Sometimes Life Really Shouldn’t Imitate Art

Clearly I am all for life imitating art, art imitating life, art in life, and style driven in equal parts by beauty, enthusiasm and a good sense of humor.  Still, the two are not entirely interchangeable and it seems lately like some people could use a little reminding about where the line is, however faint it may be.

On Tuesday, for the London premiere of Snow White and the Huntsmen, the stars showed up decked out in full Gothic glory.  I have been waiting not so patiently for the movie to come out.  I love that kind of dark Gothic drama.  On film.  And I admire actors like Christian Bale, or even Sascha Baron Cohen, who stay in character when appearing in public while promoting a film.  But Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron’s dresses weren’t in character, they were simply misguided.  Somehow when Rooney Mara tries this type of thing, the whole look is so completely of a piece, and so genuine to her style, that for me it works.  But Stewart and Theron have their own looks which work for them, and this is not it.

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Let’s Face It, There’s Always Something Else To Shop For, And It’s Target Time

I don’t know about you, but I have a had to institute a moratorium on spending on spring clothing and accessories.  I have no reasonable excuse for buying anything else.  So, trying to steer clear of my favorite websites, I thought it was time to check out the Shops at Target.  Without question, my favorite is the Privet House shop (I’m not a dog owner, and after my dear friend was awoken on Mother’s Day by a poop covered dog who had been sick in his crate the night before and let out by a mischievous five year old, I have no interest in becoming one — so I have an aversion to the Polka Dog Bakery shop without even checking it out so it could be just lovely but I wouldn’t know).  The Webster shop is a little preppy for my taste, but there is some nice merchandise if you go for that kind of thing.

Not surprisingly, many of the Privet House items have sold out, but there are still some cute pieces left.  The dishes, napkins and glasses are very pretty.  Admittedly, at this point nice melamine dishes are a dime a dozen, except that they aren’t remotely a dime a dozen so the Target prices for these dishes makes them pretty hard to resist.  $15.99 for a set of four dinner plates isn’t half bad given that comparable French Bull melamine dishes, while beautiful, retail for  $11.00 each.  The bad news is out of four styles of printed melamine dinner plates, only one is still available online.  Truth be told, it’s my favorite of the four.

Privet House at Target Brown Toile Dinner Plates

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How’s This For Funny – Make Your Guests Sit Under A Pooping Bird While Eating Dinner

Priceless … design with a sense of humor.  It’s not everyone who is able to design products or spaces which are both beautiful and playful, make you smile but can also be taken seriously for their aesthetic.  When done well, I’m in love.  So check these out.

1.  The Bird Poop Chandelier by Wyatt Little.  As the mother of a five year old boy, if I never heard anyone say the word poop again it would be too soon.  But I love this light fixture.  I am also partial to all fixtures and accessories that feature birds (yup, that would make thedesign fetishes deer, owls, birds and mushrooms and I’m sure I’m forgetting something – I am generous when it comes to my obsessions).  This particular fixture rocks.

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Is It The New Shape Of The Magazine Industry … Domino Is Back

As a dedicated lover of shopping for things to make life more beautiful, I was extremely sad to say goodbye to Domino magazine (especially when they fulfilled the rest of my pre-paid subscription with something I had absolutely no interest in, but that’s another story).  But the mourning is over and Domino is back.  I think more than being a commentary on the home design business, the relaunch is an interesting commentary on the state of publishing and more specifically of magazine publishing.  Everyone knows that with consumers turning toward online media, they are leaving paper behind and leaving newspapers and magazines struggling.  That results in a game on the part of publishers that’s fairly interesting to watch, the game of trying to figure out how to stay alive, stay relevant, carve a niche that can’t be filled online.

In one such effort, Conde Nast shuttered Gourmet  magazine, only to relaunch it as a mobile app with only a limited number of special issues available at newsstands.  Their strategy with Domino  is somewhat similar.  Sadly, that means that it is not the return of the Domino that many of us knew and loved.  The new Domino will consist only of a limited number of special issues available exclusively through newsstands.  The first issue, entitled Domino Quick Fixes, on newsstands through mid-July, is a thick book and sells for $10.99, and like most special issues has fewer ad pages than the typical monthly magazine.  The next issue is due this fall.

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This Spring Give Your Kitchen A White Out

Say what you will about her, but I tell you, my girl Martha always comes through.  Whatever else you may think, there’s no denying the girl knows how to do things right (or how to get someone else to do things for you … but still right).  My new obsession in kitchen style is whiteware.  It seems to me that one major advantage of adorning your kitchen with serving pieces, bowls, vases, out of porcelain, glass, white glass and crystal (or any subset thereof) is that in addition to looking clean, sleek and classy, chances are pretty good that whatever the decor in your kitchen right now, the new items will work with it, so you don’t have to go throwing away and replacing everything right away.  You can replace your possessions slowly over time, and if the trend changes before you finish replacing everything, chances are your whiteware or glassware will still work pretty well with whatever the new fad is.  After all, style is important, but versatility can be helpful.

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Embracing Nature … It’s Not Just About Hugging Trees

Since I was in high school, I have been drawn to architecture which has been designed to interact with nature, and taking its position in nature into consideration in giving it form.  That means that — I know, like millions of other teens — I went through the obsession with Frank Lloyd Wright phase, and the accompanying obsession with Ayn Rand phase.  And like many (although by no means all) of those teens, have struggled with the disillusionment when I was able to understand Rand’s political view ever since.

The longer I looked at photographs of a couple of recent homes built to blur the line between inside and outside, gorgeous and brilliantly designed homes, the more they began to look not so much contemporary, as Modern (insofar as that defines a decidedly twentieth century aesthetic ).   The interiors particularly are not so far from something Frank Lloyd Wright might have designed.  They are a distillment of a number of twentieth century architectural greats from the 1930′s through the 1960′s.  But as I say, that’s only after looking for a really long time, since on the face of it — and again, in their bones — these two homes are absolutely contemporary and innovative.

The Belvedere Residence by Anastasia Arquitetos, located in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, takes advantage of the temperate climate by allowing outside and inside to flow almost seamlessly into each other.  Since aesthetics are my thing, mostly I’m just drawn to how exquisite the first floor patio is.  But the reality is, that the home was designed taking into thoughtful consideration how to maximize space in an urban context, how to take maximal advantage of light and air and manipulate them to make the house efficient and comfortable.

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Calgon Take Me Away a.k.a. I Need Your Help

So, today I need your help.  For starters, let’s lay out the situation.  My husband and I purchased our current condo in very large part because of the master suite.  The house was converted into condos and the master suite occupies what was once the attic — the entire floor — and is pretty stinkin’ awesome.  I hope that doesn’t sound boastful.  Obviously we had nothing to do with its greatness.  It merely showed us to be the suckers that we are because we paid more for the condo than it was really worth in large part because of that master suite.  The bedroom itself feels like something of an escape.  There are three skylights (and four windows and a glass door) so the room is always flooded with light, and it has its own little balcony.  But the pièce de résistance is the master bath.  It’s huge.  Because it is in the attic, the ceiling cuts in at all sorts of annoying angles which make it extremely difficult to make good use of the space, and at least once a week cause my husband to crash his head into a pitched wall.  But it is dramatic and the odd shape prevents you from putting much furniture in it which means that it always stays a bit sparse and beautiful.  My thought, when I saw this bathroom, was that it looked like a spa.  Large tub with jacuzzi.  Skylight over the tub/shower.  Marble tiled floor and shower.  Large window and lots of sunlight.  Beautiful light wood his and hers double sink with a granite countertop, and a mirror covering most of the wall over the sink.  I imagined that any time I went into this bath, I would feel like I was on vacation — preferably in the tropics — and promptly bought a little potted palm to put by the window to complete the illusion.

What I didn’t bank on was that because this room was poorly insulated and in the roof, it would be absolutely impossible to heat in the winter.  And, in addition, since the house is poorly insulated and the pipes run up the outside walls, and the master bath is on the uppermost floor of the house, and the hot water heater is perhaps significantly smaller than it should be, it is also nearly impossible to get warm water up to the room in the winter.  But living with Boston winters (okay, clearly with the exception of this winter), the need for the tropic escape is strong enough that I’m usually able to overlook these minor inconveniences and submit to the illusion.

I recently purchased a photograph for the bathroom and hung it to the right of the his and hers sinks.  This is the photograph:

Jeremy Kohm, Casino Employee's Day

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An Elegant Table And A … Well … Boy

Not feeling terribly philosophical today — just a few images to share:

The Giselle Lounge Table by Anna Neklesa for Kerozen Design

Neklesa is a 23 year old designer from Saint Petersburg, Russia.  The design is inspired by ballet.  Personally I absolutely love the magazine holders.

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What Goes Around Comes Around Again And Again

Do you remember when wallpaper became “out”?  I can’t put my finger on the precise moment, but I know when my husband and I bought our first apartment I was horrified by the fact that there was wallpaper in almost every room and could barely see past it.  First thing, long before we even moved in, we had to rip off a century’s worth of wallpaper — countless layers — replaster and paint.  And suddenly the apartment looked like home.  The difference was night and day.

But over the last several years, wallpaper has been staging a comeback, and there are some pretty incredible choices out there.  I am confident there are people with a flair for design who could pull off wallpapering an entire living room in some completely over the top print and have it look unbelievable.  I tend towards the more cautious.  My feeling is that small spaces offer the perfect opportunity to try outrageous things.  Don’t be a wuss.  It’s just a matter of finding the perfect wallpaper and just the right little corner to play in.  The possibilities are endless (literally, since there are even design your own wallpaper options out there at this point).

If you’re looking for over the top, Flavor Paper (even the name is great, no?) is the place to go.  I am loving the blurred photographic print wallpaper.  I can’t quite imagine how it would read when actually hung on the wall — hence the small room, you can always change it if you’re not happy as long as you haven’t broken the bank with your initial investment. 

Aspen Grove designed by Boone Speed at Flavor Paper

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Every Room a Different Story

I’m kind of loving this project, so I have to give it a little plug. For Amy Lombard’s “Happy Inside (IKEA)” project, she has visited Ikea stores across the country and taken photographs of the rooms which have been staged in the store. Sometimes there are people in the pictures. Sometimes not. But in all of the pictures, the rooms come alive as spaces that are part of a story, and part of a life, rather than just a sales display. Amy is currently trying to raise the funding to get the photographs published as a book.

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