Personal Style, Defined: i suwanee

It's back! I am extending the "Personal Style, Defined" series because of the wonderful feedback I received from my fabulous readers. I've got quite the line-up for round two and we are kicking things off with the super talented and hilarious, Jamie Meares, founder of the blog, i suwanee and Furbish Design.

ah, you lovely room of bookcases and symmetry and pink and carefully thought out furniture placement. let me COUNT the ways i LOVE you.

lately, i look at rooms for inspiration differently than i did a few months ago.
now i look a layer deeper - at exactly where the furniture is... what pieces have they used? why did they select what they did for the room? i look at the textures, the combinations, the finishes, the colors, the fabrics, the styling. and then i think, how can i do this? how can i make this look affordable for my client on a budget?
for me, decorating is sort of formulaic, and i'm trying to develop the perfect formula that i can use to turn my clients' rooms into beautifully thought out spaces. this room is a perfect example - i keep this up on my inspiration board to remind me to constantly glean EVERYTHING i can from a well done room.

doing what you love for other people is much different than just loving something. now it's important to think about what the BACK of the couch will look like and if someone will knock that lamp off the end table, or if the cording on that chair will make it too expensive, or if the husband will agree to the tufted pink ottoman. it's a whole new ballgame. i'm trying to curate my inspiration images to not only inspire, but to TEACH me how to succeed with decorating my client's homes.


when i first saw this room in this month's living etc, i starred at the page for at least 5 minutes soaking in exactly what was going on here. then i yelped, AH HA and brian meares said INSIDE VOICE PLEASE because he was asleep. i love rooms that are tricky like this. that mirrored backsplash is FABULOUS and is accomplishing more in this room than 57 yards of the most beautiful fabric every could. it's reflecting the light, the plants, the chandelier. it's immediately engaged you in the room. you want to look deeper, and see more. and it's ready to accommodate! perfect.


there's an interesting quality to this room that says 'a small country's economy can't hold a candle to all the money/labor/choices/planning/contractors tied up in here'.
i don't know if i love how it looks, but i love what it says: we hired a decorator who spent shit tons of our money but lordamercy look what we got for it. this is opulence at it's calculated best. from the trim on the chairs to the tassel on the sofa. oh, and there's a bookcase. i like that.
this room says we've got money to spend, we're a little nutty and we'll serve you a cocktail at 4:00 and give you a sweahrtuh if you're chilly.


you dark and lovely room. look at you - all masculine and luxurious. i'll never in a million years be able to put glass orbs on a silver platter atop a furry ottoman, but man - if i could.


minimal grass mowing - yes
overall approval rating = high.


in general a mural is never a good thing. but this!
where the wild things are = this kitchen. this is wonderful.


matching twin beds are all the rage lately, and here's my fave of the pack. i can't imagine where this would exist -- who has rooms, (that aren't kids rooms) with two twin beds, and then, they decorate them like this - to BOOT!?
it's perfectly crazy and over the top.
symmetry makes me happy. it says yes, all is right and balanced in this room - so just soak in my orange and pink toile and delight in my expensive monogramming and rest easy, because the left side is just a perfect as the right.


i'm very interested in how people solve bathroom crisises that revolved around not having sink storage. i'm also interested in where exactly people put their deodorant, because you see all these carefully styled products on trays and in pretty tins and glasses but where's the deodorant?
love the mix of towels, the texture with the basket, the stripe on the rug and the FERN! the glorious fern. every bathroom should have a plant. it will soak up your shower steam and give you green.