Kate Ives Design
photo by tim lenz
If you could have a second home anywhere, where would you live? St Barts, or somewhere on the coast of Maine.
What are three words to describe your style?
1. Warm
2. Collected
3. Timeless
Tell us about your childhood bedroom? As a child, I was constantly moving around the bedroom furniture, switching up linens, and swapping out lamps or anything else I could easily get my hands on around the house. However, the one thing that never changed, were my glazed chintz balloon shades, that magically fit the windows of all my different childhood bedrooms, and even made their way to my apartment in Manhattan where I lived during my 20’s.
What’s the first investment piece you ever bought for your house? Art. And good bed linens. I still have the Porthault sheets that were in my dorm room Freshman year of college!
In the history of design, if you could hire any designer other than yourself, who would it be? Veere Greeney
No room is complete without: Art and Flowers.
Things you omit from:
A flower arrangement: Too many different types of flowers arranged together.
An hors d’oeuvre platter: Too many different types of anything paired together. I loathe an overcrowded cheese board. Simplicity is best.
A bar cabinet: Plastic bottles
A song for:
Dinner at home: Honestly, I usually search “dinner party mix” on Spotify.
Working at your desk: Country
Going for a run: Early 2000 jams
If you were on an Ambien high and internet shopping, what would you buy? I would most likely be bidding aimlessly on an auction site.
Do your clothes reflect your design sensibility, if so, how? I think both are pretty timeless and classic. However, my work definitely has more color and pattern than my wardrobe.
Who is your star crush? Jude Law in the The Holiday.
What is the thing you would never do on a project, but don’t detest when you see others do it?
I can’t do paired down minimalism, but they’re so many talented designers who nail it.
If there were a fire, and you could only keep one design book, what would it be? I’m constantly referencing Gil Schafer’s books, they have a permeant home on my desk sill.
For posterity, what would you like your work to be known for? Timelessness, comfort, beauty.
A Few Favorites:
Movie: Something’s Gotta Give
Book: Catcher in the Rye
Scent: Currently I’m wearing Little Flower by Regime des Fleurs
The fabric you always come back to: Pierre Frey’s Plumettes
Dream project: A mountain house out West, something in Wyoming or Montana
Meal: Anything that my husband cooks
Drink: Margherita
Hotel: The Lowell
Travel Destination: Morocco
Artist: Matisse
A cause near and dear to me: Parkinson’s. My mother was diagnosed a few years ago
Thing to collect obsessively: Baskets
Museum: The Met
Paint Color that always looks great: Borrowed Light
Favorite person to follow on Instagram: Martha Stewart
Dogs, Cats, or No Pets? Dogs
