Inspiring Mix

Filing is not exactly my strong suit.  In addition to paper files littering my actual desktop, I tend to have files littering my computer's desktop as well.  Sometimes when I go to clean up, I find images I didn't remember saving, and then it's like being inspired all over again.

Apparently I liked this image from Good Housekeeping enough to tear it out of the magazine and scan it.

I've been pushing myself to create more tension in my own design work by bringing in that weird or quirky item that isn't at all "obvious" but totally "works."  In this bedroom, the mix is super eclectic, but to my eye it all "goes" really well--the balance of black and white, the rectangular shapes, the movement in the painting and tree with everything else pretty static.  

But then there's that throw pillow!  The colors, the pattern, the style--none of it relates to anything else in the room.  I never would have thought to put that there (and honestly, it's possible that that was the work of the stylist), but for some reason, it totally works.

Do you agree?

This is the alchemy of design, if you ask me.