Ruthie is one of my favorite interior designers, not only for her confident approach to color but also her refreshing honest take on creativity, and the design world.
When you are done touring her home, you MUST hop on over to her website. You will be truly inspired by her design work and outlook on life. My absolute favorite is her bio page. She has a third-person bio, and a first-person bio...here is an excerpt from her first-person bio (I told you...refreshingly honest :)
(From Ruthie Sommer's First-Person Bio) When I was reworking my website I laughed out loud reading how wonderfully chic my biography sounds. Studying art and antiques in Paris is true. But what is not mentioned is that I was there searching for a Jean Pierre and dreamt of painting everyday on the Seine. Instead the only thing I came home with was a few extra pounds and canvases of fire hydrants and hairy women.
My car is filled with fabric samples, old coffee cups and crumbled up paint chips. My office is not the beautiful neat organized office you may see on the pages of a magazine. The glossy white walls and perfectly p-touched folders are an illusion. I am proud of the homes I have decorated. I think they look wonderful on my website. But people live in them and there are stains on the ottoman and the peonies only make it to the mantel for the photo shoots and parties. I feel my success comes from something one can not photograph. The most fun I have aside designing sassy bars and cute powder rooms, is creating livable rooms and becoming part of someone’s family. I watch their purse carefully and in return I gain trust. And a great house is the outcome.
So . . . I am just a decorator. Big staff, great store or small garage office.. I have not changed. I have realized that my goal is not do so many things in this industry that I forget to decorate. I still schlep lampshades in my car and the highlight of my day is going downtown to check on carpentry in a old warehouse. Glamorous this job is not. However, I live and breathe to have a relationship with a home and the people that live in it. My goal is not have people remark at parties that Ruthie designed the most amazing aubergine lacquered room. But it is to hear that they were treated carefully, honestly and creatively. And that . . . is all I need.)
Now we can all bow down to the coolest woman in interior design :) Seriously, how can someone so creative and successful have such a positive attitude? I believe they call this perspective!!!!
