By Chrissy Iley
It’s been a week of furniture for me and I’ve had redecoration on mind. My new cat Mister destroyed my beloved pink velvet sofa. I’ve had it so many years and I was sad to let it go but I’m also sad to have it covered in tinfoil – tinfoil frightens cats but it also frightens guests – it looks very squat in the eighties!
With this in mind I briefly stepped into the land of decorators. In LA nobody buys their own furniture. They leave it up to their decorator and everybody is a celebrity decorator, just because they’ve had a celebrity on their books. Yet this is the city of beautiful designer bespoke furniture – there are some amazingly talented people out there and amazingly talented design studios. All up for discovery.
One friend showed me the gorgeous Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady’s dream house with the Kepler hanging lantern as the centre piece. Its gorgeous, curved, hand forged iron straps give it a sense of perpetual motion. Designer Joan Behnke helped create this great room and other rooms in their gorgeous house with pieces from Gregorius Pineo.
I visited Gisele when she was living with Leonardo di Caprio. Very very different. I don’t think di Caprio employed a decorator. It was a spacious Spanish style house in the West Hollywood hills and it struck me as very manly. A lot of dark wood and chunky furniture whereas Gisele’s new house seems to express femininity and masculinity combined.
I thought it was a lovely couples home.
I went to an outlet store to buy my new couch and I have no idea if it will match anything that already exists but I did take inspiration from this picture to know that a home should be a perfect balance of masculine and feminine. It shouldn’t look like a den or a boudoir in the living room because it must be inviting to all.
That said I’m very much looking forward to my outlet store furniture delivery because it will smell new and for a little while at least the cat won’t be walking round with a white sofa stuffing moustache from a day of digging deep.
If I were to have a beautiful home, I wouldn’t hesitate in going to Gregorius Pineo for artistic guidelines. Their timeless elegance, handcrafted furniture and lighting has class. And maybe that spherical lantern is the one piece that could transform the ordinary to the exquisite.