Katie Ridder’s new book ROOMS, is just out. If you want a breath of fresh design air, be sure you get this one.
Funny I say “breath,” because that is one of the things about Katie’s work you aren’t conscious of…until you are: Her rooms breathe.
It isn’t that they’re airy, necessarily, though some are, of course.
While others are quite strong, bold, and emphatic.
It’s that her rooms have clean, classic lines and uncluttered compositions that give them a sense of order and calm. You see the room, or you walk in it, and you relax a little; you do, indeed, breathe. That is the power of good design.
So you’re cruising along with Katie’s work you think, okay that’s nice; that’s handsome; and then boom! A mirror ball! Moroccan tiles! Tin flowers on a powder room wall! Unexpected but not jarring or untoward. It’s like she’s winking at you. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing, because she is as lovely as her rooms, in every way.
She’s signing TONIGHT in New York at Archivia Books, 993 Lexington Avenue, between 71st and 72nd streets, between 6 and 8. And by the way, her husband, the architect Peter Pennoyer, has a beautiful book himself that came out last year. You’ll want that, too, if you don’t have it already.