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- [00:02]
A
Welcome to how to Decorate from Ballard Designs, a weekly podcast all about the trials and triumphs of decorating and redecorating your home. I'm Caroline. I'm on the marketing team.
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B
And I'm Taryn and I'm a product designer.
- [00:13]
C
I'm Liz. I head of the creative team. We're your hosts.
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A
Join the expert team at Ballard Designs for tips, tricks and tales from interior designers, stylists and other talents in the design world.
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B
Plus, we'll answer your decorating dilemmas at the end of each episode.
- [00:25]
C
We love answering your questions, so don't forget to email us@podcastallardesigns.net now on with the show.
- [00:34]
A
Today we are thrilled to welcome back to the show Ray Booth, an acclaimed interior designer and partner at award winning architecture and interiors firm McAlpin. With a degree in architecture, Ray designs spaces that are one with the architecture of the home, blending classic elegance with modern comfort. Today we'll be talking about his new book, the Expressive Home. Ray, welcome back to the show.
- [00:54]
D
Thank you. So happy to be here with you guys.
- [00:57]
A
Well, I recall about what must have been five years ago when you were on the first time. Just loving your book and loving our chat. So I'm excited to talk about your latest book, your second book of published work. And it's of course a beauty just like your first one.
- [01:18]
D
So you're kind to say thank you. I hope people think so. We're getting it out there as much as we can in the hopes that we'll get some eyeballs across it. And it's always fun to get out and meet people and see their reaction to the work. And you do all of this kind of in a little bubble of your office and it's fun to actually put it out into the world and see people's response to it.
- [01:45]
A
I have always admired your work because you are an architect. First you went to school for architecture at Auburn University School for Architecture.
- [01:54]
D
Not. Not licensed, but I have partners who are licensed. God bless me.
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A
You know, it seems like your interior design choices and style just blend so seamlessly with the architecture. And that has to be because you went to school for architecture before pivoting to interiors. I mean, is that the genesis of you would say your style?
- [02:17]
D
You know, I do think we, at our, in my offices, we have a unique perspective because everything that I look at, I look at through an architectural lens. And you know, there are people who decorate and who are such strong decorators and I have such admiration for how they approach their side of the work. But mine Is. Is very specifically biased towards architecture. And I look at scale and proportion and balance and how do you create intimacy? How do you create emotion to it? Architectural devices and sometimes, having spent so much of my career practicing interiors and not practicing architecture, I used furnishings and drapery and all of those things as tools to try and create space and create that emotion to the work that we do. So I. I think it's a different take on how to approach either interiors or architecture. You know, in the same breath, I can say my hope is that in practicing architecture now, at this stage in my career, that I'm a more sensitive person in creating that architecture because of my history with interiors and furnishings and those layers and that pragmatic approach. You know, the rubber hits the road in interiors. You know, that's where it all really ends and interfaces with the people who use it.
- [03:54]
C
Yeah. And your spaces really allow both the layouts and the textures of the materials that you're bringing in in the furniture just absolutely sing with the architecture. They just blend so seamlessly. Can you talk a little bit about how you're choosing materials that work with the spaces? Because I feel like that's a huge part of your pract.
- [04:21]
D
Well, you know, in material selection as well as furniture selection and fabric selection, all of those things, we really do try and get an understanding of who we're working for and what their loves and likes and hates are and what their story is like, how. How. Where are they happiest in their life? You know, what are some little things that bring them joy in their everyday, you know, efforts and process as they're proceeding through life. Any little seed of truth from. From them that we can harvest and use as. As a means for making the right material selections. So, you know, I guess what I'm trying to say is we try not to make random decisions. We try to tether them towards the person that we're doing it for so that there is meaning to them and there's meaning to the greater story that we're trying to tell on their behalf about who they are and how they want to be. You know, it is such. You're so exposing yourself in your heart in this work. And our clients go through this all, all the time, and we try to encourage them to bear that to us so that we're able to use it and represent them in the work that we're doing. I'm not sure if that answered your question.
- [06:01]
A
Totally.
- [06:02]
C
I mean, it's. It is so unique to every. To every project. But. Yeah, I just feel like Textures and materials and layering seems to be so prevalent.
- [06:15]
D
Well, you know, it's context, too. It's not only the people and the context that they bring to the process, but it is also the site. The specifics around where you're building and what has resonance at a coastal property is not going to be the same thing that has resonance in the city. So really understanding where you are and trying to allow that to have some bearing on the decisions that you make, I feel like it helps ground the work in, I guess, a sense of place. You know, it is of the place that it is being built. A lot of that applies to material selections and textures and certainly colors and those decisions.
- [07:09]
A
I love so many of the projects in the space, but one of my favorites was the one very close to us, which was Morningside. So when you're talking about. And maybe you can kind of give our listeners a little, you know, brief on the project, but you kind of talk in the description of the. The project about how their art collection inspired many of the choices. So that was sort of where I was thinking when you were talking, because it was very specific.
- [07:39]
D
It's very specific. And. And they were. You know, it's so fun to get with clients that collect and have a point of view that is different than everyone else's point of view. And these guys were two clients that came to us, and they had. They had lived across the street from this property that they. They bought that we ultimately tore down a old house. And my business partner, Bobby, designed a new house for them. But they. One of the gentlemen, he worked in the train industry, literally. And they had collected over years and years and years a lot of this industrial art. And it's photorealistic art, you know, of bridges and even, like, blenders and just kind of wild things. But all of that, of course, spoke to me having a degree in architecture and an appreciation for structure and in the beauty that exists in our built world even in everyday things. And that bias for them led us to make so many decisions on their behalf that related to those. That industrial aesthetic. Not that we were literally going in there and doing something that was heavy industrial, but those textures and those colors and even, you know, it came down to accessories that. That we would select on their behalf that were literally old. I. I think they were off a power plant or something. They were these spherical cast iron objects that you can see in that job. But those type of. The inspiration that you're able to derive from your clients allows you to make those decisions so much more fun. To make those decisions when you're doing it with that kind of information behind it, it's just not random.
- [09:40]
A
Okay. One of the things you use and I. This has to be an architectural influence. I don't know. You tell me. But drapery, you are like, I don't even want to know what the drapery budget is, but the drapery, the way that you use drapery, just kind of talk our listeners through that. Because it, of course, is flanking windows, but it's also dividing rooms. It's just as a backdrop. It. There's all sorts of applications you have, and I love how creative you are, even though often they're solid, or if you're really getting crazy, it's a horizontal stripe.
- [10:13]
D
Yeah. You know, we'll break every. We'll set every rule, and then we'll try and figure out how to break it. You know, drapery is not just for windows. And really hearkening back to our earlier conversation here today, you know, there was a time where I wasn't able to move walls and create windows and create intimate spaces that contract and release you as you move through space. So some of those things that I got to use were drapery and furniture of a certain height or a certain scale. And, you know, what drapery brings to any interior is it is that ethereal, emotional, romantic softness that any piece of architecture needs. And when you're telling a story and an interior, you need to have these devices. I often say that their drapery can be like punctuation. They can kind of give you moments like a comma would in a. In a long sentence. Let's say you've got a large room and you want to break it into more intimate seating areas. It's sort of like putting a comma into a sentence. It really allows you those moments where you pause, you take a breath, and you appreciate that particular vignette or that moment. It frames the. That particular vignette or that moment. So it's not just for light control. You know, it really. It's. It has an emotional quotient that I. I think is critical to use in any space. And, you know, I have actually had people say, oh, no, we're not going to do any drapery. And, you know, gasp. Gasp. You're taking away some of the tools in my toolbox. And here's. Here's why you are going to need to use drapery.
- [12:10]
A
Well, you know, the way you do it is so interesting because it's odd. They're so dramatic, and yet they're often neutral. So I love this sort of play of that because, you know, they're so, like, billowy and soft, and they are floor to ceiling, and they're probably like four times what you would need to actually cover the window. But that stack, that stack of fabric, just like. What is it about that that is so delicious? I don't know. There's some. There's got to be studies, you know, it's got to be studied.
- [12:43]
D
There is. In the material selection, you will find more often than not, you will not see heavy, heavy drapery in our projects. I mean, there are occasions where. Where you will. We've even done suede drapes before, but again, those were more as room dividers from an entry to a living room. But most often, you will see very gauzy, light, ethereal. And it is for that billowy, that dreamy kind of quotient that offers any space, any room, more of that softness. It catches the light, it glows. It's not. It's not opaque. There is a life to it and a luxury to it and how it catches the light.
- [13:35]
A
Yeah. And the balance of. Of your drapery that you use, because the. Because the architecture in so many of these projects are. Is more on the contemporary side. And there's, you know, lots of glass and. And lots of sharpness. That curtain. Gosh, it just makes it so warm.
- [14:00]
D
Well, 100%. I need to record this and play it for any of my clients who are hesitant about their drapery budget.
- [14:07]
B
And you do such tall ceilings, too, that I think the impact of that fabric is so important.
- [14:15]
D
I mean, it captures your heart. Right. When you see a tall bank of drapery that just rises to that ceiling, you cast your eye up. It offers you a perspective, and, you know, it's that aha moment, really, when you've got that kind of drama to a space.
- [14:33]
A
Something I always marvel at, too, about drapery is the way it changes the sound.
- [14:37]
D
Yes.
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A
And sound is something that you. You obviously can't see. And so you can't tell in a photograph of someone's house how impactful it is. But when you walk in, there's this, like, air. There's something about, like, the air and the sound that changes. With drapery.
- [14:55]
D
Well, you know, again, with any interior, with any piece of architecture, I think you want people to feel is about the emotion. It is not just how it looks and an audible quantity that is. That is one of our significant senses, you know, as is aroma. And there are things that we can factor into design that make it all that Much richer of an experience. And I think having an audible quality. You know, a lot of times I'll encourage people to upholster their bedrooms because you walk in there and it's just like, automatically, there's a softness, there's a caress, there's that that offers to the clients, to the users, that immediately starts taking it down for you. And let's face it, in this world, we need every tool that we can get to start taking it down and to quiet our mind. So. So really thinking about fabrics and drapery and upholstery as means for calming, embalming our. Our hearts and our souls, and in setting us up for what is hopefully, you know, tranquility and peaceful night's rest.
- [16:23]
A
Yeah. And, okay, I want you to go into color a little bit, because many of the projects are very neutral, but I want to know about how you build your neutral color palette, because, you know, in many of these, you're using every neutral on the scale, right? Like, you're using cream and white, like pure white and cream and light beige and darker brown and, like, mid tone brown, and then black and bronze. And so there's like, all of these shades sometimes even in the same room. Is that, like, what is the method to that?
- [16:59]
D
So, you know, again, I think in any neutral color palette, having that modulation of color so that you've got one thing playing off the other, that there is this harmony that is being created by. From one color transitioning to the other. But then we talked about the importance of contrast and of bracketing that between a really light color and a really dark color. You know, it's just. It's like any good conversation. It's got to have the diversity, even within. If you're talking about one subject, you've got to have that point of view that really allows it to be understood and appreciated on some level.
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A
I love the analogy of the harmony of music because often I think people worry that their colors or neutrals even need to match and need to be the same. So I like the way you framed that in the sense that having the different shades of the same tone or, you know, similar tones actually support one another, and, you know, they work together to create that melody.
- [18:16]
D
Well, let's face it, nothing in life is perfect, and we can all strive for perfection. But I think when we can celebrate a bit of the differences in us or in any, you know, apply it to. To fabrics as well, if you can celebrate that diversity, one kind of supports the other. One allows the other to. To be, you know, the star for the moment. And. And perhaps a darker color becomes the backup, the contrast, the. The thing that allows the crispness in that one lighter fabric to really shine. So. So, yeah, it's a little bit of a play with all of that.
- [19:01]
A
Well, and you've done actually the same thing with the wood tones. So I like, I love this. It's the project with the London family in California.
- [19:09]
D
Oh, yes, yes.
- [19:11]
A
And there are so many wood finishes in the project. Lots of antique pieces, wood paneling, wood floors, obviously wood beams, but you have some real ebony kind of wood tones like the coffee table. But then you have these lightness, too. So walk us through that and, and how wood tones or, you know, how you think through those through.
- [19:34]
D
Well, it's applying a lot of the same logic, which is just to. To have that. That richness displayed from. From dark to light within that particular job. It is set in. In Southern California. So there is, you know, in. In any piece of architecture from Macalpin, there's going to be an abundance of windows, and there's going connection from the exterior to the interior. So. So finding those wood tones that kind of harmonize with. With what's happening outside of those windows is key. And in that particular project, we really did want it to have a lightness emotionally. You know, it is in sunny California, so we didn't really want to go in with a lot of heavy, dark things that you. You might, you know, might be more appropriate to Connecticut or to New Hampshire. It's, again, trying to think about the context in which you're building and. And how to set up something that feels timeless because it feels like it's grounded in where it is, you know, it. It's meant to be part of. Of that exterior landscape.
- [20:57]
B
Again, because architecture is so important for your work. You know, the buildings themselves are truly, you know, art in themselves, and your interiors obviously just, you know, finish it off. But I really wanted to talk about the actual using of the black mullions and window frames. Like, I feel like every job of yours. That's not true, but most of the work in this book, you do use these windows, that kind of project from the actual structure and almost become their own visual focal point. And so I just wanted to talk about, like, are, you know, we've been seeing them the last few years, and is this something you see going forward? I mean, I hope so based on your work, but yeah, tell us about using those.
- [21:42]
D
Sure. So, you know, I don't think of it as a trend because I think there's. There's logic behind it. And that is, you know, the windows certainly are. Are the eyes to any. Any structure, any building, any piece of architecture. And we have the good fortune of working with a lot of people who create beautiful landscapes outside of their windows or their beautiful views, a hillside, a mountaintop. And so you really want the architecture to, again, integrate, for there to be a flow between the interior and the exterior. But within that, the windows frame that view. And, and you've got to have structure when you're us, when you're Macalpin. We don't do a lot of planar glass. I mean, there are certain jobs that call for it where that transparency is just almost impossible to delineate between the inside and the outside. But, but we most often, we, we like working with panes of glass. There's just a continuity architecturally to that kind of language that I think a lot of people understand and respond to. It's very different from just 100% painless panel of glass. So those mullions, if you paint them light and you're looking towards a beautiful landscape and towards the sunshine and the light that lies outside the window, if they're white, they're going to stop your eye optically, your eye is going to focus on that lighter, brighter, closer thing to you. If you paint it dark, a dark bronze or a dark black, your vision discounts it. It looks past the dark, the dark becomes background. And again, your eye is allowed to focus on the light, the brightest thing that's outside of the window. So it's really an optical device that, that allows your eyes to see. It almost makes those windows that much more transparent for them to be painted in a dark color because you look right through them. And they also have the added benefit of creating a bit of a frame. You know, you're, you're, you're creating moments through each pane of glass. And I've also compared it before to, to eyeliner. You know, you want those eyes to shine. You want the beauty that anyone offers in how they look at you. And women more often than men, although I guess there are some men who do it. You know, mascara gives you that. That crispness, that, that edge that really lets you focus on that eye frames it. So some similarities through all of that I think are employed.
- [24:43]
A
You're a master editor, so. And that's such an emphasis in your work. You even talked about in one project, I believe it was in Florida, there was sort of a 80s house, and y' all renovated it and took a. Took. You know, you worked on taking things away to, I guess, simplify. But let's talk about that project, but also editing, because it's so hard and you're so good at it. And I want to know, I guess, how you think about it, how you approach it and when you know to take something away, when you know to add and the whole kind of. Yeah, it's just your ways.
- [25:23]
D
Sure, sure, sure. I, I say actually in the book, you know, editing is the key to happiness. And I apply that as I do with most things, and you have to forgive me for it. To life and as well as design. We are in an age where things are coming at us 90 to nothing. We're getting, you know, context and information and input where it's just exploding across your, your visual and mental capacity to, to try and ingest. And so all the more important in this day and age is editing so that you can really drown out the noise, drown out what is superfluous to telling the story that you've got to tell. And our clients more and more because they're exposed to things online, they're, they're taking in all of this content. So they're always coming at us with, what about this? And what about this? And what about this? You know, you've got to boil it all back to how does it tell the story that you want to tell? And you know, another thing I say all the time is just because you can does not mean you should, because using all of this, it can become a cacophony. And responding to all of these trends can become something that dates a project so quickly. So trying to be a little more conceptual as to how does it support the greater story that I'm trying to evoke from people who are using this. I think is all the more important to try to employ that, that editing tool in, in any interior.
- [27:28]
C
Okay. But being so selective, I want to know what is exciting you right now? What is something new that you've been playing with or seeing that you're really excited about?
- [27:40]
D
Gosh, that's a hard question to answer because I'm just trying to get through every day. I guess maybe on, on some plane I will, I will take it to what is possible with all of the new technology that that is coming at us. I had a lovely dinner with, with friends who are also architects and designers, Steve and Brook Giannetti.
- [28:09]
C
Oh, we love them.
- [28:10]
D
I guess it was last Saturday. They're amazing. And you know, I am someone who is really prone to, to kind of doing it the way I know to do it. What I'm going to have success with. And Steve showed me how he is employing architectural intelligence. AI, Virtual reality. Yes, he does. He does these sketches and then he puts them into this AI program. I think it's called Genesis. Anyway, I was really intrigued with how it can tell your story faster. And you know, it doesn't do it without his direction, specific directions for certain aesthetics or even emotional content that he wants any of these projects to have. And again, it doesn't exist in perfection without editing. So we're back to that topic again. It becomes a tool that gets you a little further, that allows you a jumping off point where you can take it from there. So that's one of the positive things that I will say about AI. There's so many scary things that I refrain from saying, but let's focus on what is maybe possible and the potential of it. So that's an exciting thing that I, I kind of want to try and get my. My head around how that will facilitate our work and help us do what we do for our clients better.
- [29:51]
A
On the, on the vein of editing, how. How extreme are you going in your personal life? Like, or like, are you very like, you know, do you have a junk drawer? Like, what's hell?
- [30:03]
D
Yes. I am not going as deep as I need to go, Caroline. I mean really there of editing to be done. But I do it occasionally. You know, I do. My. My husband will. Will tell you, Will attribute to this. Sometimes you just got to empty everything out of that drawer and just put back what you are really wearing because it just gets too complicated. I need to go through that process right now. I've been so focused on. On work this year and transitions through in my. My own business and evolution of my business in the book and product lines and all of those things. I need a real good editing session.
- [30:47]
A
Yeah, you. I recall in your last book, it's evocative interior. Evocative interiors.
- [30:54]
D
Evocative interiors, yes.
- [30:56]
A
We saw your. Your house in Asheville, and it's very edited, very streamlined, you know, consistent with what we would. What our listeners would see.
- [31:04]
D
Don't open the closets.
- [31:06]
A
But you've been there. So you've been there a while. You've been at what, probably 14 years.
- [31:12]
D
Yeah, yeah.
- [31:13]
A
And I imagine that you know anyone, anyone who's been in a house for a long time. Like, you don't. When you build a house or when you move houses, you have an opportunity to reassess the things that you have. Whereas when you've been in a place For a long time. You don't necessarily have that opportunity. Do you find things like living the way you anticipated? They live. Has. Thing. Have, have. Has the way you lived in the house changed?
- [31:45]
D
You know, for the most part, it, it works as it was designed. I think what has maybe gotten where it is not working as well is myself and my husband, we're not employing all of the tools to put things back.
- [32:07]
A
Well, sure.
- [32:08]
D
And certainly, and certainly John more than I, because I'm. I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off most of the time. But I do, I do think design wise, it, it will function the way it's needed to if we step up to the plate and, and get it where it needs to go.
- [32:29]
A
Yeah. Okay. When you go on a trip, you go somewhere fabulous. Are you shopping for things and if so, how are you being very critical about what it is you pick up and bring home and what it is you maybe admire but don't bring home?
- [32:44]
D
You know, I think for me, I am not a big shopper in all truthfulness. I, I am shopping for experience and for visual inspiration and emotional inspiration. So more often than not, those are the things that I'm paying attention to. I have had occasions where we've gone. I'll use the example of Morocco where I did specifically say I've got to go and look at some rugs. And I, I purchased a number of them. We've. We've got some in our home and I put some in multiple clients homes. But for the most part, I am looking for what is going to inform me and influence me and push the boundaries of my own imagination and how I take that home to, to ingest in employee on a project that makes.
- [33:51]
A
Sense and that probably is a great way to travel because then you get to go and experience.
- [33:57]
D
It frees you up a little bit. It frees you up. I wish I had that shopper gene, but it's just. I want to be out in it, I want to be experiencing it. And I, I don't always want to be that pragmatic or that focused on the end game. I got to walk home with something here. It's up here.
- [34:22]
A
Well, you talk also, and I think this is in the introduction of the book about human scale and why it's so important and maybe kind of go into that a little bit because as we mentioned before, so many of the projects, they're grand houses, they're, you know, not crazy, but they're. The scale is grand. Double, you know, story ceilings, tall ceilings and so what is it about, like, when you say you're working in human scale, give our listeners kind of some context for what you're talking about and why it's important and, and maybe even some practical ways they could use that in their own decorating projects.
- [35:07]
D
Well, you know, it all relates back to our human scale and what we're composed of. You know, we have the good fortune to be, if you're me, we are souls who get to inhabit this body for a while and walk around on this earth and hopefully try and remember what is the greater truth to us being here. Which for me is about trying to reestablish our connection to one another. A love, our love and respect for one another. I think we're purposely brought down here and made to forget that we're all the same. We are all connected, we are all united. But in this particular moment in time, we've got these parameters and, and these parameters look for scale and proportion to give us a sense of place. You know, if, if you walk into a sea of, of a room that's all backs that are at 30, 34 inches, there's nothing responding to your height when you're standing. Now if you put a screen in there that is, you know, 84, 89 inches, that, that happens just over the top of your head and gives you, oh, I'm supposed to cuddle up next to this. This makes me feel safe. You know, we're all, we're all looking for that safe space in, in the world. And certainly in an interior, you know, you walk into a restaurant, most people don't want to be seated in the middle of the room. They want to have their back against the wall. They want a banquette that hits their shoulders at a certain height, perhaps a mir, their head that, that allows them to see the room or, or, or what have you. So attending to that human scale is critical in any interior or piece of architecture that we find moments where we hold people, cuddle them, caress them, and then release them into these big spaces. Because let's face it, we are these energies. We are, we have desire for awe. And you want architecture and rooms to inspire that as well. So you've got to, you know, again, we're going to go back to what we were talking about earlier. Contrast. You want the small, the intimate scale, and then you want the large, grand gesture that just frees your mind in your heart and feels like a place you want to spin and dance.
- [37:50]
A
So if someone has a double height living room, which, you know, they come in all Shapes and sizes. But say someone has one and it's not feeling right, it feels maybe too cavernous or cold or it's just not jiving. What, what would be sort of your, your things that you would look into as to ways to solve the problem.
- [38:10]
D
That problem. You know, it's funny because you would think, okay, well, let's put in a bunch of high back pieces of furniture and there should be some of that. But in a tall space, sometimes you want to put in something really low that hugs the ground, that grounds that person against that largest surface, which is the floor in that big tall space. You know, you, you really anchor them to the ground. You don't set them up in the middle of it. You allow them to, to hunker down into it. So that's one way of looking at it. Certainly coming in with things that give it scale. I, I'm sorry, but I, I always like to put living things. A plant. I've got one steering me down right here. I like to put a plant in there that, that starts addressing the human scale, that starts establishing a ceiling that people can huddle under. That there is that intimacy that's given. The screen is another great device that you use with that. And then of course the magic elixir to everything. Drapery. You gotta drape it.
- [39:22]
A
I knew it was gonna be amazing. You knew it. What about chandeliers? Because I will say yes, that's, that's a. You do a. There's. There were several like gorgeous staircases where it would, you know, be a. Almost like looked like a three. Like just a real grand staircase with open, you know, open. And you would have incredible. Yeah. Like talk to us about that light. The light fixtures in those.
- [39:46]
D
Well, light fixtures are so, so much fun to begin with because they are the jewelry that you get to, to employ and in the work. And they become, you know, it is this combination of beauty and function all together. So to be able to illuminate these beautiful fixtures is, is really special. And it, it designates important spaces. You know, a stair hall. Certainly you're wanting somebody to approach it and to look up. You know, you're going up. The gesture takes you up. So they, they become, you know, markers of that passage between one story and the next or special moments where we were talking about punctuation earlier. They, you come in under a beautiful chandelier and all of a sudden you stop and you take witness to where you are. And it, it creates that pause, that moment. Like something is special here. So it's always a Fun device and, and tool to get to use. And, and, and it gives you that frivolity, you know, and in a piece of architecture that's all rectilinear planes, to have a beautiful organic, moving chandelier that brings that feminine edge to it, that organic nature. It's, it's again, it's playing to contrast. It's one thing is not like the other. And we're better when we are who we are. Yeah. Be it that softer, more organic or that more rectilinear planar piece, one celebrates the other.
- [41:31]
A
Well. And you know, in talking about the double height ceilings, in many of these instances, the ceiling fixture is not necessarily at a different height than it would be.
- [41:46]
C
It's not so high.
- [41:47]
A
It's still down further into the room. I don't know how to describe what I'm saying, but maybe it's a two story living room. Yes, but it's not. The, the chandelier isn't hung way up high. It's hung down closer, like on the bottom half of the room versus the top half.
- [42:02]
D
Sure.
- [42:03]
A
You explain that better.
- [42:05]
D
I almost want you to be able to reach up and touch it, you know, for, for it to really be in your purview in a space, it, it needs to be again, it's relating to human scale. It needs to be so that your eyes, you know, catch it, catch that little bottom to it that leads you to look up and appreciate the fixture in its totality. And I think a lot of times in these high spaces people think, oh, well, I need to hang it up high. No, get it down to the ground. Get it as low as you can. Let it be appreciated and be the device that, that carries your eye up to that. You know, hopefully you, you've got a beautiful two height story space that's got beautiful wood beams or something that is welcoming the eye once you get people to look up.
- [42:59]
A
Yeah, I just have always found that interesting because it seems like it would be the opposite, you know, that you would hang it high. But, and so I think that's a great lesson for people in those rooms.
- [43:11]
D
You know, I also apply this. When you've got a small room, a lot of people think, oh well, I'm going to put a small sofa in it and a small chair and a small, small, small. No, a lot of times in a small room, a large gesture makes the room. So don't go in with lots of bitsy little bits and pieces. Sometimes blow the scale out, do a huge console or buffet that becomes a surface for, for lighting or accessories or art. And again, I think that is also a device for attending to scale, that sometimes it's not all in the vertical, but you play it out in the horizontal as well. And having a large piece in a small room a lot of times I think is something we overlook.
- [44:05]
A
Okay. In saying that, you reminded me, I believe from your first book you had this. This maybe TV room or library or something that had this huge sectional in it that took up almost the entire thing. Am I making this up? And it was dark. It was sort of like a dark, moody room.
- [44:23]
D
I'm trying to remember.
- [44:25]
A
But anyway, sorry, that made me tangent, but that made me think that you haven't used many sectionals in this book. And I'm curious as to why. Is there something that you like better about a sofa and two chairs or.
- [44:37]
D
You know, there are sectionals. They may not have been what was photographed and it depends on the space and the photographer and what you're capturing at that moment.
- [44:49]
A
There are a few.
- [44:50]
D
I'm thinking of this. There are a few. I love a sectional. I do love how it offers everybody a chance to come pile up together. They're not going to always be the easiest to photograph. In the job that we were talking about earlier, the. I think it was when we were touching on editing and we were talking about this old kind of 80s house in Palm beach that we edited a lot of things out of. But there is, in that job which is featured in the book, there is a large sectional. But what I like about a sectional is and. And I've, you know, had the good fortune of designing some with hickory chair that I have a product line with is I hate when a sectional is all back and it just, it prohibits you from approaching it from behind. It's such a big thing. It's got to work on, on the approach as well as, you know, from the front, from the back, all of it. So I like sectionals that have gaps so that there are moments where perhaps it's an ottoman that sits in between and then there's a chaise on one side and. And then the L shaped sofa on the other. But it offers a moment of light and welcoming to somebody who's approaching it from behind so it. It doesn't become just this big gargantuan hovering piece hankering down in the room that you really can't approach to it. So I think I like sectionals that. That are kind of deconstructed and break themselves up a little bit and are a little more welcoming in that regard.
- [46:28]
A
Okay. I had not noticed that break in that sectional, but it really is there. It's there. It's hidden, but I can see what you mean. You know, you're kind of. It looks like you're sort of coming down a hall straight into this fireplace. And if the sectional had been solid, you would totally miss the fireplace. But because the coffee, you know, it sort of looks like a coffee table. End table is right there. You can get a glimpse of it.
- [46:52]
D
Yes.
- [46:52]
A
You see through it. Very, very, very clever. I love that. That is so smart. Thank you, Liz. What. What have we got? We've. We've covered so much.
- [47:04]
C
We've covered a lot.
- [47:05]
A
Yes.
- [47:06]
C
This has been so fantastic.
- [47:07]
D
Well, it's fun. It's fun. I appreciate getting to talk with you guys.
- [47:11]
A
Well, your work is just honestly exquisite. And it's just. It makes me want to go and do some editing. I'm like, I need to go and I know, right? Drawers. You know, we could do some trade off. And it's just so calming and beautiful, but it's. It's an odd thing to have a room that feels calming and also dramatic, you know?
- [47:39]
D
Yeah, I like that. I like that.
- [47:42]
C
There's so much that's just tone on tone and so light and so airy that it really makes me think that this whole Nancy Myers aesthetic that's. That's all over social media is really Ray Booth.
- [47:56]
D
Oh, yeah. Oh, no, no, that's. Those are two pretty spaces for me to claim any. But. But listen, you know, I. I am so grateful to get to do the work that we do for our clients and have those invitations extended to us to learn new things or try new things and. And really work to try and make them reflections of whom we're working for, you know, in. In some sort of portrait of. Of them in the interior or the piece of architecture. So hopefully it's something I'll get to keep. Keep doing, please.
- [48:35]
A
Oh, my gosh, you will. And everyone. It's the expressive home by Ray Booth with Rizzoli. It's gorgeous. Can you tell everyone where they can find you, follow you and see your work?
- [48:46]
D
Absolutely. You can find me, of course, on the McAlpin House website or our socials. McAlpin as well. I'm one of the three partners there, along with Greg Tankersley and Bobby McAlpin. And then I also have my own Instagram page, Raybooth Design, which is all the McAlpin work and some of the things that I've done on my own. Also on that page, you'll find the hickory chair link to my furniture line which is. I mean we haven't even touched on. But what a phenomenal thing to get to do is to be able to make and create little pieces of architecture and upholstery and steel and wood for them as well as visual comfort. I've been able to do a lighting line with them so all of that you can find on on Rebooth Design.
- [49:39]
A
Fabulous. Thank you so much for chatting with us and making time to super fun share your new book. Congratulations.
- [49:46]
D
Thanks you all.
- [49:49]
A
And that's our show. You can find all of the show notes on our blog howtodecorate.com podcast to.
- [49:55]
B
Send in a decorating dilemma, Email your questions to podcastallarddesigns.net so we can help you with your space.
- [50:01]
A
And of course be sure to follow us on social media.
- [50:03]
C
Ballard Design don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. And please leave us a review. We'd love to hear your feedback.
- [50:11]
A
Until next time, Happy Decorating.