create live design: Milieu Magazine

I honestly do not remember the last time I used the scan function on my printer! Years ago, before the days of Pinterest and such, it was the only way for me to catalog inspiration photos from magazines and the like. I sometimes miss those days...

But I digress.

Have you heard of Milieu magazine? It's either new, or just new to me, but I've only seen a couple issues and a home featured in the Spring 2014 issue really caught my eye.

Caught it enough that I am actually scanning images in and making a post about it!

What immediately grabbed my attention was the symbiotic relationship between the house and the landscape around it - the house looks as if it could have easily just grown out of the earth beneath it, alongside the surrounding trees. It looks effortless and established {which means it probably wasn't (effortless) and was (established)!}.

I wish I could have gotten the whole shot so you could really feel how the green space interacts with the hardscape...here are the outer edges of the photo:

The house is located in Dallas, TX {the magazine is based in Houston} and is home to an Interior Designer and her family. They basically stripped the house on the inside, exchanging dark paint schemes with neutral and airy, opening up rooms to each other using arches, and accidentally exposing a beautiful unexpected framework of beams in the Living Room.

I love what Bowers, the owner/designer, said about her craft:

"A well-decorated home looks thoughtfully designed and may be filled with beautiful things, but a truly well-designed home welcomes you, surrounds you with warmth, and makes you feel comfortable."

and about our homes:

"Home should be a happy, fun place where you are surrounded by objects that evoke memories."

This statement above is one big reason why I love my job. I love guiding clients into discovering their own personal style and am very careful about pressing my personal preferences upon them. That might seem strange, since I am hired for my opinions/guidance, but if everything in a client's house is something that I would have exactly done in mine, then it ceases to be their house.

The much more important aspect of design, to me, is creating a place where my client ultimately feels comfortable, happy, and at home - which means not only surrounding themselves with items/colors/styles that mean something to them personally, but also encouraging them to take risks and step a bit outside their comfort zone to a place where "boredom with the norm" is less likely to exist. The most successful spaces in my opinion are those where both familiarity and fun exist - and this house seems to perfectly achieve this "draw you in" feel that I believe is so difficult to truly attain.

The white/gray neutral interiors with punches of pastels is serene and gorgeous, and I love the ticking stripe sofa. While normally this whole look is a little feminine for my own personal style, and yellow is one of my least favorite colors in interiors, I found myself wanting to stop and stay awhile...

...and I can't tell you how happy I would be to have a piano like this with a window like that and some drapes like those on a rod like that, somewhere in my dream house...

...But it was the next few pictures that really sealed the deal for me. I'm a sucker for white + wood and this butcher block island about did me in...

I am always on the fence with Eames chairs but they add a nice modern touch to this simple breakfast room and I think they are brilliant in a home with young children:

I also love when I see something that I wouldn't normally gravitate to {the floral print on the shades and chair for example} actually win me over and change my mind. So refreshing! And let me just tell you about the sleeping that would take place in that bed...

Might be my favorite...Bennett needs this as his big boy room:

Fun and unexpected punch of color in the daughters room:

The other houses featured were a little more miss in my opinion {but then again I don't gravitate towards entire rooms done in lavender linen or pink stripe or fuchsia + canary yellow... but I fully respect those who do!}. Overall this next one leaned a bit Gustavian for me, {which is understandable seeing as it is actually located in Belgium!}, but the facade, bedroom, and kitchen were amazing:

Dying over these shutters, perfectly warm gray walls, simple bedding, and the complete lack of trim work:

I don't really have time to even begin about the kitchen. Those wall tiles are reclaimed from an eighteenth century Dutch house and are called "witjes"...they are perfectly slightly iridescent yet not too pearly = I want to touch them. And hello the sink is marble. And the island is wood and the faucet is brass and the plates are white and the range is LaCanche...