Tricia Guild's New Paint Box Book

No one does color better than interior designer Tricia Guild. Every season I pester my friends at ID Collection to send over images from the latest fabrics and wallpapers from her line, Designers Guild, because I know they'll be sumptuous and dreamy. I think most of us stick with bland palettes at home because we're afraid of using color. Tricia has a new book, Paint Box, that makes it so much easier to pull a color scheme together yourself, with 45 different palettes that include color, texture, and pattern. Every room in her book is accompanied by design tips and a directory of Designers Guild paint colors, fabrics, and wallpapers. I pulled some of Tricia's highly useful tips from the book, below...

Tip #1 Mixing a color with a neutral such as black, white, or gray, reduces the colorfulness. A neutral is the color that underpins your scheme. White is often the default option, but why not consider gray, ecru, chocolate, or a shade of blue or green, or even pale plaster pink. Tricia often uses a shade of slate blue or olive green as a neutral, especially with bright colors.

Tricia Guild

Tip #2   Tricia Guild's Faded Frescoes palette is inspired by Italy's ancient frescoed walls and looks great against a natural linen shade. She suggests keeping your neutral soft to echo fresh paint or wet plaster.

Tip #3   Olive and emerald colors liven up a mid-century palette, with charcoal acting as the perfect neutral. For this look, you'll want to keep the walls white, and mix wood furniture with upholstered pieces in wool and tweeds.

Tip #4   The glamour of 18th-century French royalty is evoked here with fresh blooms in plum and eggplant and bottle greens. Balance the look with a neutral wall, or you could paint the walls in plum or eggplant. This look is magical in rooms with little natural light.

Tip #5   If you love the look of vintage roses, make it more approachable with casual linens. Think about toughening up the look a bit with an off-beat colors such as warm denim blue.

Tip #6   The many shades of white can clash. Decorating an all-white room is one of the most difficult schemes to pull off. First, determine which white are you? Blue-toned white works well in sunny, light-filled rooms. Creamy, yellow-toned white feels more classical and is suited for north-facing spaces. A gray-toned white gives you a clear, crisp architectural finish. Whichever white you pick, make sure they all work together -- drapes, shades, furniture, accessories — and are united in their tones of white.

Domino: Your Guide to a Stylish Home

Image, courtesy Melcher Media 

Design Basics, revisited      editor Jessica Romm Perez's new book, Domino: Your Guide to a Sylish Home ($35 from Melcher Media) is already a classic compendium that I find myself reaching for over and over. I'm delighted by how supremely useful it is — even the most jaded design junkie looking for the next fix has to admit there's nothing as satisfying as perfectly styled rooms that illustrate important design basics — like how to create a chic gallery wall of pictures that's more MoMA than mishmash — and it's surprisingly easy to do. There are chapters on seating, flooring, lighting, finding your own style, color, plants and flowers, and entertaining. The book pulls the best and most current ideas together into one volume with freshness, flair and fun. Here are some pages, courtesy of Melcher Media, from the book:

Jessica Romm Perez

New Books By Friends!

Just Out: Trish Donnally's new book with Darryl Carter, The Collected Home

"My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read." —Abraham Lincoln

Author Trish Donnally

Could it possibly be that I have this many talented friends? Lucky me! A few months ago, the press releases began to arrive along with preview copies of their books, one after the other. It was clear what I needed to do: gather them all together in one fun blog post. My author friends have poured their hearts and souls into writing about the things they love—design, architecture, cooking, politics and pets, among other topics. I'm dazzled by their efforts, and so honored to know them all. 

Bring a book as your hostess gift to one of the many upcoming holiday parties you'll be going to, and like Lincoln, you'll make a lot of new best friends. 

A beautiful page inside Trish Donnally's book with Darryl Carter, The Collected Home

It's a small world: Trish and I were introduced more than 10 years ago by David Feld, who's the editor-in-chief of Modern Luxury Dallas. Trish was living in San Francisco at the time, and I was working as an editor at PaperCity, helping them launch in other cities. Trish became the magazine's editor in San Francisco, and eventually moved to Dallas to take the reins for a while. Later, she moved back to her hometown of Washington, D.C., where she edited home magazines and began writing books. She's also now handling the public relations for the Dallas, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. based design firm ForrestPerkins.

The Collected Home, Rooms with Style, Grace and History, is her second book with the Washington, D.C. – based Carter on his work. I can see why she's drawn to his style; incorporating fine antiques, Carter merges Washington's love of traditionalism with sculptural, modern pieces and interesting textures. Carter's rooms are comfortable, calm and striking says Trish, with their subtle light and dark contrasts and exquisite furnishings. "Darryl designs instinctively," she says of her collaboration on the book. "He has an innate ability to know what will work, so having him pause to consider why certain things work, from concrete design ideas to nuances, was a fascinating and enlightening journey."

Pets and Presidents . . . Jennifer Pickens grew up in Dallas in a big old Southern style house on Strait Lane filled with animals. Along with the usual cats, dogs and occasional fish and hamsters, Jennifer's menagerie included a goat (who arrived on their doorstep Christmas day with a red bow around his neck), a barn owl which they raised from a chick, and a variety of Canada geese, ducklings, turtles and black swans that lived on the pond in their vast backyard. Jennifer didn't grow up to be a vet or work at the zoo, but she did grow up to be a researcher, historian and White House social expert. So, it doesn't surprise me that she has penned a well-researched and written book on U.S. presidents and their pets, Pets at the White House. Her political connections opened doors for interviews with First Ladies, White House social secretaries, and a variety of insiders. She also got her hands on terrific historic photography, much of which she had restored.

Author Jennifer Pickens at home 

I met Jennifer in 2008 through mutual friend and editor Eric O'Keefe, of The Land Report. She'd called me when she was starting work on her first book, Christmas at the White House. New to the process of putting together a book—hence the phone call to me—it turned out that Jennifer really didn't need much help. I was impressed at what a tenacious and talented reporter and writer she was; I still am. I don't know how she pulls it all off—in he middle of writing the book, Jennifer gave birth to twins!   

From Pets at the White House. Top left to right, Liberty, who belonged to President Ford and his family; Caroline, John, Jr., and President Kennedy with Macaroni; President Clinton with Buddy; Bo, exiting Air Force One with President Obama; First Lady and President Reagan with Rex.

Jolie Carpenter's new book on Texas outdoor spaces, Spectacular Outdoor Living Texas

In our own backyard . . . author Jolie Carpenter's new book, Spectacular Outdoor Living of Texas explores how Texans have created outdoor spaces that are not only beautiful, but useable year round, with spectacular water features and carefully landscaped foliage in summer,  and warming fire pits in winter. And, if you are a lucky set of kids living in the Dallas area, you get a sophisticated air conditioning system in your sprawling tree house.

Author Jolie Carpenter

 I met Jolie a decade ago through our mutual friend, photographer Dan Piassick, a top interiors and architecture photographer in Dallas who had shot a lot of photography for Jolie's previous books. Bubbly and always smiling, Jolie is a talented writer and book producer, with dozens of books on design across the country under her belt.  I have a stack of her beautiful books at home, and I'm particularly impressed with this one, as I had no idea Texas had so many beautiful and creative outdoor spaces.

A shot from Spectacular Outdoor Living of Texas

A collage of photos from Spectacular Outdoor Living of Texas

An air conditioned treehouse/fort in the Dallas area, created by designer Tiffany McKenzie
 (full disclosure: she's one of my blog partners!), from Spectacular Outdoor Spaces of Texas.

Sweet on Texas, a new book of recipes by Denise Gee and Robert Peacock 

Recipes for Success . . . Dallas author Denise Gee is married to photographer Robert Peacock, and together they've produced some wonderful books on food, drinks and design. They are originally from Mississippi (I love to hear them talk), but have lived in Dallas for many years. I first met them when they moved to Dallas and Denise freelanced a few terrific stories about houses for me when I was editing D Home. Sweet on Texas just came out, and in it are carefully curated roster of delicious dessert recipes from interesting and famous people and places across the state, all accompanied by Denise's fantastic storytelling and Robert's gorgeous food shots. 

Author Denise Gee

Shawn Horne's Coconut Dream Pie, from Sweet on Texas

Mamma Marion's Mandelbroidt, from Sweet on Texas

Denise and Robert are always working on at least one book or another — Southern Casseroles is due out soon and Denise is in the thick of writing the amazing memoirs for Mary Ella Gabler, who founded Dallas-based luxury linens company Peacock Alley (no relation to Robert Peacock). The Peacock Alley (full disclosure: Peacock Alley is a blog partner of mine) book is due out summer 2013, in celebration of the company's 40th anniversary.

Ellise Pierce's new book on living and cooking in Paris Cowgirl Chef

Friend for life . . . Ellise and I started our writing careers together in the late 1980s in the much-beloved Derro Evans magazine writing class at SMU. Writers lives tend to be erratic and uncertain, but through all of that (divorces, breakups, moving to another continent, the bad economy, the good economy, unemployment, and book deals), Ellise and I have always been there for each other. Ellise moved to Paris five years ago for love. She thought she might do some writing while there, but ended up doing a lot of cooking instead. Much of her cooking was for ex-pats living in Paris, especially Texans, homesick for the spicy fare they left behind. What started out as a fun way to stay connected to her home state (she's a Denton girl), turned into a cookbook. Cowgirl Chef, Texas Cooking with a French Twist, is her first book. Not only are the recipes wonderful, but the writing is often poignant and lovely; life stories are drizzled among the well-researched recipes, and beautifully photographed pages.  I learned a few things about her along the way I hadn't known before.

Basque-style fish en papillote from Cowgirl Chef

Ellise has a terrific blog, Cowgirl Chef, that posts new recipes daily, and stories about living, shopping and cooking in Paris. 

The boots are real. Ellise always wears her boots everywhere she goes in Paris

Paris chicken Fricassee, from Cowgirl Chef

Who wouldn't be inspired by the markets in Paris?

Thank you, my friends, for filling my shelves with your wonderful books, inspiring me with your boundless talent and your well-crafted stories, and enriching my life with your presence. Love you all!

Novelist Sandra Brown's Gardens

Arlington resident Sandra Brown's lush gardens. Photo by Dan Piassick

Nature, She Wrote. . . In early evenings when there’s still enough sunlight filtering through the leafy canopy overhead, novelist Sandra Brown wanders into the garden with legal tablet and pen. “In the stages when I’m plotting out a story and playing ‘what if’, I’ll sit out there for inspiration,” says Sandra, whose gardens and home comprise four woodland acres in north central Arlington, about 30 minutes west of Dallas. 

Photo by Dan Piassick

Behind large gates and shrouded from the street by a thicket of elms and oaks, the property is both manicured and wild, a hidden oasis in an area best known for strip malls, the Ball Park at Arlington, and the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. “It’s such a shock to people who’ve never been here before,” she says.

Photo by Dan Piassick

A creek cuts through the back property, and in spring the landscape is peppered with white flowering dogwood, purple-hued eastern redbud trees, pink ruffle and snowball azaleas. The flora is reminiscent of the damp Piney Woods near Tyler, where Sandra and husband Michael, a video producer, lived for five years. In summer, the magnolias bloom and the beds sprout with shade-loving caladiums, hostas, and lush tassel and holly ferns. “I grew to love that east Texas look, so I have tried to replicate it here,” says Sandra, who grew up in Fort Worth.

Photo by Dan Piassick

Photo by Dan Piassick

Texas and the south are frequent settings for the more than 70 books she’s written (60 have made it onto the New York Times Best Seller List). She’s in the midst of finishing Low Pressure, a thriller due out in September about a tornado that hits Austin on Memorial Day, covering up a murder that took place only minutes earlier. While most of her work is done at an office she keeps in Arlington, Sandra often writes at home on the weekends inside a second floor study, which affords views of the creek and a small bridge below. “One day I saw a ‘swoosh’ out the window, and it was a huge heron, perched by the creek. He stayed for a few days,” she remembers.

Photo by Dan Piassick

Photo by Dan Piassick

Photos by Dan Piassick

Water and the woodsy terrain are an alluring habitat for armadillos, raccoons, opossum, rabbits, owls, and red tail hawks, which have been seen on the property. Once, Michael came face to face with a bobcat in the driveway after an early morning bike ride.
The Browns bought the large two-story estate in 2004 and spent a year renovating it. “We loved the bones of the house, but we did a lot of rearranging inside,” including opening up rooms to take advantage of massive windows overlooking the Pennsylvania blue stone terraces, says Sandra. “When you walk in the front door, you can see straight out the to the back. It’s like walking into the garden the minute you come inside.”

Photo by Dan Piassick

The already extensive terrace was expanded by another third, and they added a large stone fireplace, which enables them to entertain outside year round. “We’ve had dinner parties at Christmas, and we’ll go outside with a bag of marshmallows and roast them for dessert. On New Year’s day we had a family gathering by the fireplace. It was just perfect,” she says. A seating area perched high on the upper terrace is ideal for informal lunches when her son and daughter visit with their four children. “We can watch the kids play on the other side of the bridge from there.”  

The gardens, which had already been established by Naud Burnett & Parnters when the Browns purchased the house, only needed a little sprucing up. Ornamental trees were added, including Japanese yews, pistachios, and Japanese maples -- one of Sandra’s favorites. Drought and insects have taken a toll on some of the larger, older trees. “Any time we’ve lost a tree, I’ve had it replaced with lace bark elm. It’s fast growing, heat resistant, drought tolerant, and grows into gorgeous shade trees with bark that curls up like lace.”

Photos by Dan Piassick

A profuse understory of flowering shrubs like sweetly-scented cheeswood, Chinese loropetalum with its deep pink petals, and white-blooming wax leaf lugustrum help give the gardens density. But it’s the vast emerald carpet of ground covers that that are the real stars, providing manicured elegance and texture, including English ivy, dwarf and standard mondo grasses, creeping verigated vinca with its tiny blue flowers, and the hardy liriope, or monkey grass, which produces purple blooms like water hyacinth. Harsh summers, ongoing drought, and periodic ice storms are a challenge for sustaining the garden. A new water system recycles water from the creek into a small koi pond, and helps with circulation and conservation.

Novelist Sandra Brown and golden retriever, Chase. Photo by Dan Piassick

“Maintenance is a huge issue that takes a lot of effort,” says Sandra. “Some years the tulips are pathetic looking if the soil wasn’t as cold as it should be during winter. Other times, the azalea blooms freeze before they open. So many things depend on the weather and the rain.”  Unlike the books she pens where the action is entirely under her control, gardens are dynamic and unpredictable. “You can do your best, but at the end of the day, mother nature is in charge.”


A version of my story also appears in the April issue of Modern Luxury Interiors Texas.

Shopping Dallas: Laura Lee Clark

Laura Lee Clark's new store

Best Buys!

Text/Photos Rebecca Sherman

Open only a few months, Laura Lee Clark's new store is already one of the best places to find stylish, unexpected GIFTS, such as these from the ocean.

Black sea fan on Lucite stand, $300.

Silver plated sea stars, $30 and up.

Large shell fossils, $230.

Large Chinese blue and white foo dog jar, $650

FORTUNY pendant, $2,000

One of the things Laura Lee does so well is mix modern art with antiques. I love how she's displayed these large scale paintings from BARRY WHISTLER GALLERY in her new space. I ran into Barry recently and he told me that she'd already sold several paintings off the wall, simply because clients could easily see how they might look in a residential setting.

Laura Lee's offices are in back of the store, which consists of several big, white loft-like spaces. Can you imagine working in such a gorgeous place?

Silver necklace on stand, $560

Chinese warrior heads, $25 each. Love these. I can see using them as place card holders on the table, or in a big bowl like these for impact.

Pair of Regency side tables, $950 each.

Pair of paper mache columns, $5,600

Large silver pot with succulents, $130

CHARLOTTE MOSS's A Flair for Living, $65

Isn't this a gorgeous room?

19th century starburst, $5,600

This silver leaf and linen Raj chair was so heavy I could barely move it. $3,495

Another gorgeous view.

Yes, that fantastic centerpiece with birch logs, moss, and glass rods is for sale. Ask about it when you come in.

Horn box with silver fittings, $295

This shot reminds me of some of the beautiful stores on Magazine Street in New Orleans....

Pair of 19th century FRENCH CHAIRS, $1,070

Lavender barnacles, $150. Laura Lee's selection of naturalistic pieces are so sculptural and some of the best buys around.

Antique MERCURY GLASS bottles (with new stoppers), $235 each. The platinum color patina on these bottles and the chairs are so beautiful, don't you think?

LUXURY STORES and LUXURY HOUSES, $95 each

Striped sea urchins with spines, $24 each

Vintage Coptic crosses, large is $550.

David Bates painting (price on request).

Lamp on Lucite base, $395

Rustic, turquoise ceramic oil bottles, $35 and up.

I popped into the shop on a Saturday morning with my camera without much warning, and Laura Lee still looked incredibly stylish and relaxed. I had to take her picture.