Celerie Kemble – To Your Taste

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Celerie Kemble is an rising star in the interior design community. Based in NYC but raised in Palm Beach, her mother is an interior designer as well, so she was exposed to great design from an early age.  I had the chance to meet her a few years back at an event promoting a line of textiles she designed, and I even got a photo with her!  Unfortunately, the person who took the photo gave the camera to her techie, who deleted my picture with Celerie (sadness!)  But I’m sure I’ll get the chance to fix that in the future.

I finally got around to reading Celerie’s book “To Your Taste: Creating Modern Rooms with a Traditional Twist,” and while our styles can be very different at times, I love both her bold use of color and her restrained application of color and pattern.   The book explores her own personal design evolution, and then covers how you can create your own personal style.  It’s worth checking out from the library and seeing what inspires you. 

Here are a few of my favorite images from the book. 

Last week I wrote about using bold greens, and here is a great example of incorporating a bold green and bold patterns, but tempering them with restful expanses of white.  It’s fun and playful, but still retains a polished hint of traditional.

Don’t you just love these palettes?  I love the use of orange in different color palettes, either as a dominant element or a supporting player.  It’s always fun to see the paint, fabric, wallcovering, and trim details pulled together to tell the story.

Lest you think all she can do is bold, check out the lighter palette of this breakfast nook.  Spring yellows, greens and white are layered with textures.  The chandelier, the bamboo style chairs, tweedy fabrics on the banquette, ruffle edged plates on the wall, and wainscotting on the wall and ceiling add layers of interest that the eye only observes slowly. 

Can I just say I love the mix in this small dining room?  The morse code like dots pattern on the banquette and drapes is fabulous!  The tree like base on the table is textural but subtle in black. The metalic finish on the slim chairs is unexpected, but works. And the faux snakeskin fabric on the chairs is one of my favorites from her line of fabrics.  I can’t wait to have dining room chairs that I can reupholster in something similar.  They look so fancy, but wipe clean with a wet cloth. Excellent! 

So can you relate to any of these rooms?  Do you like the mix of traditional and modern elements?  How do YOU define your personal style?  I’d love to hear your definitions!

Tags: Celerie Kemble, color palette, dining room, green, midecentury modern, sunny yellow, To Your Taste, traditional, white
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