Photos courtesy of BoConcept
In the Westchester, BoConcept’s resident stylist Abigail Guignard gives her top tips to help you impress all your guests this fall.
Abigail Guignard, local store stylist at the Westchester Mall’s BoConcept store, is an interior designer with a passion for helping customers create holistic homes with well-balanced spaces for day-to-day life. Here, she shares her expert tips on this fall season’s must-haves and updates.
Can you tell us a bit about this business and your background in this field? Has home design always been your interest, or did something lead you down this path?
BoConcept designs, produces, and sells a range of contemporary Danish design furniture and accessories for the living room, dining room, bedroom, home office, and outdoor spaces. Its roots can be traced back to a small group of Danish cabinet makers in 1952.
The Westchester location is in the Westchester Mall, White Plains, NY and is managed by Ray Priddle, who has had an ongoing relationship with BoConcept, starting as a franchisee in Florida in 2005. In fact, prior to that, Ray was a BoConcept customer in his hometown of London, UK for several years.
When it comes to picking a staple piece as opposed to replacing everything in sight, what is your suggested process for readers in picking their “wow” piece?
Well, we both agree that this depends on the room. For instance, in a living room, we’d suggest that the main focus would be either the sofa or an accent chair. The accent chair can be used to introduce color and texture that might not be present in the room otherwise and it can also bring a sculpture dimension to the room. It’s really important to think about function, scale, and color of the piece you want to introduce.
In a bedroom, adding a bench to the end of the bed can be a similar way to add color and texture, along with some useful additional seating.
What are some tips to avoid getting carried away or overwhelmed with so many options and ideas?
Really, at BoConcept, we encourage everyone to enjoy and embrace the many options we have so that our customers can get the unique function and look that they want for their home.
It can be a bit overwhelming on occasion, but, with the help of one of our designers, you can work through a process that starts with thinking about the desired style for the room. We have two main themes. For light and uplifting spaces, our Scandi-inspired palette will work wonders. For city sophistication, Quiet Luxury has your name on it.
The Scandinavian expression gives a warm and natural touch to a design or space. The colors curated for Scandi-lovers switch out the traditional Nordic base of white and near-whites for warmer, creamier hues.
The Quiet Luxury color palette is a love letter to the world’s great cities, with its deep, saturated earthy tones and subtle brown, blue, and blacks.
From this starting point, you can funnel down to a design taking into account function, budget and color, and material preferences.
What are some essential/must-have color combinations for this fall season?
We continue to see blue as a strong color trend in interior design and, with an increased focus on well-being given what we have been through, there is an emphasis on layers of green.
In addition, we are experiencing the use of layers of tones in the white and near-white range merging with taupe and other earth tones in the Scandinavian style. And in the Metropolitan style, there is a similar layering moving from dark grays (even black) into subtle browns and blues.
In bedrooms, white has been a major color for wood finishes, but this can on occasion be difficult to use with many fabrics or leathers. We are introducing a neutral ash gray, which gives a softer and warmer feel.
What kind of items do you suggest for readers to incorporate these colors into their living and dining spaces?
The use of accessories, throws, and cushions is a budget-conscious way to introduce these color palettes, provided the main furniture pieces (sofas, beds, etc.) are a suitable base.
Explain this season’s approach towards warm and dark shades of wood. How can readers easily incorporate this trend in their homes?
At BoConcept, we are responding to the increasing customer desire for darker wood tones by introducing dark oak as a veneer option on our Lugano system. This means that customers can easily incorporate this look by selecting media systems, wall storage and sideboards – in addition to the many dining and coffee table options that are available. The Ottawa dining table and sideboards designed for us by Karim Rashid have offered this color option for some time now.
To achieve the clean design trend, what are some items to avoid? What are the key pieces to go for?
Well, the obvious advice is to not have too many pieces and colors. The scale of the pieces chosen for a room can have a major impact. Also, give consideration to storage options to keep surfaces clear of all items other than the pieces you want to display. Look for desks and coffee tables that have storage options.
