{"id":10407,"date":"2020-05-26T10:17:11","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T17:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=10407"},"modified":"2020-05-26T12:59:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T19:59:57","slug":"creative-inspiration-for-home-improvements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=10407","title":{"rendered":"Creative Inspiration for Home Improvements"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Where Santa Barbara\u2019s Pros Go to Find Their Muse<\/strong><\/p>\n

If sheltering in place has made you eager to do some home improvements, but your creative fire needs some kindling, we\u2019re here to help. From architects and interior designers to landscape experts and event planning pros, we asked a variety of creative professionals what they do to get inspired.<\/p>\n

Penny Bianchi<\/h2>\n

McCormick Interiors, MCCORMICKINTERIORS.COM<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

What inspires you?<\/strong>\u00a0Each house I do, I take a lot of inspiration from whatever the architecture is. Almost all of the houses have some kind of architectural theme,and I always work with that instead of fighting it. I stay away from trends.<\/p>\n

Where in Santa Barbara inspires you?<\/strong>\u00a0Casa del Herrero<\/a> is amazing; it\u2019s like the original owners just walked out the front door. Lotusland<\/a> also is very inspiring, the exterior of the house with all that landscaping. I also love the landscape at El Encanto<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What about online inspiration?<\/strong>\u00a0Pinterest has been an enormous boon. I keep so many pamphlets and papers and idea files, and they organize them for you,and it\u2019s right at your fingertips. Some blogs are very, very helpful and inspirational,too. I love\u00a0Velvet & Linen<\/em>, from Brooke Giannetti of giannettihome.com<\/a>. [Brooke and her husband, architect Steve Giannetti, have a store, Giannetti Home, in downtown Santa Barbara.]<\/p>\n

Merryl Brown<\/h2>\n

Merryl Brown Events, MERRYLBROWNEVENTS.COM<\/a><\/h3>\n

Where do you go for inspiration?<\/strong>\u00a0Lotusland is the place that some of my best ideas have come to me. There really is something so magical and spiritual about that place. Almost every time that I see movies at the Riviera<\/a>,I leave with a new idea. I always keep a pad of paper with me.<\/p>\n

Nature is huge. Being away from electronics is huge. Putting on music and sometimes putting on new music and just sitting quietly and closing your eyes and listening to it is such a good thing.<\/p>\n

Books for me are probably really one of the most important pieces, just having beautiful books and a nice big table where I can sit and look through them.<\/p>\n

Going to the farmers\u2019market, just walking around and looking at the colors and looking at people, how people are dressed and listening to all of the different sounds. I find inspiration in the funniest places, you just never know, so it\u2019s important that you\u2019re not just doing research in books and online but also by getting out in the world and looking around.<\/p>\n

Billy Goodnick<\/h2>\n

Billy Goodnick Landscape Design, BILLYGOODNICK.COM<\/a><\/h3>\n

Where in Santa Barbara inspires you?<\/strong>\u00a0I enjoy visits to Terra Sol<\/a>\u00a0for their great collections of succulents (including over 50 varieties of agaves and aloes) and Seaside Gardens<\/a> in Carpinteria for plant combos. [Goodnick also likes to bring his adult-education classes to this versatile place, which has 11 garden vignettes with an around-the-world sampling of plants that thrive in our coastal environment.]<\/p>\n

Margie Grace<\/h2>\n

Grace Design Associates, GRACEDESIGNASSOCIATES.COM<\/a><\/h3>\n

Where in Santa Barbara inspires you?<\/strong>\u00a0You have to clear a space. You can\u2019t be thinking about the grocery list;you have got to clear your head. For me, it\u2019s always a walk on the beach. I can tell when my head\u2019s getting clear because I start observing things on a minute scale.<\/p>\n

I will hit the used architectural salvage places or nurseries. Sometimes just a single great urn is the key to a garden that is just such a great thing. You can put four trees on the corners, gravelon the floor and a beautiful object in the middle \u2014but it\u2019s about that thing. It\u2019s like finding an amazing piece of jewelry,and the surroundings are the little black dress.<\/p>\n

I feel the same way when I find an extraordinary tree. Plants are not like otherthings we build with. They are ever-changing and each one is the only of each of these living things. When you find a really great specimen is usually when you\u2019re not looking \u2014it finds you. It\u2019s kind of like dating:When you\u2019re not looking,it shows up.<\/p>\n

Isa Hendry Eaton<\/h2>\n

Isa Bird Landscape Design, ISABIRD.COM<\/a><\/h3>\n

Where in Santa Barbara inspires you?<\/strong>\u00a0Lotusland offers one of the finest examples of how drought-tolerant plants can look lush, glamorous,and architectural. It also teaches one of the most importantprinciples of plant design: masses of one type of plant grouped together create a much stronger design than mixed hodgepodge varieties. On the opposite end of the design spectrum, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden<\/a> offers a stunning example of how to designa natural look with our local native plants.<\/p>\n

Are there any movies that are great examples of design?<\/strong>\u00a0Clients ask me all the time to reproduce the vegetable garden in It\u2019s Complicated<\/em>. It\u2019s also one of my favorite movies,and the French-style potager garden is mouth-wateringly gorgeous (even if it\u2019s too-perfect, Hollywood unrealistic).<\/p>\n

Any online inspiration?<\/strong>\u00a0I am a Pinterest garden junkie but am careful to avoid it when I first start a project so I can create a strong original point-of-view and thenuse online images to help inspire some of the details. Gardenista.com<\/a> and\u00a0Garden Design Magazine<\/em>\u00a0online are also great garden sources.<\/p>\n

Tammy Hughes<\/h2>\n

Emerald Eye Designs<\/h3>\n

What inspires you?<\/strong>\u00a0Style inspiration can come in so many forms depending on the architecture that I\u2019m working with. Most often for me, finding a strong architectural piece or two launches the avalanche of ideas. From that point, I can\u2019t stop the wheels from turning in my head until the entire project is visualized down to hardware, plumbing fixtures,and paint colors. It\u2019s a very exhilarating process that will often keep me up at night, in the best possible way.<\/p>\n

Where in Santa Barbara inspires you?<\/strong>\u00a0I always feel like a better person after a visit to Lotusland or Casa del Herrero. Sometimes just driving past a George Washington Smith house or a Lutah Riggs house is enough of a thrill to make me do a double take and slow down for a closer look at the subtle detailing that lends itself to the perfect scale and proportion of that ageless architecture.<\/p>\n

What about digital inspiration?<\/strong>\u00a0Belgian Pearls (belgianpearls.be<\/a>) was one of the first design blogs that I followed and remains one of my favorites. The understated Flemish designs stand the test of time and are so exquisitely layered in their simplicity.<\/p>\n

Laurie Romano<\/h2>\n

Arcadia Studio, ARCADIASTUDIO.COM<\/a><\/h3>\n

What inspires you?<\/strong>\u00a0Things that inspire me are nature, which I know is a vast topic. The natural beauty of landforms, flora,and fauna. I am also inspired by my observations, photographs,and other renowned landscape architects and architects and artists.<\/p>\n

Any Santa Barbara spots?<\/strong>\u00a0Cathedral Peak, Lizard\u2019s Mouth, and Shoreline Park are always inspiring.<\/p>\n

How about movies, TV shows, or books?<\/strong>\u00a0The movie The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces<\/em> and all kinds of books by architects\/landscape architects worldwide.<\/p>\n

What about digital inspiration?<\/strong>\u00a0I use Google as a search engine: type in topic you want to study.\u00a0Landscape Architecture Magazine, The Dirt, and Landezine<\/em>\u00a0are also go-to\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Jeff Shelton<\/h2>\n

Jeff Shelton Architecture, JEFFSHELTONARCHITECT.COM<\/a><\/h3>\n

What inspires you?<\/strong>\u00a0Everything inspires me;that is one of my problems. It\u2019s hard to focus when I want to go in every direction. Nature of course is the basis of all ideas: balance, strength, rhythms, mystery, beauty, and joy. But people screwing things up also inspires me. Just when I feel worn out and exhausted, I see some terrible design somewhere, and my inspiration comes back.<\/p>\n

Any Santa Barbara places?<\/strong>\u00a0I am inspired by living on this narrow stripof land between the cold Pacific Ocean and 4,000-foot Santa Ynez Mountains, covered with chaparral, where the fog rolls in during the summer and the air is dry and clear in the winter so we can see the islands.<\/p>\n

Digital inspirations?\u00a0<\/strong>No, I don\u2019t need or want any additional inspiration. I look at succulents or throw the Frisbee for inspiration.<\/p>\n

Caroline Thompson<\/h2>\n

Cabana Home, CABANAHOME.COM<\/a><\/h3>\n

What inspires you?<\/strong>\u00a0Walks! Whether in nature or a bustling city, I can find interesting colors, patterns, textures, shapes, or a reminder of something that adds an entire new layer of inspiration.<\/p>\n

Any Santa Barbara spots?<\/strong>\u00a0Lately, walking has not only been an exercise but a meditation. There is so much to take in along the way \u2014neighborhoods with trees budding and flowers blooming. All the senses are engaged. The beach with tides going out and in, bringing shells and frosted sea glass to the shore and showing kiwi-colored moss on the rocks. The sand changes color in seconds as the water covers and uncovers it.<\/p>\n

Barry Winick<\/h2>\n

Winick Architects, WINICKARCHITECTS.COM<\/a><\/h3>\n

What inspires you?<\/strong>\u00a0Expansive, celestial spaces; sculptural forms; and materials with textural qualities.<\/p>\n

Any Santa Barbara places?<\/strong>\u00a0The great arch of the County Courthouse view toward the sunken garden, the Chapel at St. Anthony\u2019s, the high ridge of East Camino Cielo where you can view the Santa Ynez Range looking north and peering over Santa Barbara out to the Channel Islands when looking south. The Playground up on West Camino Cielo is amazing, with these gigantic boulders strewn all around the ground, and you can go there and just perch and kind of be mesmerized looking off to the west.<\/p>\n

What else?<\/strong>\u00a0Probably the biggest, most impactful cultural performance that I have attended in the last few years was David Byrne\u2019s American UtopiaTour at Santa Barbara Bowl. I was inspired by the modernity, elegance,and expansiveness of the stage, along with impeccable choreography and lighting.<\/p>\n

Thinking of the pandemic, are there any different things that are inspiring that you didn\u2019t think of before?<\/strong>\u00a0Maybe I\u2019m breaking the rules,but I still ride my bike, solo; I don\u2019t ride with friends. For me,getting out into nature has been really great. But I\u2019m getting out solo, so that\u2019s been a different experience. Normally if I were riding my bike,I would be riding with a bike buddy. Now it\u2019s a little bit more meditative and introspective in these same places.<\/p>\n

Josh Blumer<\/h2>\n

AB Design Studio; ABDESIGNSTUDIOINC.COM<\/a><\/h3>\n

What inspires you?<\/strong>\u00a0I am inspired by people doing exactly what it is they were always meant to be doing. There is nothing more inspiring than a human being who is filled with gratitude and pulsing with passion!<\/p>\n

Any Santa Barbara spots?<\/strong>\u00a0I love watching the Santa Barbara foothills ignite with color and depth in the late afternoon and evenings. The position of the mountains in the east-west orientation allows the ridges, fingers,and valleys along the entirety of thefoothills to come alive with depth as the late-evening sun reveals their absolutely mesmerizing beauty.<\/p>\n

Any digital inspirations?\u00a0<\/strong>I really enjoy following #simonstalenhag Simon Stalenhagon Instagram. Simon\u2019s digital paintings are full of detail and imagination; they make me dream about other worlds and endless possibilities. I also follow WSL (World Surf League) on Instagram. I seem to need to look at their feed about once every hour! I wish I was surfing right now.<\/p>\n

Originally published in the Santa Barbara Barbara Independent<\/a> on May 14, 2020.<\/p>\n

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