Kilmer-Purcell Josh - Beekman 1802 style: the attraction of opposites

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ISBN 9781623365073 hardcover
ISBN 9781623365080 ebook

We inspire and enable people to improve their lives and the world around them.
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For Uncle Arthur, who always used to boast that his house had been featured in Architectural Digest. Dear Arthur, we have an entire book now!

Thanks for the inspiration,
Brent and Josh

Contents

Introduction

PEOPLE COME INTO RELATIONSHIPS with all sorts of emotional baggage, and they come with plenty of bags, boxes, box trucks, and storage units full of physical stuff, too. But these things dont have to weigh you down. With a little ingenuity, a thoughtful eye, some teamwork, and sometimes a little elbow grease, you can make a home together of all the things that you both treasure. Whether you are sharing a space with a best friend or a romantic partner, the space should (and easily can) reflect the tastes of everyone calling it home.

When we met in 1999, we could not have been more different.

Josh had been living a double life in New York City for several years: junior advertising executive by day and nightlife impresario by night (in other words, a drag queen named Aquadisiac).

Brent was a fresh-to-the-city young doctor from the South still wearing the Bible belt cinched tightly around his waist.

What they say is true. You cant help whom you fall in love with, and opposites really do attract. But at Beekman 1802, we like to think of it as two things coming together to make something complete.

We dated for 2 years before moving in together into a small studio apartment in the citys West Village.

The first home we purchased was a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattans Upper East Side (pictured below). Like most new home owners, we had very little budget for decorating or remodeling, so we bought a few cans of paint and did our best to add a little drama to what was essentially a white box. After a flood and a necessary gut renovation, that apartment went on to be featured on Apartment Therapy and The Martha Stewart Show and in the New York Post and Martha Stewart Living magazine.

In 2008, we lost our jobs amidst the Great Recession, and we moved to a 200-year-old farm in upstate New York. As we crossed the threshold for the first time, we looked at what greeted us not as a large, empty space but as a well for inspiration. Taking a little bit of this and a little bit of that, a little from our past lives in the city, and some new rural finds, the house became our home.

Those rooms and the surrounding 60 acres gave birth to our famed lifestyle brand, Beekman 1802where city meets country in an unexpected and incredible way in every single item the company designs.

Now the historic Beekman Farm (built in 1802), and its unique style, has been featured in Country Living, Vanity Fair, Food & Wine, Out, House Beautiful, Elle Dcor, FOLK, Vogue, the New York Times, Sweet Paul, Design*Sponge, iVillage, and Anthology.

Very few of us will ever have the luxury of having a complete house makeover. We dont move into an empty space and start completely new. We live in blended environments that evolve over time. We inherit, salvage, and purchase items as life rolls on. Things come and gobut our personality and style always remain.

In a recent study, 85.7 percent of participants claim to want a life partner who has their opposite traits. And why not? If you think about it, all the world is based on the attraction of opposites (positives and negatives, cations and anions, protons and electrons). Why should the physical world that we create around us be any different? The attraction of opposites can result in a more complete and visually interesting room.

In addition to showing studies from our own home, for this book we combed through the archives of Country Living magazinedocumenting homes of everyday people for more than 20 yearsto find inspiration and examples that will demonstrate how to create beautiful, practical rooms even when the items you have to work with might not immediately look like they belong together... just like us.

BRENT AND JOSH