With the clean slate of the India apartment’s walls, imaginations of what to do can run wild and free! There’s nothing existing to constrain ideas. No things like a royal blue velvet sectional that must be accommodated in the design. Or Chinese celadon pottery. Or Hello Kitty wallpaper.
I’ve written previously about creating an old stenciled look on many of the walls:
- India pied-à-terre Master Bedroom Paint Plan
- India pied-à-terre Alcove Paint Plan
- How the Living/Dining/Kitchen Walls Might Look
- How the Living/Dining/Kitchen Walls Might Look, Part 2
Something exotic. Patterned but not overwhelmingly so; maybe it’s faded and uneven like it wore away over centuries.
During online travels through the world of decorative painting, I “met” Sylvie Michel Bilger of Metamorfaux, who was in Chicago this week for a client project, and I had the wonderful opportunity to really meet her, in real life! We had a lovely conversation about all sorts of creative and life things, and time flew by so fast. That’s when you know you’re having fun. We laughed about how homes may not always be as they appear in blogs — it’s true! — because we choose to put our best faces forward here.
I wanted to share Sylvie’s work with you, which opens my eyes and mind to things that can be done with walls that I never thought possible. I admire most in this world the ability of people to make the impossible possible, and the ability to envision and innovate from literally and figuratively, blank walls. This applies to decorative endeavors as much as it applies to things like leadership and entrepreneurship.
So I respect people who can turn visions into reality. Like these images below from Sylvie’s Metamorfaux blog. Wouldn’t these stucco impressions help make the cool and calm feeling I just posted about, but add texture to make a room interesting:
A gorgeous photo of her marbleizing painting work at Versailles:
I love this damask stencil image from her portfolio because it’s what I see in my mind for stenciling in the India apartment:
She created a magical hallway with stencils from Royal Design Studio in the Holiday House NYC:
Stunning, right?
Sylvie has also been among the lucky people who served as Peacock Painters at Peacock Pavilions, of the famous My Marrakesh blog! Their stenciling work is now featured in the Marrakesh by Design book. And you can see many beautiful photos of the stenciling in the May 2012 Lonny Mag.
I do dream of someday creating a chain of apartments throughout India, run by people there, all decorated beautifully to give travelers a wonderful experience of being in India. Wouldn’t that be cool! Why? Because once you’re done painting and decorating one apartment, what are you going to do?!? You need another apartment to paint and decorate! Meeting Sylvie today renews my interest in making my visions come true in the India pied-à-terre.
Wow Thank you Deb for this fabulous post…I can see a lots of collaborative and very creative plans ahead of us !
I know we will collaborate some day! :)
Gah! I love this blog. I have an entire wall of one bedroom plastered with images torn out of magazines, like a swipe file wall, and pinterest makes me wonder why I became a Chiropractor instead of going into design. I like your eye for things, so fun to read! :)
I’m glad you are having fun! I had a friend who asked 15 years or so ago why I was getting a masters in public health, why not interior design. Ah well. Now I understand I need to be in the profession I’m in, there’s a purpose for it and a real contribution to make and that’s why I got into it. But many people do multiple things with their days, even though it makes a busy day!