Making it Look Effortless

I remember one day sitting down to lunch with a very close friend, who was married with two kids, was in the process of building a house, as well as found time to donate to her favorite charity, and I was so fascinated by how she managed to do this all. She replied, I just try and make it look effortless, below the surface the swans feet are madly paddling. I think that a lot of designers could take a page from that book. It doesn't matter how hard you work to pull off a look, I think the best design is the one that looks effortless. That's why I like the room above, it looks simple and lived in, but beneath the surface a lot of work went in to pulling it together in just the right way.

How do you pull off an effortless look? Here are some tips you may want to try in your own home:

• Simplicity is key, try and keep business and fussiness to a minimum. In this room it is essentially monochromatic, it creates a splendid background for some of the more graphic pieces.
• If you forgo complexity in the color, be sure to counterbalance that with texture, I used an old rice basket as a side table that creates visual texture that I might otherwise have used pattern or color for.
• Try and have one piece of significance. In this room I used a coffee table by Christian Liagre it gives the room weight, and the quality of that piece raises all that is around it.
• Collections are a great way to fill space without the drama of a single overscaled piece.