Best Living Room Design Ideas _ Top 6

Hi , everyone .

I'm Alison Kenworthy , the founder of Home Worthy .

And in 2022 we featured more than 50 beautiful living rooms from around the world and here are some of our favorites .

So this is our living room .

Um This is kind of a place where we welcome our friends to have a cocktail before we go to dinner .

This is kind of like the cozy place where we're doing the holidays .

We have our Christmas tree where we exchange gifts where we have our fireplace on .

Um , this is actually maybe the third time we've remodeled this room .

Second time we adopted a new puppy that destroyed our couches .

So after that , I found this painting that kind of gave me the full inspiration for the room .

I love the combination of the navy with the rust with um kind of like a little bit of a masculine look to it , adding a little bit of fun color .

So that was kind of like the first piece that I picked for this rendition of the living room .

Um I love that this is kind of like an easy conversation room .

We don't , we wanna make sure that everyone feels comfortable .

There's stools that you can pull out if you want to just come and sit .

Um , the fireplace is original and we wanted to keep a couple of things original to a house .

We also raised the ceiling in this room in this last renovation , which made it feel a lot different than the 9 ft ceilings .

So that was a huge change because I was obsessed with this light and this light needed to make it home .

So this is a Ralph Lauren chandelier .

Um And I love the combination with the brass and the leather gives it kind of like a masculine but old school look to the room .

Clearly working at Ralph Lauren kind of influenced a lot of my look , all that combination of like me uh metals with leather with kind of like a European international look also kind of a little bit of American masculine kind of like influenced in every single room .

Um I love it that feels lived .

It doesn't need to feel like it's a gallery or like a show house .

It's kind of like a lived room where you want to be comfortable .

That's why I want my guests to feel .

And also as when we're just around and we're just by the fireplace or just reading , having a drink .

Um It just needs to be lived and comfortable .

So this is actually a pair of chests that I found from Scout Design .

I told them that if they could find a place , this would be it .

Um I love the storage , but I also love kind of like the combination of the stone with a little bit of a vintage wood .

Um Again , since we kept kind of like the look of the house , I wanted to bring some of the vintage pieces that give it a little bit more original character .

I clearly like some layers .

So there's always books and trays and like the layers of like different items .

Again , every single piece in the house , it's a little bit of history .

This came from a trip to Turkey .

This was drawn by my grandmother .

She was an art .

She is an artist .

Um Just every single thing has a little bit of a story during our travels or our family .

Um That kind of makes it a little bit more special .

That is an unbelievable piece of art .

Thanks .

She is very , very creative and she's super talented .

That is one of I think five pieces that I own of hers .

And they're kind of like my most precious pieces that I would love to say forever .

So , so this actually is a another Ralph Lauren piece that I actually bought a couple of years ago from an estate sale .

Um It actually holds my favorite book in the house .

This is my grandfather's original drawings of the Mexican Cathedral .

Um It was given to me by my grandmother .

She knew that I was going into design and architecture .

So this was kind of like her , you can do it .

This is in your blood , go for it kind of thing .

It's kind of like one of my favorite pieces and it's super special .

Um The rest as you can tell is all layers .

And of course , there's always my turtle shells .

I love a turtle shell theme .

You'll see them throughout the house .

There's quite a bit of them .

They come everywhere .

And I love kind of like the story of like the shell is kind of like different for every single wine .

But also it's kind of like OK , that one's someone's home .

I love thinking of someone's like home as something special and unique .

So that's kind of like a unique for that one turtle .

So this is the original mantle from the house .

We actually just lacquered it and changed the tile to give it a little bit of an update updated .

Look , we love the scale and it kind of gives the height of the ceiling still even more of an impact when you walk in .

Um I love lacquering things in black .

I feel like it just gives it kind of like a new air of fresh air .

Um and it just feels a lot more like updated , but at the same time , it doesn't feel like it lost its character .

I don't have the best green thumb , but I love having plants around .

So I love changing it out and having as many plans around , I feel like it just gives the room a lot of life and a lot of like , uh color just that kind of changes .

So , um , that's actually a plan that was given by one of our best friends on our first trip to Mexico City together .

And it's actually the plan that survived the longest , which is crossing my fingers will still be there for a while .

So , uh I'm gonna say maybe like 4.5 years old .

And uh it's actually a plan that's actually original to Mexico City .

So that's why they were like , thanks for taking us to Mexican and showing us your home , wanna bring a little bit of Mexico to your house , keep it alive , kind of thing .

It's been there , it's still there .

Ok .

So this is actually we call her Monique .

I've had her for a couple like she's moved with me a couple of times .

I bought her at the Sack , Fifth Avenue closing here in Dallas .

Uh It was kind of like they're closing sale , everyone was buying fixtures and of course , I ended up buying a gigantic picture .

We call her Monique because that was actually my roommate at the time and she kind of looked like her .

So he kept saying to all of our guests that that was her .

So she's moved with us .

It's one of my favorite pieces .

I love the scale .

I feel like when you buy bigger art and like smaller rooms , it just makes the room big , feel bigger and a little bit more special .

So that's a fun piece that will move with me again .

So we had been looking for a home in this neighborhood for a couple of years .

Uh we drove up and down these streets every weekend trying to figure out what the best house was gonna be .

Uh And this actually came as a hip pocket , which was that it was not in the market , but it was coming up .

So we came to see it the first day I came out and we knew exactly that this is the project that we wanted to take .

So the house was in good condition as in like the structure was actually very strong still .

Um Other than that electric had to be changed , plumbing , had to be updated , windows had to be completely switched out .

So I had a good bones .

I just needed a lot of love now into the living room .

So this is by far my favorite room in the house , the evolution of this room , it really took space in the sense of I wanted it to be yellow and kind of translate through the yellow from our front hall and from our uh entryway into this room .

But once I saw this valley high quadri wallpaper , I was obsessed .

Um Danielle Rollins has used a similar um wallpaper .

Hers was Pierre uh but in it was blue and I tried every single and I felt absolutely in love and I love the linear pattern to it .

Um Because again , I had a quite a bit of art to hang throughout the room , some sconces .

Um And so it's , it's very nice when you have a linear pat pattern to hang up on it .

Um So this rug was Patterson Flynn and Martin .

Again , this was a repurpose from our old home .

And one of the cool things I'd like to point out is that this mantle was not original to the home , nor were any of the moldings throughout .

So this mantle was actually an antique from a salvage yard down in Hudson and it was brought up .

So the year the actual year that this mantle was created , I do not know , I got very little information from the seller other than a very good price .

So I wasn't going to fight with that .

Um However , we had it transported up here and installed into the home .

Um And I really think that it adds this architectural element that seems like it's much more original to the home and it's ornate , but without being too baroque .

Um So the other pieces that I'd really just like to point out are my , my Mario mini chair .

So anyone who knows the Prince of Chins and rest in peace .

I , I actually had his book when I was growing up and I wanted to be an interior designer my entire life .

So I used to have a bio file that I would rip pages out of .

And most all of them were Mario's work and he always loved to put in mini chairs .

So I found this actual child chair and I had it upholstered in this kasmir fabric that I also had this table skirt made out of uh with a little Samu and Sons gimp around the outside and I am very petite .

So I actually do at times like take a nice seat in the chair .

Um I do have some relatives who are 64 , but all of us females are about 5 ft .

So uh this definitely is a talking point and we absolutely love it as is Charles , which this was found by my mother .

And uh we had no idea what to do with him , but now he's become a staple and he has a bow for every holiday .

Some of my favorite pieces are done by Susan English .

Um I worked with uh Catherine Markle of fine arts and both this piece and the piece on the opposite side behind the baby grand piano are both done um by Susan English and she's a living artist today and somehow it just worked out that the colors tied absolutely everything together .

Um The other little elements again in this house is this again , very baroque , very intricate coffee table , which was my great , great grandmother's and it was a black lacquer and I had it faux painted in this faux degree and actually it was her idea , but I don't wear Lu Vuitton .

I don't find them very comfortable but to not paint the back of the legs .

So it's kind of these unexpected elements um throughout that we , you know , try to incorporate and I always want to make sure that there's a couple things that are a little unexpected .

Um These chairs are also my favorite , a little destroyed by George Arca , not Charles .

Um But the scalamandre uh velvet laser cut faux um I did just a very nice Ronaldo crushed velvet .

And again , a lot of these elements were inherited um such as , you know , this mirror was my grandmother's and also a lot of toll .

So if you see over here , I have a really nice collection of Toll and this is something that my mother and I did together .

Um And the , these are all antiques , but there are some new toll artists out there to explore .

Toll is sculpture that's done out of um out of metal .

So usually it's very delicate .

It usually has several different pieces to it that are then melted together , painted .

Um More often than not Toll is done in a sculptural sense with flowers .

Um So 11 home good find in here that actually a lot of people I don't think would expect is this .

And I have to say we have uh this kind of our whole family , the Snow Globe uh collection got a little out of hand when we were younger .

Um We , we would give my mom a lot of snow globes um that , you know , were from Disney or something and I would love to know where those are .

I now have taken it upon myself to just go completely crazy with my flowers .

Uh So every floral arrangement done in the home has been done by myself .

Uh These , I actually , I must admit uh to everyone watching Home Worthy today were done by me this morning in my kitchen um in my sweatpants at four o'clock in the morning because that's when my creative juices really get flowing .

So we're in our living room .

Now , obviously , the view is the first thing that you see when you come in .

And my favorite thing about the view is actually not looking at the buildings .

It's seeing like the sun hit the reflection of the water because before I moved to New York City , I used to fish a lot .

And I remember like sitting out fishing and the sun would always hit the waters .

It always reminds me of that .

And then my son's favorite thing to look at is this building here .

It looks like a H , so he calls it the H building and he'll draw it a lot too in his drawings .

And then so it's Christmas time .

We celebrate Christmas and Kwanza .

Um and we're in a tiny New York City apartment , so we don't have a lot of space .

So every year I get rid of my Christmas tree .

And then when Christmas comes around , I find someone that is giving away a Christmas tree .

So this year my neighbor , I think she's like three floors down .

She gifted me her pencil tree .

So adorable .

It's I think it's gold pencil .

Um and it's renter friend or not renter friendly but small space um friendly because it's pencil and I put some like uh African print on it to show our personality and I have fairy lights , but they're not really showing up too well right now and then just family pictures and um family ornaments .

Ok .

So totally boho .

Um I didn't learn about the style boho or design style boho until recently and I just saw it and I knew it was me .

Um So with a lot of textures colorful .

Um this rug here is actually a play mat .

It's called Boho Dream by House of Nomad .

I didn't know um about this brand .

I was at my friend's house on a play date for like four hours until I realized that it was actually a play mat .

I'm like this is this is not a rug .

So I immediately knew I had to have it myself .

Ok .

So this is our egg chair .

All of our guests love to sit in this chair .

It looks a little uncomfortable but it's actually very comfortable .

I've taken quite a few naps here and this is actually my favorite place to sit and enjoy the view .

It's a indoor outdoor chair .

I think .

I typically see it outdoor , but I love that .

It's inside .

It gives it some kind of like whim , whimsy and the dog loves it .

Of course , I would like to think all my plants are mostly low maintenance .

Um , I water them about once a week and I have a check-in day the same day as watering day .

That's a good kind of plant hack .

So , when you're watering , you could check in with them .

A lot of these plants are bright light , bright , indirect , light tolerant plants because the sun comes in here pretty bright during the day .

Um , this light , I found it in the trash room again .

I think I was , uh , I don't know what I was doing .

I found in the trash room and I immediately grabbed it and started carrying it out .

And this lady , I think she realized that I took out the trash room and I think she wanted it before me .

And I was like , sorry .

Um , it's IKEA though .

I think I ended up finding out it's IKEA Lamb .

Um , and like with most New York City apartments , there's no overhead lighting in the newer building .

So this is pretty great light .

So a lot of things are second hand here and I kind of like buying secondhand because your work is cut out for you because you could just buy anything that you want .

Um Like , it's a , you just buy whatever .

But when you like go on Facebook marketplace , you see the things that are listed .

And I also get inspiration from people's homes that are selling things like Decor .

I'm like , oh , they decorated like that ?

I see .

Ok .

That's a good idea .

So these two pieces of artwork , um it's by my favorite artist .

Her name is Dominique Brown .

She's pop contemporary .

I don't really know much about art , but I knew like as soon as I saw these pieces that I love them , um This is a little boy riding a bike .

So it reminded me of my son and this reminds me of my son and I's relationship , loving mom and son .

And then so I have this wall decor here and the other um actually fans , we went to um Harlem as a family and there was this African shop and they were selling fans .

I don't ever really use it as a fan .

I use it as Walmart .

But occasionally I will , I think Juneteenth , I took it out to use as a fan , but I love the colors .

So we're at the bookshelf , we have a lot of cool little things here .

Um Some fun Diy s so this was actually a record and I put it on top of a bowl in the oven and it melted down and molded to the shape and then I spray painted it .

There's this um secondhand store in Long Island City called Remix Market and they have a whole shelf that's free of records and I have one more right here .

I'm gonna melt this one down next .

I can't remember what that one was , but yeah , it was free .

So it's up cycle and then this is a recent diy .

Um This is a wax melt .

I put eucalyptus and lavender pieces and I think lemon oil , essential oil .

And then we have my in-laws here and this is my mother-in-law and every Christmas I bake her these Italian Christmas fig cookies .

I'm gonna show you those in a second .

What else do we have here ?

Family photos books .

My mother-in-law actually got me this plant .

I don't name my plants typically , but I name this one after the town that they live in .

They live in Finney town .

So I named her Finny .

This is one of my uh favorite plants .

It's called Axis .

And during the day the blooms are open and then at night it shuts .

It's pretty cool these pillows .

Um My mother-in-law knows my style pretty well .

So she got me this one .

and then this is from Fabric Child , a black owned business that I found I think on Etsy and I actually became friends with her too .

We talk a lot on Instagram and then my mother-in-law got this fabric when she went to Africa .

I can't remember where she went , but she's had it for years .

Um , and she knew that I like pillow cases like this .

So she made it into a pillow case for me .

I think this was for my birthday as a gift .

And this is also from hers too as well .

So , being a plant person , you make a lot of plan friends and one of my plant friends gifted this to me .

Um , when she gave it to me , it wasn't bloomed yet and she didn't know what it was .

So now it's bloomed and everyone's telling me it's a Amarillo and I love the color and I think it's perfect for Christmas right now .

Um , I haven't watered it or anything .

I think this is like a wax around the bulb on the bottom .

I'm not sure .

And then this book was gifted to me and it was a big inspiration for , um , the apartment .

It's called Wild Interiors .

And it's actually my , one of my son's favorite books now too .

That's why it's like a little messed up there and he'll go through .

So there's just Wild Interior people's homes that have lots of plants and he'll go through and he's like , oh , Mommy , look , there's my favorite plant and it'll just be like a random plant .

And I'm like , yeah , it is .

And then I'm like , oh , we have that one .

So this is o semi beauty .

It's , um , Bipoc owned .

The owner is Ruben .

He's very sweet .

Um It's Palo Santos and it's sustain , sustainably harvested um in Peru and it's been used for centuries as a healing method .

And I like to use it when I meditate .

One of my favorite things to do lately is listen to um , is unstoppable .

I'm really big with affirmations and I like the um incense while I'm listening to that and sometimes I'll also listen to it .

Like when I'm cleaning , that's kind of when I clear my head a lot too .

When we walked in here , Michael was like , where's the apartment ?

Where's the apartment ?

And then we walked in here and Michael still kept saying , where's the apartment ?

Where's the apartment ?

Because he kept thinking it was the foyer of the building still .

And it's not , it's our living room .

The furnitures look truly , it was from another apartment .

All of this stuff was from another apartment .

These are Andre Arbus , these are really good .

These are from an antique shop , um that uh the two of us saw them and we just had to own them .

I didn't care where they were from .

I didn't care where they were going .

I just had to own them and they've literally been with us for 25 years .

So this guy , funny story , Michael's got a friend who's an extraordinarily talented sculptor and George was having a hard time and Michael being the great friend and patron that he is um commissioned George to do a port to do a bronze of me .

And Michael presented to this , this to me 10 years ago .

Like it was a fantastic gift and I was kind of appalled .

I was like , I don't want a bronze , like I'm not the president of a bank .

Like why would I want a bronze ?

So George , we laid , we soon learned , actually moved in with us and lived with us for the entire summer , not part of the bargain .

Um Oh , they're lovely .

It was lovely .

And instead he did a bust on Michael .

The interesting thing is everybody looks at this and thinks it looks like me .

So there's a big discussion like it was supposed to be me and it was supposed to be Michael and it sort of instead became an amalgamation of the two of us .

That's somewhere between me and my husband .

I'm not sure where , where there's one thing my husband does not know this to this day .

We've been here for 14 years .

So there's a trim store called um Samuel and Sons .

And it's where I take all my clients and I buy trim , I buy things for edging , um drapery and tassels and tie backs and little details on chairs .

And I've been working with the same sales person there for 25 years .

Janice .

Janice , I love you , super talented woman .

So I walk in there .

These are new .

I put these up .

I walk in there and I had a little trim that I was gonna use and it was discontinued and Janice was like , oh , I know what you're gonna do .

You're gonna take this in blue and you're gonna take this in Terracotta and you're gonna overlay them and you're gonna use them together and then you're gonna put this braid on top of it .

It was $10,000 for the trim on those gardens .

And literally to this day , I'm still like , how did I spend $10,000 on trim ?

But it was a moment we had just moved in and I was feeling like I'm moving into a mansion on Fifth Avenue .

I should have $10,000 trim total .

Total stupid move .

So there is one little piece that I I I'm I I it just breaks my heart .

I don't know if you know who Ted muling is .

Ted muling is a jeweler , is a jeweler .

He's got a great shop down downtown , I think on Crosby Street .

Although it may have moved and Ted had this amazing idea .

Nien China is um an old China company that has these super bright , highly glazed and painted figurines .

And Ted had this amazing idea of going into their archives and pulling shapes out and just firing them in white unglazed porcelain .

And I , I uh this guy's been with us .

He's come to three different apartments with us like I , I just think he's really beautiful I think Ted's incredibly talented guy .

This is a collection that I , I started amassing probably in my twenties and their Victorian era for sock darning socks were so valuable and so hard to make .

Um during the Victoria era that they actually created these amazing sterling silver handled orbs with a black egg and they would put the egg inside the sock to give it a foot like form and then they would darn the sock , but only the Victorians would create something this valuable to fix a sock .

And when the girls were young , the girls would take these and play with them .

They used to be 12 of them , but the girls would take them and play with them and smack things with them .

And so some of them are broken , some of them are gone .

This , you all recognize this .

I'm probably gonna get arrested for this .

So this is what's the Mex Rosa Mexicana .

So one night I'm leaving Rosa Mexicana and there's this wall of swimmers , this incredible art installation of these swimmers on the wall .

And I'd had a little too much tequila and I took this off the wall of the restaurant .

Also .

Monkey bar .

You remember Monkey bar .

I stolen ash tray .

I threw a little thief da you know , I'm not trying , I just , you know , you see these , I tried to buy it .

I literally tried to buy it .

I said to the waiter , I was like just put it on my bills , put it on my bill .

He's like , we can't , we can't sell them .

I tried so hard to buy this thing .

So I stole it .

And then when you enter the home , you actually enter into this really pretty um living room .

So this is my coffee spot .

And every morning I make my coffee , I come in , I sit in one of these low chairs because they are a vintage chair that Greg uh found at home Nature in Southampton and redid them in sort of a Chanel like Boule .

So they're quite beautiful because they're khaki with a little bit of sea foam green , um which are great and they have a curved back , which is really nice because it's comfortable in the morning .

I feel like I'm getting a little bit of a hug with my coffee .

So these are my favorite chairs .

They're absolutely great .

A lot of the home is based in sort of a sand khaki neutral with sort of a sea foam green uh sea glass color .

And then he accented the whole thing with these Blinn lamps , which are really pretty .

So , um as we go around the room , these are just sort of a classic Blinn shape um in the beautiful , like royal blue glass .

And what's great is on a sunny day , the sun will come through these windows and the blue is reflected off onto the floor and everything .

So when you enter the home you're greeted sort of by this beautiful uh console that we found at English Country Antiques in Bridgehampton .

And what we've done is curated um a , a small collection of curiosities .

So we've collected some beautiful vintage um seascapes and we always love to like do a , a collection of an item , whether it's like the seascapes or florals or things like that and then rounding it out like I used to travel to Europe all the time .

So we've collected some , you know , the Hermes trays .

These shells are always found on the beach during my beach walks with Harper .

So we , you know , I bring them home and the the colors always work so well .

And the natural textures are like super inspiring .

So this is a collection of um shells that I collected with my grandmother down in Florida .

So she used to live in Port Charlotte and we would go to Boco Grand Beach and just go shelling and it was like a really nice time to like hang out with her and just really be with her .

So these are all from her house .

And when I decorated , when Greg , we started decorating the house , we would layer the shells in and then my mom and dad would come to visit and my mother would always like want to steal them back .

So um every time she sees these , she gets really annoyed , but um we've introduced them into her house as well .

So we have those .

And then funny story is Greg .

Greg was in Paris and he got me some cute things there .

Um , but these little , um , dishes are hysterical because my friend Jed has this amazing antique store in East Hampton and he has a very eclectic home .

So when I go there I shoplift and I take a few trinkets and he doesn't even know yet and he's been to my house like seven times .

So um hopefully he won't see that .

And then Greg worked with Stephen Gambrell for a long time .

So when he started his career , he uh interned there with Steven and Greg was in fashion like I was and in 2009 decided he was gonna have a great career change .

He went back to school , got an internship with Steven Gambrell and um then launched his own career .

So these lamps um Steven would always make and Greg just um had one made .

It's a vintage , I guess it's a vintage wine bottle or liquid bottle of some sort .

And he had a huge burlap shade made for it , which is really great .

So this is always people come in and they're always like , where did you find a lamp of that scale ?

Um So Greg has these made for his clients as well .

This was an original 19 twenties fishermen cottage and needed a ton of work .

So now we're in the living room of our house .

This room is a square room .

It has these wonderful long french doors and windows that give the room a lot of light .

One of the things that I loved when I came to this house is that nobody had ruined the details .

So the moldings were here , the old mantel was here .

This part of the house was built in 18 60 .

And when I walked in the door , it was a roaming house at the time .

Actually , there were beds in this room , if you can believe it , somebody was sleeping here .

And , but when I walked into it , I didn't , I didn't see any of the mess .

I just saw what the bones of this , this whole house and this room had its original bones .

And that's sort of what I loved about it .

It's a square room and there's , you know , people say , oh , do you move your furniture around ?

And I said , well , I really can't move my furniture around in this room because I made a floor plan that works .

We entertain a lot .

I've got a big sofa in front of the windows , this comfortable chair I'm sitting in .

And so I've made a seating group that's perfect for six people .

And then in front of the fireplace , I have two benches that can pull in for eight .

And I always think a dinner party of eight people is perfect .

And we use this room a lot in the winter .

It's cold outside and this house is quite warm and cozy .

So we eat in the dining room of this house and we entertain .

You can see , I always believe in making my guests feel comfortable .

So against the wall is a cabinet .

It's a regency 19th century painted cabinet and it's the bar and it's set up , the drinks are out , the glasses are out .

All I have to do is put a bottle of wine in a , in a canister and bring an ice bucket .

And my friends just help themselves .

If they want another drink , they get up and help themselves .

And I think when you entertain , you want to make people feel comfortable and at home and if you're rushing off to the kitchen or some place else , it makes the guests feel uncomfortable .

So we do entertain a lot .

We use this room a lot .

I actually love this room in the morning when the sun is coming in .

I can sit in this chair and read the paper or read a book .

Most of the furnishings in this room have been collected over a period of time .

Frankly , when I bought this house , I couldn't even afford to decorate this room .

So we furnished our library and this room sat empty for about five years , believe it or not .

And little by little , I thought , ok , now I need to , uh , to do the fine things for the living room .

And the first thing , one of the first things I bought was the mirror over the mantel .

I found it down in the , in the village in a kind of crusty antique shop when there were lots more in New York and it was a federal mirror mirror .

The period of the house , I'm not , I'm not into having everything be of the period .

But when I saw that over mantle mirror and it fit perfectly , I thought I had to have it in the corner of this , of this living room is a 19 fifties mirrored screen .

It's very chic , kind of stylish I think .

But it gives , it's wonderful at night because with candle light and the lamp lights on , it gives a glow to the corner and I think corners of rooms are often forgotten .

So sticking a screen in a corner just makes the corner come alive when we entertain .

I want everything done before the guests get here .

I like to have relaxed , really relaxed entertaining .

We do buffet .

We often in this house will do the buffet in the kitchen .

People get their plates help themselves and they come and sit down in the dining room .

If I can , I like to have somebody help clean up and I might get somebody to come and help pass seconds and take the plates away and serve dessert .

But we're pretty informal .

And the main thing about entertaining is the host and hostess should not be stressful .

If you're stressful , your guests are going to be stressful .

If you're popping up and down and worrying about things , you're going to make your guests uncomfortable .

And I also say if you're not a cook , don't worry about it .

Trader Joe's has great food , go buy it , but serve it beautifully .

Put it on a pretty platter , have a pretty table that's set .

People aren't going to know whether you cook the dinner or not if you serve it beautifully .

And I really believe that you should not think .

Oh , I'm not , I'm not junior child , but I need to go to the cookbook for , you know , the entire day and cook something .

I don't think you have to do that anymore .

The main thing is to get your friends together for you to be relaxed and to have a wonderful time .

The secretary desk in this room is one that was a splurge .

I had another one here that frankly I bought along the side of the road and I always wanted to upgrade it and there was a great Swedish dealer named Arnie Sle and he moved , he closed his shop and there was an auction at Sotheby's and I bought this Danish .

It's actually a Danish secretary desk that is the same period of the house , even though it's , it's , it's Danish .

So that's one of my favorite things .

Um , I have a pair of chairs that came from my furniture collection .

Bunny Williams home little drinks tables that we make .

And so I mix some of my new things with , um , the , one of a kind that we find my feeling about decorating is I want a room to feel relaxed , not forced and I'd like it to open up to you the longer you're in it .

If you sit in this room for a while , you'll see .

I've used this wonderful hand block linen print on one chair .

It's not repeated again in the room .

My sofa is a beige twill fabric .

I often do sofas in solid colors , but then over the back is a beautiful Susai .

When we found that when we were in Turkey , I've got in African fabrics for pillows on either side and an English needlepoint pillow and in the center .

So there's pattern on the sofa , but every single thing is different .

It's , but it's , it's a harmony of color .

Um And I think you can't , you , you have to think about how you put it together in a color palette , but you can have different textures .

And I think that becomes more interesting .

And as I say , kind of evolves , it's like the mantle , the uh objects on the mantle in this room .

I loved Apt wear and I had a pair of Apt wear vases .

So everything on the mantle is browns .

It's , it's wedgewood , it's Apt ware .

And there are a pair of Chinese dogs .

I found that are brown pottery .

So it was collected over a period of time .

It all works together .

But it's , it's different .

The wall color in this room is this , um , actually it's sort of , it's not really melon , it's not really yellow .

I was in Italy , um , at the Villa San Male having lunch and it was this beautiful room .

That was the most extraordinary color I'd ever seen .

And I , it was supposedly designed by Michelangelo and it had its original plaster .

I just fell in love with the color and I noticed that all the napkins in the restaurant were the exact dyed exactly the color of the room because I wasn't sure how I was gonna remember the color when I got home .

So I went to the Maitre D after a very expensive lunch and asked if I could buy , buy a napkin .

And when he saw the size of the bill , he said , oh , you can have one .

And so I brought the napkin home and actually I painted these walls myself .

This was 35 years ago and I wanted it to look like old plaster .

So I used water based paint that I thin down and I use water colors to make to get the color .

It was the hardest thing I ever did because water based paint dries very quickly .

But the walls have kind of an irregular quality and I've never repainted them and I , I know I'll never get this finish if I have a crack in the walls , but it's just going to have to stay because I don't dare , I've painted the trim again , but I don't dare paint the walls again .

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