Dance with Nature

November 11, 2024

Color, texture, wonder, joy: the entryway installation by artist Juan Carlos Collada stirs these qualities and more amid Elisa’s clean design for Fairway Transformation. A happy moment amid serene sophistication.

Elisa’s total reimagining of the scenic home introduced luxurious layers, subtle juxtapositions and lush materiality. As well as flights of fun—gestures indicative of her design approach and epitomized by the Collada piece, which she sourced locally at Diehl Gallery. “The butterflies are so pretty,” Elisa says. “They are colorful yet light and subtle in their presence. They feel soft and feminine.”

Abundantly talented, Collada fuels his creative practice by sourcing ideas from disparate sources around him—nature, books, humanity. “I think the beauty of being an artist is that you have the capacity to find inspiration in many, many places,” he says. After studying painting and printmaking at Miami Dade College, Collada traveled the globe, following his many Muses: designing textiles in Milan, furniture in San Francisco, decorative lighting in North Carolina and fashion styling in Miami, before returning to his fine art roots. Having worked in so many modes and lived in so many places, Collada considers his “home” the place where art, nature and family meet—a confluence reflective of his presence in Jackson, at Mariam Diehl’s gallery, who recently featured his new work in an exhibition aptly titled, “The Language of Color.”

Now working from studios in Toronto, Canada and Naples, Florida, Collada blends mediums—painting, sculpture, assemblage. His signature butterflies capture the ethereal presence of the insects through his reverent labor of hand-cutting and -painting feathers into winged compositions. “[My art] feels like the culmination of all the things I’ve done and all the places I’ve been.”

When considering his favorite place to see art, Collada offered his tandem focus on nature and design: “Any outside space where many people can enjoy [the art], although I do love seeing personal collections of people who truly enjoy art. It gives you special insight into what they are all about.”

Within Elisa’s designs, his work offers such human insight, conferring the joyful connection her clients feel to the place in which they live, and the exquisite beauty in which they surround themselves.

Eye Spy: Decoupage by John Derian

September 4, 2024

Welcoming John Derian’s decoupage plates and objects as a new product line belies the long-standing friendship our customers have forged with his whimsical wares, through his collaboration with Astier de Villatte. Both his pieces and his art form feel like old friends within 22 Home.

Iconic in design circles, Derian has elevated the historic craft of decoupage into a chic contemporary art form. Rooted in the French verb decouper—“to cut out,” decoupage emerged in 17th-century France, drawing on a long line of cut-work traditions: ancient Chinese and Japanese paper cutting, Siberian felt appliques, Polish folk art. The French version—of snipping, pasting, varnishing and sanding collaged pictures onto hard surfaces—became fashionable throughout 18th century European courts. Colorful and charming, the form graced furniture like bookcases and cabinets, as well as decorative accessories such as fans, screens and toiletry items. By the mid-20th century, decoupage had finally crossed the Atlantic, becoming au courant in America. 

These historical layers come alive in Derian’s modern manifestations. Four decades ago, he turned to decoupage as a way to channel his ardor for antique images. “John’s early obsession with printed matter ultimately led him to decoupage, the art of cutting and pasting paper,” his website states. “Since 1989, he and a small studio of artisans in New York City have been creating glass plates, trays, bowls, and other decorative home items with imagery from his vast and ever-expanding collection of 18th and 19th century prints.”

“Sometimes I feel like a chef at a farmers market,” he told Architectural Digest about his practice of perusing his own vast collection of antique etchings, engravings and manuscripts—stored in his studio on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. “These images have been part of my life for so long, they’re like friends.”

This sense of joyful camaraderie comes through in every piece he produces. His decoupage plates—whimsical catchalls collected the world over—have made his aesthetic iconic. Over the course of his 35 years in business, Derian has expanded his product line into every corner of the home, from serveware to wallpaper, rugs to lampshades. 

For our part, 22 Home has been carrying his collaboration with beloved Astier de Villatte, a happy marriage of his distinctive imagery with their signature ceramic silhouettes. Discerning with stockists, the studio finally accepted Elisa’s patient entreaties to source plates and platters. “Life can feel so serious,” Elisa says. “John Derian’s designs are the opposite: they’re fun and playful. They’re a punch of color, pattern and whimsy. They make your heart happy.”

The Complexity of Simplicity

July 30, 2024

When a client dreams of simplicity, Elisa immediately responds by outlining the layered reality of such ambition: counterintuitively, the process of achieving a serene aesthetic quickly becomes complex with coordinated decisions. “Simple is not simple. Quite the opposite: it’s the hardest thing in the world to achieve as a designer,” Elisa says. “Minimalist design is very hard to do well. It’s not just about painting everything white.”

A study in careful contrast: the exterior logs have been stained black while white coats the interior, a seemingly-straightforward dichotomy made difficult with the vast array of black and white iterations. Many tests of stain and paint were conducted in order to achieve the perfect pairing.

Case in point: the underway transformation of a cluster of log cabins along the Snake River into a contemporary refuge for guests. Inspired by the client’s own exquisite aesthetic—honed across an international portfolio of properties—Elisa is carefully deconstructing each space into its most essential parts, and then puzzling those pieces back together into a modern, minimalist compound. The coordination required to achieve this mission of simplicity has been staggering: for instance, adding panoramic windows of the same proportions in each room means disassembling the walls, cataloging each timber, installing the panes, and then reassembling the logs. This meticulous work, expertly executed by a team of log-cabin specialists from the Wind River Reservation, results in a seamless final product: expansive windows slotted perfectly into striated walls. “Everything must meld together,” Elisa says. “Isolated elements are not highlighted. The serene whole is the goal.”

Let there be light: Elisa stands before the wall of windows she and the architect will reconfigure. This process requires precise dimensions and meticulous reconstruction of the surrounding logs.

Amid such nuance, major renovations have ensued, with whole floors removed and interior configurations completely reworked. “This has been an incredibly fun, incredibly complex remodel,” Elisa says. “I’m learning so much from my client. I love the intensity of pushing my brain to think about all these various components.”

Material girl: Every moment matters in a minimalist interior, particularly when it comes to decisions of materials. Stay tuned for how Elisa will reimagine this monumental fireplace.