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Trendsetters: Williams, Berry & Dixon

Let's, look at some other other thais makers will go out and see who we have next there's so many to get. Teo so how many people have ever heard of bunny williams? So we have it. Yes. So this is the money is a is a lady, and she is the person I've been alluding to. That I think is remarkable because she's been in the business for a long time, and she she worked for twenty two years with parish hadley before she even opened her own farm. And so if any of you were in my last course, or or have even just studied the history of design at all parish hadley was a very, very famous design firm. Our hadley just recently died in the last year or two, and he was in his nineties, but sister perish and our headley had this is on firm. And it's, one of the most well known iconic, does influential firms in the history of design in america. So she worked there for twenty two years. But she's known for classical refined and balanced style she's passionate about outdoor designing, guarding she has amaz...

ing, amazing, amazing garden. She has lots of home furnishing lines and really what launched her career to many people I know, and younger people are her books, one of which was so successful called an affair with a house have any of you seen the book an affair with a house, so but he read it about her own house and I think it's in connecticut and a lot of me that are classic traditionalists would love it it's cottage style beautiful gardens she has designer chickens and pant pantry and butler's pantry and linen pantry to die for if you love linens and textile, she has unbelievable collections of antique linens and tablecloths it's just beautiful eye candy particularly for the classic traditionalist but buddies the person who I'm just constantly inspired by were personal friends and she's a kind, kind person but I'm so inspired that she can stay so fresh and so current in her work after working in this long for so many years so let's look at her work this was funny she's fantastic way comment that is that that sort of resonates I think a little with me to make harrington, who has been with us all three days, has been fantastic. I have trouble going into an existing room and hating the furniture that the client feels the need to cape what would you how would you respond to that one as a designer? I mean, ask lots of questions you know what I do, though sometimes I don't work with clients if we're so far from the same aesthetic so as we're seeing and that's a reason that it's so important to know what a designer style is sometimes it's very difficult as a designer you think will hire a professional and they could make anything work just like yesterday when I was saying teoh one of our photos, I'm sorry, but I don't know that we could do classic traditional and glamour and this rustic pizza of beachy furniture in one room there certainly situations where designers aren't a fit for clients, so that's that's really almost a business course for me, which maybe create will do it creative live one day but it's really about making sure that you know you're authentic style, the client at least has a good feel for theirs and that you're a good match for helping them really put spaces together because it's very frustrating and difficult to create spaces around something that you're not inspired by. So point is a designer because you know they've come to you because you have a certain you have your certain brand that is your style plastic fashion possible, the things that we'll be talking about this afternoon, right? So they come to you for that, but it is it is the case that they may come to you for that and then not not be willing, willing to change anything how many of us have watched the home and garden shows or other television shows where they would say you can't paint the fireplace brick you can't get rid of the soviet you can't move this you can't get rid of the rug and when that's really I mean pinning yourself in the corner but I want my house to look exactly like all of these magazines and say you have to have a dip fickle decision with clients sometimes and say ok let's talk about this again if you really want these things, you've got to let some of the other things go or if you really can't let them go we're not going to achieve this look, I would love to think that we could all even all of these fabulous people that I'm showing you could work magic but we just it's just not possible so asking yourself and we gave some tips yesterday on picking what's the what the non negotiables are but everything can't be a non negotiable if you're really trying to achieve a result and we know that about herself it's like saying, well, I want to lose fifty pounds but I'm not giving up my donuts my twinkies, my coffee I'm not gonna I'm not gonna exercise I assure you I will not exercise but I want to look like cindy crawford so you know it's just it's really the same thing, so that is a tricky one jasmine she's joining us today, but she's been joining us the last couple days in the u k she is the designer that she said, and I think it was first day one of her biggest frustrations is as a designer, her clients just don't have any patients, they they want to see the room done like the next day and they don't see it as a process. They don't understand that she needs to get to know them and she needs to get there before she could even start, and they're basically saying, we want this done by tomorrow. I'm sure that some of you, the entire educational component of really helping people in and we do see things on television and we see the finished result and we see time lapse videos that looked like it happened in a day and you go well, this really happened over the last eighteen months, it's very tricky on dh certainly a lot of designers get frustrated with television shows because they think they undermine our work, they still really help promote what we do, I think, for the most part, and I'm a fan of them, but it is a little tricky to know that you can't have everything tomorrow. Look at this amazing this is money has a home in the dominican republic to and I can't remember if this is there I think it is or it may be at her home in connecticut this is a pool house um classic palladian architecture for a pool house but done in rustic reclaimed columns and materials isn't that phenomenal it's really really phenomenal so you look at someone who can achieve this and think this way out of the box that starts to show you why she's been at the forefront of design for many many years her husband john rosselli is a very famous from antiques dealer and antiques collector in new york city tio so you think about something like I just showed you and then this was her show house for kips bay two or three years ago and this is what I mean by being so fresh so those pieces of art worker actually from a british artist that were phenomenal so fresh turquoise walls I mean it's just really amazing to me that she and then all of her classic sensibilities melted there together so I think something like this can appeal to someone from that from twenty tow sixty depending on their design personality particularly just the influences because if the turquoise was too strong for you and your classic style you could just change the wall color and everything else would really fit a classic traditionalists I think it's really amazing that she can do that then she has things that are much more traditional like this really just beautiful and certainly when you look at rooms like this sometimes those of us who love glamorous spaces or we get used to eye candy and magazines we forget that each and every piece in the design like this may be a valuable antique or may have a lot of meaning to so it's fun to really look at the detail in the space like this and not at first glance if you love color or other things just be bored by this or think it's to neutral but really start to understand what all the pieces are that come together to make a space really you should check out if you haven't seen it you should really go see bunnies books she has several and they're really phenomenal but I particularly recommend the affair with the house because it's her whole process and inspiration behind creating her own home which is just fantastic so very classic design but she does things also that are really fresh which I think you're amazing so for those of you who are more in the purest category of urban urban projects or maybe even glamorous projects you probably would fall in love with or maybe already have barbara barry who's a very well known designer because she does tons and tons of licensing she has fifteen licensing deal for home furnishings betting luggage she's in all sorts of things has many international sophisticated client she has galleries which are locations of her design business and america she's based in california but also in bangkok, singapore, moscow in kuala lumpur so very, very global but her designs are extremely sleek and even monochromatic and amazing, and her personal style is very much a reflection of her her projects and hard work and even her furniture so she's she's very mid century or are mad men in her own appearance very fifties love's glamorous furniture creates furniture that has really sweeping curved lines but super simple and it said, I've heard her speak many times, and her process for design and inspiration is truly, truly, truly creative. She tracked travels all over the world, and she'll be inspired by the color of a tea leaf that she's making teaches our own tea to create an entire line of furniture or an entire line of fabric said really in the details and a lot of us, I think miss that how many of you feel like jackie o? You probably do this, but how many of you feel like you are a real detail person and are inspired by little things or you're more big picture do you know, explain a little you mentioned licensing and you also have your lamps license you have some were late on several product licenses so how does that work as a designer like what does that mean to us? So follow designed so that's interesting, you know, a designer said, if you fall in love with people like this and you really take your cues and get confidence and purchasing things because you resonate with this person, their personal style or their design style, then it allows you to know you're making a good decision if you buy their pieces because they're going to be consistent most the time with their overall brand, most of these people we see that I'm showing it's really there's no separation between their personal brand and they're designed brand in their product brand it's really seamless, so it gives people the confidence to know that if I pick I mean even think of someone like a martha stewart or someone with a really big thing, you know that if you pick a martha stewart pain it's going to be easter egg colors or some, you know, like the color of an egg shell with a little brown fleck and like you just know the color of a cake plate or a perfect little buttercream icing, you know what her brand is the same with barbara bury all of her projects are soft greens and creams and blues you never see her do something like a bright, vibrant red wall or orange wall fuchsia it's just not who she is its very nature inspired really clean pieces so the idea of that for designers it's away you will typically most designers who get licensing deals have a very well known big brand they've done the work to really get name recognition so for the designer it's another revenue stream but for the client for the consumer it's a way to give credibility to product that you know it's going to be consistent with the style that you love so that's a reason to go educate yourself on designers work and see who you really resonate with because you may want to buy their products you may want to buy their fabrics you may want to think about buying their paints if they have painkillers but barbara's work is very very similar the interesting there it's consistent even in color palette and I think the interesting thing about this sort of work is it's actually more difficult to create tease the same colors and finishes over and over and over and create a unique look than it is to use the whole crayola box like I do so the way I can make a room different it's going well I haven't done a few shareem or haven't done a green kelly green room everything she does is in this very um small range so so it's all about the details for her craftsmanship very very fine details this is one of her chairs that's very popular and really pretty but glamorous sleek it's probably her rug design is well really really simple because I I only decorating these colors so really self so you have a very limited palate do you like to stand on and I think it's so beautiful and I don't know that I could live there but I will really really appreciate them and it makes me wish that I could spend time there the way some of you were saying some of those homes seemed like vacation homes to yesterday I would love to visit spaces like this be varies in and and unwind from the world of color that I live in but I don't know that I would want that in my home all the time so sometimes we crave things that we don't actually have in our own homes and that's not a bad thing it doesn't necessarily mean you want to bring it into your house all the time that you'll know I am definitely not a traditional um like I just don't like it that much I would I wouldn't be able to live in traditionals areas like bunny williams designs but us in for barbara berry although she I think she's pretty traditional I love her designs they were just so clean it has a lot of traditional ritz but no ornamentation and also that's what makes it really lean towards that cool urban and certainly glamour because it's stripped down to its, you know, simple ist form you don't see or not you never asean or night carving on any chairs, just the cleanest lines at the leg and she's so consistent with that too, and so it's interesting to me, if you're style is very, very specific like that, I think about what it would feel like tio on ly use these chair legs or only use these finishes. I prefer to have a lot more variety in my design, that's just my personality that like to be more bold and she's really, really adept at staying very, very true to her brand, which I think is really interesting, but you see people like that to, you know, people, don't you that dress a certain way? I mean, I certainly dress a certain way, but it's a broader spectrum, you know, people who have a friend who only wears black and white that's all she wears there's, not in color in her closet, period. Her hair is beautiful, great color, and every every time you see your you know its signature black and white it maybe polka dots it maybe hounds to it's amazing, but it's never a color, because she's so true to her signature style designers to do that, who I will only wear the same thing so they have twenty pairs of exactly the same pair of jeans and twenty shirts so every day you see them they're always dressed the same sort of architects t they are comfort in that I guess money sometimes people do things for branding reasons but for the most part I think when people are that way there that's really who they are like they believe in that very strong aesthetic or signature style and they don't waver from it here's a friend really good friend of mine very dixon he's from um he's from the washington d c area he lives in virginia has an amazing old home and he we saw this room of his yesterday which is actually very modern for a typical very dixon room but he blends I think his style is probably classic traditionalists mixed with artistic traveler maybe sometimes there's a little bit of the thirty styles that creep in but he has an old home and it's old enough and very english in its in its origin in washington the washington d c area that it has a name if your home has a name like the brits do it's not it's an amazing house and it's a very, very steeped in tradition so that's a traditional room for him but he's very collected he did and he also designs for his own furniture so this is one of his rooms very classic, but farm timber style in the roof. So english is that how it does have a global peace to it? It's? Not certainly not just american. I can't remember if this is in his home, but I wouldn't be surprised his home definitely supports this sort of look, this may be a client's him, they can't do something that's cleaner and simpler. This is a little bit of a departure for him, but you still see global influence here in this lighting fixture. You see some traditional styling in the bookcases, um, and some of the other details the beddings, but this is pretty modern for him as well. When you embark on a project and you're thinking about the decorating homes said to do you look for designs that is going to inspire you, is that how you get your inspiration? Would you really just rely on your own sense? Jackie, what do you think? It's? I find look for designs, they're going to inspire me, but I also just look for things out there like sometimes I'll see a certain pattern or color of a fruit or smell and that's what I wanted recreated my space or in a pattern that I'm drawling, so I get inspiration everywhere. Feel intimidated maybe went to look at toby's beautiful work would you then think I couldn't possibly do that? So I just nip down to like I mean just back away from what you're doing or do you just saying no, I really could do that if I get the right paint color of the right fabric whatever but what do you all think at least for me and my process is not that I think that I could do that because I don't wanna do that excite acting thing but I'll see like a color that she uses and I'll say, oh my goodness, I want to take that color and I want to play around with it I don't know where it's gonna go but let me take that part of her designs and making my own and create something that's exactly how I work and I think that's a really great and successful way to work to be inspired by an item or a piece or a color or a fabric I might be inspired to see someone do a whole sofa in a silk velvet but there's may have been navy and I may pick pink but the idea and the texture is what inspired me yes, I know I was inspired my kitchen by a single object which was the farmhouse sink because I just have always loved those sinks and my kitchen was literally built around that around the farm house how many of you have seen that kohler community where the people walk in and go I want you to design my whole house around this and they could've faucet on the counter and it's and I envision something like a barbra berry space being designed around that particular faucet but how many people would design an entire you know, four thousand square foot home around the faucet but people do if that's what if that if that is really what sums up your design style or what you're looking for in an object so what if it was a farmhouse think yes far this sink so certain was it ceramic was it man ceramica shaw you know the traditional white porcelain whatever it is it's it's just gorgeous and I don't regret it at all um the kitchen came out beautifully but everything was picked to go around around that I generally when I do homes I have a theme throughout the whole house so everything blends together so you're not going from room to room and everything looking different and right so I just did a house where very modern but very black and gray pillows linen sofas and then when you go upstairs you know bright colors but you feel like everything's blending and even the bathrooms with the fixtures a very classic um you know less is more not too much of you know, I like getting bowls with the balls and like putting those on the table and really nice artwork very crisp artwork I also designed with the thing my dad makes fun of my mom and I think we have a thing for everything we did what's the theme of the day ladies but but I do the same thing really to make something cohesive and have what I keep continuing to call through all my courses that point of reference from space to space michelle you have a completely different approach this because you do home staging don'tyou which the goal is that supposed to sell the property as in its best possible state? So do you ever take into account what the current owner has or do you really just coming to think what's gonna look best really show off the space or do you have to huge sometimes just haveto clear the house at one hundred percent completely and depending on the style of the house we have a warehouse with furniture and we sit down and format what we're going to dio and we just go in and design the whole house and it really helps because for a buyer's perspective when they do open homes they could get an idea of what their house could look like before buying it and we just make it really chrisman clean so that you know and there's noone no clutter and we had a a section yesterday afternoon about matching the interior interior to the exterior dy taken to account what the architecture is or do you really just trying to create something that's way also go in and paid the home and change all the fixtures and clean it up so and that's an interesting business? Because in many ways, they remove the personality, the design personality of the person that lived there before, because if you have a very unique design personality than most people are going to have a hard time relating to that, if it's a truly unique point of view, like some of these taste makers have, I'm sure that you you paint overall everything clean, yeah, wall colors, and we changed everything because yesterday we were talking about renta's, you know, I'm a ranch in your arancha, and we were talking about, oh, you know, it's hard when you're renting because you can't make massive changes. And you were saying, you know, you can actually take handles off on screen and put them a little box, and then put your own gear on behind the walls and then and and that amazing disposable wallpaper, which I think removable, which our producer has gone out of way this hard, in fact, that he showed me yesterday what pattern he was used I'm going to move on and she was some other these tastemakers so that we have time but this is an interesting this is one of barry's furniture designs and he took a classic style of chair and this is really interesting is he turned it into a city? I think I have an image of one of his other dining chairs maybe let's see if I do that he maybe not, but he create he took something like a very traditional splatter back does not dining chair and their upholstered like even like this is which is really interesting and pretty daring and something that you think I don't have the public alike it or if they don't, but it was really reflective of him a twist on a very classic style yes did you thought you had a question? So so just to look at a very signature style warm, warmly hospitable so he's from the washington d c area, which some people think it's southern but he actually has roots in the south, his family, his family from arkansas, where I'm from in this family from memphis. So he's definitely has that southern hospitality and he has some amazing books I've used in the same way that we look at pinterest I have an entire collection of it of design books that have dog eared pages and post it notes and all sorts of things really looking at and even reading, a lot of us are guilty and volleying, looking at shelter magazines or books. But if you really take the time to read the inspiration behind things that the's tastemakers create, it can really inspire you to go out of the box and really push yourself to be creative with materials and products. And that's. Sort of what you say you do. Jackie, like in both of you actually do really creative things with materials.