A Style-Fashionable Interview with Kathryn Chaplow

Kathryn Chaplow design aestetic is a part tradition, part chameleon.She takes pride in the fac that she has no signature “look”, but more a signature style-fashionable,smart,approachable, and always in the move.Her inspirations include her love of family, the arts, and the passions of her clients.She believes that good interior design elevates quality of lige and celebrates tradition and the future once.

Mutch cottage midwest living photoshoot 7 10 10 1025

Q:Tell us about the moment when you decided to follow a career in the field of interior design.

My mother always encouraged our creativity and allowed me to rearrange the furniture and select paint colors in my parents split level house growing up.  After a conversation with a friend in high school, I realized that it was possible to design interiors professionally. There was no looking back.

Mutch cottage midwest living photoshoot 7 10 10 1025

Q:Did you have other options in mind at the time?

Teaching art.

Q:Where do you look for an obscure source of inspiration?

Contemporary artwork, Children’s books, Vintage books and magazines, Vintage record album artwork and music videos, Junk stores.

Mutch cottage midwest living photoshoot 7 10 10 1025

Q:Favorite thing about your job?

Learning-it is never-ending!  That, and working with teams of people-collaboration feeds me.

Mutch cottage midwest living photoshoot 7 10 10 1025

Mutch cottage midwest living photoshoot 7 10 10 1025

Q:What is your first design project?

My first position out of school was for a small Nashville design firm owned by two sisters, and they were amazing.  They were also incredibly busy when they hired me, so it was baptism by fire.  My first project was working for a very handsome, motorcycle-riding studio musician who wanted to design a romantic but cool bachelor pad. He wanted everything, and I kept trying to design it all in.  The discipline of editing is so critical to good design.

Mutch cottage midwest living photoshoot 7 10 10 1025

Q:What’s your favourite room to decorate?

A sexy library…with a bar.

Q:What’s your current paint colour obsession?

Black

Mutch cottage midwest living photoshoot 7 10 10 1025

Q:What is the trend for bathroom/bedroom/kitchen and living room this year.

Spaces are becoming more “honest” and authentic reflections of life while remaining gorgeous.  People are willing to live with finishes that show use and patina use over time in highly used spaces.  Our clients are loving imperfection- the sort that accompanies simple but luxurious materials like honed marble, hand cast bronze, linen, cotton, waxed and oiled woods…Instead of techy “tricks” we are using more stealth technology that makes lighting, sound, and environment control highly customized but discreet and easy.  Same with appliances and cabinetry- not so much “over the top”, thankfully.

Stefan,

If you are looking for more specific input:

More specifically:

BATH: fewer tubs, more fabulous showers. more technology-audio visual, a real sense of living space- with comfortable seating, rugs, artwork.

BEDROOM:  more organic luxury, simplified bedding, PERSONAL style!

KITCHEN:  lots of drawers, multiple islands, consistent use of materials, less “goopy” detailing with tile, trim and appliance panels.

LIVING ROOM: organic, natural materials mixed with an element of contemporary shine, luxe metallic accents, luscious and colorful textiles, layered patterns, art, art, art.

Mutch cottage midwest living photoshoot 7 10 10 1025

Mutch cottage midwest living photoshoot 7 10 10 1025

Q:What’s exciting you in the design world right now?

The sense that anything is possible anywhere.  It is so much easier to find and stay connected to the latest trends and resources now than it was twenty years ago.  Technology keeps good design accessible to everyone. It is fabulous to work out of studio in New York city, but there are designers making a name for themselves creating brilliant, forward designs in every market.

Mutch cottage midwest living photoshoot 7 10 10 1025

Mutch cottage midwest living photoshoot 7 10 10 1025

Q:What do you consider to be the most iconic design piece of the past century?

I wish it was the Pedro Friedeberg Hand Chair…but it is probably something by Herman Miller or Steve Jobs or Lego…all of which I love as well!

Mutch cottage midwest living photoshoot 7 10 10 1025

Q:What do you think is the easiest way to update a room?

Paint….and lampshades.  Lampshades really date a room.   I think I learned that reading Billy Baldwin!

Q:Anything new and exciting that you want to share with the Homedit readers?

This year we will be completing three large and very different residential projects, all of which have been under development and construction for many months.  It will be exciting to get these completed and finally see our client’s visions realized.  Stay tuned…