Over this past weekend, I attended a conference for Interior Designers & Bloggers. While listening to the speakers, I found a common thread between each of them when discussing clients & design. Comfort. Regardless of the budgets, Comfort was always the goal & first in thought when each of these very famous designers brought a space to life. It seems obvious to want a space to be comfortable, but it is not really the first thing associated with Interior Designers. There is often a stigma that Designers think solely of the beauty over the function (& I am sure some might...), but the beauty only comes with function. It is pointless to have a beautiful space if it can not be lived in comfortably.
One of the design rockstars that spoke was Timothy Corrigan. Corrigan has been recognized by Architectural Digest as one of the top 40 Interior Designers in the World for the past nine years. He has homes in California as well as France. This is his home in France...
Yes, this is his home. So I was personally shocked to find that his main focus is Comfort. Now granted, this is a Chateau... there is a lot of formality going on inside, but once you begin to dissect the interiors, you do notice a sense of comfort. The addition of a seating area brought into the guest room with closely pulled chairs for conversations...
The addition of a small garden stool next to the claw foot tub for towels or a book...
The use of several smaller seating groups in such a grand space...
All of these elements make the space more personal & approachable, therefore, more comfortable. He likes to use outdoor fabric for upholstery & has antiques finished in Marine Varnish so no one is hesitant about a spill or placing a drink down. It is this attention to detail & comfort that brings this amazing designer to the forefront of Interior Design.
While most of us could not even fathom the idea of living in a Chateau, we can each take in the ideas of adding both Comfort & Design into our homes. Comfort can be stylish when the thought & work goes in behind it. For the entire slideshow of Timothy Corrigan's Chateau please head over to Architectural Digest.
You can also see Corrigian's home in his book, An Invitation to Chateau Du Grand-Luce : Decorating a Great French Country House.
I hope you all are having a fabulous week!
x o – Kristin
All images via Architectural Digest