Father's Day with T! / June 15, 2014 by Raji Radhakrishnan

My husband says reading The New York Times daily is like going to university for current affairs. If that is the case, I think the NYT's T mag is the consummate bible every design lover worth their salt should read. It's the pleasant joy of reading something and smiling, very knowingly. The ensuing conversations are a pleasure and knowing every time that there are thinkers and dreamers just like you in the same wavelength is bliss. As much as one might argue that editorial written words construing no more than a page or two is not literature, I'm here to tell you T, and I mean every article in every issue of T, is contemporary literature at its finest. Take that Bembridge scholars! T mag today is like an art book - one with the intellectual rigor perfect for the instagram age we live in. Nothing about it feels like traditional journalism and in that it's akin to parts of Vogue.

The difference is T will take a banal subject like eyebrows and with a chock-full of historical reference make even the most reluctant of us pause and seriously think about the role of eyebrows not just on a face but in life. Did you ever think that your brows could be very much a part of your branding? Damn it, I saw Vermeer's girl with the pearl earring again just last week and never really thought about her blond eyebrows! Thanks to Emma Straub who has made it abundantly clear that brows are an aspect of beauty that is indeed very thought provoking.

Their column on social media - the genesis of technology today - and it's effects on daily life of different generations of people and a look at this very point of time in history is entirely worth reading and reflecting even if for just confirming your own suspicions. Of Charlotte Moss' recount of her interview with Bunny Mellon I have only one thing to say - I've rarely swelled up looking at interior photographs and reading about the person who inhabited them. There's something very kind and giving about people who enjoy gardening. A kindred spirit I'm very happy to know through Charlotte's eyes.

If you are anything like me, you will want to catch the next flight to Paris as you read about Louis Benech's re-imagination of the Water Theatre in Versailles. Poignant. And discovering Jean-Michel Othoniel - his work a perfect complement to Benach's plans yet modern and innovative enough. The opposite of which is discussed in prime detail by yet another T critique. This time about architecture by Witold Rybczynski - Starchitecture vs Locatecture. It is the same way I feel about interiors and the difference between being dramatic vs being gimmicky. A very fine line but one that is worth exploring and honing.

Reading about Raf Simons and Sterling Ruby is another one of those resonating moments - heart pounding encounters narrated in the most deeply afflicting manner. In the end though, what is really beautiful about T mag is the actual editing, every article every issue. Edit baby edit as we say in design. And so, massive kudos to the editors at T. This morning at breakfast it felt like we had a full round table discussion on contemporary life! Thanks to T's editors and writers, you made our Father's Day that much more sweeter!

All iphone photos are of the pages in today's issue of T.

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Raji RM & Associates | Interior Designer & Decorator

Washington DC | New York

The Story Behind Raji RM Murals / June 12, 2014 by Raji Radhakrishnan

A sampling of Raji RM Murals. Interior Design by Raji RM & Associates

We've had fantastic response for my murals since we launched the capsule collection this Spring and since many have asked what inspired me to start these murals, I thought I'd talk about how it all started #TBT. This is the story of I how I evolved my personal design aesthetic and particularly how my line of murals came to be. Rewind nearly a decade ago, I was in Versailles in the King's apartment wandering the rooms in awe and absolute love. I couldn't hear my husband's voice or the chattering of other visitors - it was just me and the rooms. I was lost in the architecture, the frescoes, the paintings - clicking away photos of painted ceilings, decorative cornices and velvet damask walls. They were all so gorgeous, I was speechless.

More flashback - My family and I had recently moved back to the east coast after a short stint in Palo Alto, CA where I was immersed and entranced with modern architecture, lofts, industrial design, et al. Not fully realizing how much I still loved classical architecture and design and like many design enthusiasts at that time, I was in a moment of flux about classical vs modern design. It was a time when some argued about the merits and demerits of using modern and contemporary furniture in a classically based setting vs. using very traditional furniture in a contemporary/modern setting. With all this churning in some corner of my head, there I was in the middle of what is arguably the most elaborate and vetted traditional architecture in history with high-ceiling frescoes and the most beautiful millwork in every corner and turn. The rooms in Versailles of course were full of gilded fauteuils, Louis XV bureau-plats, elaborate canapes, carved poster beds, etc. Most shoved to the walls behind velvet ropes to let the visitor traffic flow through without touching any of the furnishings. And there was a moment when, perplexed by the beauty in front of me and my still strong love of modernism and contemporary design, I paused letting other visitors push and walk right past me because I felt something very strongly. It was coming down but just not clear enough. As the last of the visitors left the room, I saw it. What if these rooms were filled with modern and contemporary furniture instead of the gilded fauteuils and beaureau-plats?

On my way to our hotel, I started to think and talk in great detail how I would design such a space. Take a grand, classical room and juxtapose it with modern and contemporary furnishings. Simple enough, right? Not so fast George Banks! In reality how will we create that grandeur? Versailles is Versailles! And that night I couldn't sleep not until I had an answer. Sure, it's not easy or one shouldn't even try to recreate rooms like in Versailles but couldn't we still evoke at least a simplified, modern version of it? Yes and No. You want to be very careful here. As the night progressed, frustrated and excited at the same time, I turned on my computer to connect my camera and upload the photos I took, hoping to jiggle my memory and recreate the feeling I had while in the King's apartment. And boy am I glad I did! The answer I was searching for was staring right in front of me in the photos I had taken that day. Not the photos of the rooms itself but the details I had captured in some of the frescoes in the ceilings, in the paintings on the walls. It struck me then, at least one way I can recreate the feeling of a grand space was to blow-up these digital photographs almost room size if needed. This would ideally create the classical backdrop I love, which will also be my cue to then decorate the room in more modern/contemporary (and traditional) style, letting the interplay between styles tell a new story - one that blends the past and the present, evoke thoughts of the best of history and modern life.

One of the first murals we created for a client in Chevy Chase, MD

Continuing our trip to England we came back home packed with goodies, mostly in my head and in my computer. I started toying with the ideas that kick started in Versailles but I don't think I even thought of it as murals just then. As luck would have it, soon after the trip Metropolitan Home magazine's Senior Design Editor, Linda O' Keefe called to ask if I would be interested in designing a show house room in Washington, DC. This was my first show house. I started planning the design in all earnest but not until I figured out how I was going to transfer the feeling I had in Versailles to the master bed room I was designing! As it turned out, it wasn't any of the photographs I took in Versailles that made the cut for this particular room but a photograph I took standing over a hundred feet below the front facade of the British Museum in London. More stars aligned as a brave client whose home I was designing in Chevy Chase, MD during that same time was also game for the idea of having one of her own photographs taken in Israel from the 70s digitally re-captured in detail by me for an entry way. By then I knew I was definitely on to something but making it a line didn't even occur to me until (fast forward) 2012 when I did the Kips Bay Show House. And the rest as they say is history.

Today, Raji RM murals still start with photographs I capture during my travels. Hundreds of them. Sorting through them I usually select just a few (3 to 4 may be) and start working on them to see if they could become a mural. I work on photography related applications that allow me to tweak the light, shadows, color, crop and remove the unwanted details, etc., just until it's perfect to become a mural. The photograph is then transferred to the lab (which I selected after trying several that didn't make the cut, including trying out different papers, finishes and thickness) to test samples of whole image and sections of the image, looking for color correctness, color bleeds, focus, panel cut points and overall to make a beautiful, large scale mural. Sometimes it doesn't work out and the images are terminated at this stage. The one image that does qualify is then printed into 2 - 4 panels that require installation by a professional wallpaper installer. The next image to become a mural only happens at a very inspired moment when I know I found something very special. For more on how to use these murals in today's interiors click here.

I hope you enjoy the murals as much as I do and let them transport you to a different time and place. To inspired moments! Cheers!

Raji Radhakrishnan

Raji RM & Associates | Interior Designer & Decorator

Washington DC | New York

Inspired Monday Morning: Thomas Struth / June 9, 2014 by Raji Radhakrishnan

You have probably guessed it by now - I have a thing for grand gestures. In fact, grand spaces as cavernous as they are and sometimes impractical and unnecessary, do create a very strong emotion in me. I think it's one of the reasons I absolutely love the great, big museums around the world. I've also learned that grand gestures in design are best appreciated when they go hand in hand with subtle and small gestures. In my work, very few realize the small design juxtapositions that create a rather large and meaningful impact in a very personal way. Never mind they don't always get noticed. They do the job quietly and beautifully. The large gestures certainly do get all the attention - like my murals. But, if I don't exercise the control to select the right space, the right subject, the right scale and colors and most importantly the very meaningful and small gestures that go with the larger ones - mind you they will cease to have the impact they usually do. And almost always it's the smaller, unnoticed gestures that clinch these larger than life designs making the room tell a story.

I can honestly say, I learned these inertia-ted subtleties of design by observing artists I adore. Particularly one - Thomas Struth. His Museum series of photographs enthrall me till date. Each a great story, each an exercise in grandeur and subtlety, the perfect complement of the big and the small. Of pride and humility. Of monumental scale and human proportions. Most importantly of dreams and reality and how they are so necessary to wisk one away to large fantasies only to come right back to the reality of how very small we really are in the grand scheme of things. And you guessed it...il est tout ma tasse de thé!

All Thomas Struth' photos via Tumblr & The New Yorker;

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Leopold's #2 Mural from Raji RM murals collection. Juxtaposed on the adjacent wall is a tiny French wire sculpture propped on a shelf. Think David and Goliath! - Interior Design by Raji RM & Associates;

A most excellent article on this portrait by Thomas Struth and his work in The New Yorker

Raji RM & Associates | Interior Designer & Decorator

Washington DC | New York

Online Press: Thanks To The Relished Roost! / June 5, 2014 by Shruti Narasimhan

Have you read the saucy design blog - The Relished Roost? Thanks to Karolyn for her lovely post on our work and our line of murals! As Karolyn says, if you've seen our work and liked Raji's signature murals, they are now available for purchase. Contact us here for more information about the murals or to place an order and we can help you get your own custom mural in just a few weeks. To learn more about how to use Raji RM Murals see our previous post here and be sure to check out The Relished Roost's entire post here!

Raji RM & Associates | Interior Designer & Decorator

Washington DC | New York

Online Press: Thank you LUXE! / May 29, 2014 by Shruti Narasimhan

Check out Raji's home online at LUXESOURCE.com! Read the full story and then click on to tour the entire house!

Interior Design by Raji RM; Photography by Rikki Snyder

Raji RM & Associates | Interior Designer & Decorator

Washington DC | New York

A New Page For Raji RM's Collection Of Photo Murals / May 21, 2014 by Shruti Narasimhan

We are thrilled to share with you our capsule collection of photo murals in the new page we have created to showcase them! As an interior designer, Raji believes that these murals give homes an extra jolt of visual interest. Their use and impact are varied and tremendous. At the very basic, they are no doubt beautiful art. Employed wisely in design projects, they can add architectural interest and indeed become focal points in a room, especially one that lacks any. And if handled masterfully, these murals can even turn the scale of a room on it's head! By selecting the right wall and the right mural you can actually manipulate one's perception about the size of the room. Contrary to popular belief that these large scale murals are best for rooms with serious square footage, they actually do more wonders when installed in a smaller, regular sized room. Take for example the room that Raji designed for the 2012 Kips Bay Show House. The actual room's dimensions were an awkward 10' x 12.5' x 13' 10 x 10' 11" with one wall entirely devoted to windows, another with a doorway and yet another wall indented and recessed partially. Raji chose to install two different wall murals - Kips Bay #4 & Versailles #5 on opposing walls. The larger mural, Kips Bay #4 not only helped solve the problem with the recessed wall but it made a fabulous focal point while tricking the eye in believing that the room was much larger and spacious than it actually was. This is not to undermine how incredibly useful these murals are to balance and tame the scale of large rooms too. Case in point - the Master Bed Room shown below which is over 18' wide x 26' deep.

Now that you know how these murals can help the design and decoration of a room, wouldn't it be very helpful to see these murals in action? You can now see each mural in our collection in more detail and view side-by-side an installation photograph showing how these murals can be used in a room! Raji has personally selected and worked on each mural. From the hundreds of photographs taken during her travels only a few make the cut to become a mural. This involves very carefully selecting the subjects that will bode well when blown up to a large format. Each mural is then subject to adjusting the colors, light and shadows and cropping them to the perfect size while editing the photograph to it's best and most complementing characters for an interior. Our new mural page showcasing the collection has taken out the guess work from knowing how the installed room can look. Each of these murals have been tried and tested in some of the country's most prestigious and high-traffic Designer Show Houses including New York's Kips Bay Sow House, the Hampton Designer Show House, and Washington DC's Designer Show House. Many are already installed in our client homes across the Washington DC area and in New York. Click here to view the collection and contact us to learn more about our collection of murals including dimensions, prices, etc.

The Louvre #1 Installed in a master bed room designed by Raji RM & Associates

Raji RM & Associates | Interior Designer & Decorator

Washington DC | New York

Inspired Monday Morning: Deborah Needleman's T Magazine / May 12, 2014 by Raji Radhakrishnan

These days every time I get T Mag's Style or Travel issues I want to post about it. I've always enjoyed the T magazine even before Ms. Deborah Needleman took over as the head of Editorial. Although I can't quite put a finger on what it was about the magazine in its previous incarnation that I liked or remember specific sections except recall the very modern focus of the design articles and that T always had a page devoted for it's iconic "T" monogram and type which was reinterpreted by an artist in his or her own way. That was a favorite. The fact that I can't recall any other favorites or specifics on the older version of the mag has got nothing to do with the previous editors and everything to do with the current team.

That's me telling you that each issue of T, since Ms. Needleman took over, is perfect and fully packed with stories that whisk you away to a corner of the world you are yet to explore or re-discover. In the process, I find that T has now mastered the way to showcase traditional, fussy and even folksy styles in such a modern and stylish way that no other magazine (most with a strong design style focus) gets it. It definitely has an international focus which is a welcome relief from any other design/style/lifestyle editorials which are mostly focused on the domestic PR agenda (and let's be honest it's usally content from New York and occasionally LA, SF, DC, et al). Not that anything is wrong with the editorial focused on our own country but with dozens of editorials already focused on the domestic radar, an American view of the International scene is most welcoming. Read it. And make sure it's more than just one issue. You'll know exactly what I mean when I say il est juste ma tasse de thé!

Photo via Tumblr and T magazine

The old T logo and believed to be a type specially developed for the magazine.

Artists' T versions which I still think was a very cool feature especially when compared to the current "substance-less" T logo.

A fabulous spread on the women of the Ferragamo house in yesterday's Travel issue

Raji RM & Associates | Interior Designer & Decorator

Washington DC | New York

Inspired Monday Morning - Anish Kapoor / May 5, 2014 by Raji Radhakrishnan

In a world of mass production, information overload and constant messaging I seem to yearn for the unknown, unseen and often in a way that's unprepared. A core aspect to the work we do here at Raji RM is taking huge risks, within the scope of the project of course. The risks pertain to the untested idea, unseen even by us. Because designers I think are artists at the very basis, pragmatists too, as we define our work within the confines of walls driven by functionality, needs and desires.

It is then only necessary that we voyage as often as possible into the depths of artistry, departing from the every day dictum of practical life and logic, only to come right back with monumental inspiration, chiseling out just a sliver of that learning and deftly applying it to our work in transforming the spaces with meaning and perspective to the discerning eye.

One of the contemporary artists who has never failed to inspire me is Anish Kapoor. The risks he takes in his works are often in the face of adversity with the uninformed and the uninitiated. Yet he pushes each new work to another realm, unexplored or even unidentified, until that perspective is explored through his own works. He plays not just with scale or color but with our minds, our perspectives, our view of ourselves and the world around us. Need I say more...juste ma tasse de thé!

(All photos are from Tumblr & Flickr)

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Raji RM & Associates | Interior Designer & Decorator

Washington DC | New York

Press: Raji's Kips Bay Show House Room In The Washington Post Today! / May 1, 2014 by Raji Radhakrishnan

We are so pleased that even after two years of Raji's debut at the Kips Bay Show House, New York, her room still receives kudos from the press and the industry. In The Washington Post's Home section today be sure to see Raji's discussion about home, design and her 2012 #KipsBayShowHouse room!