{"id":311,"date":"2012-03-21T06:35:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T10:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kikis-list.com\/2012\/03\/21\/design-philosophy-naomi-stein\/"},"modified":"2013-06-18T21:39:16","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T01:39:16","slug":"design-philosophy-naomi-stein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kikis-list.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/21\/design-philosophy-naomi-stein\/","title":{"rendered":"Design Philosophy: Naomi Stein."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today I am launching a new series here on KKL titled Design Philosophy. \u00a0It gives you an intimate look at some of my favorite designers and their design process. \u00a0The inaugural post is from one of my favorite ladies; Naomi Stein of Design Manifest<\/a>. \u00a0I am sure you have seen her amaaaaazing loft as Naomi is taking the internet by storm. \u00a0Take it away, Naomi!<\/span>
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Hey guys, it\u2019s Naomi from Design Manifest. When Krista asked me to come over and talk about my home I thought it was a good chance to talk about color and pattern<\/b>. \u00a0I’ve been really fortunate in that my loft has gotten a lot of attention. \u00a0It has been featured on Design Sponge<\/a>, several international\/online magazines, loads of blogs and I’m guessing it’s been pinned a time or two. \u00a0Pictures are nice, but I like to delve a little further into the thought process behind the design<\/b>. \u00a0I wrote a bit about my furniture and theme selections over on Small Shop<\/a>, but I’ve never really talked about color and pattern mixology.<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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So here it goes\u2026 color, pattern, and my loft.<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I\u2019m a white wall girl<\/b>, through and through.\u00a0 Yes, the loft is a rental with soaring ceilings, so that helped cement my decision to stay white.\u00a0 But on top of that, I like crisp bright spaces that are speckled with color and pattern.<\/b>\u00a0 This is what I went for in my living room: white walls, cream rug, linen sofa and a big ‘ole pillow party.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Early on, I chose pink and blue<\/b> as my theme in the place and I later added black<\/b> for a little drama. \u00a0For my pillows I really lucked out on fabrics- both the solid velvet and flamestitch were cheap remnants scores. \u00a0A stripe and a chinoiserie-themed pillow (It’s actually Goddesses) were an easy way to mix in variety. \u00a0I love a toile\/ scenery type fabric to mix up geometrics and other patterns!<\/b> \u00a0I also don’t like both sides of the sofa to match exactly. \u00a0Mix in two similar pillows but change up the size or pattern, or both!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Even though I’m a self admitted white wall girl, sometimes you need a little drama. \u00a0My first action step in decorating my loft was painting a dark, depressing alcove a<\/b>deep blue<\/b>. \u00a0I loved the way my pink desk popped against it and I felt it did a good job of cementing my color theme without\u00a0overwhelming\u00a0the whole loft.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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A small space is a great place to go bold<\/b>. \u00a0Just make sure to balance it out with lots of white and a little wood to maintain a natural element. \u00a0<\/span><\/span>My grandmother gave me this painting<\/b> that just happened to feature my color scheme: pink and blue! \u00a0I thought it was a great fit in my loft, but wanted to make sure I <\/span><\/span>didn’t pair it directly with blue and pink<\/b> elements as I don’t like my spaces too matchy.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Instead I perched my favorite bench (covered in David Hicks La Fiorentina) under it and filled it with pillows that complemented the art but didn’t feature the strong pink element. \u00a0Mixing patterns here wasn’t an easy task.<\/b>\u00a0I didn’t want to use geometrics as I felt that would detract from the bench. \u00a0I lucked out when I found silk and velvet ikat scraps. \u00a0Ikats are abstract enough that they go with just about everything.<\/b> \u00a0When mixing, make sure you vary the size, scale and color.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I thought long and hard before wallpapering<\/b> a nook in my living room. \u00a0It was an odd hollow area on a brick wall and I knew I needed a statement piece there to give it a purpose. \u00a0The pattern couldn’t be too crazy, though, because I really wanted to use fun pillows on the sofa.<\/b> \u00a0(See above.)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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I opted for “the birds” or Paradiso by Nina Campbell. \u00a0I felt the animal theme was organic enough to mix with other patterns<\/b> and the colors were close to my pinks and blues while not being too matchy-matchy. \u00a0Yea, I know I said that above- but not matching was a big focus of mine!<\/span> <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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To balance out all of that pink and blue, I opted to leave some areas “color-less.”<\/b> \u00a0My dining area is basically all black and white with a pop of red in the antique suzani tablecloth.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Keeping the colors simpler allowed me to be a little bolder with my patterns. \u00a0Black and white chevron is more subtle when its set against black dining chairs.<\/span><\/span>I applied the same color story in my bedroom, but avoided bold, bright hues<\/b>.\u00a0 This room is for relaxation, so I wanted the overall feel to be more calming.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t hold back from using patterns though.\u00a0 I love the way my perky, geometric Caitlin Wilson Pillows play against my batik dyed bedspread!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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And sometimes I just let the ART<\/b> do the talking. \u00a0I purposely asked Nicole<\/a> to feature pink and blue in my painting to coordinate with my space. \u00a0But I also gave it it’s own dedicated area to stand out. \u00a0I painted out that black background to really help it pop. \u00a0(You can learn more about it here<\/a>.)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Ultimately I broke a lot of design rules<\/b> when planning out my color and pattern scheme. \u00a0I used a lot of colors (pink, blue, black, red.) \u00a0I matched my art to my interiors. \u00a0I layered patterns on top of patterns. \u00a0I think that breaking the rules and following your\u00a0<\/span>intuition<\/span>\u00a0is essential to a good design.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0Two rules I would stick to? \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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1. \u00a0SCALE! \u00a0Meaning your pattern repeats should be varied<\/b>. \u00a0Do a big pattern, a little pattern, a solid and a geometric. \u00a0And they don’t all need to match. \u00a0A couple can match and a third can be odd man out- it’s more interesting that way.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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2. \u00a0Edit your COLOR! \u00a0Meaning, you may need to take some away<\/b>. \u00a0I love color, but often times less is more. \u00a0Each time you bring in a new color element, you lessen the impact of your other elements.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Oh dear, did I get too chatty? \u00a0I hope that helped you think about mixology a little. \u00a0Happy Decorating!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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xo,<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Naomi<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Today I am launching a new series here on KKL titled Design Philosophy. \u00a0It gives you an intimate look at some of my favorite designers and their design process. \u00a0The inaugural post is from one of my favorite ladies; Naomi Stein of Design Manifest. \u00a0I am sure you have seen her amaaaaazing loft as Naomi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,35,18,4,21,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design-philosophy","category-furniture","category-interior-design","category-interiors","category-pillows","category-pink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kikis-list.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kikis-list.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kikis-list.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kikis-list.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kikis-list.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kikis-list.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kikis-list.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kikis-list.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kikis-list.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}