Don’t Get Stuck On The Trendy Train
My passion for interior design is probably as old as my love for fashion. For me, the two go hand in hand. As they say in the fashion world, you can buy fashion but you can’t buy style.
Fashion is what they send down the runway twice a year, they are the trends that consume our minds and our wallets, and as quickly as these trends appear, they’re soon walking the plank into oblivion.
As a fashion stylist, I encourage my clients to have fun with trends and certainly adopt them with an open mind, but I also give caution to the fact that their entire wardrobe shouldn’t be the trend of the season. Pick a few pieces here and there and incorporate them into your own personal style.
The same goes with interior design!
In my design, I thought about what my husband and I really love and what speaks to our design aesthetic and then while picking pieces, I took heed of whether or not those pieces were too trendy. In fashion it’s easy to buy a new en trend lace shirt or wide leg jeans. But, when it comes to interiors, this practice will set you back a penny or $10,000.
One of my favorite aspects of interior design is lighting. For some reason, I just have this thing for beautiful and unique lighting and would put a lamp, a chandelier, a sconce in every single room if it didn’t make me look like a crazy hoarder.
Lighting trends are the ones that seem to change the quickest. It’s easy to fall passionately in love with a piece, spend thousands on it, make it the focal point of a major room and then realize a few years later that perhaps with the expiration of that trend also went your fondness for that piece.
Small pendants are typically the lighting of choice for above the island, or these days, the bulbous industrial or restaurant-kitchen looking pendants are all the rage and they’re absolutely gorgeous. But for me, I didn’t want to commit to something that I wasn’t sure I’d still love, even a few years from now.
The lighting I chose for my kitchen was a simple crystal chandelier. Typically, a chandelier is hung in a great room or dining room, not in a kitchen. I wanted to do something a bit different and this chandelier’s unassuming crystal features and lack of color and its overall traditional look, I thought, would definitely stand the test of time.
Another huge trend right now is gold. I have always loved, loved, loved gold, especially rose gold and I can see its uniqueness in the sea of chrome that we’ve been in for the past 30 years. In my kid’s bathroom, I toyed with the idea of doing black floors, black counters and then the pop of gold in the finishes… How amazing would that look? But again, I thought about the function of this bathroom and that gold might be a little ostentatious for two little boys that will in time become two big teenagers. Gold faucet, gold knobs, gold shower head, gold shower knobs… the Midas touch was not the place for this particular bathroom. And even now, only a couple of years later, I am so glad that I stuck with a simple chrome!
Speaking of my kiddos, come back next week when I share my experience with finding a balance between style and being kid-friendly.
Take another fun look inside Alisa’s home in this Houzz article.
For more design inspiration, find Alisa’s home and others inside the pages of, “Your Home, Your Style” By Donna Garlough.
Alisa Kapinos has been a fashion stylist and personal shopper for almost 15 years. She started her career in fashion working for a Boston based magazine as their Fashion and Beauty Editor and then went onto become their Editor in Chief. During this time she produced and styled countless photo shoots, working with top designers and top photographers. She has been lucky enough to attend many New York Fashion Weeks, also styling shoots for commercials and print ads, as well as assisting in styling Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel and the Jonas Brothers on their Boston stop during their musical tour. She then began her career as a personal stylist to some of Boston’s most notable people, as well as women and men from all walks of life. What her clients love about her is her attention to detail, her understanding of personal style (not just what’s trending), and her ability to mix high end with affordable pieces that fit everyone’s budget. Through her work in the fashion industry, she has also partnered with many charitable organizations to bring awareness and raising money for their causes. Recently, Alisa has taken her passion for interior design and has worked on a few interior projects for local clients. She has had her own home, which she renovated herself, featured in a home design book and a few home websites. Alisa’s greatest loves are her husband of 11 years, her two dogs and her three kids. She loves photography and taking photos, loves to travel, to write, to garden, to decorate, to cook and spend time with her family and friends.
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