Berry Hill – Luxe for Less

            I can’t tell you how many times I have convinced myself to buy something by justifying that it’s a statement piece and it can pull a whole look together. Whether it’s a new watch or a pair of shoes, I tell myself and my wallet that I need it because it’s a STATEMENT.

The truth of the matter is that an accessory can pull that an entire look together. An outfit can go from drab to fab by adding a bold necklace or an oversized bag. In all the magazines this summer I have noticed an overwhelming trend in the fact that you can spend less on accessories over clothes and become completely fashionable and chic.

Accessories are not just for making that perfect outfit. A statement piece for a room in your house or apartment can pull together a design to make your place completely fashion forward.

These two pillows are both at Berry Hill Home for $35 and $25. That’s what I call cheap inspiration!

This great painting, that could give any room a new life, is only $50.

            That one “statement” piece could you give your room the inspiration it’s been thirsting for. At Berry Hill, we have multiple accessories that could jump-start your ideas and make your room your own.

By Emma Chrystal for Berry Hill Home

I’m only human, so I have my favorites. And I love me some neutrals.

Bright colors are appealing, and in the same way that a bright color can add a (literal) burst of energy to a room, neutrals have a way of bringing about a calming effect…and because I love my life outside my home to be crazy busy and helter-skelter, I prefer for my home to be a place of relaxation…my sanctuary.

As part of my home redecoration project I wanted to get some new accessories for the living room. The canvas currently consists of 3 sofas (I know, don’t ask – we are trying to figure out which one to get rid of! )…one in sage green, one in beige, and one in chocolate brown. I intend to get these sofas reupholstered at some point, so by keeping the colors of the pillows neutral (or at least in the same neutral family I am going to adopt going forward) they can go with the current pieces and with the updated pieces.

The pillow situation is less than ideal (they are pretty, but not all together) and I’d like some other accessories for the room as well. I usually shop a little circuit once a week at my favorite stores (online, from the comfort of my bed!) and I came across some really great items at West Elm and Z Gallerie.

First up is the Sultan Bedding Collection from Z Gallerie:

I love the mixture of neutrals and patterns and textures! I think I am going to do these pillows from Z Gallerie:

The Allegria

The Andora

The Ambi (which also comes in a gorgeous blue!)

And these pretty ones from West Elm:

The Mongolian Lamb

(I think I’m going to do that beige and maybe one of the light gray ones for my bedroom)

The Gilded Grasscloth

I also am thinking of these gorgeous accessories:

Metal Easel Floating Frames

(how great would these look with some cool art clipped from an old coffee table book?)

Cowhide Frames

And this bronze filigree ginger jar from Z Gallerie

(which is almost identical to the one we are selling at Berry Hill Home in green!)

And this Organic Capiz Bowl

If they aren’t snatched up first, I may mix in some of these awesome pieces we have at Berry Hill:

Magnifying Glasses

(these are great displayed individually or in sets – top one is $80; bottom ones are $50 ea)

This is the green ginger jar ($80) I mentioned earlier:

Or this glazed ceramic horse:

The easy part was falling in love with these. The hard part will be accessorizing, but I am up to the task!

Kara Griffiths for Berry Hill Home

Because of what I do I often have people ask me (or tell me, rather expectantly), ” Your place must be fabulous, right?” . Well, it’s a relative term…fabulous to some, but not fabulous to me. But there is definitely potential there. Our condo has some beautiful elements and a pretty great (wide) layout. I have access to some really great pieces at Berry Hill Home, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, and my place won’t be tip-top in a day (or anything close to that) either.

After 2 1/2 years of living with my boyfriend, S, I have finally begun the transformation from Bachelor Pad to Couple’s Retreat. Not that he had bad taste – in fact, I was always very impressed with how put-together our place has always been. But it was time to add my personal (and feminine) touch to things, and since a complete overhaul is not in the budget, I decided to go bit by bit, room by room.Which is also the advice I give people in my store – it not only allows you to stay within a tight budget, but it also allows you the ability to create a “collected” look in your space, so it’s personal to YOU, and doesn’t look like page 87 out of the Pottery Barn catalogue (not that there is anything wrong with that, but that’s just not what I want out of it).

The first phase of this project consisted of my evaluation of priorities – which rooms did we use most often, and for what purpose? I have a quote on the whiteboard in my store from the late Marija Stephens (a talented designer whose life was tragically cut short), of the blog Holding Court, (which despite its brevity is a great read), who wisely said:

” To try to get things perfect is a waste of time, energy and resources.  Get your spaces comfortable.  Decorate for the way you really live, not the life you think you want to live and you’ll be happy.  And before you know it, your space will be perfect for you.”

So after accepting that as my mantra, I decided to think about exactly what I wanted as an end result. And since I have been collecting pictures from blogs for a very long time, part of that process also involved editing my vision over time. Literally going through and deleting pictures that I didn’t feel completely embraced the look I wanted for that space. I have probably washed/rinsed/repeated that process about 7 or 8 times, so I am now ready to move forward.

I have heard it often said that the master bedroom is often done last, and while I did not want to be another victim of this statistic, I also realistically decided that it probably should be the last to be done, considering that I wanted it to be the most perfect room in our home (and for that I would be willing to bide my time to collect the perfect pieces, which I have been doing, more of which I will share with you later!) but it’s also the room that people tend to not see.

So top of the list would be living/dining area (because we love to entertain this would be the highest priority), the guest bedroom (because we do have quite a few people stay with us throughout the year, WHICH WE LOVE!), the den (to be converted to S’s office, so that I could kick him and his desk out of our master bedroom), the guest bathroom (not too much needed for this space, but still…), and then the master bedroom, and LAST the master bath (despite the fact that S bought our newly constructed place 6 years ago, he did have a terribly messy brother and roommate that lived with him before I came along, PLUS there is also the regular wear-and-tear of everyday living, so I think our master bedroom is due for an update).

Keeping that in mind, I then tried to figure out how to converge HIS taste (him: “I like rustic” – me: “Really!?!? In the middle of the city?!?!? Okay…”) and MY taste (think Belgian with lots of gilded accents and crystal…not too opulent, but slightly decadent). It occurred to me that the love child of these ideas could be Ralph Lauren. I mean, every single time I walk into a Ralph Lauren store (especially the one in Palo Alto, CA) I have this sense of having arrived at my home (too bad it’s not my home. Ralph and Ricky, if you are looking to adopt, CALL ME).

Next came color palettes. As mentioned, I love neutrals, and while I think that would dominate the overall palette, I thought I would break it up a bit as well, so I decided that each room would have it’s own color scheme/theme:

1. Living Room/Dining Room – rustic and elegant, incorporating rustic elements (antlers, distressed wood, leather, linen, burlap, etc) with more decadent elements (antique brass fixtures, beautiful art, horn accessories, beautiful table linens, silver candlesticks and bowls).Colors would be sand/beige/espresso accents/ivory…you get the gist. Not a whole lot of color here.

2. Kitchen – since it opens into/connect to our living/dining area, it is keeping in the same theme, but with things like baskets, pitchers, etc. on display, perhaps an olive plant, etc.Perhaps a pop of sage green here and there.

3. Guest Bedroom – I love navy blue, so I wanted to incorporate this somewhere in the house, so the guest bedroom won out. This with a “wordly travel” feel. I at one point leaned more toward nautical and beach, but being in the city I figured that might be pushing it a bit. Plus, we have guests that come from all over, so I thought it would be interesting to have various places/themes represented there. I have some great Ikat fabric from Calico Corners, and found a great duvet cover and shams in khaki with a cool print from Target that have a lovely washed-in feel.

4. Den/Office – it used to be the den, now it is S’s office. I am going for a vintage-sports-library feel. Again, rustic but elegant – an antler chandelier, lots of leather, plaid, and dark wood, and lots of vintage athletic gear and prints (much of the gear is my dad’s old sporting equipment…it’s pretty cool). The room is a “sunny yellow” at the moment, which isn’t terrible, but I think it needs to be repainted to another color. The other challenge of this space will be to turn the closet in the office into a mini-office/storage area for all my creative projects and entertaining accessories. Yes, I have a lot of them.

5. Guest Bathroom – I would like to try wallpaper in there, but I don’t know that S will let me. That being said, sometimes it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission. It also needs a new light fixture and mirror, and perhaps a vanity, since at the moment we have a pedestal sink and I think we could perhaps use a wee bit more storage. But it’s not terrible as it is, it just need a little sprucing up.

6. Master Bedroom – I LOVE LOVE LOVE gray. The right shade of it, of course, but there is something so calming and serene and elegant about gray. The master needs a LOT of work – all the furniture we currently have is very heavy and masculine, however S loves our big dresser, so I may have to keep that piece but update everything else. Again, more antique brass/gold elements, some rugs, chandelier to replace fan (already have a GORGEOUS one in my closet that was a present from my darling friends…you know who you are), perhaps some millwork on the big wall (we are fortunate in that we have a large master suite, but it is hard to fill up wall space), and a seating area (2 chairs and a little side table, where I can sit and read, or sit and chat with my girls.

7. Master Bath – until this is even an option, I won’t bore you with the details.

And then there are the challenges. I am not a professional decorator/designer, so everything I do I do based off instinct and my own personal aesthetic. Some people do not feel comfortable doing that. If you are one of those people I highly recommend hiring a decorator/designer to assist you in putting your home together. Many of the ones I follow in the blogosphere do e-clients (meaning you send them pictures, dimensions, and explain your goals, aesthetic, budget and they send you a layout and shopping list) so they don’t have to be in your town – they just have to be someone you feel comfortable working with that is within your budget. I feel comfortable enough doing it on my own, which isn’t to say that I wouldn’t love the advice of a professional, it’s just that I would rather give it a go on my own FIRST, and then maybe hire someone to come in a tweak it.

There is also the budget. But as I mentioned before, if you do it over time, you can defray the cost of redoing your home over a longer period, rather than investing a ton of money up front.

And last, functionality. I am very Type-A, and I am also a slave to efficiency, so every piece in the house has to serve a purpose (accessories are exempt from this since their sole purpose is to look pretty), from the lowly footstool to a sofa, it needs to work, and maybe even serve more than one purpose, or serve as something outside its original purpose.

So there it all is in a nutshell!  I’ll be posting every week on Mondays about my home and the progress I have made/projects I have in queue, and I hope you enjoy following me along on this journey!

Kara Griffiths for Berry Hill Home

First, let me apologize for my long absence – there is really no excuse for it, only that I would rather not write anything at all than write something that was completely uninspired. And let’s face it, Chicago in late winter is not, for the most part, the least bit inspiring.

But now that it is early spring, I am happy to report that the creative juices are flowing once more and that I will do my best to post and keep interesting content that relates to Berry Hill flowing!

This morning, while perusing one of my favorite blogs, My Cup of Te, done by the fabulous Roxy, I saw an older post about the 39th Annual Kips Bay Show House via Lonny Mag.

While the even itself triggered a little flutter in my heart (and please go to Lonny Mag’s blog to check out the pics – they are to die for!), the picture she posted was really what caught my eye (although I LOVE LOVE LOVE Lonny as well!), so I thought I would share my little tidbit with all of you!

For those who know me well, or at all since I go about proclaiming this fact from the rooftops, I love animals. They are delicious. To pet. And yes, to eat. And even to look at, long after they are dead. I know, it sounds terribly morbid, and I’m sure animal lovers and PETA members are up in arms to hear me blaspheme in such a way, but it’s the sordid truth. And I revel in it.

I love pets just as much as the next person. Just ask my better half – any time an animal is shown on television, my inevitable repsonse, almost knee-jerk reaction, is, “I want one”. Be it elephant or chinchilla, it matters not. I. WANT. ONE.

So I feel that my love of animal hides (loving cow hides and that gorgeous staple, the “zebra” hide) and skulls and taxidermy (my BFF’s cousin has a stuffed  jaguar that makes my knees week and can I just say how long I have lusted after a stuffed peacock? FOREVER.) is also based on my love of those same animals in their live state. I feel that just because they are dead it doesn’t mean they can’t go on being appreciated. Or cease to be useful! As in decor…

This particular picture is near and dear to my heart, as I have one darling little impala skull here at Berry Hill Home (he is for sale at $95, and it a wonderful size to use in the exact same manner as in the picture – on a coffee table) as well as two large ones at home that flank a long row of windows in my living room. They are my pride and joy and I revel in them as much as I would revel in a new watch – they are an accessory, for my home.

Don’t shy away from the use of these items for fear of upsetting animal lovers (which is bound to happen, but read on), rather REVEL in the ability to use a beautiful creature as decor and lengthen its life (in a way)! Some think that the antler and hide thing is a trend, and indeed it is, but I feel it’s a look that will have the staying power of a classic, much like a polo shirt or a Lilly Pulitzer dress…collect, display, and enjoy for years to come!

Kara Griffiths for Berry Hill Home

So you can imagine my surprise and glee when I was flipping through my latest issue of Elle Decor when I came across the last page feature titled “Shelf Life”. It was a study of various types of bookends, and I was thrilled to see 3 items in the section that have clones here at Berry Hill Home!

The pair pictured below is a pair of “Kung Foo Dogs”, which can be found at www.piecesinc.com and retail for $160 (image from ElleDecor.com)

And these are the pair of Foo Dogs we have at Berry Hill Home – nearly identical and priced much better at $95 for the pair!

The agate bookends below are from Royale Minerals and retail for $130 (photo from ElleDecor.com)

And these from Berry Hill Home retail for $60 ($35 and $25 each, respectively)

And last, but not least, this darling set of shell bookends from the Platt Collection (photo from ElleDecor.com)

These silver sea creatures at Berry Hill Home are mounted on a black stand and could also serve as a pair of bookends – they are priced at $65 each, or $130 for a pair, and you can mix and match!

Just another way Berry Hill Home offers our customers Luxe Looks for Less!

Kara Griffiths for Berry Hill Home.