Atlantan Magazine names Bill to Design "Hotlist"

Bill Musso named to Design "Hotlist"
The Atlantan Magazine profiles A-List Designers
The October 2010 issue of The Atlantan magazine named Bill Musso to Atlanta's Design "Hotlist."  Dubbed its Fashion & Home issue, The Atlantan profiled top Atlanta interior designers and their top decorating finds of 2010.  For this issue, Bill called out his favorites including concrete and terrazzo atelier Dex Studios, Ann Sack's "Irvington" bath accessories, and the blog Contemporist.

More of Bill's favorites:

Zulu baskets from reclaimed telephone wire

Siggi and Egmund Dedekind own a farm in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Concerned by rampant unemployment among their Zulu neighbors, the Dedekinds formed a small crafting cooperative to provide jobs for the unemployed and to revive fading Zulu crafting traditions.  Using a weaving pattern learned from an aging Zulu woman some 100 miles away, more than 200 Zulu men and women are now earning supplemental income by crafting baskets from colorful reclaimed telephone wire.
Vintage Fornasetti
Milanese painter, sculptor, and interior designer Piero Fornasetti designed more than 11,000 products. During his career he created a visual vocabulary that is instantly recognizable, filled with whimsy and wit.

Fornasetti's graphic art often re-worked a single idea over and over again, allowing his imagination run free to develop new concepts.  His most famous production line is based on an image of Lina Cavalieri found in a 19th century French magazine. Originally four plates were designed by Piero Fornasetti - the plate series now has 350 variations.  We only use vintage pieces that bear a Fornasetti trademark.

Rosemary Beach Renovation Unveiled

Our project at Rosemary Beach, Florida, has wrapped up. We thought you would like to see some photos!

Built in 1999, this home was designed by Bobby McAlpine of McAlpine Tankersley Architecture. It was the first beach front home constructed in Rosemary. Our task was to update a dark and dated home into a bright, interesting and relaxed second home for clients in Atlanta. We started this top-to-bottom renovation in December, 2009, and finished in early June.

A significant challenge was the very low and claustrophobic kitchen ceiling. By removing sheet rock and rerouting plumbing to a third floor bathroom, and wrapping beams in reclaimed timber, we converted a liability into a very interesting asset.

The living area on the main floor is designed to be flexible and take on different arrangements as needed for different entertaining scenarios. Sectional sofas and tufted ottomans are meant to move around to accommodate large parties or intimate gatherings.

Shades of turquoise appear on every floor to provide continuity throughout the home. The turquoise was paired with different colors: neutrals on the main floor, chartreuse in the ground floor guest bedroom, and a bold and fun orange in the third floor teen loft.

The master bedroom is calming and sophisticated. The Waterworks tile in the master bath echoes the rich colors from the Gulf of Mexico, just outside the owner’s screened in porch. This tile became a jumping off point for the master suite’s color scheme of blues and browns. The custom headboard was designed by Bill.

Weekend retreat in Athens unveiled

The Musso Design Group just completed a project in Athens, Georgia. This new home was a gift from our client's long time friend. Our charge was to make this a special, relaxing weekend retreat that someday may be the client's primary residence. We aimed to frame a relaxed, yet sophisticated, lifestyle.

The home sits on three acres in Georgia's horse country, just outside of Athens. The builder took extra care to preserve the tree canopy and site the home in the perfect location. Natural stone elements give the home a feeling that it has been there for years.

Our work started about a year ago and we unveiled the home this past weekend. The new owner had not seen the home since mid-December, so we were a little anxious while we worked overnight to finesse the details and prepare for the reveal.

Working closely with the owner, we established a design that complemented the architecture of the home and its beautiful wooded setting. The palette is quiet, sophisticated, and uncluttered, not fussy. It's also durable and will stand up to the traffic provided by four rescued dogs in a wide array of sizes.

Defining the Elegant Eye

by Bill Musso

Some of my most gratifying moments come from clients who tell me that, prior to buying an accessory for their home, they muse, “Would Bill like this? How would he style it into my décor?” Some have asked me point blank, “How do you develop an elegant eye?” That’s why I’m headlining our Holiday 2009 Newsletter with a few pointers on the subject.

Tips for Getting Started
Developing an elegant eye takes time and practice. Honing your instincts means being not afraid of making missteps. Also, taking time to re-arrange and play with different ideas until “Ah ha!” moments capture the essence of what you’d like to achieve.

I have been in design close to three decades. While creating upscale boutique vignettes in New York, my eye caught on in how fashion, furniture and home interiors weave a harmonious aesthetic in making us feel good about ourselves. What we wear and what we bring into our homes reflect our sensibilities in living with beauty and functionality.

Yet, beauty is rarely recognized as a subtle and powerful energy that revives our spirit.

I would define elegance this way, too—simple beauty, clean lines, and functional, without losing warmth and an instinctively cozy appeal.

In developing an "elegant eye," I hone four main filters, quality workmanship, simplicity, cost and form.

Quality Workmanship
My grandfather loved quality clothing. He would turn a coat inside out and take a close look at the seams in a search for quality. Now, I eyeball fine glassware and filter out pieces with seams. (Pictured: Decanter from Takashimaya New York)

There’s a distinctive vibe to handmade items that’s quite different from those mass-produced. The labor of love that’s gone into a work of art crafted by artisans is palpable, compared to run-of-the mill items.

Simplicity
True, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and people are free to choose. My signature touch to any room is an understated simplicity with a fresh and effortless look.

It’s similar to Coco Chanel’s advice. After you’re done dressing, look in the mirror and take something away. Don’t over-embellish. Less is more.

Cost is Immaterial
Cost should be considered, but items costing more are not necessarily better or ‘more elegant.’ The most meaningful thing to me can be an exquisite seashell—and a freebie from Mother Nature. Follow your heart in collecting and surrounding yourself with items you’re intuitively drawn to.

Form Follows Function
Above all, beauty must play functional roles in your life. That’s when upon returning home from work, an abstract painting in your study refreshes your spirit. Or, you find quiet serenity in the silk-screened bedroom wallpaper or the simple lines of a Cristophe Pillet chair.

Ultimately, you want to surround yourself with things that mean most to you. A travel memento, beautiful raw silk drapery or custom upholstery with piping around the edges, all reflect your care in selecting elegant items showcasing your finer sensibilities.

Things finer are a joy to behold, touch and share—whatever they are, and evoke, for you.

Alys Beach Project Published

"Ideal Escape"

Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles published a fourteen page article with seventeen photos about our project at Alys Beach in their July issue. Once again, AH&L Editorial Director Clinton Smith executed the photo shoot with precision. Photographer Erica George Dines and her artist husband Michael were equally charming.

Getting ready for a photo shoot is always interesting. I spent hours pondering what rooms will be photographed and from which angles. To prepare, I photographed each room myself to critically examine it from a distance. A list of “deficiencies” was prepared and action plans developed.

Ultimately, it is their show, which means you have to be prepared for anything and everything must be the best it can be. The shoot certainly helped prioritize projects and speed up the timeline on a couple of planned projects. Albeit for adding beautiful wallpaper (shipped via FedEx from France) in a bedroom that was not ultimately photographed, I did not do much more than I had originally planned for the house.

I did spend time fussing over several wardrobe selections for shots of me I had imagined they would take. Instead, they used impromptu shots taken in clothing purchased at an outlet mall (horrors!)

Erica was one of the first photographers to drop film for digital. Her shots appeared on a nearby computer screen seconds after pressing the shutter button. At the end of each day, we hunched over her Mac and excitedly reviewed the day’s shots.

I am very pleased with the resulting article. (Except the aforementioned photo of me). I think the photos really capture the essence of what the house really feels like. I hope you enjoy it.

Bill

Big news: Wallpaper!

Those big, bold wallpaper patterns are back!
Bill Musso

We have all probably mused, “What were they thinking?” as we painstakingly stripped wildly patterned wallpaper off walls, but after years of simplifying rooms in color and pattern, it seems that Americans are ready for both again.

Instead of wallpapering whole rooms, however, we suggest covering a feature wall or just an area of a large room like a reading nook or alcove. Bold geometric prints are the rage but small patterns and grass cloths also help give a room a visual texture and color. Consider balancing a room by using wallpaper on the opposite wall of a large wall unit to create balance. One trick we like is to use bold wallpaper behind built-in shelving. This can help unify the color scheme if it complements one or more colors found elsewhere in the room.

Styles and tastes change, so use sizing on the walls prior to installation. Sizing allows for an easy installation by creating a smooth coat and makes future removal a breeze. Sizing products look like paint and are applied using ordinary paint tools. And, you can tint some brands to match the background color of the wallpaper, helping to hide seams. Many of the new papers are also earth friendly.

Check out a few of our favorites from F. Schumacher & Co: