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"Monelle Totah lives in San Francisco, but her apartment embodies a distinctive international spirit with treasures acquired on her wide-ranging travels. As vice president of design for Williams-Sonoma Home, she takes regular scouting trips to Europe and points beyond, applying her worldly taste to the company&amp;#039;s upholstered furniture, fabrics, bedding, and rugs\u2014as well as to her elegant abode. &amp;quot;I tell people this is my Parisian pied-\u00E0-terre,&amp;quot; Totah says with a smile.  In fact, it&amp;#039;s a six-room flat on the top of a two-story townhouse that she purchased with a friend. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re like Lucy and Ethel,&amp;quot; she remarks of their convenient setup, complete with a connecting outdoor stairway. Luckily, the 1925 Mediterranean-style home with high ceilings and graceful arching windows was in good condition when they bought it. But to facilitate an airier feeling, Totah removed most of the interior doors. She also sanded down the original oak floors and stained them a dark Jacobean brown.   The kitchen is where she focused most of her efforts. Totah updated it with Carrara-marble counters and stainless-steel appliances, but honored the space&amp;#039;s 1920s look by keeping some of the original ceiling-high cabinetry\u2014which contains her overflowing silver and glassware collections\u2014and installing a vintage-inspired nickel light fixture and classic drawer pulls. The daughter of an award-winning chef, the Louisiana-raised Totah calls the kitchen the center of her home. &amp;quot;Cooks generally don&amp;#039;t want guests in there, but I love having people around me when I&amp;#039;m making food,&amp;quot; says the designer, who hosts monthly jambalaya dinners for friends and throws frequent parties.  The festivities typically spill over into the living room, where her affinity for mixing antique and modern pieces\u2014a skill she gleaned from seeing deftly arranged European interiors\u2014is on full view. Next to the mantel displaying mercury-glass spheres that are, Totah notes, &amp;quot;very old, very Louisiana,&amp;quot; is an antique Asian black-lacquer armoire. A Williams-Sonoma Home French Library chair modeled after one she found at a Paris flea market is covered in tailored white linen, and a contemporary glass cocktail table stands over a zebra-print pony hide, one of many striped accessories she owns. &amp;quot;I love the jolt of something that bold and graphic against a white background,&amp;quot; she says, referring to her house&amp;#039;s predominant hue. Working with color samples all day makes her crave its simplicity. &amp;quot;White never goes out of style, and I find it very calming,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I actually have four shades of it on my walls. It makes a difference!&amp;quot; Totah also painted the window trim and the ornate brick fireplace alabaster. &amp;quot;It looked silly in red, so now it&amp;#039;s my big old meringue fireplace,&amp;quot; she says, laughing.   White also happens to be the perfect backdrop for her varied collections, among them art, books, textiles, Buddha statues, match strikers, and cake stands. Whether it&amp;#039;s antiques shops in Paris and Belgium or flea markets in Jaipur and Istanbul, Totah is voracious. &amp;quot;I hate to say it because it sounds so shallow, but I shop all the time,&amp;quot; she admits. In her sitting room\u2014&amp;quot;a little cave where I can curl up and read&amp;quot;\u2014she has placed some of her favorite and most colorful paintings, which appear to pop off the pale walls. The pink and orange depicted in a dancer&amp;#039;s tulle are echoed in the coral cashmere throw and pillows on the antique English campaign chair, while the blue in a canvas of kitchen tools is picked up in an adjacent stack of books. (Totah is fond of using a block of books &amp;quot;as an object&amp;quot; and confesses to buying a few for their color more than their content.) The books rest atop an ivory faux-bamboo chest of drawers that houses her extensive assortment of fine linens culled from around the world.   In the dining room, Totah opted for gray, using a shade inspired by La Petite Maison, a dealer&amp;#039;s showroom at Paris&amp;#039;s Clignancourt flea market. &amp;quot;You have to have a little surprise in your house, a little drama,&amp;quot; she explains of her decision to deviate from white here. The walls were painted five times to achieve the perfect hue, and their rich color beautifully complements the Louis XVI buffet, antique rush-seat chairs, and her grouping of food-themed photographs and sketches. Throughout her flat are shimmering silver accents, from gleaming candlesticks and zardozi-embroidered throw pillows to the vintage mirrored cabinet in the foyer. In the master bedroom, however, Totah deployed dashes of gold, most prominently in the frames of images hung salon-style on her walls. &amp;quot;I wanted a little bit of glamour here,&amp;quot; she says. Next to her bed\u2014which is neatly dressed in Irish linens and a matelass\u00E9 coverlet from Portugal\u2014is a nightstand with note pads from international hotels, mementos of stays in such spots as the InterContinental in Hong Kong and the Lungarno in Florence. Still, she&amp;#039;s quick to clarify, home is where she&amp;#039;s happiest. &amp;quot;This is my sanctuary,&amp;quot; Totah says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s where I rejuvenate.&amp;quot; Until the next trip.  Click here to see the Resources. Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot; Round-the-World Style&amp;quot;.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/interior-designers/tips/a3938/round-the-world-style-a-57930/>