Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/1525926
C O U R T E S Y O F V E N D O M E P R E S S / T H O M A S LO O F hat would you like from this room?" I was at most ten years old when my grandmother asked me this question. We were standing in her Federal-style dining room, which is the first room I ever fell in love with. What I wanted to say was, "Everything," but I replied, "The curtains." She laughed. I still return to her house, especially her dining room, in my dreams. The walls were covered in Zuber's Vues de l'Amérique du Nord panoramic paper, the curtains were canary-yellow damask, and every surface—demilune table, sideboard, scrolled-shell-topped corner cupboard—was filled with objects. The jasperware, export ware, Steuben, American glass, bronze candelabras, and Meissen were arranged like talismans at a shrine to the decorative. She was a fabulous hoarder. The panoramic wallpaper had a surrealist quality that prompted me to imagine a world beyond the confines of the walls that held it; I was curious about it all, and it seemed to reveal something new every time I walked in the door. I often think of the question she asked me, as it is " W revealing; I couldn't specify one thing, because in truth, what I really wanted was the entire feeling the room conveyed. It was the sum of its curious parts that held my imagination. Thus, my fascination with interior worlds started when I was a little girl, captivated by and inquisitive about the emotions certain places stirred up in me. As a stylist, a career I came to frankly inadvertently, I marvel at the good fortune I have had to work with some of the most talented design luminaries. This book is an homage to the designers and photographers I am lucky enough to collaborate with to create these beautiful pictures. I think the term stylist is a nebulous and often confusing one. What I'd rather tell people is that I am a storyteller of sorts, always seeking to conjure emotion in rooms using objects, flowers, colors, and patterns as my tools. To that end, I devote the first part of the book, "4 Principles," to the fundamentals that underpin my styling work: "Color Theory," "Pattern Play," "Wild and Tame," and "Flowers for Living." Illustrated with photographs of rooms that I have styled in collaboration with some of the A section of the living room in a formal house designed by Ferguson & Shamamian, with interiors by Tino Zervudachi. BALHAR B O U RSH O P S .CO M