We’re longtime fans of Bay Area designer Erica Tanov at Remodelista; she’s been a vendor at our markets and we all have a few of her frocks in our wardrobes. Not to mention pieces from her home decor line; furry Alpaca Pillows, Embroidered Bedding, Lavender Candles (I even sent my daughter off to college with a pair of her Lovebird Pillow Cases).
In her just-released book, Design by Nature: Creating Layered, Lived-In Spaces (with chapters titled “Wood,” “Water,” “Dirt,” “Weeds,” and “Decay), Erica takes us on a tour of her creative process. “While I find inspiration everywhere,” Erica writes, “nature is my primary muse and the anchor for my creativity. I grew up in California, a place of extraordinary natural beauty, so nature has always been at the core of my inspiration and has influenced my aesthetic.
“My design process begins with observing my surroundings—a plant I see and draw can reemerge in a print—the dense colors of overlapping foliage can appear as a color scheme, the curling, folding edges of a leaf as a ruffled hem.”
Join us for a look at Erica’s own 1926 Mediterranean house in the Berkeley Hills, which serves as a showcase for her designs.
Photography by Ngoc Minh Ngo, courtesy of Erica Tanov.
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