Hey all and welcome back to the Tanglewood series! First of all, let me apologize for the title of this post. I know it’s bad, people tried to stop me, but I couldn’t help it! It’ll all make sense in a minute, either way. Anyway, let’s talk about one of my favorite parts of the design process—mood boarding! I have to say, my interest in interior design—like many others’—started specifically with furniture and lighting catalogs. I remember signing up for the CB2 and DWR catalogs way back in middle school and just flipping back and forth through them for hours. And though my catalog collection has vastly expanded since then, I still do!
Mood boarding is something I didn’t start doing until much later—in fact, I still wasn’t doing them when I decided on the furniture for the living room, HA! But I quickly learned to love it since furniture and lighting selection have always been my favorite, and mood boarding is essentially just a visual aid for it.
Anyway, let’s take a look at this living space again, shall we?
So although the total common area is decently sized, only about 20% of it is allotted to the living area—there are stairs and an entryway in front and the dining needs to be across from the kitchen to the right. Plus the fireplace wall sort of creates a natural boundary. So the furniture had to be rather compact, which made me think mid-century.
Part of the reason I didn’t mood board for this room was that I had already decided on getting a Ligne Roset Togo Sofa. I had always been an admirer of Ligne Roset’s selection and for a long time, the Ligne Roset Atlanta location in midtown (R.I.P.) was one of the few accessible interior design spaces I had growing up here. So the Togos were obviously always on my radar, being the most iconic piece of their whole collection! Plus I thought the lowness and the cozy folds of the sofa would suit the space perfectly—it’s both compact and modern but could also lean warm, almost rustic (depending on the fabric, of course). Just like the room itself!
I wish I had taken more photos of the fabric selection process and the showroom (arg!), but I eventually narrowed down my fabric choices to one by Kvadrat I believe, and a creamy boucle. The Kvadarat fabric was like this thick bicolor wool twill—it’s hard to tell from the photo but it’s like white on top and red underneath so it has this glowy, warm undertone that’s just beautiful, pictured below.
Although gorgeous, that fabric would have made this already pricey sofa cost about 30% more, plus I thought the boucle had the kind of classic, relaxed vibe I was going for anyway (plus it's just all the rage at the moment), so I went with the boucle! I opted out of a coffee table to discourage people from eating on my brand new white sofas (yes, I’m that kind of host)! After that I kind of just organically picked out complementary pieces over time as I stumbled across them, including two side tables, a vintage credenza from Highland Row in Midtown, and the increasingly ubiquitous Beetle Sconce by Gallery L7, all linked below! Here they all are in mock-up:
Ok, so now you might understand the title of this post LOL. So…am I insane for thinking of only using one sconce here? I was going for this kind of sculptural moment and the sconce is kinda big so I was afraid they would just dominate this tiny space if I bought two, you know? LET ME KNOW! Maybe I should just buy 2 smaller sconces? Decisions, decisions... The jute rug I forgot to mention is from Rugs USA. It was super inexpensive for the size and helped offset some of the cost of the other pieces, plus it just had that organic modern vibe everyone’s been so into these days. Also, it's here already and after seeing it in person and putting my feet on it, I honestly couldn’t be happier with it! So what do we think? I definitely feel like I'm playing it safe overall—budget limitations are real (does this have anything to do with my idea to order only 1 sconce? I’ll never tell!), and I couldn’t afford mistakes or risky styling choices here, so I went with solid, neutral pieces I felt could stand the test of time. Anyway, stay tuned for Pt. 2: The Grand Reveal!
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