Talk Shop: Caroline Gidiere // Caroline Gidiere Designs
Photo by Mariah Oldacre
ABOUT CAROLINE
Ariel first found Caroline’s work on Instagram – a beautiful image of a traditional entryway with chinoiserie wallpaper, blue and white lamps outfitted with custom emerald green silk shades, a gorgeous console tucked above a large woven basket, and a striped kilim runner tying it all together. Almost immediately, Ariel and Caroline started to DM, and the mutual admiration flowed from there.
Our favorite thing about Caroline, besides her gorgeous portfolio of work and kind Southern charm, is her career pivot story: Hailing from a small Southern town where professional decorators were “not a thing”, Caroline switched careers later in life when she decided to leave her job as a full time lawyer to start her own design business. The best part? Her husband surprised her one Christmas with her company’s incorporation documents under the tree and told her “it was time to do something that made her happy.” (Swoon!)
Despite not having a formal background in design, Caroline took in the important principals of interiors and fashion from watching her mother and applied them later in life – principals that eventually landed her own home on the cover of Veranda magazine (it. is. stunning.) As an adult, Caroline is sought after by her friends to help as equally with their daily fashion and entertaining decisions as with their interiors. Guided by her own creativity, coupled with the sensibilities that she learned first hand from her mother and in the pages of her enormous personal design library, Caroline’s firm, Caroline Gidiere Designs is one of our absolute favorites. We also adore her rug line with King’s House – modeled after Bunny Mellon’s famous painted floors, they have become a staple in our design practice.
Read below for more on Caroline and her path to becoming a successful designer below!
Describe your style in three words or less:
Fresh Colorful Classic
What have been the three biggest influences on your aesthetic in your life:
My time in Paris, my summers in Williamsburg, and my mother’s aesthetic.
How did you start your company, and/or what is your favorite thing about what you do:
My husband filed my incorporating documents and obtained my business license, put them all in a folder, wrapped them and put them under the tree for Christmas one year and, when I opened it and looked up at him, he said « It’s time. » I think he could see I was miserable at work and also that friends were always asking me to come help them with different projects. Sometimes it takes someone else believing in you before you can find the courage to believe in yourself. May favorite thing about what I do is the creative process - I can loose entire days - and never think about time or eating or anything else - when I am putting schemes together. That, to me, is the fun part!
Do you have a mentor in your career, and if so, how have they helped to shape your trajectory:
My mother has been the only mentor I have ever had . . . and that was just spending my childhood in indentured servitude - playing with fabric scraps while she sewed, helping hang wallpaper, learning about matching patterns and fabric repeats, standing at the fabric counter and listening to her do her math and calculate yardage. All of that taught me that I could figure anything out if I needed to.
What does your home say about you:
That I really want you to be comfortable, to stay a while, and that friends and family are very important.
Where do you find inspiration:
Literally anywhere. Travel especially fires me up. But, it can be a person, a textile, a bowl, an image that lights up that part of my brain that starts spinning out ideas.
Who are your style icons:
Jessica de Ruiter, Claiborne Swanson Frank, Rose Uniacke.
What are your key ingredients for entertaining:
Prepare ahead, have a cocktail while you are doing your make-up. Relax. Enjoy.
Do you collect anything:
Books, Japanned boxes and trays.
Favorite Instagram accounts to follow for inspiration:
@leahoconnelldesign, @paolo_abate, and @kellybehunstudio.
What design “rule” do you always follow, and which is made to be broken:
All rules are made to be broken - you just have to know and understand a rule before you can properly break it.
What are you working on right now:
Of special interest is a house for a family that wants interiors a bit more mod than my comfort zone - WHICH I LOVE!!! I really love to push myself to have a broader bandwidth - I love to meet my clients where they are.
Wardrobe staples:
La Double J. Blazers, t-shirts, and jeans. Celine shoes and bags.
Best interior advice you ever received:
Measure twice; cut once.
Best career advice you ever received:
Nobody wants to hear your excuses.
Types of home purchases you invest in, and save on:
I invest in enduring pieces - furniture, art, antiques. I save on everyday things that chip, break, must always be replaced - for me, that’s everyday dishes and glasses — all of mine come from Ikea or CB2.
Your greatest extravagance:
Sleep and exercise - I can never get enough of either.
Favorite places to shop for home:
Les marchés aux Puces in Paris; HighPoint Antiques Market. Most prized possession and why: Nothing I own would mean anything to me without my people to share them with. Your interiors motto: Be-bop and skat
Your life motto:
Find the balance.
Advice for someone looking to define their own interior style:
Find the courage to be who you are. Everything will fall into place when you lose your shadow.
Take Ten: My Favorite…
Food: Peanut Butter
Drink: French 75
Film: The Thomas Crown Affair - original and the re-make.
Hotel: Le Bastide de Marie
City: Paris
Bedding: D. Porthault
Tea or Coffee (and how do you take it): Double espresso shot. Then, Jade Citrus Mint Hot Green Tea (one tea bag in a Venti cup) and Trenta Unsweet Green Tea. At 5:15 am. Every morning.
Playlist: from Hip-hop to Jazz, oldies, Top 40, R&B, old school country - I really, really love music. Weekend Activity: Super Saturday or Sunday with Tracy Anderson. Brunch alfresco.
Design Book: Frances Elkins or Madeleine Castaing.
