Adding Vintage to your Walls

Christopher Stott is an artist that has become a favorite of one of my clients, and is now one of my favorites as well.  He captures vintage items for his paintings in everyday compositions.  One of Sacramento's galleries, the Elliott Fouts Gallery, has hosted several of his shows and his works have been very popular.

You can see two of his pieces here in my client's home:

And another one in this corner:

Here are some other works that can be seen on his website:

Love the look!  Vintage is such a wonderful trend right now, but these painting would look great in any environment.

Colours de la Nuit

Sometimes I will see an item, piece of furniture, area rug, wallpaper or piece of art that will make me stop and think about what kind of room I would design around it.  That happened today as I was perusing an online art retailer and came across this painting by Shirley Novak called Colours de la Nuit.

I love the fluid motion and muted colors.  As the title suggests, it is very French in essence but I think it can work with many styles and is appropriate for a variety of rooms.  I would maybe put it in a corner with a combination of this chair and side table:

Via Restoration Hardware

Via Restoration Hardware

How about you?  What could you see paired with this painting?  Have you been inspired by anything lately?

Tenderly, The Flower Chair

The Chair as an intimate journey,from the nucleus of the home toward far-off destinations.

Like a light, free flying carpet.

A heart, a leaf, a flower, opening up majestic to let you in.

Carnal, yet bizarrely infantile, sumptuous but rested and secret.
A wonderful charm: the excitement of velvet, a flicker of silk, to relive in the colours of the mosaic, amidst chromatic phrasing, that disperses glare, then collects together sudden lights.

Where sentiment joints amazement and art does not appear at the end to times, but rather at their origin, in a mosaic.

~Sicis

Sicis, an Italian company known for their mosaics, has, with the help of Carla Tomoleo developed a branch of their company called Sicis Next Art which is a creation of art of the future. As you can see this chair, called Tenderly, is just a sample of the incredible and whimsical peices they have in furniture as art.

It looks pretty comfortable to me!

Happy Friday!

Images from Sicis

A Study on Hanging Art

One of the most common  mistakes I see when I visit my clients houses is that the art is hung too high on the wall.  It makes it seem to me like the room is shrugging it's shoulders or raising it's eyebrows and needs to relax. 

The common misconception is that the piece of art, picture, or mirror being hung has to be evenly space between the ceiling and the table/counter/lamp/sofa it is placed above.  Maybe if your ceilings are 7'-0" high this works but generally, that type of symmetry is not the most pleasing thing for the eye to look on in the room.  If there isn't any furniture below the art, I will try to place it somewhere around 1/2 way to 2/3rd the way up the wall from the floor.  Most of the time I see the art hung around 3/4 the way up the wall.  Yikes!

As a general rule of thumb I like to hang a piece of art around 6"-10" above a table or sofa.  This will also mean that you should have the appropriate sized art.  Many work of art I see hung are great pieces but too small for the location. 

Here are some examples of properly hung art:

Take a look at your house or office.  Is the room shrugging it's shoulders?  I think it's time for some relaxation!

Photos from Nancy Pape, Inc. Model Homes

The Sculptures of Patrick Amiot

Last week, I took a trip over to Santa Rosa and decided to drive to Sebastopol. We spotted several whimsical sculptures on our way into town and wanted to find out more about these unique peices. We arrived at Florence Avenue, the main drag for these works of art, also home to artist Patrick Amiot who was responsible for all these fun sculptures adorning his and his neighbors houses. Here are just a few of the peices displayed.

All of Amiot's sculpture's are made from materials that are recycled from old cars, clocks, cans and pretty much anything he can get his hands on. For more about the artist visit here. The scupltures are not only displayed in front lawns but also at business around town. You can find a hand tour guide map of all the sculpture locations at the artist home on Florence Ave as presented by the Folk Art for Schools organization. It's worth a visit if ever you are in Sonoma County

Tile as Art

Here are some great images to start off the weekend. I came across these fabulous images of some new product for Ann Sacks displaying tile as art. Enjoy!

Mixed Media: Dolan Geiman

I recently (and randomly) stumbled across Dolan Geiman's website and was pleasantly rewarded with these beautiful art pieces. I have always been a fan of mixed media and Dolan has quite a portfolio. Definitely worth checking out! To obtain a fabulous work of art for yourself, they are available online via Etsy and designers, he has a to-the trade program available. Also, check out his blog!
Images taken from Dolan Geiman website.

Beyond window shades - it's art!

I have been in love with this product from Delia Shades ever since I clapped eyes on it in a magazine a while back. I think the shades speak for themselves as pieces of art, perfectly shielding light and in turn being illuminated in a pleasing manner.


This is my favorite design, as I have always been partial to white against dark gray, however they are all great designs and range from traditional to contemporary.






They will even put their prints on directors chairs!