Personal Style, Defined: Caitlin Creer

Caitlin Creer is a true inspiration. Not only is she a devoted wife and mother, but she has recently parlayed her love of design into a blossoming business. I have been following Caitlin's personal blog for a couple of years and have always loved her fun, fresh, preppy aesthetic. A couple of months ago, soon after Caitlin had started CC Interiors, I featured a bedroom she had designed on a $200 budget in my Fabulous Room Friday series. It really resonated with readers and bloggers alike! There is something so special about Caitlin's style (she has an uncanny ability to mix new with vintage and high with low). The fact that she can make a room look like a million bucks on a shoestring budget is both inspiring and encouraging.

Thank you so much for letting me participate in this series. This was such a fun/hard exercise to pinpoint my aesthetic. Personal style, defined is such an amazing series and I feel really excited to be a part of it.

bedroom by CC interiors

I guess if I had to label my personal style I would call it Eclectic Homestead meets Preppy California. I'm not sure if that even makes sense but when I design a room either for a client or in my own home, I want it to have a fresh clean vibe, but feel homey and comfortable at the same time. I also love pieces that give a room character and add a personal touch whether it be an heirloom dresser, a ceramic owl, baby clothes, or your old ice skates. I think rooms should be individual if nothing else.

image via Eddie Ross

The first thing I usually ask a new client is if they have any pieces or furniture, art or knick-knacks that we could design a room around or integrate into the concept. It is amazing to see how putting an old piece of furniture in a new setting with fresh accessories can just bring it back to life. I love that.

image via Pieces

So I guess by now we've established I have a thing for old pieces/new design. There are so many amazing designers, style makers and companies out there doing this right now; Ruthie Sommers, Tobi Fairley, Celerie Kemble, Windsor Smith, Palmer Weiss, Kate Spade, Eddie Ross, and Rubie Green just to name a few favorites. If you read my blog then you know I am constantly professing my love for Pieces, (a high end vintage furniture store in Atlanta). They do with furniture exactly what I love to do with rooms I work with, take a fresh approach to classic and traditional style/furniture. I am constantly looking well made classic vintage pieces. My garage is full of them! I love searching for treasures at estate sales, flea markets, and thrift stores. I love walking through my home and looking at the little items and remembering the stories behind them, where I found them and the deal I got. I love to evoke this same sense of history and individuality in rooms I do for clients. I think it is things like this that really make you love a room and make it feel like home. I love color, but I have noticed that when I work with clients I really work back and forth between bold color and soothing neutrals. Anyway, I've picked a few images from the thousands in my design library that I feel really grab me and represent my style. This is a Chesterfield sofa I recently bought. It was love at first sight. I took this picture at the store when I bought it to show my husband. I tell everyone that if Anthropologie and J Crew got married and had a baby for a sofa, this would be it! The bonus is it is so comfortable, and have I mentioned I love just about everything with nail head trim? I have a lot of love for this sofa and I love that since it is a vintage piece, it is pretty much unique to me! I love just about every single thing in this room by Celerie Kemble. Again nail head trim. I die. This room had a classic feel but the color palette makes it fresh and not too stuffy. I love the butterfly prints hung above the night stand and the clean striped rug.

Ever since Lonny debuted earlier this month I can not stop coming back to this image. I love the gorgeous (Leontine?) hand towels with the bold pink monogram and chinoiserie wallpaper. I wish this was my bathroom. I am trying to convince a client to use a similar wallpaper right now. She need a little coaxing. Will you guys push her over the edge?

While we are on the subject of Leontine Linens, I have to profess my love. Another classic example of taking something traditional like a monogram, and designing it to be fresh and cool.

I just love the color story in this room. I'm not sure the designer but the photographer is Mark Lund. The colors here are earthy and natural, green, brown, orange, but the portions of color make the green and orange really stand out against the neutral back drop. I'm working on a room right now where we are going for a similar effect with a similar color palette and I've kept referring back to this image.

This room by Ruthie Sommers is filed away in my favorite of favorites. It seems like these days almost every one of my clients wants a great chair in their space. I love buying vintage upholstery pieces and updating them with fresh fabric and pattern just like Ruthie did here.

It is often less expensive than buying a new manufactured chair and you get a custom piece. Most of clients have strict budgets which means we are watching every dollar spent. I love finding inexpensive items that can be refurbished to look like they cost $ 3,000 instead of $300, or even $30.

I love the way the pink peonies just seem to dance on the table. In a more traditional space you would expect to see the console in a wood tone but I love the unexpected touch that the navy (one of my favorite colors to wear and to dress a room in) gives to the piece. One of my favorite color combos is red and robin's egg. This color combo with other accents keeps reappearing in projects I am working on and I love how fresh it is every time. the red in this room is so unexpected but I love the flair that it adds on the cool palette.

I love rustic pieces but in very small doses. I think they look more sophisticated that way. This image has been a huge inspiration for country house I am currently working on. Once again I love the modern touch the lamps and mirrors have brought to the table. I really love working with all different styles and channeling my love for pattern and color in different design directions. I've been busy with quite a few projects lately but a few of them are nearing completion and I am so excited to share them. Stay tuned to my blog and thanks again to Paloma for letting me share my personal style with all of you ! It's been a great opportunity to identify the components that I really love to see in spaces designed by myself and others.