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Immediately captivating is the effortless yet singular coherency of this room at Indian Wells / the eclectic design draws me back time and again because it sings with confidence, charisma and vigour.
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Three things stand out!
The wow factor
A whimsical flavour contiguous with astute local and stylistic knowledge
Unequivocal candour from a mindset of ‘anything is possible’ driven by peerless confidence!
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Indian Wells
It is as if the wealth of design information captured in the consciousness of the designer suddenly ‘clicks’ domino-like into place from several streams of thought.
Hitting the high notes fluently!
Firstly, the three bands of horizontality: 1. Breuer-esque chairs 2. A middle band of white – encompassing the Saarinen table and white ‘floating’ bench seat. A literal symmetry exists too, by recourse to the base of the table. 3. And above, the papered wall with classic ‘mid-century’ wall lights.
Importantly, each third is unique and self-contained in its own right!
Secondly, from a surrounding environment of ‘white walls’, neutral, earthy textures and colours emerge in the wallpaper and rattan. Although the impact is relatively subtle it adds timelessness and credibility when it derives from an iconic mid-century chair and understated textured wallpaper (aka 1960s Danish furniture finishes and colours).
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In a splash of ingenuity, the immediate outdoors is subtly echoed in the conceptualisation of the room: natural fabrics and textures, pastoral and tropical colours (with non-colours), tropical attributes and the entirety tailored to joie de vie!
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JSD succinctly captures the zeitgeist by deftly uniting classic design pieces with whimsical twists!
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The sense of whimsy exists in the artwork and the drinks trolley, both hint at exciting times within a laid-back aesthetic…
Drink in hand on a lazy Saturday afternoon – nothing says languid like floating palm fronds! The like-minded happily gather to not only eat but perhaps – cocktail into yonder pool!
A candid ‘new style’ evolves where anything is possible, starting from a bottomless well of design history. Plus, JSD’s local acquisition proficiency harnessed to supreme confidence is exemplified in this one-off eclectic design scheme.
The rigid symmetry aids the notion of balanced harmonious style while every choice reinforces something else!
For example, the ‘chrome’ chair bases together form an incomplete elongated cross-shape (widened in the middle by dint of two chairs on the long side), which echoes the black slightly inflated pattern in the bench seating. The artwork speaks whimsically to current times and a lethargic Raffles aesthetic. Similarly, the ‘filigree’ in the drinks trolly references times past but is artfully invigorated for the here and now. Yet both imply playfulness aesthetically and psychologically.
At the same time, the chair bases define the area as a ‘full stop’ at the end of a sentence.
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Irvine Cove
The dining room in Irvine Cove provides the ideal counterpoint and companion to Indian Wells.
Whilst notably different from the latter, still the same left-field qualities draw together a distinct stylistic anthology. A paean to the creator’s flexibility and vision. Eclectic design such as this rarely dates because its unmistakable individuality rides out trends: it both looks back in time and also to the future in its assorted world view. Sans ‘the trend’ it resounds with an adventurous and infinitely more interesting spirit.
The Indian Wells’s room demonstrates assurance: intuitively eschewing convention, the designer ‘threw the look together’ confident that it would both work and impact!
Ditto Irvine Cove. JSD has the ability to step outside day-to-day exigencies within the studio to see fresh creative possibilities that hitherto have remained hidden (aka zeitgeist), and apply them uncommonly for the first and only time.
The white in the chairs here is at once a great leveller and integrator: a re-worked ‘white-washed classic’. They are conspicuous for the right reasons, one of which is they concisely ‘enclose’ the horizontal. Additionally, the ‘white’ is conscientiously neutral, decorative, and authoritative. While the benign ‘rattan’ palette coheres the look vertically: floor, tabletop, and ceiling. The chairs and the pendant light from yet another era stand out legitimately.
The room exhibits subtle yet graceful tension in the mix of styles, together with a feeling of mischievousness: both resulting from a refined assertive vision of singularity and practicality.
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Californian designer JSD ensures the rooms have both weight and lightness in the physical distribution of design elements. This fact dovetails to the associated concept of whimsy: don’t take yourself or what you do too seriously! A skilled designer can / will put ‘everything on the table’ and cull to arrive at just the right look for the specific client. The depth of skill on display here is accompanied and augmented by an unrelenting personal style. These rooms tell us that JSD applies a distinctive signature which springs from confidence and expertise, as well as an insightful and meaningful relationship with the client.
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WOW! Thank you Kim!
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Jen Samson Design (JSD)
