Ep. 116: designer Timothy Corrigan

This week we start off by talking about holiday decorating with some tree talk and gift wrapping strategy. Then, we welcome the great Timothy Corrigan to talk about his chateau addiction, his signature style described as “comfortably elegant”, and his new book The New Elegance. Timothy believes our home is the place to bring out our best selves, elegance doesn’t always have to take a lot of effort to achieve, and there is nothing better than mixing styles and quality.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

• Trials on a broken Sunbrella storage ottoman, and triumphs on appreciating a beautiful fall day in a great home, toy organization, and a valance using Ballard hardware.
• What Timothy means when he says elegance is misunderstood, and how it can transcend any style.
• More about Timothy’s new book The New Elegance - a great read that shares the stories of homes in which he has defined a new contemporary elegance.
• Ways we can include classic design principles in our busy life.
• If you are comfortable in your home, everyone has a better experience. Research shows that when you like your environment, you are healthier.
• Why Timothy believes we don’t have to always trade-off beauty for comfort, and the liveability aspect of our design is so important to the overall experience.
• Timothy was working in advertising in New York then moved to Europe at the age of 30, and it opened up his eyes to the world of beauty and design.
• When Timothy became an auction addict, and why he views it as a great opportunity to learn and gain information on the history of pieces.
• Timothy’s love of chateaus and his detailing of how people live in them and update them to meet their modern needs in his book An Invitation to Chateau du Grand-Luce.
• Design is about learning, exploring and then figuring out how to do it yourself to meet your scale and proportion.
• Tim explains why color very much shapes the way you experience a room.
• How to know what to respect the integrity of the home, yet also update the architecture to reflect the function and style of what you may need today.
• Surround yourself with things you love, and feel free to mix and match from colors, accessories, and furniture that speak to you.
• The primary types of symmetry, and how understanding them can help us design in a way that compliments and highlight proportion and space.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Timothy Corrigan Books

@timothycorrigan

Decorating Dilemma

Hello Denmark! The views outside your windows are so dreamy. To Tim, the biggest issue is starting to create some separation between the living and dining area. He would recommend a rug under the sofa and chairs in the living area, to ground it and make it feel more cozy and comfortable. Next, if you put a sofa table behind it with objects (or table lamps) to subtly divide space and open it up in an interesting way to make it feel even bigger. Also, some softening to the space will make it feel more inviting. As far as your dining space, a longer oval or rectangle table anchored horizontally could work very well.

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You can move the banquette back a foot up against one day, which would tremendously open the space up. This is a perfect example that we don’t have to be a slave to our home. We like the chairs you have, and think the combination as it is looks sweet and pretty. Window treatments are important to make you feel safe and protect your privacy, so go ahead and put some curtains in.