INTERIORS
The art of styling the surfaces you see every day.
We're pretty sure that every person reading this has a home album saved on one of their social media accounts, maybe its lush green gardens on Pinterest, or cosy influencer living rooms on Instagram or if you're anything like us it both of them, plus over 6,000 home related screenshots and a shared album on our phone. Put it this way, home is pretty important to us all, and we're always chasing the perfect setting. The kitchen corner arranged for all your coffee making but that also looks beautifully arranged, your coffee table that holds your favourite aspirational books but that's also perfectly balanced, your bedside table that practically holds your everyday items but is also arranged like it came from an interior design account.
Awe inspiring interiors are layered, a visual buffet, each layer more beautiful than the next as the eyes rove over the space taking it all in. The final one, and perhaps the most difficult, is the styling of your surfaces. From coffee table to kitchen counters it’s the real way to show your personality, view your memories instead of keeping them in a box, and take your space from cold furniture showroom to an Architectural Digest style home.
Here’s how to do it well.
The Entry Console
One of the first things you see when you enter, it should say: welcome home. but keep it restrained. A beautiful dish or Hermes leather tray for keys and sunglasses. A small lamp (always more welcoming than overhead lighting). A diffuser or scented stone. A framed photograph. A stack of postcards or small art books. Keep the palette cohesive, neutrals, wood, brass, marble. Edit it often. Keep it tidy. Let it change with the seasons to keep it interesting.
The Coffee Table
Perhaps the most obvious but if you're looking for something more than Assouline books and a candle then read on. Books are fine, but instead of the usual suspects, opt for topics that really interest you. A conversation starter that you can happily monologue to your guests and open up a connection that really hits, the history of the Roman Empire, classic cars, rare birds of the pacific northwest, you do you. Then add something sculptural, an object from traveling, small dish for matches or chocolate-covered almonds, a box for hiding remotes and other ugly items. And finish it with something living, a wooden bowl filled with moss, a wild arrangement, a foraged stem, or a bowl of green apples. And if you really need to, add the candle. Elevate it by making it oversized, Jo Malone style.
The Kitchen Counter
Many of us have open kitchens so some thought needs to be put into what goes on the counter tops so it doesn't feel hectic or worse, like a restaurant kitchen. Like yeh we cook but we don't need it to look like we do most of the time. But minimal doesn’t mean dry and bare. A marble tray holding your most-used oils and vinegars. Salt and pepper mills that feels like an art sculpture or a salt cellar with a tiny spoon. On the kitchen side or bar, a fruit bowl with weight, texture, and seasonal produce, pomegranates and apples in winter, mangoes and dragon fruit in summer, and a selection of citrus always. You can add candles if you really need it here too, we're a fan of the La Droguerie candle from Diptyque that removes cooking smells.
The Bathroom Shelf
Often the most crammed, but arguably the most personal surface of all. This is the intimate edit. The serums and oils, the perfumes that make up part of our skin, our trouble spots, our areas of improvement. Ideally we would all have cabinets to hide the majority but it's not always a perfectly designed space that we have so display them like you would art, grouped by material, colour or brand. Wipe the bottles of dust, keep them clean. A stack of folded face cloths, a glass jar of cotton pads, your gua sha stone set neatly on a ceramic tray. And maybe a single stem arrangement in a short glass vase, subtle luxury.