Apartment Therapy Style Cure: Pinpointing Your Style

By Maira Kalman

Day 1 of Apartment Therapy's style cure was to take this design quiz to help you zone in on your style as you begin to redesign a room in your home (see my post on Day 6 here). I don't think I have much consistency when it comes to style, but here are my answers.

1. List your favorites in each category:

Actor: Johnny Depp, Daniel Day Louis, Joseph Gordon Levitt [As an actor, I find this question incredibly difficult. I don't have a favorite actor or actress...only people I really enjoy watching on screen. Then again, I like watching Adam Sandler on screen, but I wouldn't say he's one of my favorites. That said, here are people I find highly entertaining to watch.]

Actress: Cate Blanchett, Vera Farmiga, Meryl Streep, Maggie Cheung, Kate Winslett, Edie Falco, Kristen Wiig [same goes for this category]

Artist: Henri Matisse, Maira Kalman, Joan Miro, Marc Chagall

Writer: JD Salinger, Arundhati Roy, Pablo Neruda, Junot Diaz, Lois Ann Yamanaka, Roald Dahl

Music: [I can't possibly even begin to answer this question.]

Restaurant: Supper, Cafe Orlin, Babbo (NYC); _____? (LA)

Automobile: Fred Flinstonemobile

Movie or Television Show: Movie: Annie Hall, In the Mood for Love, Lust/Caution, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg; Mad Men, The Wire, Game of Thrones [If you haven't seen Umbrellas of Cherbourg, watch it. Not only is Catherine Deneuve, like, my goal in life, but also, the set design and costumes make me want to move to 1960s Paris, stat.]

Clothing (pieces, designers or stores): Marc Jacobs, Celine, Isabel Marant, Madewell, Opening Ceremony, pretty much Alexa Chung's whole closet.

Furniture (pieces, designers or stores): HD Buttercup, Design Within Reach, Milo Baughman, Eero Saarinen, Charles & Ray Eames, Anthropologie

Drooooool....saarinen's tulip chairs & table.

2. Choose three words to describe your personal style: Airy, simple, modern.

3. Think back over all the homes you’ve lived in, both as a child and an adult. Which
rooms would you choose as your favorites and how would you describe them?

My childhood living room -- flocked velvet green wallpaper, a bay window, breezy white curtains that hid my cat Mee Mee-- it was ethereal, peaceful, and safe.

Can't find a photo of the living room, but this is Mee Mee.

The kitchen in our next house-- it was bright, cheery, decorated with personal pieces, and always the heart of the house and center of activity.

Also not the kitchen...but I loved this one too.

My first apartment on my own, the living room -- I finally had the space to decorate however I wanted. It was open, airy, white, bright-- girly and had a vintage French feel, with wide-board wooden floors and a white brick (faux) fireplace.

4. Whom do you consider a role model? My mother.

What three adjectives describe the qualities that you admire in this person?

Sense, kindness, and laid-backness.

5. Every home has areas that are “just right”. Which three spots or things in your
home do you feel are beautiful and feel proud of, right now, as is:

-The area by our fireplace.
-The view from our bedroom into the garden.
-The dining nook's liquor bar.

6. A month from now, at the end of the Style Cure, how would you like your friends
to describe your home?

A magical clearing in a forest. Where productivity happens.

Funny. When I started this questionnaire I thought it was all random stuff, but now looking through some of the images I've posted, I've begun to see some recurring themes and motifs. Everything is sort of nature-ish and bright and slightly girly, with lots of light and curved or etched lines. Gasp! Do I have a style?