New Blog Site

Fans and followers, I now have a new blog site attached to my website www.chatfielddesign.com/blog, I will no longer be posting on this site.  When you check it out, drop me a quick note to let me know what you think!  You can also follow me on Facebook, search for Chatfield Design and become a fan.

Creating a Better Blog Site

OK, now that I am really into this "blog thing" I have my IT guy on the case.  We are creating a blog site that will blend seamlessly with my website so as to better serve my followers.  I am really loving blogging my ideas from a design standpoint and sharing photos with everyone.  The newer, improved blog site will be more better!  Stay tuned....

Adding to Your Library

I am a designer book junkie with a little snob thrown in.  A great design book, in my opinion, needs to be inspirational on a couple of levels. I have to feel as though I can live in those rooms through the photography.  We all know that shots are set up to make the photograph appealing to look at.  But, if you can look beyond the photograph does it give you the sense that you could live there?  Pottery Barn and the others in this category are great at this.  Their appeal is to the individual who can't envision how to pull together a look so they sell you one right from the photograph.  Problem is, it is NOT an individual look, it's a look for the masses who placate themselves with the notion that if it's selling in a catalog then it's good, right?  Wrong!  If you study the right books from designers you gravitate towards you can teach yourself how to decorate your own home.  Even if this means working with a designer.  I can assure you that designer's work with budgets all the time and so individuality in your own home can be achieved.  Never be intimated by the two words "interior designer", we are here to help you realize your vision and make it a reality all within reach.  My two favorite books that I am sharing with you today give me the inspiration I look for when I am suffering from "designers block".  The other level is, is the book exciting enough for me to want to buy it so I can refer back to it!

While I realize that the images in these two books are for very high end clients, the look can be achieved through less expensive resources.  I equate designing a home to dressing oneself.  You can wear a white GAP blouse paired with a designer skirt or slacks, good shoes and creative jewelry and you are there!

French Grain Sacks

As I wandered through the antiques fairs and flea markets in Maine this summer, I came across French Grain Sacks.  They are larger than normal pillows but, when stuffed with down make great big pillows and back cushions for large sofas, children's playrooms, etc..  They are all different which makes the look even better, some are big and some are small, nothing is exact.  The linen is thick, old and crusty so whatever your pets and kids do to it will only add to the "patina" of the overall look.  You really can't make these  look ruined over a spill or a cut (heaven forbid the drama of a wound) they wear well.  I have them in my own guest house which largely functions as our boy's "frat house" and surprise!  After a whole year of extreme abuse they are still great and I am embarrassed to say I haven't cleaned them...yuck or what?  OK, I am a designer, NOT a housekeeper.  But, they still look good!  One day they will get cleaned, OK.  For now I will post a couple of grain sacks that I have in the studio....FYI they also look good just hanging on the wall.

good design always lasts...: Double the Fun

www.damnrabbitstudios.com www.blinkpress.com good design always lasts...: Double the Fun

Double the Fun

I find that much of the fun in designing lies within designing furniture for a client or for my studio.  I enjoy researching European designs from the 18th century and applying my spin on its function and form or are some of you form and function?

This is usually a collaborative effort between my imagination and my furniture maker bringing me back to reality.  Not to mention that I have learned a lot about wood.  European trees, although named the same as American trees, do produce a different type of wood in color and grain.  I love it when I read in a book that the wood floor is bleached oak.  Not happening with American oak!  It's way too red, can turn pink if you are not careful and if left to turn on it's own, yuck.  Plus, in all of those books that make it sound like they just found someone to bleach the oak white...well, let me be the first to tell you that in America, you'd be lucky to find a housekeeper to use bleach much less a flooring guy/gal to bleach the floor of an entire house.  I'm pretty sure you would have to take out an added insurance policy along with purchasing gas masks and, that may not do the trick.

  I wish I could have a thousand acres of Euro trees in my back yard to make my design life easier but, husband says no.  Therefore I have a fabulous group of cabinet/furniture builders who get me there despite my hurdles.  What doubles the fun is when good design happens and it becomes an ad. Without my photographer, Sarah Szwajkos and graphic designer, Kristina Harrison another course of "imagination vs. reality" catastrophe scenarios are avoided...actually they are very good at keeping me on course.  I like to call us "Team Chatfield", go team!  I am posting an ad which "took a village to make" of a table I designed.  It looks like bleached oak but, is actually quarter sawn white oak with a stain to make it look "bleached" so it would not turn to the yuck color over time.

Inspiration

All designers no matter how famous or not derive inspiration from each other and the world that surrounds us.  At times I find myself unchallenged wading through a sea of other's wishes and, while this is not a bad thing, you can quickly develop what I call "designer's block".  This syndrome is equivalent to "writer's block" in that we are both looking at a blank slate with no inspiration to push us in any direction.  I can't speak for writers and how they break their cycle, I can speak for myself as a designer and how one look out of my living room window gave me inspiration.  Some of you may say, "no brainer" or "that's just a silly idea",  I found it whimsical given that no one in the family had ever thought of envisioning and bringing to fruition such an idea.  My husband's family brought over Belted Galloway cows from Scotland in 1953 and started a herd.  The cows have become a very beloved part of our area and are photographed and written about constantly.  I will post my design and the beloved cows and you can form your own opinion about how and where designers derive inspiration from (or my own at least!).