If Leopard is a neutral, what is Zebra?

I love that so many of you were with me that leopard is, indeed, a neutral.  (My favorite response?  From A.J. Barnes, who says he has a list of rules, written down, and the first is that Leopard is a neutral.  I would love to see this list posted on his blog!)

I was feeling slightly less convinced about zebra--I mean, by definition its pretty bold: the contrast! the scale!  But I was just paging through the new issue of House Beautiful when I saw Carson Kressley featured in their bedroom column.  In regards to the pillows on his bed, he has this to say:  "Not that you asked, but I consider zebra a neutral."

What do you think?

From Domino:

From Lonny:

From House Beautiful:

And one awesome sofa from my all-time fave interiors book, New York Living:

Are you with Carson?  While not exactly neutral, does zebra function as a neutral?

Also, an informal poll: leopard or zebra?  Spoiler alert: I'm leopard, for sure.

Is leopard print a neutral?

My whole family is a little ga ga for interiors.  My older brother designs home theaters with his interior designer wife.  My younger brother is a real estate lawyer and peruses the residential listings on a regular basis even though he and his wife are not planning on moving.  We used to go to the Parade of Homes as a family, just for fun.  So perhaps it is no surprise that my mom brought a fabric swatch to Mother's day brunch, and a debate about animal print ensued.  (the swatch in question: a grey and white small scale leopard print, in consideration to reupholster a pair of slipper chairs in her den.)

My mother and I insisted that leopard is a neutral.

Everyone else disagreed.

Here's what dictionary.com says (after a whole bunch of definitions having to do with war and not taking sides, which, actually kind of relates to where I am going with this): "matching well with many or most other colors or shades, as white or beige."


This is, of course, the beauty of animal prints: they go with anything.  From Victorian to Midcentury, Regency to Global, leopard print really never looks out of place.

I thought I'd do a little research on the matter, because the pictures don't lie.

[Miles Redd]

[Domino]

[House Beautiful]

[Domino]

[Domino]

[Traditional Home]

[Traditional Home]

[New York Living]

[Muriel Brandolini, New York Living]

For some reason, I especially love leopard print carpet as a "neutral".  Check it.

[Domino]

[Domino]

When I first embarked on this leopard print journey, one of the first spaces I thought of was this apartment of Hamish Bowles in his days at Vogue (maybe he's still there?  I didn't see him in The September Issue, a documentary about Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington which is a MUST see.)  

Leopard carpet PLUS accessories.

[Hamish Bowles, New York Living]

My conclusion?  Like anything else in design, so much depends on the context.  Let's compare two entires that use leopard.

Leopard is an indisputable neutral when you live in a crazytown of color, pattern, and styles because the color palette and earthiness can ground a room and the small scale organic pattern of it can keep things moving.

[Hamish Bowles, New York Living]

But put animal print into a pared down, neutral palette space?  Suddenly it is the star of the show.

[Jeffrey Bilhuber's Design Basics]

Not so neutral now.

How about you: would you use leopard as a neutral?


And watch for a roundup of zebra.  Coming soon.

Flashback Friday: Easter Buckets

Now, I know we're not supposed to compare ourselves to others, but reading so many blogs daily has revealed a few things about myself, or made me notice them in a way I hadn't before.  Looking at other people's designs and inspiration pictures has really sort of cemented for me my own taste.  I've also realized that I am VERY low key about holidays.  I don't really decorate.  At Christmas it's a tree and nothing else (and we didn't even do that for 4 years when the girls were teeny and we weren't home for the holiday anyway.)  I'm not big on ceremony (though I would like to invent some family traditions here and there--I've got my eye on May Day).  And my husband's influence means that gifts should have a practical bent, and sugar should be minimized.

Today we will be dyeing eggs the old fashioned way: with a PAAS kit from Target.  That's it!  That's all we're doing!  The girls will get small easter baskets.  I didn't make them, I bought them.   They will have non-handmade items in them, including the Tangled polly pocket dolls that the girls really, really, really want.  And some bunny-shaped sidewalk chalk so we can get outside (if the weather ever clears up) and get creative.

Here's Easter last year, in our little rental in Boulder.

We made easter buckets so they could use them again.  There's a little bit of candy and yogurt covered pretzels in there, but also card games, socks with favorite characters on them, and seeds to plant.

Here's Eleri checking out the contents.  It's hard to believe she was so little just a year ago,

We also believe in easter egg hunts.  I think my husband let me put a single m+m or gummy bunny in each egg,

We have two kids.  The third bucket was for the girls best friend, Dakota.

Suckers are delicious.

I suppose the other important tradition for us is Easter dresses.  My mom got them each THREE choices this year because she couldn't decide.  They love them all.

Though it is worth mentioning that Eleri is wearing a Christmas dress this morning--which was her cousins about 4 years ago, and then Clio's, and now, well, it's seen better days.

So that's it's low key.  I have to say, I admire the people who make beautiful decorations by hand, and even more the ones who work with their kids and display the decorations no matter how lopsided or unique they may be.

What do you do for Easter?

Confession

I spent the past week painting the guest room navy. "Peaceful Night," actually, which seemed very fitting for a bedroom. It took four coats. FOUR. One coat of tinted primer and three coats of paint, and by the fourth pass on the fourth wall, I found myself cursing Behr and feeling a little persecuted for forsaking my main man Benjamin Moore.

But it's done. As we were moving the furniture back in, I made a confession to my husband. He was helping me hang this mirror, seen here "before,"



and I said: "You know, this mirror is the real reason I wanted to paint this room navy." (bleached wood on khaki wall = sad beige world. As if it needed explanation).

There was a slightly stunned silence. I had, after all, just painted for three days, culminating in a 2-coat marathon that ended at 1 am.

And then he asked, "How much did this mirror cost?"

And I told him. It was on clearance at Home Goods and cost $29. Except I had a gift card, so I actually didn't pay real money for it.

"And how much did the paint cost?" He asked.

"Well," I said. "Seventy-five dollars. But that's not the point."

And then he looked at me like I had finally, truly, gone insane.

Of course, this is not a simple equation, and in the end I didn't paint an entire room to make a "free" mirror work; it's more that the mirror inspired the next step in the room. We all know that this decorating madness is like dominoes. So I wonder: what was your craziest reason for a major decorating endeavor? Do tell. Please.

And speaking of dominoes, when I finished the room, my four year old walked in and asked, "Mommy, why didn't you paint the ceiling?"

Indeed.

Guest Room: Round 2

It always amazes me how changing one thing in a room can change everything. A strong piece--even if it is just a lamp, or a picture, or a bowl--can change the mood, refine the style, or throw everything off, just the right amount.

Two things shifted the direction of the guest room for me.
First, I abandoned the idea of a bentwood chair and started looking for an original Nakashima chair, kind of like one of these.
I had purchased the knockoff at Ikea for $34.99. In the space, the ikea chair felt too bulky, despite it's spindles. The rounded corners and thicker everything just overwhelmed the desk, which is the same era as the original Nakashima design.Room and Board makes a better knock off, the Thatcher chair, but at $299 it would have eaten up most of the budget for the room.

I found a pair on ebay, with spindles like this (gorgeous!)

though of course I only needed one, and the ebay ones were getting expensive. Enter my friend Sara, who bought a set of four Nakashima chairs on ebay years ago. One had a bum leg, and she only wanted two for her new space so--joy, oh joy--she sent me the last one!


Isn't it pretty? So much more delicate than the Ikea one, more elegant, a perfect scale for the room, and a match made in heaven for that campaign desk, don't you think? I still need to decide whether to strip it or paint it (I'm leaning towards matching the stain to the desk, but open to suggestions).

So there it was, one piece, upping the ante. Out went the yellow lamps, which suddenly looked squat and dull. Out went the striped curtains, which felt a bit stark. In came the lamp seen above, originally purchased for the Master (is it obnoxious to just say the Master, and leave off "bedroom"? Not sure how I feel about this), with its brown ceramic animaly-printy vibe, its sensuous shape, its black shade. Sexy.

So with this new vibe in mind, I headed off to West Elm for some curtain panels, thinking I would save myself the trouble of making them custom. I was going for a sot of subtle, tone-on-tone thing. Though, truth be told, subtle is not my strong suit and I tend to go for much higher contrast in general.

These chevron stripes somehow felt blah despite the fact that they are practically a golden zebra print.
These satiny platinum panels had some texture and depth, but they seemed to fade away. In this case, it felt like less was definitely less.


And then it hit me.

Raspberry silk. Elegant, sexy, not exactly subtle. They would pick up the red tones in the rug and the pillowcases, and add some shine to a room that was mostly matte and flat. I remembered that the previous owners had had a red lamp in this room, and the color was beautiful with the walls (which I have no intention of painting). Much to my delight, I managed to find the right color silk at SR Harris, during a month when silk was on special for 65% off. (I dragged the rug to the store with me and hauled it around in the cart. I did something one should never do, and bought up 5 yards without testing a sample at home first.) Meant to be, right?

More to come.