elegant simplicity at its best

Flying into Nantucket Memorial Airport, I felt as if I were on a second honeymoon.  Especially after landing and walking across the tarmac arm in arm with my husband. The glorious feeling of freedom with simply my husband and myself and no children.  Bliss.  The weather was beautiful for our 72-hours of heaven spent at The White Elephant Hotel with dinner at 21 Federal, lunches at local hang-outs while crossing the island on our Vespa style scooter, and of course, the Nantucket Garden Club House & Garden Tour! The simple elegance was sublime.  I could not get enough of the small, yet beautifully done gardens, the minimalist elegance of the millwork, and the perfectly executed interiors.  Especially those that led into outdoor entertaining areas.  Excuse the pics taken with my phone, but, of course, the camera battery died and the last thing we thought to bring with us was the charger!  Enjoy!  Oh, and this is only a small sample of the many pictures we took!

Image Courtesy of Wing Works Landscape

Image Courtesy of Wing Works Landscape

Image Courtesy of Wing Works Landscape

Image Courtesy of Wing Works Landscape

Image Courtesy of Wing Works Landscape

The End.

LI style in designers' challenge!

I was thrilled this past June when asked to participate in HOUSE Magazine's Designers' Challenge 2010.  This is the first challenge the magazine has sponsored and my teammate, Selia Williams, and I were so excited to be invited to join three other teams in the first challenge!  Silia and I had never met prior to being asked to participate, but it has turned out to be a wonderful design partnership.  After what seemed an eternity of very long hours and days spent searching out the perfect design solution for the space, this is our final product. And we love it!  We knew we had to include a glass tile surround fireplace of a decent size; something that had been on the client's wishlist for years, as well as custom built-in bookshelves and drawer space with a flat-screen tv above for her husband to watch his beloved baseball.  Our use of the crystal spheres and other crystal and mirror throughout the space, as well as the gilt silver sunburst mirror above the bed, helped to lighten up the eggplant and chartreuse colors we used in the fabrics.  Although there appears to be an abundance of trim, the only significant amount is actually on the bottom edge of the london shade covering the large window.  Otherwise, the trim was kept to the smaller accent pillows on the bed. Our goal, as the article says, was to provide the client with a space that met their immediate taste needs, as they described to us in our initial and only meeting, as well as provide them a good structure or 'bones' if you will, and long-term, functional pieces to use in the future as their taste evolve and change.  Are there things I would do over in hindsight?  Absolutely.  But, that was part of the challenge -- being able to design on the fly and utilizing sources as students that we had never thought of in our previous design education and experience.  The winner of the challenge is being chosen by the readers of HOUSE Magazine online -- so click over the their website some time in the next week or so, and select the design you'd like to see chosen as the winner! Enjoy!

All Images Courtesy of HOUSE Magazine.

UPDATE 10/25/2010 :  My Partner, Selia Williams, and I were chosen this past week by the owners of the home to implement the design we created for their master bedroom.  Yes, WE WON!  I believe we will be implementing the design after the holidays and will keep you posted.  Congrats also to my fellow designers and classmates, Lisa and Shelly, who won the most votes online by the HOUSE readers.  What fun this was!