Notes From the Field: All Mixed Up

By Cheryl Katz

My mother’s guiding design principle both in terms of fashion and interiors was that “things should always go together, they should match.†That is how my sister Leslie and I always wore the same dress–no matter that she was four years younger and five inches taller than me–and how we came to share a bedroom in which the headboards of our twin beds where fashioned from the same fabric as our bed covers, our curtains., and the cloth that covered our nightstand. I have no doubt that if finances had allowed, the room would have been wallpapered in that same floral print as well.

And though I respected my mother’s style sense, I have never subscribed to it. To me the imperfect, the haphazard, the mismatched is an antidote to bland and formulaic design. I’m convinced that a certain amount of randomness helps to get things right.

Photo from www.missmoss.co.za

Photo by Jeffrey Katz

Photo courtesy of Anthropologie

Bespoke upholstered chairs designed and executed by Martha Pilgreen. Photo by Cheryl Katz

Photo by Jeffrey Katz

For more notes from the field, check out:

About Faces

A Seaside Abode

On Lines