Belgian Design - Catch the Excitement

Who knew??? There's a name and a source for the style that I gravitate toward...Belgian Design. People will often ask what style I like or how my home is decorated? Swedish just didn't hit the style that I like...it's something else.... not modern, not traditional, eclectic doesn't do it....


I am of two minds (if not more) about a set "style." Before I entered design school I called a local designer and asked her if she found it difficult to work in a style other than what she personally liked. Occasionally her answer will pop into my mind again, giving me a gem to turn over and around and think about when my mind has time and space to drift.


She said "I do have a style that I personally like and am drawn to, but as a professional, I can work across all styles, applying the principles of good design."

Restoration Hardware Victorian Hotel Pendant

In my professional career I have worked across a wide range of styles. Cleveland, Ohio is primarily a traditional market, with some splashes of more progressive design around our fair city. There have been projects on all of our coasts with a wide range of styles.

I have created designs for more traditional clients that I think are very nice and that the clients really enjoy - that's a success. It's not my personal style but they are client spaces that I am happy with. I have designed some very clean, modern spaces, and those are wonderful too.

But I do wonder...about that niche thing....


If designers are working in the "style" that appeals to them most, that which most makes their heart skip a beat, then would the finished product be so much better?? It's conceivable. What do you think? Would our designs be that much better if we deeply developed or worked within one "style?"






Restoration Hardware Salerno Street Lamp


This brings me back to the source of my excitement - Belgian Style - and a recent post from a blogger that I love, Joni Webb from Cote De Texas. It's a wonderful post Joni has done on Belgian Design and the new fall offerings from Restoration Hardware. Seems Restoration Hardware may be choosing a new path for it's stores - and I think it's beautiful! Yeah!

Restoration Hardware

For me, I like a wide mixture of styles and objects...modern, antique, some traditional, campaign, stone, glass, natural soft woods, neutral natural fabrics, dark woods...it's a little bit of many styles, but it has a certain feel.

And now I can put a name to that feel - Belgian Style.


Wonderful new blog with more Belgian Design - Belgian Pearls