for the love of: JOE NYE

I am hard pressed to say that I like any interior designer's work
moreso than I do that of Miles Redd. 

But the rising star of JOE NYE's work has caught my eye

and is set to grab that title right out of Miles' hot little hands!

In August 2009, House Beautiful Magazine published these photos of Mr. Nye's 900 square foot, 1 bedroom/1 bath LA apartment.  Read excerps below including design and decorating tips from Mr. Nye.

The Living Room, includes a mirrored wall and etagere, upholstery is from Downtown.  Nye describes his apartment as "Late 1970s English decorating in 2009, in that it's heavily layered with lots of pretty clutter." 

NYE on his Living Room bookshelves:"I wanted a place for my books that would also function as an architectural anchor for the room, which it needed. But I really wanted the books, not the bookshelves, to be the big statement. I have a nice collection that's important to me." 

NYE on living in a small space: "It's 900 square feet, and I was worried about living in such a small place. But I found out it's freeing! I decided to practice the decorating philosophy that I preach to my clients: Live the way you live for 350 days a year. The other 15 are aberrations."

Meaning that (cont.)"if you don't have houseguests, you don't need a guest room. If you don't have large sit-down dinner parties, you don't need a separate dining room. If you usually just have people over for drinks, you only need seating for six or eight."

NYE: "Obviously you can tell from the wallpaper and the fabric,

I'm crazy for anything chinoiserie, but you can't have everything black and painted with birds and pagodas."

NYE: "That really tense juxtaposition between potentially twee wallpaper with the drama of an intense painting, with its riot of color, has this almost anti-lyrical quality to it. I like having an important piece of contemporary art against a very, very traditional handprinted English wallpaper. I have an Eero Saarinen side table next to a Frances Elkins dressing mirror.
You need some contrast to rooms. When everything is of the same great pedigree, rooms look like museums.
I didn't want my bedroom to look like Babe Paley's."

 NYE on the Bedroom furniture:

"It's a buffet from the Mandel House in Highland Park, Illinois, which was done by David Adler and his sister, Frances Elkins. It's such a giant piece of furniture in a small room, but sometimes that can make a room feel bigger. There aren't many people who would put a dining piece in their bedroom.

When I bought it, I didn't have a clue where it would go,

but I had to have it."

NYE on managing clutter: "For me, there can never be enough vases and objects and candlesticks. But you don't have to have everything out all the time.
I have cabinets filled with things,
and I rotate constantly."

IT IS A THRILL to survey and contemplate these photos of NYE's LA Home bedroom alone.  The fabrics, patterns and colors he chose to complement one another...the layers....are something to behold!!  Nye has packed an absolute multitude of goodies into this relatively small space, and yet it does not seem croweded or "over" decorated.  It is inviting and lively and one wishes it might be magically transplanted into ones own bedroom!

Courtney Haas Residence, West Hollywood, CA

JOE NYE's designs for Ms. Haas, published by House Beautiful

NYE describes the inspiration for the home's color palette: "She owned a piece of porcelain that was bright turquoise and she said, 'I really love this color, can it be the catalyst?' One thing led to another and we came up with turquoise and raspberry pink, a combination we both love."

NYE: "This is an old decorator's rule, but it's important to remember:

For every piece of furniture with a solid base, including a skirt, you need to balance it with something leggy, more delicate." 

NYE: "My mantra is mixing humble with grand. If everything in a house is at the same level of taste and importance, it comes off looking like an upper-middle-class tract house.

This job was really done on a budget. Her mother and father had given her some fine antiques, like a French Directoire daybed and a painted chinoiserie cabinet. But there's also stuff from flea markets and Crate and Barrel. There's pedigree going on with no pedigree. We did spend a lot on beautiful fabrics."

 

NYE: "[What makes a room great is]

the last 10 percent. 

People get the big stuff done

and they ignore the accessories." 

NYE: "In her very feminine bedroom, I used a beautiful 1920s copy of a Louis XVI settee and we put a pretty serious Scalamandré raspberry silk damask on there. I wanted to make the room girly without being silly."

 "NYE sums up this feminine bedroom as 

Christian Dior in Palm Beach."

NYE: "The cocoa-brown sitting room is her office and it doubles as a guest room. It has a Crate & Barrel sleeper sofa with animal-print silk pillows from Hollyhock. Those two pillows cost more than the sofa. I think the big predictable things like fully upholstered furniture are a bit easier to fake because they recede in a room. It's the accessories that you put on them that have to be fabulous."

NYE: "The end result looks like my client,
is a true translation of her taste and style.
I promise you, she doesn't have one friend who lives in a place that looks like this.
Integrity, personality, and idiosyncrasy
will always be stylish." 

NYE: "The wallpaper in the powder room was an idea I stole from the decorator Steven Gambrel — he had done that same thing with a book called Albertus Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, where he took the book apart and used the plates to paper a wall. Because my client is such a fashion girl and we had a sad second bathroom to make pretty, I bought that Taschen book called The Complete Costume History and I had my brilliant master wallpaperer cut it up. We figured out the arrangement of the plates on the floor first. I think it looks as good as an $1,800 roll of de Gournay."
 

All photos and quotes from House Beautiful.


R E L A T E D      P O S T S  :



REDD   Rocks!

Bring   the   Glamour :  

Mary   McDonald

ALBERT   HADLEY 
(1921 - 2012)

Spring    Palette