Elegance (Only) Looks Easy
Elegant living rooms display fine design without appearing
flashy. And it’s harder than it sounds. This living room in the home of
Washington, D.C., designer Skip Sroka reaches the pinnacle of elegant
traditional design with gentle curves on the window treatments and furniture.
Both chairs and the sofa have beautifully rolled arms as well as subtle curves
at the back. The windows are adorned with curved Roman shades in a damask
tone-on-tone that underlie simple pleated silk panels. All together, the curves
convey a shapely beauty that ties the room together. This is the essence of
soft decorating. The coffered ceiling and quiet palette continue the
understated charm.
Classic Lines
This fireplace view of designer Skip Sroka’s Washington D.C.
living room reveals more of his secrets to creating an elegant space. The
gold-leaf mirror above the fireplace is ornamented with a Greek-key motif, the
grandfather of classic patterns. (Think the opposite of trendy.) The mirror
does more than introduce classic lines, however. It also swings out to reveal a
flat-screen TV. This kind of cleverly concealed hard-working function provides
one more clue to the meaning of elegant decorating. Efficiency. (Apple
products’ efficiency makes them the most elegant in their industry. The same
rules apply to both interior and industrial design.) The entire fireplace
presentation is refined through the symmetrical balance of the mirror between a
pair of antique sconces.
see also : Minimalist Modern Living Room Designs
Cozy Repose in the Living Room
A surfeit of square footage thankfully is not essential to
an elegant design, as this cozy living room in the Atlanta home of designer
Lori Tippins proves. In fact, the human scale of the space contributes to its
elegance, for design is as much about how a space lives as it is about how it
looks. Here beauty begins with the bones of the room. Pairs of French doors
flank a small antique marble fireplace for a full flow of natural light,
symmetrical balance, and pleasing proportions. The trumeau above the fireplace
is a major player in getting the right proportions, drawing the eye all the way
up to the same height as the curtain rods. (It’s also gorgeous!) These, too,
are placed high on the walls, nearly a foot above the doors to skim just
beneath the extra-thick crown moldings. Decorative elements are few but fine.
The pair of floor lamps, for instance, were converted from gilded iron
candlesticks. The vertical border on the draperies introduces color and pattern
in an exquisitely subtle fashion.
A Room with Warmth
In New York’s renowned Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse,
designer Noel Jeffrey went against trend by allowing the living room’s original
dark-stained woodwork to have its say. And it is the language of elegance. By
not painting the lovely paneled walls and fireplace, Jeffrey allowed the space
to bask in the warmth of the wood’s rich grain. He underscored that warmth with
creamy furniture upholsteries, a white rug, and billowy beige silk draperies
that ensure a dramatic contrast between dark and light.
Architectural Elegance
Inspiration for the bright white living room in this Seattle
home was the Hamptons house of Diane Keaton in the movie Something’s Gotta
Give. That clean, almost effortless look of the movie’s beloved home
actually is as sophisticated as it is simple. As interpreted here, it’s a
crispness that emanates from the architecture. A deeply coffered ceiling works
in tandem with the careful gridwork of shelving that flanks the fireplace to
define the space in bold, linear strokes. Symmetrical balance extends to both
the architecture and the clean-lined furniture to impose formal structure on an
informal, feel-good style. So just two words to remember: clean-lined and
balanced.
Best of Blues
When sophistication is the design goal for a seaside home,
it pays to pause before bathing the living room in blues. “You have to test
them to discover the ones that read sophisticated and not silly,” says designer
Jack Fhillips, who did precisely that in the living room he designed for the
Shippan Designer Showhouse in Stamford, Connecticut. A pale, almost Prussian
blue painted on the walls reads as Old World elegant, especially brushing
against white-painted dentil crown moldings. A white silk tufted sofa commands
the conversation area with a formality that’s made approachable by a pair of
comfy blue club chairs.
A Polished Palette
The large living room in this DC Design House (Washington,
D.C.) exudes elegance with a deftly played palette that keeps all parts of the
space in harmony. A tasteful mix of icy blue, ivory, yellow, white, and khaki
creates the polished look. A large table in front of the fireplace divides the
space into two conversation areas, and its yellow-and-white cotton striped
skirt introduces a sunny spirit that’s essential for a room so large to feel
livable. Matching sisal rugs define both sides of the room, and their Greek-key
edges are banded in yellow to plant the palette underfoot.
Lovely and Light Living Room
Making the right decorating decision sometimes means doing
nothing at all. When a living room like the one in this East Hampton house is
blessed with beautiful French doors and an abundance of light, a smart designer
knows to leave well enough alone: Keep the windows undressed. Designer Larry
Laslo did just that. He also enhanced the architecture’s airiness with a
monochromatic palette of soft pearl and sand with dark wood accents. elegant living room
