Home Staging & Interior Design: Keeping It Simple: August 2010

Watching the kitchen episode of Design Star left me searching for something inspiring. I mosied over to the website of a classic Italian kitchen company, Scavolini.

Now here’s something to drool over.

Look at the harlequin detail on the frosted glass doors, and the elegant mix of wood and shiny laminate. Oh my!

Somehow, this use of cool blue and steel doesn't leave me cold.

There's something very inviting about that kitchen. It's like a play kitchen for grown ups.

This one feels fresh, with an old world feel.

Everything reads as freestanding, even though they're built-in. Great use of contrast in the cabinet frames.

This one could be inspired by the green olives in the DS baskets.

A great monochromatic palette of greys with a fun splash of yellow green. Like cooking in a martini glass. Shaken, not stirred.

Now here's a simple color scheme done right.

Simple doesn't have to be boring. High contrast blocks of black and white are perfectly balanced with the dark wood floor and sparkling pendant. Sophisticated and fun.

Now that's how to do a kitchen.

All photos sourced from www.scavolini.us

While I haven’t stopped watching Design Star, I have stopped writing a blog after each episode. Why? Well, I just didn’t know what to say anymore. After letting a few episodes pile up in my mind, here are my general thoughts.

It seems like this crew of designers does not know how to think conceptually. They consistently take inspiration from objects (some very cool, I might add) and have no idea how to distill the essence of something and translate that into their own design. This is something I can critique, because I have done this constantly over my career in graphic design and interior design. I am a firm believer that there are no new ideas, just new ways of using the same old idea. Not only do I see a lot of, “I showed my parmesan cheese in the color on the wall” excuses from the cast, but I see a total lack of design concept thrown in. Which leads to my next thought.

There is a huge lack of design expertise being displayed. The visual designs have been ok, but don’t ask them to talk about the designs, please! They sound like scared robots. “We didn’t have enough contrast, so we added a bunch of food.” That’s not design, that’s like a kid fingerpainting. I’m all for an organic design process, and making decisions on the fly, but the reason there was no interest in the first place was because the designers made it that way. Did they not see that coming when they chose garlic and cheese? Where’s the thought process and use of the elements and principles of design? I want to be wow’d with the use of the fancy terms that I paid thousands of dollars to learn about in design school. Isn’t that what makes an expert? Those who can use and understand terms that lay people can’t?

Another gripe... The designers seem completely unable to define their client, especially in the Trump challenges. (photos above) The apartments looked like urban dorm rooms, NOT luxurious Trump dwellings. That is certainly not the time for Stacey’s arts and crafts project experiment. And, the kitchen designs showed the same hum-drum designs I’ve seen in tract homes for the past ten years. Where was the sexy tomato red Italian laminate in the Italian inspired kitchen? Maybe the cabinet selection was limited, but still paint or counter tops, something exciting. And the fact that there is no story shown about who’s using the space. It is difficult to see a lifestyle in any of the designs. Even in these fake challenges, they are still designing for someone who would use the space. It seems that the designers are trying only to showcase their talents. How exhausting! It’s much easier to show talent when you are designing for a purpose.