Old Stuff

Here we go. In this aspect of design, this is where I differ from most people who call themselves designers.

I'd much rather find something old, not necessarily an antique but something vintage that has a story & some character than to go online to Hickory Chair or visit a local furniture store for something new.

Also, keep in mind that Lisa Birnbach herself says that old stuff is automatically more Prep than new stuff.

Here's why: New stuff just is what it is. There may be invented character in the form of distressing, etc. but there's nothing to it. This is not to say that nothing new should be used, if that were the case I'd have nothing. Found, vintage, OLD stuff is COOL! Anyway... another reason is budget. Generally speaking, something older, unless it's considered an antique could be considerably less expensive & be of better quality than something new.

My example:

9 months into college, myself & two friends decided that we wanted to move off-campus & I needed just one more piece of furniture for my bedroom in this house: a night stand. I looked EVERYWHERE & either I didn't like anything or they were out of my budget which was all of zero dollars & 38 cents. Anyway, I decided to stop in our local Goodwill store, j u s t i n c a s e there was some kind of hidden treasure in there. I walk in & once I got passed that initial smell that lingers in every Goodwill store, I made it to the housewares/furniture section. There sat the most amazing, vintage night stand from the 60s. I had to have it. $20? $50? I didn't care. I looked at the price... $8. Eight dollars. E I G H T. After further inspection, I realized that this was something that I could have never found new & if I found it, I would have

never been able to afford it. The drawers were joined with dove-tail & the only tragic part was the finish. It was "pickled" with this hideous green-grey color & the oak grain showed through. I painted it black & cleaned up the hardware & instantly it was perfect.
Now that I moved back home & my room, as you know, isn't for black furniture, although it could have worked, I've sanded it & threw some white glaze over it & now it's distressed & grey-ish. The vintage hardware still looks great on is & here it is:

What sits atop? A lamp from Target, my vintage Dennis the Menace doll, circa May 4, 1988 - my date of birth, yes, my first toy, ever! Books, a candle & some coasters. Next week, it'll look totally different, it's just how it goes.

Another item that I have that's old is my Eames chair. Since studying furniture in school I've been OBSESSED with Charles & Ray Eames. Geniuses. Everything they ever designed is absolute perfection. So, I've been searching for this chair for years now. I even have it tattooed on my leg...

Finally, I'm out with my parents one day & we stop at a store called "Shinola" Downtown Greenville & here I am, leisurely walking around & I spot it. In the distance, sitting out side, full of rain water, an original, vintage Eames Molded Plastic Chair. My knees actually felt weak. It's brown & imperfect so it's perfect. Best part: it's original, from the 50s & it's tagged with an inventory number from a health care facility. Age, story & price. Oh yeah & it was only $35. Thirty-five dollars for a chair worth well over $300. Mission accomplished.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading my rambling. We'll talk soon!

Don't forget, tweet me @JamieBertolini!

Monograms.

As far as I’m concerned, they belong on everything.

My particular choice is a diamond-shaped monogram since it’s the most masculine but really, anything goes in the realm of monograms…

Except… yes, of course there are exceptions. This is me we’re talking about, after all!

Ladies…

PLEASE STOP USING CURLZ FOR YOUR MONOGRAM!!! Choose ANY OTHER FONT but leave Curlz alone to die on it’s own alone! Now that we got that out of the way, feel free to monogram away. Limit your car to one mono, more than that looks tacky.

Gentlemen…

We don’t monogram enough. Why? It’s our own initials. Some of us will plaster logos all over us (Polo ponies, Lacoste gators, VV wales, etc.), why not have the pocket of your oxford embroidered, very simply & preferably in navy?

That rampage aside, lets talk about interiors… that is what this blog is all about, right?

Interiors need monograms too! Towels, sheets, walls, everything!

Vinyl has changed all of the rules. You can now have your monogram on everything quite simply.

In the bedroom, use your couples’ monogram (ex. JBK for Jordan & Kelly Bomar, hope you guys don’t mind being my example!) in vinyl over your bed or in your entry way? As if your guests don’t know it’s your house, right? But whatever, it adds another level of personality.

In the bathroom: why not monogram at least one hand towel? You can do a couples’ monogram OR better yet, do two, one for each of you! If you’re not into that, a single letter (your last name!) will look just as chic. When monogramming a shower curtain, it’s better to stick with a single letter in a simple, serif font.

There should always be at least one monogram, applied to at least one surface of a nursery. Get your child used to their monogram & later in life they’ll embrace it.

Let’s review the order here. It’s FIRST LAST MIDDLE when using a 3 letter monogram. It’s so sad when they’re mixed up & I genuinely feel bad for that person when it happens.

Thanks for reading my rambling again. I hope you’re all enjoying this blog! Any suggestions, questions, etc. let me know! Also, tweet me @JamieBertolini!

Let’s talk about something I hate.

Hate is a strong word, I know but here it goes.

BRASS. I spell BRASS in all CAPS because when I see BRASS it SCREAMS at me. Now, there are occasional brass moments, yes, where it’s subtle, that I don’t hate it, in fact, dare I say that I like those moments. An alternative is gold. An antiqued gold or just a less shiny, gold works almost every time in my book.

Below is a list of my do’s & don’t of BRASS.

Do…

Keep your door handles or knobs, they’re expensive & honestly, they’re utilitarian, regardless of how pretty or not they are, they’re fixtures of the house so just leave them alone until you absolutely CANNOT stand them.

Don’t…

Keep your cabinet hardware if it’s BRASS. ESPECIALLY if you have white or painted cabinets. It screams: “I’ve not been updated since 1996!” If gold, as a rule is prevalent in your home, mix it with a bronze or a less intense antiqued or brushed gold finish.

Do…

Replace that damn faucet if it’s brass, especially if it’s one of those that the sprayer detaches from the main supply. They’re horrible.

Don’t…

Feel the need to match every metal finish perfectly. The chrome faucet will be the most cost effective option today. If you have brushed nickel on every other surface, this unexpected shine could be nice but make sure it’s a stylish faucet. NO detachable sprayer faucets!

Finally…

What about the classic case of: I love my chandelier but it’s BRASS. Let me tell you… I’ve sprayed many a brass fixture & it appeases me for a day or two but I always go back for more. I used to think that for more meant heading to the lighting showroom or Overstock.com for a new one. Not anymore. Rather, I’ll brush paint them, in place with a metallic acrylic paint!

Holy insanity, right?

Listen, Folk Art makes these acrylics that I’m obsessed with. They actually say metallic on the label & they mean metallic. If you spray your fixture, say somewhere in the bronze family & then when dry & reinstalled, you brush over the accents with a metallic paint you’ll be amazed by the results. It makes the fixture look so much more expensive but in reality, you spend $4 on paint.

In the next week or two I'll be applying a new finish to a beautiful chandelier who just happens to be brass. I think you'll like the results!

Navy.

Navy.

The Color.

I’m. OBSESSED.

Since I was 7 years old, all I wanted was a Navy bedroom. Simple request one would think but when ones parents can’t get past the black & white phase for the first 15 years of marriage, it’s not happening. My dad thought it was too dark & my mom told me to put up Navy curtains & got me Navy bedding to make up for my lack of Navy walls.

Is it driving you nuts that I’m capitalizing Navy? Sorry. I just have too much respect for the color to not capitalize it.

I literally live in the color Navy. I wear it; I sleep in it & walk in it with my Navy Sperry Top-Siders. My dream is also to drive in it when I finally am successful enough to own a Sapphire Metallic (NAVY) Bentley Continental. Did I mention I’m obsessed? You would be too if you weren’t allowed to have Navy walls until you moved back into your parents house after 15 years & 3 years of college.

I find Navy one of the most comfortable of dark colors that still gives me the richness I desire. I’ve been down the chocolate road, the red road & even the neutral road & none of them fulfilled me like the Navy road has. I call it the neutral to beat the neutrals.

Navy, a neutral? What the hell is this kid talking about??

I know, I’m nuts but I swear, it creates the most amazing backdrop for most everything. Even black!

Navy may be the quintessential Prep color but all of that aside, I think it works for everyone.

Intro

So, here I am. A recent graduate with my Bachelors in Interior Design. I love my field but lets face it, in this economy, we’re going no where quickly so why not share some of my brain with you?

Let me give you some background. My name is Jamie & I’m originally from the beautiful state of Connecticut. Nope, no yacht’s, no horses, just a big, Italian family and an early passion for all things design. I’m on record of telling my grandmother at age 4 that her pillows didn’t match her sofa… not my best days since after recent review of pictures from that time, they were perfect. In fact, today I would select them. Yeah, weird kid but I guess I turned out okay. Ha!

When I was 5 years old, my parents bought a 1902 Dutch Colonial in our town, 2 blocks from the beach. That was the one, single good thing about this disaster. The house was mere months from condemnation and no one had even been inside in years. The neighbors and owners showed my parents the house & they were sold. Later that day, my parents took my grandmother on a tour and she cried upon entering. DISASTER this house was. An absolute one at that. The picture on the left is the house in it's current state, from what I can see, it's a disaster. Again.

Then they started. Walls came down, beams went up in their place. Hardwoods were refinished, tile was laid. Wallpaper was stripped, walls were painted. Original woodwork was restored & light fixtures were installed. Window treatments were hung and furniture was bought. There we had it: 2 years later, it was brand new with all of it’s original character enhanced. You would think between ages 5-7 I would have no recollection nor any care to know what was going on but no, I was enamored. From there, I knew that some day I would be in this field.

So we moved, to South Carolina. Into a brand new house. Initially I was excited since it was brand new. We chose paint colors, got new furniture but I constantly felt like it needed something more. I painted and repainted rooms until I couldn’t see straight! It drove me insane. To this day, I’ll never own a new home unless it’s built by me from start to finish, I simply can’t live with others selections regardless of how good they are. This picture is the house in it's current state. Side note: the shutters were added later which is why they are only on the first floor, shutters don't fit on those windows!

Trading Spaces.

Changed. My. Life.

I was a sophomore in high school when I realized that I wanted to be an Interior Designer and I wanted to be on Trading Spaces. So. Freaking. Bad. I could taste it! I actually signed my parents & neighbors up to be on the show but never completely followed through so you know how that worked… I even met Edward Walker at our local Lowes store when they were in town. I was obsessed. Too bad it was canceled before I even started college.

All of that aside, I always have HGTV. I will apply for Design Star one of these days. It’ll happen.

So college. The Art Institute of Charlotte. Such amazing professors that inspired & made it all make sense. But then, like most students, I kind of lost myself in what the teachers were telling me. I loved it & still do but my style got a little lost in the shuffle because of some of the things I was learning. Thank God I’ve gotten over that. I think it happens to everyone, you hear things like: “this is how it’s done” or “in the industry we do this.” Well in MY industry, this is how I’m doing things. I refuse to keep my portion of this industry in the box. I’m so over it. So here it goes…

I’m a prep by nature. Blame my Connecticut roots & being born on the campus of Yale Univeristy if you must but I just can’t help it.

I had my momentary lapses of Ed Hardy & the like but I always come back. Now you’re wondering, what the hell does this have to do with Interiors? To me: everything.

While I love trends & DIE every time I look at the color forecasts, I can’t help but go back to my roots. Classic styles with some insane, modern juxtaposition. Take for instance, my bedroom. My walls are navy – the Prep color. My floors are original to the house, my dresser is covered in vintage fashion ads, book covers, random clothing tags from vineyard vines & J. Crew but then a huge True Religion tag right in the middle. That is me. Then, I have a sitting area with a vintage Eames molded plastic chair & a pickled green side table that’s super traditional. Across the room from that sits an old (I can’t even pretend it’s vintage but I love it) luggage rack & atop that sits my circa 2010 Vuitton keepall. Yes, why not keep it out & on display? Then original artwork from my best friend, Michelle Loughran (look her up, she’s amazing!) hangs on one wall, while a framed Yale-Harvard football program from 1922 hangs on the opposite wall. Overall, it’s a preppy, nautical, modern, collected mess but somehow, to me, it all works so well together!

I’m not trying to blow smoke up my own ass, trust me. I’m just stating that until recently I had no idea that the Prep world or as Shep & Ian of vineyard vines would say, “The Good Life” could co-exist with interiors.

Now your just overwhelmed or you’ve stopped reading my rambling. I can’t say I blame you but I’m getting to a point.

This blog is going to be based on my likes & dislikes and generally focused on my love for Preppiness & Interior Design & how they play with each other so well.

I promise not to bore you with anything this long ever again. If I could have written papers in school this quickly & with as much passion, I probably would have done better…

Please enjoy & set sail because the first, real post is coming soon!