Decorating Guides
Decorating Styles
Simply Luxurious: Girly Modern Style
Designer Melanie Coddington Shows How to Get a Chic, Feminine Look
Interior designer Melanie Coddington's style has been pegged as "girly modern" from the get-go. "I've embraced it," she says. "It's a look I love and often do." Coddington's homes have a simple but decadent look — the design is impeccable, unique, and full of quality items. Nothing is over the top, but it still feels absolutely luxurious. "I want to create a home that is my style, but the client's too," she says. "It needs to be functional for the people living there."
Coddington Design, which is based in San Francisco, has been growing quickly. In the last year they opened their LA office, started an e-design platform, and launched their blog. Coddington's sophisticated feminine style is in high demand — among men and women alike. While it takes years of experience to achieve such an exquisite look, Coddington's chic look can be broken down to five techniques:
1. Unique pieces
2. Luxurious textiles
3. A simple but rich color palette
4. Pieces with strong silhouettes
5. Splashes of feminine and masculine detail
Here they are at work in three Coddington-designed interiors:
Coddington Design, which is based in San Francisco, has been growing quickly. In the last year they opened their LA office, started an e-design platform, and launched their blog. Coddington's sophisticated feminine style is in high demand — among men and women alike. While it takes years of experience to achieve such an exquisite look, Coddington's chic look can be broken down to five techniques:
1. Unique pieces
2. Luxurious textiles
3. A simple but rich color palette
4. Pieces with strong silhouettes
5. Splashes of feminine and masculine detail
Here they are at work in three Coddington-designed interiors:
1. Use unique pieces. Think custom, and think vintage. This dining room is located in Coddington's Potrero Hill home in San Francisco. A home rich in history, it was built at the turn of the century, but its records were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. Coddington bought the home in 2007, and has had to put considerable effort into working her expansive furniture collection into its 1,400-square-foot floorplan. Coddington designed this mirror and paired a flea-market dining table with 18th-century reupholstered Swedish dining chairs.
The mirrors, headboard, and bedding the bedroom at Coddington's Potrero Hill home are also all her own designs. An excellent sense of proportion and years of experience and resources have allowed Coddington the freedom to design most of her pieces exactly as she wants.
For those of us who aren't quite as gifted, the sense of unique and custom pieces can still be accomplished with little personal touches to existing furniture — adding new drawer pulls to a dresser, painting a vintage console a bright lacquer, or sewing curtains from a fun fabric store find.
For those of us who aren't quite as gifted, the sense of unique and custom pieces can still be accomplished with little personal touches to existing furniture — adding new drawer pulls to a dresser, painting a vintage console a bright lacquer, or sewing curtains from a fun fabric store find.
2. Implement luxurious textiles on every surface. Investing in new upholstery for furniture truly works miracles. Coddington frequently uses silks, velvets, leathers and linens to add a decidedly extravagant feel to what might otherwise come across as plain. This technique can be seen in her Potrero Hill home's living room, where the couch is vintage but was recovered in a decadent and plush gold velvet. Both the wing chair and the swivel chair are also vintage finds that were reupholstered.
Don't ignore wall space either! Coddington covered one of her living room walls in an exquisitely beaded wallpaper from DeSousa Hughes.
Don't ignore wall space either! Coddington covered one of her living room walls in an exquisitely beaded wallpaper from DeSousa Hughes.
The dining room in this Nob Hill home in San Francisco, which Coddington designed for a male client, is pulled together with beautiful club chairs, upholstered in a Randolph & Hein fabric. The lush silk velvet adds an understated elegance to the room. Go for quality fabrics in flexible colors — you want newly upholstered pieces to last a while, and with numerous styles. The side chairs are another custom design by Coddington. "I had fun designing the side chairs to go with the curvy arm chairs," she says. "And I love that table. It's mahogany, by Maison Jansen. I was really happy to find that table. It's a beautiful little piece, and one of those things that will be around forever." This simple room, along with its stunning views of Grace Cathedral, was Coddington's favorite in this project.
3. Choose a simple and beautiful color palette. The client of this same Nob Hill home has a high profile position with one of the "big four" clubs in San Francisco, so he wanted a sophisticated place where he could entertain. A neutral color palette of ivory, camel, and black accents was chosen for the space, and Coddington blended the colors together to create an environment that allows the simplicity of each piece to shine through. The swivel arm chairs are custom and upholstered in fabrics from from Pindler & Pindler and Nancy Corzine. The area rug is from Stark Carpet, the coffee table is vintage, and the twig side table is from Global Views.
Coddington chose a bolder palette for the living room in this Hillsborough, California Home. However, by sticking to more understated greens, punctuating with pops of emerald, and refraining from using too many patterns, the design is soothing and welcoming. "A well-designed room will just invite you in," says Coddington.
4. Pick pieces with strong silhouettes. Back at Coddington's Potrero Hill home, the pieces in her lounge are all about strong angles and structured frames. The way the corners of the coffee table, square sofa, and bookshelf all echo each other really pulls the room together with a subtle polish. Keep an eye out for bold, structured furniture in classic forms to tie similar shapes together in a room.
Coddington has a real passion for 1940s French furniture, and when she can't have a genuine piece or have one custom made, she reflects that same structured style in her showroom finds. This chair in the bedroom of her client's Nob Hill apartment, is from Henredon. This is just one of those pieces that screams elegance. The clover-shaped back is such a unique and polished touch. Finding a strong piece like this that really stands out from your standard desk chair makes all the difference in this room — particularly since it's a bit of a smaller space. The dressing table is a white lacquer piece by Barbara Barry for Henredon, the mirror is Pottery Barn, and the lamp was from the client's own collection.
Coddington is all about structured headboards. This custom upholstered headboard in the same bedroom as the previous photo makes such a difference in this room — it's just that extra added something for a bit of feminine flair. "To me, this home is very elegant. It's luxurious, but not pristine," she says. "You walk in, and you want to sit down right away." There are a lot of chic upholstered headboards that can be purchased separately from a bed. Remember these can always be reupholstered if you happen to find that perfect piece of fabric!
5. Add surprising splashes of feminine and masculine detail. Mixing feminine accents with more masculine furniture pieces is a great way to accomplish a girly modern look. The contrast adds a sense of visual interest, but the use of simple pieces still makes it flexible and approachable in style. This sideboard, which lives in Coddington's Potrero Hill home, could be just at home in a bachelor pad. But Coddington's delicate butterfly lamp, flower arrangement, artwork, and other knickknacks create a pleasing aesthetic opposition.
The breakfast nook in Coddington's own home could've become über-girly with its blue walls, light blue loveseat, and chandelier. But her combination of materials tones it down. The loveseat is upholstered in wool, which adds a bit of roughness. The edgy artwork is from Artocracy.com, and the curvy chair is unexpectedly upholstered in a sleek neoprene.
Photography by David Duncan Livingston
More ideas:
Haute Pink: For Him AND Her
Getting Girly: The Dressing Table
Photography by David Duncan Livingston
More ideas:
Haute Pink: For Him AND Her
Getting Girly: The Dressing Table