Today, AD100 designer David Netto joins Architectural Digest to answer your burning interior design questions. What color combinations should you avoid? Should you hang your TV over the fireplace? Netto shares his expertise to help solve any interior design problems you may face.
Special thanks to EllsworthKellyFoundation and Gemini G.E.L. LLC
Special thanks to EllsworthKellyFoundation and Gemini G.E.L. LLC
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Should you mount your TV over your fireplace?
00:03Hell no.
00:06My name's David Netto.
00:07I'm an interior designer based in LA
00:09and I'm gonna answer some of the questions
00:10that you've asked AD on their Instagram.
00:17Creative ways to use lights instead of using overheads.
00:19Well, this is kind of a trick question
00:21because you can't just use overhead lights
00:23or you're gonna have a disaster on your hands.
00:25You're gonna have a VD clinic waiting room.
00:27You're gonna have a police station
00:29or I don't know what,
00:30but it's not something you wanna live in.
00:32It's not just creative.
00:34You must have the primary source of light
00:36that you live with be at eye height.
00:39And then whatever's in the ceiling overhead is gravy
00:41but should be dimmed way down.
00:43The best ways I know to do that,
00:46to offset needing more light in the ceiling
00:49is to use sconces.
00:50That's one traditional decorating thing
00:52that still works in any kind of room for me.
00:54The other way is to furnish the room well enough
00:58that you anticipate table lamps where you will want them.
01:01They're not just a fancy option.
01:03They are the reason that the room is sexy
01:05or that the lighting is successful.
01:07Do you ever notice like lighting is a huge aspect
01:10of why a place is desirable to be in?
01:13The reason is because you want to feel seduced
01:17by the lighting.
01:18And if the lighting is a one liner,
01:20it's sort of like someone tearing all their clothes off
01:23and saying, you know, here I am.
01:26There's just no story to it.
01:28And then you also want to distribute the light
01:30evenly around the room.
01:31So the sconces, if you have a pair on one side,
01:33look for a way to put another pair
01:35on the other side that answers.
01:38The best countertop for a kitchen that gets a ton of use.
01:41If you're a real cook and you've got a household of kids,
01:44the kitchen's going to get beat up.
01:45So my first thought is to give into the fact
01:48that it's going to get a beating
01:49and offer something that actually looks better.
01:51The way actually leather looks better,
01:54the more patina it is.
01:55If it's really getting banged up,
01:56I like to suggest that we use a material
01:58called Vermont soapstone for countertops.
02:01It beats up evenly over time.
02:03The first scuff or wine stain will be very upsetting,
02:07but then after a few months,
02:10the whole thing is scuffed up evenly
02:11and it has this wonderful patina
02:13like something from the 19th century.
02:15And it's actually the material
02:17that they used to make lab counters out of
02:19before they invented composites.
02:21And it comes from Vermont.
02:22Vermont's my favorite state.
02:25What colors mix well?
02:28And what combos should I avoid?
02:30Colors that mix well, to me, are colors that take a risk.
02:33I like to do a little more R&D
02:37than doing things that I know
02:39are already in someone's mind's eye
02:42because they're so easy to like.
02:45Light blue, blue and white,
02:46these are wonderful color combinations.
02:48They have their place in the world.
02:49But when people call me and they want something
02:52they couldn't have maybe done on their own,
02:54I like to try to take risks with color.
02:56And so these two colors, dark green and brown,
03:00would be one example.
03:01Another example of a very successful color combination,
03:05I think, is dark green and dark blue.
03:08This is a catalog of a French designer.
03:12Actually, it wasn't a designer.
03:13The best designers are often not designers.
03:15Charles de Besteguy.
03:17And this is the Chateau de Grousset,
03:19which is full of all these very strange
03:20kind of technicolor combinations.
03:23Another way of giving you some real inside tricks here
03:28that I like to figure out how to mix colors
03:32in an exciting way is to look at the work
03:33of a decorator called Jacques Garcia.
03:35And he sort of brings new life
03:39to rooms that are about the past in most ways.
03:42You know, he likes, as Karl Lagerfeld once said,
03:45I like my 18th century fresh.
03:47And that's kind of what Jacques Garcia does.
03:49So when I'm stuck
03:51and I need some exciting color combinations,
03:53I do look at the Jacques Garcia book
03:55and I'm happy to tell you I always find an answer.
03:58What color combination should you avoid?
04:00Well, I don't know.
04:01I only know the things that work.
04:03That's why I'm in the, you know, in the video here.
04:10Colors are often very personally triggering.
04:14You don't necessarily know why somebody loves a color
04:17that you might not like at all.
04:19I used to be very prone to air sickness
04:21when I was a small child.
04:23So I remember the colors of the insides of airplanes
04:26in the 1970s and these sort of mustard brown and orange.
04:30I can't do that because I'm programmed
04:32and we all are in one way or another.
04:34Anybody trying to put together a color palette
04:36can look at the same things that I'm looking at.
04:39Every room needs a little bit of red
04:41if it's gonna be exciting.
04:43I mean, there are very few rules,
04:44but that is one of those rules.
04:46You generally don't want the red to be dominant in any way.
04:51If you're not working with a designer,
04:53it's safer to do neutrals and then just do a pop of red.
04:56There is no problem doing a room
04:59that is predominantly white or off-white.
05:01Create a largely white backdrop
05:03and then drop in something weird color-wise
05:05as the hot sauce.
05:07Hit it hard with two shakes of Tabasco and get out alive.
05:11Should you mount your TV over your fireplace?
05:15Hell no.
05:16This is something I'm on record saying in print
05:20as often as I can.
05:22The bane of flat screen TVs
05:25is that now they end up going over everybody's fireplace
05:28and it's pretty much the worst thing you can do for a room.
05:31That being said, the convenience can be irresistible,
05:34but you're asking me, should you and not could you?
05:37And I'm saying, no, you should not.
05:40You should find somewhere else for that
05:41because the fireplace is the holy grail
05:44of the life of the house
05:46and we should watch the fire and not the TV.
05:49Framed TVs are kind of a blessing.
05:51They are innocuous.
05:52What I would not do is put the pictures
05:55that they show of flowers and views,
05:57you know, fantasy seascapes and stuff like that,
06:00just turn it off.
06:01But a framed TV is a lot less ugly than a non-framed TV.
06:07When you get a framed TV,
06:08you can hang other framed things around it
06:10and create what's called a salon hang
06:12that sort of disguises the impact of the TV.
06:15What design styles mix well?
06:18Anything that is enough
06:19of a completely disparate point of view
06:22tends to be exciting because it creates a tension
06:25and a conversation between the two objects
06:28and the two styles.
06:28So the styles that mix well are super modern and medieval,
06:3218th century French and Italian 1960s, wicker furniture.
06:37Design styles that don't mix well
06:39are things that are wimpy
06:40or don't have a different enough point of view
06:44to want to be next to each other.
06:45If you look at two pieces
06:47and you're wondering if they're gonna work well
06:49next to each other, I would ask yourself,
06:52am I excited to look at these two pieces
06:54or am I just trying to solve the problem?
06:56The emotional response that you have to objects
06:58and the juxtaposition of objects
07:00is usually the best way to figure out
07:03if something's gonna look successful.
07:04I remember when I didn't know how to do that.
07:06I made a lot of mistakes.
07:07Don't feel bad.
07:08Mistakes are the only way to learn.
07:12How do you determine if a vintage piece is ugly or chic?
07:16Well, this is kind of a trick question
07:18because a lot of times the chic things are ugly.
07:21What you want to get better at as your taste evolves
07:27is not being afraid of ugly things
07:29because you're gonna put it next to something
07:32that makes the whole composition successful.
07:35Notice I'm not saying pretty, I'm saying successful
07:38because lots of times pretty and chic
07:40really have nothing to do with each other.
07:42If you wanna feel not so much that you care
07:45that it's chic or not, but that it says something to you,
07:49then you're actually doing the most important part
07:52of collecting and decorating,
07:53which is you're making a personal connection
07:55with the object.
07:56If you're looking for something vintage,
07:58you should keep your eyes peeled for whatever
08:00is a great thing that could come from the region
08:02of where you're looking.
08:03So if you're looking for something vintage in Maine,
08:05you might wanna look for the best decoy duck.
08:08If you're looking in an Italian flea market,
08:11maybe you're looking for a Venetian mirror
08:13that's all dusty and nobody cares about it.
08:15The first thing you wanna establish is where are you
08:18and what could the best thing be that crosses your path
08:21in that part of the world?
08:22Next question.
08:23Good colors for someone who's afraid of color.
08:26A good way to get into a comfort zone with that
08:29is to talk about fashion connections.
08:30So if you ask someone what their favorite color sweater
08:33is to wear that they're comfortable with,
08:34they would tell you and then you would say,
08:36well, there's a color that we wanna use in a room for you.
08:39If you ask someone why Hermes boxes are so beautiful
08:42when they're this bright, screaming orange,
08:45but you're not afraid to have an Hermes box handed to you,
08:47then let's find a way to put an orange blanket
08:49over the back of a chair in one of your rooms
08:52or even do more with it.
08:54There are ways to trick people into relaxing
08:56that are sort of psychological cues,
08:58which a good decorator has quite a few of.
09:01There's a lot to be said for sticking to one color
09:03in a space.
09:04I would say if you do it boringly,
09:07which is to sort of half do it,
09:09you know, you do a chair and the pillow on the chair
09:11is the same color,
09:12that's kind of not gonna be too exciting.
09:14But if you did the same color on the walls, the chair,
09:17a version of it on the carpet,
09:18then there's a painting and the painting
09:20has that color in it.
09:21Something like that can be one of the most sophisticated
09:23rooms in the world,
09:25because generally the more you see of it,
09:27the prettier it is.
09:30I don't get a lot of natural light.
09:32How can I make my home feel brighter?
09:34This is a lot of our problems, dear writer.
09:37I don't feel bad.
09:38You can make your room feel brighter
09:40by causing distractions internally.
09:43Counterintuitively, one of the ways to do that
09:46is to paint a room darker.
09:48So if you paint a dark color,
09:50it makes the space feel bigger and more mysterious.
09:53The light that you do have will actually feel like more.
09:56Another way to do this is to paint the floors
10:00bright, high gloss white.
10:02Any kind of floor paint to me is a sort of dazzling way
10:05to lift a room and make it feel hip.
10:07You do have to be careful
10:08because there's very little oil-based paint.
10:11Only Fine Paints of Europe is still a high gloss paint
10:14that gives you the effect that I'm talking about.
10:16And that will also give you reflected light.
10:18You can bring metal into play in the room
10:21and you can have a metal coffee table with a glass top.
10:24You can have metal lamps.
10:26I would say go heavy on the metal and heavy on the mirror.
10:29Another trick is using picture lights on all the pictures
10:32because then you get the soft glow.
10:34It doesn't look like you're compensating for anything.
10:36It looks like it was always intended
10:37to be that sort of English country house atmosphere.
10:41I can't afford all new furniture,
10:43but I want to keep my house from feeling dated.
10:46Any tips?
10:47Well, sure.
10:48I love budgets, okay?
10:50Any good decorator is not a snob
10:52because great decorating is about creativity
10:55and getting excited about finding opportunities.
10:59It's not about spending money.
11:00My first recommendation would be take things away
11:04because most people need editing
11:08rather than more decorating.
11:09And then I would say scrape together the money
11:11that we do have and put a architectural mirror into a room.
11:15Turn one wall into a mirrored wall
11:17and then it'll double the light of the windows,
11:19which costs nothing.
11:20It will reflect the furniture that we did have money to buy.
11:24And it's a way of bringing glamor
11:26for relatively little expense.
11:28If you can't afford all new furniture,
11:30which many people cannot,
11:32there's no reason to be discouraged by that,
11:36you probably can afford a big, beautiful tree.
11:39And I would say that you should go to the flower market
11:41and get the most beautiful black olive tree
11:44and the biggest one you can fit.
11:45And then you go to a hardware store and you buy an uplight,
11:49and then you put that in the corner
11:50next to the new mirrored wall,
11:52and you're halfway to a Billy Baldwin room
11:55with no new furniture.
11:58What piece is most worth splurging on?
12:00I think that the piece that's worth splurging on
12:04is the piece that you care about.
12:06This is your house.
12:08It's supposed to be about your dreams
12:10of how you're gonna feel at home.
12:11One answer to that might be
12:13the most beautiful sailboat model in the world,
12:15as big as I can get.
12:17Somebody else would say,
12:18why are you giving me a boat model?
12:19I don't care about this.
12:20I don't live near water.
12:21You know, I want an incredible desk.
12:24I'm a workaholic and all I do is sit at my desk.
12:27I want the desk to make me feel like
12:28everything I ever dreamed would happen in my life.
12:31So this is a highly subjective thing,
12:32but the thing worth splurging on
12:34is the thing that the client,
12:36or the person using the room, cares about the most.
12:39If you have kids or pets,
12:41you still have to have a beautiful house
12:43because the house will be compromised.
12:46I mean, I'm not gonna use the word ruined.
12:48I have a father of two, beautiful girls,
12:51and I loved my dog deeply,
12:54and we just accepted that the impact
12:57that they had on the house would be something
13:01and not nothing, but it didn't stop me
13:03from buying anything that I really wanted
13:07because I was worried that they would mess it up.
13:09It just didn't.
13:10You're lucky to have the dogs who cares about the furniture.
13:12You know, just go for it.
13:16What are affordable upgrades
13:18that make a big visual difference besides paint?
13:21You can put wallpaper on the ceiling.
13:24You can buy the biggest size Noguchi paper globe pendant
13:29and hang it in the middle of the room.
13:31Get rid of all your rugs and refinish the floors
13:34and then have everything look kind of stark and elegant.
13:37One way you can lift a space
13:39without spending terribly much money
13:42is buy beautiful books and stack them artistically.
13:46Make a composition of the books on the coffee table,
13:48and then buy one object
13:51that's a great sort of beguiling thing.
13:54It could be a bust of Voltaire,
13:55or it could be an abstract modern sculpture
13:58that you find in a flea market that's not valuable,
14:00but it's pleasing to you.
14:03How to start furnishing an empty apartment
14:05when you don't want to rush the process?
14:08I would start with the sofa,
14:11because what good is life
14:13if you haven't got somewhere to sit when you come home?
14:16Try to get some of the lamps in place right away
14:18because you're never going to like it
14:19unless it's nicely lit.
14:21I mean, if it's me, what I care about are chairs
14:23because they're like characters in a play.
14:25You just can fall in love with a chair
14:27the way you can to almost any other piece of furniture,
14:30for me.
14:31So I would buy one beautiful sculptural chair
14:34with a very strong direction in it,
14:36embedded in the DNA of it
14:38as to how you want everything else to end,
14:40and let the chair do the talking
14:42until you buy all those other things.
14:44Thanks for all your questions.
14:46It's been a pleasure to answer them as best I could,
14:49and good luck out there
14:50with the shopping and the decorating.