Just this month I have been featured in “201 Magazine” in a six page spread featuring my own home when I lived in Fort Lee, NJ. This project, although my own home, represents much of what I feel about timeless design. Whether you are in Saddle River, NJ or Wyckoff NJ, or HoHokus, NJ, there is no reason for these rules not to apply. They exist everywhere…or should.
This Bergen County project was finished in 2003 and photographed in 2005. When I saw it in the editorial, I was struck by the timeless quality of the rooms. This made me examine what I do and why I do it.
Timeless design is an important goal to have, at least to me. Good things are expensive. I want them in my rooms and demand that we use them. That being said, these same items must be selected carefully as fashion is an “unstable” fixture in our lives.
I tend to select things, as well as, design things that are not extreme but are flavored with current silhouettes, textures and elements. I refuse to smash a room with important pieces in flashy colors or severe shapes. I believe that this will date a room quite easily and quickly. If you delicately influence a room with color, texture and silhouettes then in five years when that color becomes “what was I thinking”, you can easily remove it and adjust.
Look at my website: urbandweller.net and look at the gallery of photos. You cannot tell when these rooms are done. They are varied in style and period, depending on the exercise or the client. I would submit that although there are differences in styling and period, room to room, they all are current in style without being dated by overly broad strokes.
I fill my rooms with texture, subtle color variation, materials.
I personally like a more collected look.
I want the rooms to expand and reflect different periods so you cannot identify old versus new. It keeps the room fresh without “pigeon holing”the Look.
When you dance through the years and collect things from many periods and times then you will win the battle of timelessness.