A technique to inspire when you just can't figure out a room

Sometimes you look at a room and you just draw a blank - nothing about it inspires you or strikes a cord, everything you try just makes it look over decorated or outdated. Well, (and I know this technique is nothing new), how about taking a cue from the celebs or people in your life who've always inspired you? You know that person - they always look put together and just make you think - "I want to look like that, I want to emulate what he/she does." Instead of transcribing that to your appearance, transcribe it to your room's appearance.

Like Amy's fun but still elegant style? Like the colors of her apparel and makeup? Like her quirk and intelligence? It might take a little practice, but if you put together the elements of a room while keeping these characteristics in mind - you'll soon get the hang of emulating someone's style and presence via fabrics, furniture arrangements, art, and more!

Here are some samples I've put together



I took Amy's casual elegance - mixed with a little bohemian, and her love of jewel tones, and found rooms that speak to that appeal.
top right -House to Home, bottom left & right - House Beautiful



Interior designer Marlaina Teich took inspiration from Tina Fey's feature in Harper's Bazzar to create this stunning red bedroom - I love the fireplace front! She loved the way Tina popped off the gray background in her red dress.


Here's another board I created with Michelle Obama's fashion-forward, elegant persona in mind.
top left, bottom center - House Beautiful

Amy Adams's beautiful shoot in an Georgian Dublin mansion

If you didn't catch the Amy Adams feature in Allure's August 2009 issue, I have some shots for you right here. Other than the couture gorgeousness she was wearing, it's impossible to ignore the Georgian mansion backdrop, which is in Dublin.


I tried to find more info/photos of the mansion for you, but all I could find was this - "In flipping through the pages of this month's Allure, I was intrigued to read that the cover story on Amy Adams was shot in a "bone-cold 289-year-old Georgian mansion in Dublin". This sounded very familiar, as we had been in just such a place back in March of 2002, while shooting our Autumn catalog.

We left Kansas on a warm spring day and traveled all the way to Ireland. We soon found that we had not packed adequate clothes for the cold and damp conditions. In an old Georgian mansion that had gone though periods of elegance and grandeur, and times as a bullet-ridden tenement, we were chilled to the bone, building fires of peat bricks in an attempt to keep warm. Our French model, dressed in a tweed wool turtleneck and leather skirt, looks quite cozy as she stands next to the fireplace. Note the woodwork on the mantel and the frame of the mirror - same as the mantel and woodwork next to Amy Adams in the September issue of Allure, even cozier next to a roaring fire. " via Common Threads

Their photo below: