Friday Favorites: Home Decor Books

 Books, Decor  3 Responses »
Jan 302010
 

I am crazy-in-love with luxurious fabrics, vintage clothing, Chinoiserie, and the color turquoise.  So the cover of The Well-Dressed Home stopped me dead in my tracks:


Apparently I missed this book when it made a tour of design blogs a few months ago, but on discovering it last week I wasted no time in breaking my vow to stop purchasing craft and home decor books.

The photos and inspiration boards in this book are absolutely swoon-worthy.  The lighting, the cropping, the colors, the choice of objects — everything about them struck me as perfection.

And, while I would have been perfectly happy with a book full gorgeous photos, The Well-Dressed Home is text-heavy for a decorating guide.  The book describes in detail why each element of each room was chosen — for example, a curvy coffee table to balance out straight lines, or mother-of-pearl picture frames to reflect soft light.  While I didn’t always agree with the actual decor choices, the text gave so much guidance that, for once, I understand the interior design process well enough that I could articulate what I’d change and why.

The book’s central concept involves approaching interior decorating styles the same way you approach your wardrobe.  This idea is both the book’s strength and its weakness.  I love the suggestion of using past clothing choices as a way of figuring out my decorating style.  And the book is full of usefully concrete examples of how to translate a beloved garment into a beloved room design.  On the other hand, the concept grew old when repeated over the space of two-hundred-plus pages.  By the end I was rolling my eyes at yet another mention of ThisDesigner or ThatFashionHouse.

Still, did I mention the gorgeous, light-filled, fashionably inspirational photos?  Just … sigh. This is one of those books that sparks new inspiration every time you open it, and I have a feeling it will remain a bookshelf favorite for many years to come.

(first and last photos borrowed from Wishing True; others from Brooke Giannetti)

 Posted by Tara at 12:26 am

My Dining Chairs Are Famous!

 Decor, Television  8 Responses »
Aug 132009
 

I am crazy for vintage design. For furniture, my favorite styles come from around the 1940s, when styles began to incorporate the smooth lines and honey colors of Mid-Century Modern but still retained a few decorative flourishes from the Art Deco days.

My pre-Mr T apartment sported a real dining room, and I decided it needed real dining room furniture. As usual, this meant searching Craigslist and Ebay for super-cheap versions of the vintage styles that I love. The sideboard and china cabinet came from a DC-area government scientist who talked my ear off about politics and science. The pieces had been in her family since they were first purchased in the 1940s. I know less about my dining table and chairs, which came from Boston via Ebay, dropped at my door by a curmudgeonly man with a trailer.

Here’s a tiny bit of my dining table legs (which isn’t terribly relevant to this post, but I can’t resist the puppy photo of Zoe):

And here’s a chair:

Cut to last week, when Mr T and I were finishing Season 2 of Mad Men. There was an episode where Don visited an old friend in California. He was shown fixing the leg of a wooden chair. And when he turned it over, we saw this:

I can’t tell you how bizarrely excited I was to see my chair on Mad Men! When the new season starts, you can bet I’ll be watching extra closely in case any of my other vintage possessions show up in the background.

Have you ever had a copy of your possessions turn up in a very unexpected place?

 Posted by Tara at 6:08 pm

Glass + Paint = Pretty

 Crafts, Decor, Wedding  1 Response »
Sep 172007
 

This week, I have been playing around with one of the world’s easiest DIY projects.  We may or may not use it in our wedding, but it’s something that easily could be worked into reception decor in many ways….

The project was inspired by something I read a few years ago in dear, departed Budget Living magazine.  According to Budget Living, you can approximate the look of antique mercury glass simply by spraying Krylon Looking Glass paint on the inside of a glass vase.  I tore out the article and have always meant to give it a try, but I was stymied by my complete failure to find Krylon Looking Glass anywhere that sold spray paint. 

First I tried the project with ordinary silver spray paint.  The results were nice, but a bit flat.  So, I finally gave up and ordered the real Krylon Looking Glass off the Internet.  All it took was a few coats of the real thing, and I had a beautifully shiny creation!

My ordinary-paint creation is on the right and my Looking Glass vase on the left.  It’s difficult to tell the difference here, particularly given the less-than-stellar photos, but in real life, the plain version is flat silver and the Looking Glass version is shiny and beautiful:

Silver_paint

These flowers are fake, of course.  Looking Glass has to be sprayed inside the glass to work properly, so this particular method wouldn’t work with flowers that need water.  However, any other type of spray paint can be sprayed on the outside of the vase. 

While I was at the art supply site, I also picked up some Krylon 18K Gold Plate:

Gold_paint_2

Of the four looks I tried, my favorite may be simple white.  This would look especially interesting with ribbed or textured glass, for a Jonathan Adler-like effect: 

White_paint_2

Simple glass vases in every size and shape go for 50 cents – $2 at my local thrift store.  Cans of basic spray paint sell for as little as 99 cents — the price I paid at Home Depot for the white version.  Even the most ritzy spray paint, like the 12 modern, party-ready colors in Maine Cottage Spray Paint, runs less than $20 per can and would cover lots and lots of glass….  And, not counting drying time, the project takes 10 minutes at the most!

Overall, these painted vases could form the basis for lovely centerpieces, often in the exact colors you desire, and at a truly budget price.

 Posted by Tara at 11:32 pm

A New Household Obsession: The Jeff Koons Puppy Vase (Or Not)

 Bargains, Decor  No Responses »
Jul 242007
 

I’ve recently added a bunch of interior design blogs to my daily reading list, entirely for the pretty pictures.  And one of my favorite pictures of late has been this one:

Jeffkoonvase

Photo from Desire to Inspire

Turns out, I’m a bit late to the party when it comes to this fabulous dog.  Everyone in the design community either already has a Jeff Koons puppy vase or already covets one.   Unfortunately, they were designed in a limited edition of 3,000 and now sell for around $6,000 in galleries.  If you know me at all, you know that’s not going to happen!

But you can also probably guess where I’d turn for a solution … Ebay!  It turns out there are scores of “dog planters” on Ebay at any given time.  While they may not have the same high-end lineage as the Koons vase, many of them are quite stylish.  How about this guy, who’s listed for $7.50?

Spanielplanter1

Or this little fellow, who’s from the 1940s (according to another listing) and going for a mere $1.99?

104a_1

You can search broadly for “dog planter”, or try more specifically for “McCoy” or “Shawnee”, which are art pottery makers who seem to have created some of the more attractive dogs back around the 1940s.  Or you can also search for breed.  (Wouldn’t it make a cute gift to find the breed of a friend’s dog and fill it with flowers before a visit??)

My biggest problem is that I feel I should be loyal to Zoe, but the Sheltie (well, Collie) offerings aren’t really as stylish.  They tend to be more realistic rather than pop-artsy:

F4f0_1

But I’ll hang in there.  Out of the thousands of listings on Ebay every week, I’m convinced it will happen one day.  I’ll keep you posted!

 Posted by Tara at 3:00 pm

My Obsession: Sunburst / Starburst Mirrors

 Decor  1 Response »
Jun 212007
 

For many years, I have been obsessed with huge vintage sunburst / starburst mirrors.  (Although they are a staple of high-end decor, on a quick Internet search I could find only this one photo, on the Metropolitan Home website:)

Mirror_copy_2Unfortunately for my obsession, the real deal isn’t cheap.  We once saw one at C-Mart, Washington/Baltimore’s fabulous discount warehouse for high-end furniture and fashions at a discount, but even at something like 70% off, it was still nearly $1,000 and waaaaaaay out of my range.

Thus began the long search for replacements within my meager range.  Because I purchase nearly everything on Ebay, I created a saved search on Ebay that emailed me every sunburst or starburst mirror listed at under $50.00 within the United States.  There were many because the look is having a comeback these days.  You can even find modern versions at popular stores like West Elm, CB2, and Fortunoff.  Still, a lot of them just looked cheap.  And there are a lot of factors to consider, in terms of “arm” ratio, whether there are little mirrors on the arms and if so where and how many, silver versus gold, etc., etc., etc., and none of them quite pleased me the way the gorgeous ($$$$) traditional ones always do.  The $49 West Elm version interested me, but as I waited to decide, an interesting Ebay listing finally arrived in my email inbox:

Sunburst_mirrors_3The total price?  $10.94!  That was 99 cents for the actual mirrors, with $9.95 for shipping.  If you get too close, their lack of quality is extremely obvious, but there’s no reason to get too close.  After all, they hang high above the kitchen garbage can.

These little mirrors have kept me happy and content for a very long time.  Well over a year.  And then it happened….  I received this month’s copy of Marie Claire Idees.  It had a crazy-wonderful photo of a sunburst mirror made out of pink plastic spoons!:
Mci_spoon_mirror_2

For one or two insane moments, I actually considered making one of these.  It’s … Just. So. Cute!  (Plastic spoons … who knew?)  And then I came to my senses and realized that, no matter how cute, there probably isn’t a place in my home for decor made from plastic spoons.  Oh well.

And now I’m feeling the mirror jones ones again.  Though still trying to think of creative — read, cheap! — ways to satisfy it.  Recently, Holly Becker at my favorite home decor blog decor8 featured the work of an Etsy seller named AnneChovie who sells lovely paintings of rooms and images straight out of home decor magazines.  Her work is quite affordable and she takes commissions, so I actually considered asking her to paint me a big sunburst mirror!  (Here’s some of her work:)

548336705_3c8c9ac636_o_3 Il_430xn8680247_3

 

But then today, as I was searching around for images, I actually discovered a couple of almost-affordable versions of the real thing.  This shop has some in silver and gold that are just over a yard in diameter (a bit small in the traditional sense, though not exactly tiny) for $259 plus shipping:

Rd1531_m_2

And this shop has a slightly unusual, modern design for $299, with free shipping.  It’s a glorious 50” in diameter: 

990326sm_2

Overall, not loose-change kind of money, but hardly out of reach….  Let’s just say I’ve added both to my Wists.  You never know!

Edited on 7/9 to say that I found another affordable sunburst mirror, courtesy of the August 2007 issue of Domino.  Called “Vega,” it’s 45” in diameter and surprisingly only $269 despite coming from Neiman Marcus.  Their Website says it’s on backorder till early August, but here’s hoping it will come back in stock.  It’s a striking one!

Nmh2218_mn

 

 Posted by Tara at 7:10 pm

The Eternal Problem of Earring Display

 Decor, Useful Stuff  1 Response »
May 182007
 

This week I finally took care of the vast mess of earrings that has been sitting in a tin on my dresser for, oh, forever…. 

For the past few years, I’ve organized necklaces and bracelets on a chrome tree meant for displaying hand-towels in the bathroom.  It works quite well, and I like the look.   So a while back, when I saw a similar holder with narrow arms on sale for a couple of dollars at TJ Maxx, I thought, “Why not earrings?”

Earring_holder_3

The hanging earrings slip easily over the bars of the holder.  For post earrings, I simply doubled lengths of satin ribbon over the top bar.  Was feeling lazy that day, so I just pinned it in place with sewing pins.  Eventually I plan to sew the ribbon in place, glue it with fabric glue, or, at the very least, replace the ugly sewing pins with the nicer pearl-tipped variety!

The empty space at the bottom would work well for a small jewelry box or a collection of containers for rings or other pieces.  (For now, I use the space as a shrine to my beloved orange cat One-Eyed Jack, who passed away a couple of weeks ago.)  Speaking of rings, here’s what I use for mine:

Ring_corner_2

They sell the glass hands on ebay as displays for people who sell jewelry.   I hope to sell my jewelry someday, but in the meantime I just enjoy the hand as a piece of sculptural art in its own right.

As a postscript, by coincidence I discovered yesterday this post on Elegant Musings with an adorable holder using an empty frame and wire.  It doesn’t work for post earrings, but looks like a great idea for the hanging variety. 

 Posted by Tara at 5:55 pm
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