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Mix Inside & Outside Design Styles?

Lesson 22 from: What's Your Home Design Personality?

Tobi Fairley

Mix Inside & Outside Design Styles?

Lesson 22 from: What's Your Home Design Personality?

Tobi Fairley

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Lesson Info

22. Mix Inside & Outside Design Styles?

Next Lesson: Revisiting Homework

Lesson Info

Mix Inside & Outside Design Styles?

Okay, so when can you mix inside and outside design sells? Well, a lot of times we have to a lot of times we have no choice because you many of you just particularly in this area, gave us a number of reasons why you really can't decide what exterior you want, you may not even be able to find it, have access to it, afford it whatever the number of reasons are that you don't necessarily get to live in your dream exterior. I think it happens a lot more in my area because we have sprawling landscape and we have a lot of room t to build new construction, and when you're in an urban area like you are there's just no space to build and you have to buy wood already already exist, so let's, look at some tips for mixing interior and exterior design style, so certainly you can use your exterior as an inspiration, and I recommend that you do, because we just talked about how, even if you don't have the same style interior as the exterior, you want to take some of those cues, some inspiration from ...

the way you execute the way you curate the way you present your interior style so that it makes sense with the exterior so it doesn't fight it so it's not in and, um, you know, conflict or competition with it but you don't have to match it by any means your house, your interior more than your exterior, I think needs to fit your personality, right? How often are you really standing out on the curb looking at your ex syria? I mean, hopefully you're spending some time in your yards and outdoors, but it's not even close the percentage of your lifestyle that you're living in the interior, so if you had to completely abandon the exterior style and to make yourself happy in the interior, certainly I would recommend that you do that, but I think that there are ways to blend them and make them work together in most cases, maybe not julie's, but in most cases, so it's easier to mix modern furnishings, I think into a historic home than the other way around, which is what we were just talking about. So think about that we saw some really cool foot is already we've been studying different styles that were really sleek dining tables and molded plastic chairs, but maybe in a really classic interior that had a very formal classic fireplace, one of them in the dining room and big moldings painted all wide or are executed in a certain way that classic exterior can easily house modern things gets much more challenging to bring classic traditional layered antiques into a mid century or a really, really modern house so if you have to go make it easy on yourself, try to do the modern in the classic exterior so let's look at some great examples we've had so many good examples on pinterest over the last two days but look at some more of how to blend the exterior and the interior I think it's this one I hope clancy actually not that I don't know what this board is called get back to something not right here, you know, following that thought I may just say about how I think there's a very different mentality between american on dh european in that an american would think nothing or I've got a colonial house, but I can do whatever I like inside, whereas I think a brit in particular and maybe an australian is all we think well, michael houses colonial therefore everything in sight as still a colonial and then they're far less daring, whereas I think americans and much more confident in your making their interiors different from the extra if they wanted to do so on that note do you may take more time finding the exterior that fits your style? Yes, exactly I think the brits move when they've run out of style ideas, they start looking for a new house, right? Thinking they can actually just rebuild the house there was americans are really into what you know redesigning what what people were remodeling that's just never would you have as much trouble as as they were discussing in san francisco that you don't have a choice sometimes for what your ex seriously feel that in your eyes like there is a military regulations on what you can do inside and out and in this do you feel like there's enough of an inventory of homes and you're able to typically find what is more suited to your personality where you're not living a traditionalist in that it's something a chicken in the cities you do you do funds of really? Is that word again? It collected mix of architecture? I mean, even if you really wanted specific style you can go out and find it I just don't think remodeling is in the vernacular it's just something you know? You think ok, I now need to get a new home striving to doing it more thanks. Then again, I think that's probably because the age our country's much younger than your country and a lot of the homes are much younger or even very new uh across america so lots of new construction or things that have been built in the last fifty years as opposed to hundreds of years ago so let's start looking at some some different interior exterior mixes so this one I'm interesting chesterfield traditional and to chesterfield a traditional table in a very modern home of course this is a very edited space it's not necessarily something that looks like it's been designed but for conversation purposes just thinking about bringing traditional things into a modern home we see again very little stuff right very little clutter that the cell phone works fine it almost becomes sculptural in and of itself and you just don't think about um you don't think about layering all the things so if you saw this cell phone a zone and we said what kind of home would this fit in we certainly wouldn't select this sort of home but it doesn't mean that you can't bring traditional details into a space something that note on this this is a very clean version of a chesterfield self it's it's chesterfield it's tufted but it doesn't have the traditional rolled arms so there's a version of a traditional sofa that so this kind of a blended piece of furniture that if you really love tough ting or you really love something more traditional you could purchase this to fit in this home and and avoid the big rolled arms so there's a kind of a combination of things happening in combinations of style happening within that piece of furniture I love this here's another chesterfield sofa with the big rolled arm but this one super modern law with a mix of traditional and modern furnishings so modern loft there's no crown molding this isn't a classic interior doesn't have big window and there's no mold and there's no casements on the interior window casing it's a white box and it's a great mix I happen to think of modern and traditional furniture. Any comments on this one was crazy for chairs. What do you think about the mix of this? What makes the what makes the traditional sofa work here with the rest of the things in this space I love the space that you can see below this the work surface like I really love the way that the fine lines of a lot of in the end of the coffee two years out of the copy tavon under the cool very chairs which means that that heavy cipher is anchored but everything else has a lot of lot employees think that makes it seem a bit modern said the gold finishes speak to the more traditional mix and a lot of ways even though these air really sleek styling gilded they speak to these really traditional candlesticks. So really this if we were going back to our thoughts of this morning this would be probably sixty to eighty percent cool urban with a tiny bit of traditional in it, right? So this is more modern with a hint of traditional is opposed to the opposite with sitting on the couch there two pillows that air just turned vertical like they're not propped up there just stacked for styling purposes this one is really interesting. I love this example. Isn't that interesting? So a classic architectural space classic detailing old building, probably new york city are some other metropolitan area to very, very traditional antique chairs. But this is what I consider that museum style presentation. So to eames chairs which your classic urban classic cool mid century means vander of very, very modern coffee table. And these chairs, I think, work beautifully, and here I love them. What do you all think about this? Even the traditional people in the room do you can you appreciate this? Is it? Just does it not? Look, really, does it not look like a spice that anybody could really live in? You want your esteem to me, but because to me it feels wrong. That's, why it's so it's like, what is going on there? So I'm interested in looking at it. I have a vision, and I think that is that sort of what we were talking about this morning and the daring, the daring design, people who are willing to blend things together. But in a sense, I think it works because it's all white floor by changing the floor from a warm wood white, if you could imagine it was a warm wood with a totally different different interests different I think that's what makes it work and then you even can appreciate and see the classic detailing on the door you notice both styles happening here I think because it is totally white you're right if there was a lot of contrast it would be completely different too much contrast I think so if you weren't so traditional but you had a very traditional interior one solution would be to do something fun with paint on your interior right so if you just couldn't you were bored to tears with paneled walls or something really really classic a way to make it either glamorous or more modern would be to bring a bright paint color something out of out of the box something at little unorthodox to the wall what do you think about this face younger phil's younger to me fills I don't I'm thinking that's almost like a beach calais somewhere I don't know what that makes the color could be but it's not that it's not a total departure from the rooms we were looking at earlier that were all painted out a movie he like the lacquered walls this isn't lacquer but I see a lot of people having success painting pantsil paneled rooms like paneled libraries all a color particularly blew a lot of people use blue but I don't know about another I don't know the statistics it would be fun to hear from our online audience but I do know that blue is the most popular color in america for americans favorite color I think it's different in part different parts of europe I think there are other colors that are the most popular but I know americans as a whole men and women have blue in their top at really number one but usually at least in the top two favorite colors so I see lots of paneled walls painted in blue colors but certainly a way to bring down the formality the seriousness, the traditional nature of same thing with furniture to we think about bringing in a lot of antiques and for people who don't love antiques who aren't emotionally attached to them aren't worried about their value we're seeing people do lots of fun things with painting them and it really transitions to a different style this is a modern house with glamorous or art deck a little modern glam and modern styling like a hotels to may yeah, it could be it could be a hotel it doesn't look comfortable it could certainly be a hotel you know a little hard a little cold lacking something but you know art deco can certainly be cold if you're not careful with what you mix it with. So a lot of the styling you think of even our art deco exteriors commercial buildings, the chrysler building in new york hard shiny surfaces they don't feel warm, they don't feel really that inviting so how do you transition on? And if you love art deco is an interior anybody in here had success using art deco styling in an interior and if so, what was the exterior style or have you seen any and what would the exterior style be that you think works well with art deco I've seen some more um not not necessarily bungalow but but sort of cottage well traditional homes and that some of my clients have where a lot of the interior lighting fixtures had an art deco flavor to them so maybe twenties and thirty style homes that were a little more bungalow feeling and an art deco can work well on some of the fixtures and fittings there but I think it's a hard style produces loving this by the way so hey say says that he could live there there's always everybody there's always someone who loves any of these styles uh so this is a pretty this is almost a mission style interior isn't it like a uh if you can imagine that kind of wall paneling and possibly a california mission style of frank lloyd wright style with that geometric paneling and some of the details around the fireplace but it's it's painted out why, which makes it totally different than it would be if it was in a stained wood and it's executed in a very, very modern way wow, because I saw the paneling right away and I was like, I love that I think we're evolving today I think we've really come out of her a little bit of out of her traditional shell here's a great example that I was what I was just talking about of using a color, particularly blue and even in a lacquer finish to take something that could be almost too traditional for a lot of people and really making it much cleaner and much simpler. So you could imagine that probably the's cabinets were a dark stain before maybe why, but possibly a dark saying at some point in their lifetime, and I certainly don't think they started out this blue t they were probably white or a stained library, and you see the radiator cover here, so this is in and then urban location probably like a new york city apartment all painted out in blue lacquer. Do you think this looks traditional are modern? Well, it's both I think thiss traditional model, which do you think is first? If the traditional is a traditional really liron flavors and water with traditional fighting, the wooden everything zaki's, he say it's traditional, but they've added those really quite funky blinds and the orange couch that's what's care other that's what turned into something more money we're going with true modern travolta modern I think this's along the lines of something I would do to an interior, so when I say at the root of a lot of the work I do, you find traditional details and lines, but I executed in a clean way are modern way or more may be trendy way with color sometimes, so this is very much something that I would do to this space. Yes, I have a question about the lacquer is that something you can do yourself? Or is that a process that you have to pay somebody to come in? There's different there's, different options? It depends on the quality you're looking for. I've used a fabulous product that is extremely expensive and very labor intensive from england, it's called I think that it's either called fun paints of england or fund paints of europe. I think it's a fine paints of england and they make a lacquer product that comes in a lot of beautiful colors and it's a it's, a several step process that you literally sand things down if its walls or cabinets several times and you literally put the product on with the brush in little squares and it takes a lot of time and then you stand it again, very labor intensive and it gets a beautiful finish just immaculate finish I've I've done that for a client in a powder room because you really don't want to do that in a large space is very expensive and very time consuming. And in the same home, we went into the basement game room and used a commercial grade high gloss paint that almost had a tough, like, almost like a car finish. It was just a commercial paint. We probably selected the highest gloss they had and sprayed it on the wall, and it looks great too, but there's more imperfections there and we were doing just knew we were ok with that because of our budget and, you know, because the way the room was going to be used, it was more casual, so either either you can do some of it yourself if you had I mean, you still in some equipment, spraying the pain on would be a good idea to get that high gloss unless you're using a paint that's intended to be brushed on like the one I mentioned, you're gonna want a really sleek finish, and it also depends on what material is on the wall or the cabinet. So something like this you even could get a cleaner look if you didn't have wood cabinetry, but like india for something that is a much sleeker. Finish works great for this if you win, if you had a new construction or you were adding cabinetry knowing you wanted a lacquer finish, you probably wouldn't want to invest in wood cabinetry but something that had a slicker finish and then there's people a lot of artisans who do lacquer finishes and they want some kind of a material applied to the wall like a wood product and m v f or something so that they can get a clean finish so it depends on the person to some people want no imperfections. Some people are ok with some, so that was a long answer to you can maybe do it yourself. That depends on how particular you are. How many you know what kind of finish your wall is? If it's a really great, um sheet rock finish that you could spray over so there's a lot of things that go into I personally try to leave all those kinds of special finishes to professionals because I've also seen things go really wrong the tragedy yourself and then you spend just a cz much money repairing them as if you had hired the professional to do it to begin with, okay, the mix let's think about this very traditional interior super that's what you did with didn't you says I used the backups of seven siri's, but I have a word eight completely different colors and what colors? Where they sympathize. The lime green I had I did have a natural word. I had the sky blue, I think how to read. I did have a black that actually, it turned out there were limits on how many you could have. I just try to make it. As you know, really you and I used the sarin in marble round table. This is really fun. So we've got a lot of people who liked this space but again very, very edited. Even the detail ing that is traditional is really controlled a love the combination of this really the unique and modern light fixture with the french mirror if you're another very traditional interior with a very modern. So I think this is interesting use of proportion and it's intentional here toe look very sparse and simple, but very low furniture you love this so very, very low horizontal furniture. But you have all of this volume in the space, and a lot of people would be uncomfortable not decorating or doing something with this vertical space. It would feel like it needed something. So takes the right kind of design style something really a person who likes things there really simple and minimal to be ableto appreciate the moldings as the artwork really in the space very quickly toby and for theresa caribbean the chairman say yes that product you mentioned she says it's absolutely fantastic it's almost like it's very high gloss this is non oil base but it acts like an oil is it'll levels out doing what you were saying that ok let's look at if a few more of these and then well we may even have some time this afternoon to go back to some of our homework for this morning s so this is an interesting space it also has classic detail ing in the molding but interesting very contemporary cabinetry in the kitchen so I think this was a very bold use of this space because a classic architectural space but european lacquered really sleek kitchen cabinetry installed in the space and stainless steel nothing not a single traditional element other than the architecture itself they didn't even try to blend the space in a traditional way just really ignored the shell and brought this really sleek look sleek styling sleep cabinetry but I think what makes it work again is that it's all white they didn't remove this you might have imagined that they would remove even the architecture, the moldings and things that were classic and that we're ornate but really just ignored them this is really interesting tio any response to this really like really really like it what do you like about this? I love the wood get in almost contrasting with the white is that a tile on the wall or looks right there would? Well, even though I didn t am it almost looks like a log long wall or a timber wall because it has like a I just have to clean this or that the lines this floor is beautiful that's ofthere tile of some kind not stone though I don't think it's like slightly maybe really nice but the beams when we said that you would think about in a much more traditional space reclaimed wood I think that's what makes this so warm and maybe just one more here so this is basically a farmhouse or ah a lodge kind of look and as far as the architecture goes but I really sleek interior styling I love this I think this would be a really fun vacation spot for me too any response to this it's not what you would imagine the interiors of this to be is it stone and log you and imagine all those antlers we've been seeing for days and that first chair we saw are the chair we saw yesterday with the the brown and want hair cal hair cow hide those are the things you would typically associate with this space but this is almost although some people don't like this this concept it has a little bit of that restoration hardware feel about some of the pieces has like a belgian look to some of the finishes a love the texture and the rugs think this is really really interesting modern feels industrial yeah it does except the architecture's the opposite of industrial and I know I don't know how they did it but they were there but it's because of the styling in the editing so something like stone and wood fits that primitive farmhouse take her style all of those kinds of ideas and then thinking of the furniture in a real primitive way like at the simplest form medals and weather is that's what makes it transition I think and it feels very masculine knew it does but I think I would feel really comfortable in this space because it feels warm it feels cozy and you don't think of most of these finishes in and of themselves is war medal hard surfaces but I think the color palette makes it that the wood finishes that the envelope of wood and stone that it lives in makes it very warm so for the for the most part any takeaways from this do you think that it's more important to match your interior to your ex syria to blend them are just to completely ignore them and do what? Which one of these examples did you like the mess because we saw some of each of this I really like the idea of somebody crossing your front door being shocked I think this is I might get old, but I think even now having a few pieces like this that maybe transition that that room you know some of them are successful one seem like you have a couple of transition pieces or what we might call that point of reference it's that make it makes sense but it's in the it's in the editing and the presentation the styling that seems to make them work comforted that lamp is, well, a chandelier I guess because I actually thought I could probably make that family enough I never did I did exactly what it was like come on a cover that anybody can take on board with the light bulb on it together on wrap it with you I could see that was san francisco victorian and it would look great I agree with you any other ones that really even even the ones that completely ignored like this one this one really ignored the exterior but we got some kind of like we got some response to this I think the problem that I've had is I haven't committed tio a specific style I haven't brought it out in the way that the way that they make the pieces work I haven't made that happen in my house and that's why it's still doesn't feel certain what it is so they're really committed teo the interior here most of these that are exciting that you really where they ignore the the exterior altogether they're really committed to a specific style of the interior for the most part don't you think it's kind of hard that that's where that eclectic piece gets a little difficult when you start mixing a whole lot of things in so if you're going for something like this if you're going to take a really traditional space and make it modern or vice versa you probably eighty ninety percent of the space needs to be in the interior style with maybe just some small keys that transition if you're going for this kind of look well I think you made a good point with the white right there because we we went to london this summer and stayed in a very traditional flat at least the buildings on the outside where the row you know, the row houses they're all white with black shutters and you walked in and it was just like that very european modern cabinetry stainless steel lacquered surfaces but it was all white just like the outside and so it didn't feel weird at all I mean it was just even that wasn't style it was gorgeous so that was the idea of using a color to transition so the exterior exterior of the home it's wide and the interiors all wrapped in white then you suddenly have permission to sort of do what you want to with the interior is what you're saying white locks whether it's a classic white box or a plane and modern white box it still has the same result because we saw that this is a this is a traditional white box traditional moldings and then we saw some others that were, um like this one a really modern white box without the the architecture so maybe that's a takeaway from this section that if you're having trouble making your interiors work with the exterior and you have something really classic on the exterior like white detail ing or white moldings may be wrapping your interior and why it is going to be what transitions you from something more money because you think about an all white interior being pretty modern so it makes sense that wrapping the interior and why before you introduce modern furnishings might be a great transition piece I think you're right even the same one here okay um love this one again another white box but all different varieties of white boxes and how they interpreted the interior see the idea and I said that this morning as we were passing before lunch passing through some of the things that you could do to create to make your interior to make your styles fit together is maybe wrapped the room in a neutral are in a white that the one that you all responded to you were both like ooh the blue and orange of my clients we really wrapped that whole room in a very light, neutral, almost white, so that I could bring in mid century pieces, new pieces, traditional pieces things inherited from their grandmother. And it all worked together. Same idea.

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Ratings and Reviews

Amy Cantrell
 

I was happy to get this class on sale at a time when I needed it. We were painting and replacing some furniture so it helped me get some clarity on what is most important to me. As a photographer I can appreciate most styles and colors so the class helped me hone in on what my design personality is (eclectic mostly) which helped me focus on things to inspire me.

LIndsey Connell
 

What a generous offering. I got so much out of this course. Sure, some of the style references are a little out-moded, but it's incredibly thorough. Tobi is so knowledgeable about all of the styles and is gifted at helping students ensure style and functionality. Dive in! You'll learn so much about your own style and how to make your home flow in a way that you love.

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