What I’m loving right now: Cottage-y, nostalgic design motifs—like ruffled chair skirts and pillow trim; patterned, ruched ceiling light shades; and cutouts in wood furniture—incorporated into rooms with a strong mix of other vintage styles and modern silhouettes. There’s a fresh, youthful playfulness around these decorative details that I am so delighted to see. I think adding sweet, folk-artsy notes adds so much warmth and visual interest.

I’d recommend it to someone who also likes…The art of the mix. This is for anyone who loves elements of everything but is uncomfortable with full rooms or full sets of one thing or one style. 

Where I’ve spotted it in the wild:

• Kelly Wearstler used billowy fabric chandeliers throughout Villon, the restaurant at the San Francisco Proper Hotel (above right).
• I adore everything the team at Charlap Hyman & Herrero are up to, and their recent debut of the Batsheva flagship store in NYC features so many charming ruched and ruffled details (above left).
• The prairie skirts I wore 20 years ago in high school are getting mixed by young people with black combat boots and vintage concert tees!

Three real-life ways I’d try it:

1. Getting more playful with lampshades and drapes for our clients. I’ve earmarked a bunch of small-pattern textiles to use. 
2. Little café curtains that only cover half your window but give you all the privacy you need.
3. Carving little heart-shaped motifs into solid wood benches. I’m working on a design project where we’re taking major inspiration from old Bavarian and Swiss ski chalets.

Domino’s Picks
A maximalist IKEA slipcover, a pleated pendant lamp, and 1960s Swedish dining chairs. 

If money, time, and space were no object, I’d…Buy a centuries-old mountain cabin in the Swiss Alps (my little sister lives in Basel!) and decorate it from the opposite perspective, experimenting with how far I’d want to mix in modernity versus preserving antiquity. In California, the oldest homes I get to design are only 130 years old or so!

My elevator pitch to skeptics: These details can be as small or mega as you want—but they will all bring a touch of comfy nostalgic warmth to any space (or outfit) you add them to.

Things to keep in mind:

• If you want to use a patterned fabric for ruching or ruffles, scrunch it up first to make sure you like how the colors and motifs smoosh together before committing.
• Have fun playing with scale, like a long ruffled skirt on a dining chair near a settee with a ruffled pillow. 
• If all of this talk of ruffling is “ruffling” your sensibilities, a safe place to play with this detail is in curtains that are pleated at the top!

How I see it evolving: I can see these motifs being made really contemporary and unexpected via the use of abstract patterned fabrics and new shapes. What about a Tyrolean-inspired dining chair set, but the cutouts in the wood are alien heads and stars and Saturn-shaped planets?!

What’s the next…

• Paint color you want to use: Benjamin Moore’s Beaujolais in a super high gloss. 

• Decor item you’re on the hunt for: A humongous vintage chalet-style cuckoo clock. But also, a dream piece would be a porcelain cuckoo clock by artist Katie Stout. 

• Vintage score of your dreams: The Alberto Roselli Confidential sectional I have in my living room! 

• Home project you’d like to tackle: My guest bathroom in San Francisco is the only room in my condo I haven’t tackled, so it’s still giving 2009 generic built-by-developer. I had held off on redoing it because there was never anything technically “wrong” with it, but the toilet just started failing, so this is my chance! 

• Design risk you’re taking: Designing my entire guest bathroom in the theme of “corn.” 

• Trend you hope makes a comeback: Warm, red-undertone woods! 

• Collection you’re building: I’m always on the hunt for more antique wood Daruma papier-mâché molds. Daruma are Japanese symbols of perseverance and good luck, an important one for me (my logo is a Daruma!). 

What’s the last…

• Thing you bought for your home: Chunky David Mellor silverware from the U.K. 

• Post you saved: A three-part upholstered sectional designed by Charlap Hyman & Herrero with JP Custom Upholstery. 

• Account you started following: Artist Francesca DiMattio (above right). 

• Photo you snapped: A gorgeous cabin in Lake Tahoe that I’d originally noticed for its landscaping, but then lost it over the little pine tree shutters (above left).

I thrive in summer. Ninety degrees and full sun? I’m barely breaking a sweat. Spiritually, though, fall and all its cozy goodness has my heart. So when I woke up to a (relatively) crisp 70-degree morning yesterday, it jump-started my annual lightweight to layered bed transition. This autumn, I have a few styles from Bed Threads in my sights. And now through the end of August, Enthusiasts can shop with the code DOMINO15 for 15% off sitewide. —Lindsey DeSimone, senior marketing manager

More exclusive savings through August 31: 

• 15% of full-price Falcon Enamelware with the code DOMINOxFALCON (excluding pint jugs and tumblers) 
• 20% off Pom Pom at Home sitewide with the code DOMINO20
• 20% off Mitzi sitewide with the code DOMINO20

Portrait Photography by Adahlia Cole

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