Category: Interior Design

If you haven’t gotten caught up with the increasing trend of abaca rugs, then today you will.  Ideal for coastal design, we can see this natural-fiber rug in urban homes as well as in country homes nowadays.  Abaca also called Musa, or Manila Hemp comes from an inedible banana plant that grows in the Philippines.  The very versatile plant can be used for everything from plates to paper to roofing.  The fibers of this plant are super durable and strong, making them thicker, but also softer than sisal, making them super cozy and elegant as well.

abaca rug, costal design, Amanda Lindroth

Many beautiful elements are in this coastal design room, but the Borobudur abaca rug makes the most substantial impact.  Design by Amanda Lindroth.

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I always wanted to be an Architect.  As a matter of fact, I registered under architectural studies in Collage.  For reasons I can’t even understand today, I decided to switch careers and went into international business and eventually interior design instead.  My dream was to design, build, and oversee constructions of buildings.  The most magical thing about design is that it allows us to build the life we always dreamt of.  This latter, award-winning architect Gil Schafer does effortlessly.  He designs new homes that look as if they were old, but classic and well-designed old houses.

“I design houses to be comfortable, gracious, and understated, and to stand the test of time,” architect Gil Schafer told AD.  Good design runs in his family, Gil Schafer is the grandson and great, great-grandson of architects, so Gil grew up experiencing first hand what a well-built, thoughtfully-designed home feels like and what it takes to build it.  He’s been designing beautiful homes for the past thirty years.  Following undergraduate studies in Growth & Structure of Cities at Haverford College and its sister institution Bryn Mawr, Gil graduated from Yale School of Architecture with a Master’s Degree in 1988. While at Yale, Gil studied under several noted practitioners including Thomas Beeby, Robert Venturi, Josef Kleihues, Frank Gehry, and Benard Tschumi and was the recipient of the H. I. Feldman Prize, Yale’s highest honor for studio work, in his final semester.  Gil Schafer served as the President and then Chairman of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art from 1999-2006 as well as in many other nonprofit boards.

Gil Schafer, David Netto interiors, nashville-interior17

This Nashville home was restored by Gil and decorated by David Netto.  This entryway has everything I believe in, classic architecture, a beautiful graphic floor that adds a modern touch, ornate furniture and modern expressionist art by Jean-Michel Basquiat.  I love everything in this entryway.

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A Fashionable Life will be another regular post of this blog, which I’ll try to post every Friday.  For this initial post, we are all super lucky since we get a glimpse into Lauren Santo Domingo’s Southampton home currently featured in the September issue of Vogue.  I love Lauren’s style in fashion and interiors, and her Southampton home is like a perfect new home that feels old, classic old indeed.  Lauren worked with the distinguished classicist architect Gil Schafer.  Unfortunately, Vogue article only shows the beautiful and magical garden designed by Miranda Brooks and the interiors of the barn decorated by Virginia Tupker.

Lauren Santo Domingo's Southampton home, facade

The facade of the colonial-style home.

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makeup and brushes organization, wallpapered niche

I can confess that even when I don’t use much makeup, I’ve been doing the same thing with my makeup application for years, I love to see them displayed on my vanity.  Makeup organization can be tricky, mostly because we want them to be functional but we also want them to look beautiful, after all, we are all girls.  In this post below, you’ll find many pretty and inspiring ideas for organizing your skincare and makeup.

Make It Look Pretty In Wallpapered Niche

makeup and brushes organization, wallpapered niche

I love what I did with this niche space in our home in New Jersey.  I wallpapered the niche, added glass shelves for displaying some of my perfumes, makeup brushes, and a few other toiletry items.  This is a more straightforward solution than what it seems, I wrote about it here, and you can see more here.

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Stone English manor kitchen

Stone English cottage home

Who wouldn’t love to have a stone house in the country with climbing roses and charming interiors?  There is something incredibly charming and enduring about English country style, and this house in the Cotswolds designed by Joana Wood is entirely English but with a contemporary twist.  On this more contemporary version of English country house style, we can find more solid fabrics instead of chintz, bare tables instead of draped ones and exposed furniture legs instead of skirted upholstery yet it still feels classic and livable.

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Modern country kitchen remodel, Julie Paulino Design

When I asked my client what atmosphere was she looking to feel after this kitchen renovation, her response was, “I want something that feels more like a cottage,” I instantly loved the idea.  I loved the fact that she wasn’t looking for a pretentious looking kitchen which would’ve been in complete disharmony with the rest of her home.  It all started with a hand sketch of my vision, which she immediately fell in love with.  We stayed away from white kitchen cabinets and instead went with semi custom-made grey distressed finish ones.  For more of a country feel we chose beaded cabinet doors — Interior Design by Julie Paulino Design.

Modern country kitchen remodel, Julie Paulino Design

My client has other homes around the country, and she hardly uses this kitchen, so we were able to ditch some of the upper cabinets.  That last option made the kitchen feel grander and brighter.  For contrast, we chose hand-made glazed white subway tiles, which also add great texture to the walls.  Below, are three computer renderings that we provide our clients once the design is agreed.  Further down, a before picture of the old kitchen.

modern country kitchen remodel

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