Timeless Style From Shelly Riehl David

Trends aside, if you stick with nature colors you can't go wrong. People ask me what's in style and I ask them: What do you love? And if Mother Nature used the colors first, you can't go wrong. Look at the Grand Canyon or the sunset. The clay, the tan, the reds and oranges. Or, look at the bird of paradise with its purple and orange. You can do anything you want if nature did it first.

Any trend or color combo being used today that really turns you off?
One trend I don't buy at all is khaki or camouflage in interior design. It's disgusting. That's for a duck blind, not for the home!

Where can homeowners find design inspiration?
First of all, traveling. When I travel I take photos of everything, right down to the doorknobs and doorknockers; I can replicate the designs and make my kitchen hardware. It's amazing how you can be inspired when you travel if you open your eyes.

Another inspiration is coffee table books. I think the best gift is a coffee table book on art or architecture. I was looking at some books on Turkish carpet and the design inspired me to design a black room with Venetian masks on the wall and an exotic Moorish or Turkish tile all around the fireplace. I drew a Turkish carpet design to scale and had a local girl design and cut 8-inch by 8-inch tiles for the fireplace. All inspired by a picture in a book!

So often that's all I need: one piece of inspiration to get started. I've done a whole room around a gorgeous vase before, or a light or a piece of fabric. For the James' home in Houston — Mike James is a Houston Rocket — the inspiration for the whole house was a piece of fabric.

A bonus thing: at least one antique. Every space should have something that has some history attached to it.

You list curtains and lighting. Why are those two things so important?
Lighting is the most overlooked aspect of all interior design. I think a home should look wonderful unfurnished with nothing but smart finishes, great wall colors, lighting and incredible custom draperies.

But it can't look good with just recessed cans on a dimmer. You need multiple layers of lighting. In my living room I have 22 kinds of lights, including overhead chandeliers, little lights emphasizing art, lamps for reading and other tasks. All those levels of lighting set the mood like you see in a sexy bar or a great hotel lobby.

Lighting is really jewelry, and so are draperies. We pay so much for the view and our beautiful properties, but we need to frame the views. I don't care if you live on the ocean or in cold, dark Minnesota — the right draperies are like frames around beautiful pictures. If the view is the beautiful crystal clear ocean or the sky in Palm Beach, the key is that you filter it, not cover it. The light comes in, dapples the room and looks beautiful. Maybe in the Midwest the draperies are big and fat and wonderfully rich.