Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Last post, I promised to continue with more on my favorite southern designers, but have decided to wait till spring to continue.  I most likely will travel south this spring which always inspires my southern design love.  But most importantly, my path has strayed from the chronological journey of my design aesthetic.
Somewhere chronology got lost in the shuffle. Next post and for many more that path will continue, but today I need your opinion on a very tiny decision but one that is important to me.  It's time to change my pinterest image for the winter season.  This same image will also be the desktop for my imac, iphone and ipad for several months - kind of makes me feel all connected and organized.  What follows are images I saved in a "desktop" folder long before I ever heard of pinterest.  (If I miss crediting original owners, my apologies.)  See which you like best.

Last year's which I really like.  Not too Christmas-y and sort of Zen-esque.

Along the same idea, but maybe too busy.

Speaks to where I live and how beautiful winter can be.

Not forgetting the fauna in all this winter flora.

Too Christmas-y maybe?  Remember this image will appear for several months.

Some lingering apples in my upstate New York.

A more zen feeling again.

Still love an antique feel, but would it work till March?

Warm and cozy, but too Christmas-y for January and February?

Really Christmas-y, but I love the toile garland.

A much more quiet and neutral Christmas feel.

Love the vessel here, but too Christmas-y.  Right?

Since my blog focuses a lot on kitchens and food, thought the following might work for my pinterest winter image.

Love pomegranates and this one is beautiful.

The following images are places I love even in the winter.

The last group are more unniversal winter images, but all remind me of winter at home.

A kind of quiet, Wyeth feel.

Could be the barn just down the road.

Beautiful winter, anywhere.

And last.

So what do you think?  The images really do reflect a journey through antiques to warm and cozy to neutrals to spare to food-iness to New England - a journey I seem to be following if somewhat haphazardly.  I would love to know your favorite image.  Sometimes it's just fun to make a small decision.  Such is this one. 

Next time a designer that changed my aesthetic as much as Hugh Newell Jacobsen did and my image decision-

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A Braithwaite Conclusion

It's always hard for me to leave designers whose work I really admire.  So it is with Nancy Braithwaite.  Today, I'm covering two of her more recent home designs, ones you may have already seen.  I post about all these designers so I have their work chronicled for myself and hope you enjoy seeing them for your first time or your fortieth - they always inspire.

When I first saw this home, I liked it very much but was surprised Nancy had designed it.  The more I studied it, the more I saw her uncluttered, neutral stamp, and the more I loved it.

Please read the article's explanation - so much better than mine - then see how well Nancy fulfills her client's wishes. 

Architect Norm Askins worked with Nancy on the interior architecture of the home above just as he'd done on several previous projects.  Remember when this busier style seen below...

changed to this sparer one?  It did so with help from Norm Askins.

Let's just take a peek at more of Askins's work as seen on his website.

All very pretty, right?  But let's look now at a result of Nancy's collaboration with architect Jim Choate on Kiawah Island (Veranda, March 2011), and it's not a "pretty" picture.

Really different, from early work with Askins, right?  Maybe not - the simplicity, the neutrals were always present.

From James Choate website

From James Choate website

Nancy "had to have" these toads by Robert Kuo because they were as "sculptural as the house."

Is the sheep here also the work of Kuo?  Anyone know?

And was this sheep transported from the Braitwaite home in Atlanta, or just a sibling?  A tiny mystery.

So what do you think?  Has Nancy abandoned her southern love of softness and antiques?  Do you feel betrayed somehow? Don't.  Her journey seemed headed this way all along.  Remember this early un-soft, un-antique Nancy below.

And here.

It seems Nancy always followed her love of simplicity and neutrals, and her love of "integrity".  In her Kiawah home, she says, "Every single element had to be simple and powerful," but I believe her elements always were.

A few more images from James Choate's website.  Below the Braitwaite's Kiawah home from the outside.

Concrete and stone are probably very wise materials on a southern island.

A few more examples of Choate's non-Kiawah work where he too deals in integrity and power.

So ends my Nancy Braithwaite posts.  I really feel quite sad about it, but hopefully we'll soon see more of her beautiful work in another perfect location.  I'm ending with a kitchen I have loved, one that speaks to today's themes - simplicity, neutrality, integrity.

Next time, still in the south.

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