Home decorating ideas: How to mix old and new styles
Show off a collection ... as a stunning centrepiece!
Tamara likes to switch up the decor on
her Milo Baughman dining table (a $500
Craigslist find). She lets the kids pick their
favourites from her collection of vintage
white ceramics. “The effect of different
pieces in one colour is quite dramatic,”
she says.
Get this look: Saarinen tulip chairs, Design Within Reach. Vintage lighting, Châtelet.
For more about homeowner and House of Honey designer Tamara Kaye-Honey, click here.
Bring benches to the table
Picnic-style seating creates a casual
vibe where there’s always space for
one more guest. In this room, two benches
are paired with a vintage Herman Miller
conference table. “I love all the stains
and scratches on it,” says Tamara Kaye-Honey,
the homeowner. “They’re like wrinkles
on a face that reflect a well-lived life.”
Get this look: Table, Herman Miller. Chairs, Modernica. Benches,
Pottery Barn. Milk-bottle lamp, Droog.
Hang art in the kitchen
Soften the utilitarian feel of white walls,
lacquered cabinets and stainless steel
with fun and playful pieces. Group quirky
collectibles on shelves or trays, and hang
personal portraits or photographs on the wall.
Get this look: Stove, Viking Range. Cabinets,
Ikea. Stools, Modernica.
Save space on your night table by hanging pendant lights
Try this for a smart, unexpected alternative to traditional
bedside lamps. Here, Tamara converted antique Asian
ceramic pieces into lights, then suspended them from
brass poles on either side of the bed. Bonus: They spread
a soft, diffused light over her collection of Margaret
Keane–inspired portraits.
Get this look: Bedding, Anthropologie. Pillows, Jonathan Adler.
Skip the drapes
Tamara didn’t want to hide the home’s elegant windows
behind elaborate treatments. Instead, she layered a neutral-toned
textured rug, patterned pillows and a cozy throw
to add warmth and depth to the den.
Get this look: Sofa, Room Service. Table, Herman Miller. Pillows, Anthropologie. Rug, West Elm. Vintage orange vinyl
stool, House of Honey .
Turn your garage into a playroom
“Really, who needs a
garage in L.A.?” Tamara
says. She converted hers
into a special place for
the kids with bifold
French doors for easy
access to the backyard.
The goal was to make
the space feel fun
and grown-up at the
same time.
“I’m not a fan of
themes in kids’ rooms,”
says Tamara. To avoid
that trap, she paired
a neutral palette with
layers of pattern and
texture to create warmth
and intimacy. Splashes
of orange on cushions
and throws combined
with vintage decor
(including an oversized
clock from the ’70s and
a hanging Ib Arberg
parrot chair) give the room
a playful, energetic feel.
Get this look: Sofa,
Room Service. Carpet
tile, FLOR. Orange chairs,
Nurseryworks.
Mother of reinvention
There aren’t many people who would look at a 19th-century
wall hanging featuring the face of an
Italian soprano, only to pull it from its frame and
stick it on the back of an antique Louis XVI–style
chair. But that’s exactly the kind of thing designer
Tamara Kaye-Honey does all the time, both at
home and in her store, House of Honey. “Reworking
things has always fascinated me,” says the 38-year-old.
“I call my style ‘new vintage.’ It’s about reinterpreting
something old to make it fresh and current.”
Like her approach to design, Tamara’s career has
been a process of reinvention, starting with a liberal
arts degree, followed by a degree in fashion merchandising
at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology.
The Halifax native initially thought about following her
major, but a brief stint as a buyer at Bergdorf Goodman
proved creatively stifling. Her next job, at a furnituredesign
company in New York, suited her better, and
she discovered a passion for beautiful pieces.
Then life took over. She married Ryan Honey, who
owns a production company, and a year after their
daughter, Phia, was born, they moved to California.
Their family soon grew to include their son, Streak,
and an English bulldog named Suki.
It was when Tamara started hosting play dates with
other mothers that a light bulb went on. They kept asking
her who her designer was — and she realized she
might actually be able to make a living creating beautiful
interiors. By this point she’d also filled three storage
spaces and an attic with all the art and furniture she’d
collected over the years — and her husband suggested
it was probably time to do something with all of it.
That something is House of Honey, the design studio
and showroom that Tamara opened two years ago in
Pasadena, not far from her home. Now her reinvented
vintage pieces, like the Louis XVI–Fornasetti chair, are
creatively displayed there in unexpected vignettes.
She’s also just launched a line of nursery furniture
and recently designed a room in a homeless shelter
for women and children in L.A. The theme
was “girly glamour meets modern whimsy” (think
sparkly metallic paint and dangling Lucite).
These days, when Tamara’s not designing for
her store, various charities or a growing list of
clients, she’s hard at work on her own home, a
1920s English Tudor house. Since the family purchased
the large—and largely neglected—residence
about four years ago, it has been a reno
to be reckoned with. Tamara’s mother, an enthusiastic
renovator in her own right, cried when
she saw it. “She begged us not to buy it and said
there was no way we could make it livable,” says
Tamara. “That only made me want it more.”
For Tamara, it was love at first sight. She fell
for the mountain view, the citrus trees that dot
the property and the storybook Hansel and
Gretel feel of the house itself. The previous
owner was an eclectic German inventor who had
lived there for decades and left behind a collection
of mysterious valves and unusual masonry.
Of course, Tamara saw the house as an exciting
design challenge. She knocked down walls and
added French doors leading to the gardens and
patios. “The flow from inside to out is important,”
she says. “We spend most days with the doors
open and the kids running to and from the yard,
and most nights we eat dinner in the garden.”
Indoors, Tamara stayed true to her trademark
approach of mixing old and new. The furniture is
a mix of quirky vintage finds, contemporary pieces
and antiques unearthed at auctions and estate
sales. “Most things I reinvent with fabric, a few
coats of paint or new hardware. It’s so much fun
to give an old piece a fresh look and a new start.”
Tamara uses words like playful and whimsical
to describe her overall esthetic. “Both my husband
and I take our creative roles seriously, without taking
ourselves or our designs too seriously,” she
says. She points to the Italian ceramic cougars from
the ’70s in her living room as an example. She
found them at a flea market and displays the pair
on her coffee table “just for laughs.” Then there’s
the heavy stone table in the playroom that sat in
the yard for two years because she didn’t know
where else to put it. Now it’s home to a giant fibreglass giraffe and does double duty as a stage
for impromptu kids’ dance parties.
Taking a fun yet practical approach to decor is
important when you’re designing a family space,
Tamara says. “I don’t want to live in a museum.
I have some special things, but if accidents happen,
I just remember that it’s only stuff —although we
do try to keep the balls in the backyard.”
Sometimes, the special things in her home find
their way to the sales floor at House of Honey and
vice versa. Trading back and forth means she can
experiment with design concepts in two places at
once. In fact, Tamara’s always tinkering with the
look of her home. Often the rest of the family will
return from the playground to find things have been
moved or even replaced. “Our house is a testing
lab where I can try out new ideas and vignettes,”
she says. “You should see the number of nail holes
in the walls—it’s like a revolving art gallery. I’m
always thinking about what to do next.”
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