​This is the first draft of my design for a young family living in a 1960s center-hall colonial. This mood board is intentionally not to-scale and meant to show my clients the overall design plan, emotional tone, color palette, and relationships between pieces for their feedback before I add final layers like lighting, plants, accessories, and décor. Both husband and wife love sports and each has a deep equestrian heritage; one from the world of racing and the other from dressage. I’m recommending that we take this heritage as the guiding vision for their living room. Their goal is to have the space feel modern, warm, quietly sophisticated, and comfortably semi-formal for entertaining and family life.

This is how I design. In addition to making sure each piece fits the budget, fits fits into the space, fits their wants and fits their needs, I calibrate opposing design elements and principles to achieve the perfect balance. I work with over fifty points: to adjust each object and then to balance the entire room so it tells a larger story, one that expresses the clients’ values.

Every piece in this mood board is doing two design jobs at once. First, each item has its own balance of internal contrast, opposing qualities inside a single object. Second, I use these to create a separate balance within the room itself.

The Porter sofa is a modern, stark silhouette, yet the brown suede brings warmth and softness.
In the room: its warmth balances the cooler blues.

The George Smith chairs are heirloom-quality traditional craftsmanship, yet shaped in a mid-century silhouette.
In the room: their blue linen cools the palette and lifts the room out of neutral.

The Parsons chairs are understated, yet fascinating because they're essentially sculptures of chairs!
In the room: they provide a simple foil to the complexity of the root coffee table.

The tree root coffee table is a raw piece of nature, yet hand-finished into a piece of furniture.
In the room: it balances all the structured symmetry with organic, abstract rhythm.

The equestrian portraits are historical subjects, Secretariat and Man o' War, yet painted in modern compositions.
In the room: they anchor the story, tie the space to the family’s identity, and contrast beautifully with the anonymity of the furniture.

The hand-tufted wool rug is both artisanal and natural.
In the room: it quiets the composition visually as a near-solid neutral and literally by absorbing sound, while strongly signaling softness and casual comfort..

Together, these choices achieve the goals. The room feels comfortably balanced, alive, intentional, and personal. The design isn’t made of “matching pieces” or even a collection of tasteful items, it’s built by calibrating opposites, individually and collectively.

I hope my clients see how their personal history, their selves and souls are woven into a modern, livable design that feels like home.

Image source: Herman Miller

Next up from www.SomewhatSimple.com

#2 - Go to the supermarket. 
Buy tiny pumpkin gourds.
​Done!