Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Busy as a Bee!
This week is already super busy and its only Tuesday!
I have an open house tonight with one of my customers 1st Choice Custom Cabinets. They offer a lot of "green" lines now so I'm super excited about helping them show off what they do!
Here's an example:
The precious bee bracelet above is from Sweet Vintage on Etsy. She offers some really great jewelry so please visit her lovely little shop.
Have a beeeeautiful week!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

I love it, but. . .
Don't we all do this - find something we adore and then start picking it apart? Well, maybe its just me, but I do it with absolutely everything from men, to rooms, to clothes, to movies, to friends, to work stuff, to books, to. . .well you get the point.
So here's a breakdown of how my mind works:
Take this room for example -
I love it! (found in House Beautiful's "Ready, Set, Decorate" - shown below)
Don't you just adore the cover?
Back to the room now - Ok, what do I love? The forsythia, first and foremost - this is actually a really pretty flower, in fact I think its prettier when its in a vase than it is in the wild. That's perfect choice #1.
image source
Now for that flooring guys - I'm pretty sure its a type of marble, but the grey colour is true perfection. I love marble, but on the floors it can seam a little cold, so while the grey floor is perfect choice #2, my first change would be that I would do a slate floor and warm the space up a bit - we should keep the checkerboard pattern if at all possible.
image source
Paint Colour - perfectly lovely choice #3. I heart purple! The contrast between the purple walls and black molding frames and encompasses a room in a way that might make it feel smaller. However, because this area is a hallway/entry it really does work in a non-claustrophobic way, don't ya think?
As for the vases, the ones in the photograph are really pretty - but blue and white is always classic so I was thinking something along these lines:
image source
Lighting - the fixtures are ok, but I would do something with a bit more pattern because I'm crazy like that. How's this:?
image source - from Thomas Paul for Design Public
Actually this one could work even better as it teases/leads you into what appears to be an orangey-reddish front entry at the far end of the picture:
image source - Design Public again
We'll go with choice #2.
I'm also not a huge fan of that bench - maybe one of these from Inmod would work better:
I would love to go with #2 here but I think it will distract from the artwork, so let's say the lovely blue bench instead.
Now we need two side chairs, for those I think we should have something a bit for traditional, either this:
or this:
or this:
ZEBRA it is!!!
But while we're looking at chairs, I got a bit distracted - check these out (not for this imaginary room of course, but maybe somewhere):

I have a feeling if we were decorating this whole house, chinchilla would have a place somewhere! Or maybe this one?:
But most likely, not these:

chair image source
Actually now, that I've looked at all those from Horchow I'm thinking maybe something more modern like this:image source
Nah!!! Let's stick with Zebra!
Sorry for the ADD! Now, we need a sideboard. Perhaps Horchow can still be of some more help?
OR
image source
ugh - bad choices. The second one would be fine I guess, but maybe we should go back to Inmod and find something along these lines:
That's a winner!!!
Wow - so this room has gone totally modern!!! Now let's pick out some artwork:
I'm thinking. . .Kandinsky!
The art on the left side of the photgraph happens to be perfect choice number 4, but above the console I think I'd like to have this:
image source
Ok, so what does this little exercise teach us - well I mean besides, me having a severe case of Interior Design Attention Deficit Disorder, it basically just goes to show you that design is like art, its almost entirely subjective.
And whether or not its beautiful, well that's always in the eye of the beholder isn't it.
I love both the beginning room and the one I've created, that's why the client-designer relationship is so important - whatever the client says really does go, hummmmm. . .scary thought.

Saturday, August 23, 2008


Colourful, Fanciful, and quite possibly PERFECT!
could there be anything better than the amazingly fabulous things Tracy Porter designs? Well, typically I would answer no to this question, but as a matter of fact, there can be something better - yep that's right ladies and gents, they're on SALE!!!
Scarlet Divine Salt & Pepper on Fanciful Pedestal (was $48) Now $15
Elements Cabinet (was $2860) Now $1430
Countryside Chair Cushions - set of 2 (was $325) Now $163
French Chest (was $1425) Now $713
you can find more luxuriously divine items on sale at http://www.tracyporter.com/

Thursday, August 21, 2008

I'm SWAMPED! part one
I literally don't have a spare minute to write. I also feel as though my friends, my job, my house and my cat take precedence over my blog (unfortunate but true) therefore I'm not going to be posting regularly but want to post something so here are today's random photo from my archive - I don't know who designed it or photographed it and I'm ever so sorry for that - but props to those peeps! Please let me know, as always, if you happen to know where credit is due. Thanks ya'll!

Monday, August 18, 2008

I ABHOR MONDAYS
Its always so tough to go back to work. . .especially after a weekend like this:

I'll be back to posts about design as soon as possible. I promise!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

WHAT DO YOU CALL THOSE THINGS?
You know, those things that you designed and coloured in high school Algebra class?
They kinda look like this floor:
And I kinda want to do one so that I can design this kind of floor.
Help please!
image is from House Beautiful's book "Ready, set, decorate!"

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Attic 24
Ok, for those of you that just read my blog and don't visit my links, this one's for you (Momma!).
Attic 24 is one of my absolute favourites. Mostly because she lives in Yorkshire and every time I read her lovely posts I just reminiscence to the point that I can almost smell the gentle rain on the gloriously green hills, oh yeah, and she knits! I mean seriously knits things like this:
she likes fabrics that look like this:

(the one in the middle row on the far left just happens to be the background on my computer)
she takes amazing photographs like these:

and she loves little stores that look like this:

I think I could get lost in there and be perfectly happy for the rest of my life.
You simply must check out her blog here: http://attic24.typepad.com/



Xenia Taler



May 2008's edition of Country Home magazine had a little blurb about this ceramic artist and I simply fell in love (I mean the head over heels kind) with these tiles. Extraordinary work. Enjoy!







I keep thinking a couple of these in my girl Blair's kitchen would be just perfect since they'd coordinate so nicely with this personality:
don't you think?
This one would be lovely in Momma's kitchen - I need to start designing that renovation soon, so more on that later.



This one would be perfect for Miss Annie:!


Just when I was beginning to believe there couldn't be anything more perfect than those tiles, I came across these:








You can find more simplicity and loveliness here: http://www.xeniataler.com/






By the way, I'm listening to this: "When I fall in love, I take my time. . .there's no need to hurry when I'm making up my mind". Jason Mraz is amazing, I wish I took more time to fall in love, but I think I do it all over again, almost daily (even if it's just with a particular aspect of someone). There must be something about those Jasons that get to me. ;)