Miles Redd. Joe Nye's room is the best I have seen in a quite a while. Thanks for featuring it here.
ReplyDeleteDumbwit Tellher-I am such a huge fan. So elegant and chic, but so inviting and comfortable.
ReplyDeleteHome Before Dark-So well said. I agree with every word.I know this is sacreligious, but I am not a fan of BW or KW at all. Joe Nye is not trendy-elegant, sophisticated, beautiful, but comfortable and liveable.
ReplyDeleteWhat gorgeous spaces!
ReplyDeletexoxox,
CC
CC-Glad you like his work.
ReplyDeleteThese homes are all really pretty!!
ReplyDeletethischicksgotstyle-Thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeletePart of the reason there's such a world of difference between the welcoming feel of Joe Nye's wonderful place--which I'd take in a heartbeat--and Bunny's oddly sterile room is that his was done for a real client--himself--while hers was done for ten thousand strangers. Hers was also done in the typical telescoped time-frame of a showhouse, while his is obviously the product of a lifetime of collecting. And study.
ReplyDeleteBunny's room was well-designed for what it was--a place that required maximum visual impact in the short term--a thirty-minute walk through a whole house, a thirty-second featurette on a TV decorating show--while Joe's place was clearly designed for the long haul, and the difference is telling. In JN's apartment, with its low ceilings & relatively small rooms, there no showy decorator tricks you can copy on the cheap in a weekend, and his mixture of handsome antiques, patterned materials & interesting odds-&-ends are hardly the kind of thing that would come across as anything but clutter in a quick TV pan of his rooms. Then again, they weren't meant for TV. To appreciate these densely decorated rooms, ya gotta sit down & relax, which is exactly what I want to do when I look at those pictures. BW's room, on the other hand, with its high ceilings, celestial blue-&-white walls & punchy red accent piece, would make a great set for, say, a sitcom starring Drew Barrymore as a young, trendy, always-on-the-go art appraiser at Sotheby's. I'd watch it, but not for the set.
Then again, with HB's current emphasis on images vs rather than words, it's not like Bunny was given much of a chance to explain any of the backstory of her room, or the (I'm sure) perfectly reasonable logic behind some of her particular aesthetic choices, leaving us to draw our own conclusions, which is too bad, because when we look at two rooms with such different functions to fulfill--one real-world, one fantasy-- we're comparing apples & oranges. But if you only look at the pretty pictures, you can miss that important fact.
Contrasts are good, whether in decorating or magazine layouts, but if I were Bunny, I think I'd feel like I got the short end of this particular editorial stick.
Magnaverde-I am going to have to reread my post. I could swear it was just about Joe Nye.
ReplyDeleteI love your list, Beth. It definitely captures Nye's home and -- from what I've seen -- yours as well. The style is so lovely and personal. Great post.
ReplyDeleteAverill-Thanks-as much as I admire other designers, his is closest to my own style.
ReplyDeleteOf course, you're right, SR2: your original post itself was just about Mr. Nye & his handsome apartment, and I agree with everything you said. In fact, the thing I liked most about your post was the way that, rather than merely saying "It's beautiful!"--which anybody can see--you analyzed it, and even though the finished product is greater than the sum of its parts, you listed those parts. And breaking up anything into its component parts makes it easier to understand.
ReplyDeleteSo, yes, your post was solely about Joe Nye: the negative comparisons of his & BW's rooms didn't come till the comments section. But though I didn't much care for that blue room either, I didn't think a comparison of two rooms created for two entirely different purposes was exactly a contest between equals, either. Thus my apples & oranges comment.
At any rate, you & I are in complete agreement on the main point: Joe Nye's apartment is knock a beauty. I think the spread on his place is one of the best things I've seen in HB in a long, long time & if I lived in Los Angeles--and, of course, if I had some other means of support--I would offer to work for him for free.
OOPS! Seems my BW comments in the Joe Nye story led some others astray, and I am sorry for that. I agree with Magnaverde that the BW room was more show and tell (or sell), that they are apples and oranges. I clearly, and perhaps too forcefully, declared how much I preferred the oranges for whatever reason. I'd also like to say to the Great Magnaverde (and he truly know I am a fan of his), that I believe anything visually great does not have to be explained. Having BW go on and on about her choices would not make my heart go pitter patter. Conversely, if there had been no words in the Nye feature, he would have had me at the mirrored etagere. And, finally, more confusing to me was that BW's room was to pay homage to Albert Hadley. And here I go absolutely clueless. Again sorry if my personal interjections in your post steered things off in an ungracious direction.
ReplyDeleteMagnaverde-I think the problem with the BW room in one sentence is that it had more to do with hawking her wares (her new home collection) than creating a beautiful space. A well designed room does not need explanation by the designer to convince us of the choices made; the room speaks for itself.
ReplyDeleteHome Before Dark-I enjoyed your comments and agreed with them. What bothered me most about the HB piece was the title-"This Room Is Great Because It's By Bunny Williams." I hope they don't believe that.
ReplyDeleteThis was my favorite spread in this issue as well. I love how it feels both polished and cozy the whole way through (especially that fabulous bathroom).
ReplyDeleteAnd Beth -- I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was irked by the way HB titled the Bunny Williams piece. Whether you liked the space or not, I felt it was somewhat insulting to assume we all would drool over it simply because "bignamedesigner" designed it.
Jenn-I love small cozy glamorous spaces. I am not a fan of those oversized new homes and rooms. I think HB has probably gotten a lot of comments about the BW title.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me happy to see design like this--artistic colors, bold and creative mix of objects, inviting spaces that work for day-to day living.
ReplyDeleteC.S. Harris-Thanks for stopping by. Exactly-this apartment is so elegant, but looks like a real abode-not one that has been overly staged by the designer and/or magazine.
ReplyDelete