Category

Design Fundamentals

March 10, 2015
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Green Decorating: Find Your Color

By | Design Fundamentals, Lamorinda Weekly | No Comments

You know we love local at Couture Chateau LLC. Each month I am honored to contribute to our Lamorinda Community by way of Lamorinda Weekly’s Home Section. These past few months we have tackled the Deep Clean and Valentines Decor which is suitable for every season. I shared some quick tips and tools like Chip It we use to color match. Very fun.

Tomorrow, our article on Green Decorating will be available.

Green and Purple

My team and I delight to source, share and encourage you, the Stylish Suburbanite. This week in Green Decorating we talk undertones and saturation – how to mix colors well. I also share a fabulous tool we use constantly.  Here is a sneak peek of two pictures from tomorrow’s article.

Green and Blue Combination

Being green isn’t always about being colorless. Take heart this March and embrace the Green Decorating that brings some colorFUL joy into your home space. xo Ann

August 5, 2014
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Discretion is Missing: Why Legacy Philanthropic Lifestyle Design is A Lost Art by Ann McDonald

By | Design Fundamentals, Extended Absence, Multi-Generation, Succession Living | 2 Comments

Discretion:

noun
  • the quality of behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing offense or revealing private information.

There is something to be said for not shouting the price. Legacy Philanthropic Lifestyle Design understands why.

CC_DoorKnob_1070xF

the price high of course, the value is honor paid to craftsmen and women who steward their best gift for beauty

There is also something to be said for understanding the cost. Legacy Philanthropic Lifestyle Design understand how.

Ann McDonald Humanitarian Work Amor Ministries in Mexico

we bring water to a camp out of the country so volunteers can serve others

There is a difference. Wisdom contains it.

I am from the Bay Area these days, less travel, more home. More virtual, less hustle. As a Decorator by trade, Designer by heart, I watch and long to pour into my clients and friends the lessons learned at discretion’s feet. The blessings that discrete curated processes of design provide to life and limb, mind, body and soul.

Curated discreet spaces. The kind that hold and nurture not the kind that scream and shout. The kind that build legacy and curate hope, not the kind that scream “look at me, I’m designed!”, the kind that breed safety and acceptance not the kind that shout judgment and condemnation.

Couture Chateau Alternate Ad Picture for Brandon

custom crafted from antique historic columns it brings discreet soul to new construction

Space changes us. Designed space really changes us. Cathedrals and prisons are designed spaces. Ponder that for a minute. At the core, someone somewhere understood that space designed changes people.

Discretion.

If I could give my next gen Designers one thing: Discretion. If I could give my “why isn’t my design business working” friends Read More

June 4, 2014
1

Stylish Solutions for Drought Wise Decorating, Lamorinda Weekly

By | Design Fundamentals, Lamorinda Weekly | No Comments

I absolutely love writing for our local paper. I was born in a small town in Western Kansas and hold anything “local” no matter where, in high regard. When Jennifer Wake called a few weeks ago and asked if I’d be interested in writing a regular column every other issue in Our Homes Section for the Lamorinda Weekly (covers three tight knit bucolic Northern California Towns/Cities: Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda), I could not say YES fast enough.

It was better than getting a call from the biggies in the Design Business (though, Elle Decor, you know my answer is always yes for you as well)

Ann Featured in Elle Decor on Luxury Now

Ann Featured in Elle Decor on Luxury Now

I have long enjoyed reading this section and perusing the fabulous garden tips and local musings. Heaven.

This week, my contribution is on Drought Wise Decorating. As we ride the current California Drought, how DO you design Read More

March 25, 2014
2

Decorating a Family Trust Owned Property, Solving Problems Virtually by Ann McDonald, IIDA, NAPO

By | Design Fundamentals, Extended Absence, Income Property, Multi-Generation, Succession Living | No Comments

How We Decorate a Family Trust Owned Property over the Internet

Decorating a home is complicated enough. Add some storied family history, a new family member, a new board appointed trustee by way of Grandfather and the next generation with ideas of green vegan living in a changing environment and the mix can become toxic. What was once a lovely destination cabin on the remote plains of the middle west used for hunting and fishing is now the epicenter of Family Battle Chapter #13, all over a set of Quilts and the next phase of use: green living.

Log cabin ranch-style behind pines

Capable of destroying legacy and leaving shrapnel for generations, this simple plot is enacted hundreds of times over in varying degrees in board rooms and over skype calls in Small Family Foundations world wide every month. Does not matter if it’s the America’s version of the middle west or a Yurt in the middle of Turkey. Seriously. The issues are the same. Legacy intersects children with trustee and/or wife  and/or over authority and stuff. The story is as old as Abraham. Older actually… Read More

March 4, 2014
2

Luxury Custom Design for Estates, Trusts and Homeowners with Multiple Properties

By | Design Fundamentals, Extended Absence, Income Property, Multi-Generation, Succession Living | No Comments

2014 has been a year of edits. As my team and I looked over the past to note what we did best at Couture Chateau, it came clearly into focus.

We design rooms to entire estates that are under the ownership of private trusts or families and owners who handle and manage multiple properties as part of their portfolio.

We do so entirely online.

From idea to implementation, from management of installation, coordination of staff, storage, delivery to training of household staff on execution and maintenance of a finished look within a room or entire estate, my fabulous team at Couture Chateau and I had developed a system that worked.

Our guests (old school clients) love the flexibility, the 24/7 access, the follow up and the understanding of how life is really lived in 2014. Read More