Apartment Progress: Layering in the Bedroom

Okay, this morning with my back feeling better and my house-sitting duties complete, I finally got around to laying down the new rug in the bedroom.   Wrestling that mattress on and off the frame was rough, but necessary.  I really like the large-scale ikat pattern. 

 I have some new bedding on the way, but for now I just added a piece of ikat fabric that I've been meaning to sew into pillow covers atop my charcoal sheets.  Next to the bed, I layered two goat-skin rugs that I bought a few years ago at an estate sale.

I have an idea for artwork above the bed, and a plan to alter the bedside table because its wood is not actually in the best shape.  I also have a plan for a second bedside table and a little more storage.  But for today, it's enough and I'm happy with the changes.  Now, because its really hot here, I plan to hide inside with the A/C for the afternoon and catch up some reading.  Inspiration here I come!

So what do you think?  Can I work a little red into the bedroom?

Apartment File: Moving Beyond the Basics

I went on a little bit of an apartment buying binge last week.  I've budgeted out a set amount from each paycheck to decorate the apartment, and I was a few weeks behind on actually purchasing, so a lot got ordered at once.  This morning my living room looked like this...

Some of the items purchased were furniture basics-- a new bed frame, so my mattress could get off the floor.

Some of the things were more decorative, like this painting I bought off ebay.  I bid on it, won it, and then sort of had bidding remorse because I started worrying that I wouldn't like it.  Now that it's arrived, I really do like it. Whew.  

And some of it was purely for entertainment, like a tv, a radio and some books.  I also purchased a rug, which I haven't gotten around to unpacking since I want to thoroughly clean the floor before laying it down.  I'm trying to get it more or less pulled together in the next couple weeks.  Well, the living room at least.  I'm a little less focused on the bedroom, but as the photo above shows, it needs some attention.  I may have a bit of ebay addiction right now, and I have my eye on a couple of decorative items for the bedroom.  I'll keep you posted.

Late Night Inspiration: Stephan Hamel's House in Tuscany

Well okay, its not that late, only 11:15.  But I should be sleeping since I have to get up early and go to work tomorrow.  I just found these photos from Vogue Living Australia Nov/Dec 2010 issue online, and wanted to repost them.  I stopped at Barnes & Noble this afternoon when I was in the neighborhood running errands, and this issue was still on the shelves.  I LOVED this house, but didn't want to shell out the $10 cover price for an imported magazine.  I thought it would be easier to find the photos online, but it actually wasn't.  Thus I'm going to re-post them so others can enjoy them too.  I found them here.

Why do I love this home?  Its kind of cluttered and has a few too many objects that just scream 80s to me.  I think there is an object that I hate in almost every photo, but there is also something I love in every photo.  I really like the colorful nature of just about everything. The beamed ceilings, brick/tile floors, and bright light are all relatable to NM houses.  And I like that there are so many of those crazy contemporary furniture pieces that are really more theoretical than practical, actually in use in the house.  Ultimately it looks lived in, and lived in by interesting people.

I think what I really love about looking into other people's homes is seeing their personalities come through.  I don't believe in a perfect space.  Personalization is a vital part of human nature, and its why interiors that look too highly stylized or spartan just don't read as authentic to me.  Give me a crazy Italian retreat any day.

How about you?  Any crazy houses that you really love?

Favorite Books: Casa Italiana

In honor of October being National Book Month, I'm sharing my favorite books and have moved into the realm of books for adults.  Or very precocious children.

It rained here last night, which was lovely, but seems to have triggered some cold/allergy symptoms that have left me feeling a bit beaten up this morning.  I'm going to forego my usual wordiness and leave you with the following pictures of one of my favorite design books.  I have eclectic tastes and these interiors reflect that.  Some fantastic tile work in here, too.  Click images for bigger version.

This is the rationalist style kitchen (left) of the Serena Family home in Rome.  Built in 1937.

Bathroom in the house of Carlo Mollino, Turin.

Animal print walls in the bedroom of the house of Carlo Mollino, Turin.

Modern mixed with classical design in the house of Carlo Mollino, Turin.

Views of the living room with fantastic starburst style chandelier in the house of Carlo Mollino, Turin.

Entry hall and Japanese style doors to living room in the house of Carlo Mollino, Turin.

Pale blue walls in the bedroom of an architect's house in Cremona. 

Hallways and sculptor's studio of  architect's house in Cremona.

Dining room and studio study area of an architect's house in Cremona.

Old paintings casually leaning against the wall, and modern furniture in the loft of Rudolfo Dordoni, Milan.

Casa Italiana by Patrizia Catalano and Photographs by Henry Thoreau.  ©2002, Rizzoli; New York.

Interior Inspiration: Mazen El-Abdallah on Canadian House & Home TV

Just saw this episode on the Canadian House & Home site featuring the house of Mazen El-Abdallah of Mazen Studio and thought it was one of the best modern renovations of a Victorian that I've seen.  (Sorry, slightly blurry screen shots... but you should just go watch the segment anyway and forget this post). 

Interior Inspiration: Lori Goldstein

Part of my Great Office Clean-out last year was finally organizing and recycling old magazines that I had kept because something in them inspired me.  I paged through old magazines while I watched movies, and ripped out anything that still kept me interested.  Then I added them to my pile to scan.

These images from stylist Lori Goldstein's weekend house in Amagansett, NY still caught my eye eight years after they were published.  In fact, I know that I saved the magazine for this home.  All images were scanned from the October 2002 issue of Elle Decor.  I didn't note the photographer.  (Bad me, if you happen to know please tell me).

I like the Malm fireplace, the BIG basket of wood, the Moroccan rug, the low lying bed, the casually placed art, and most of all the wall of windows.

The green table, the swing arm lamp, the worn oriental rug, the natural looking bed linens.

Again love the walls of glass, the vertical wood siding, and the boulders-as-steps down into the garden.  Really nice.

I'm posting it today because I saw just realized today that Lori Goldstein is the same woman that Kelly from The Glamourai has featured on her site several times over the past few months.  She put up detail shots that she took in Ms. Goldstein's Chelsea loft up yesterday, and had posted more interiors back in June. (Part I and Part II).

I love to contrast the city and country homes of people.  Here the only thing I noticed in both was a Moroccan rug.  Any sharp eyes detect more?  I also noticed that the house reminded me of another favorite home I posted a few months ago, that of stylist and photographer Anita Calero.  Her home is also a modernist house with wood ceilings and walls of glass located on Long Island.  It has a similar color palette too-- sagey green, lots of brown, and pops of red.  Her city loft is in West Chelsea, and she has the exact same wooden deer head that is shown in the first picture above.  Must have been  a stylist thing ca. 2002?

Directive: Hire an Architect.

photos by Anthony Cotsifas for T Magazine, June 30, 2010

This modernist house post from the New York Times T Magazine just popped up in my reader a few minutes ago.  It's a weekend home for NY based creative director Sara Rotman, and was designed by David Mann to be entirely off-the-grid.  The slideshow didn't particularly inspire me, but the video did.  Lovely views of the house, nice music, and a charming dialogue between client and architect.

So, if you are building or remodeling, seriously, hire an architect.  Your house will be better for it and they all need work right now.

(Also, I chose the photo on the lower right to ask the question, what is up with that little silver pig showing up everywhere?  Did you see it here on Monday?)

Decoration progress: Need a coffee table

Do I like this coffee table?  I think so, although the in situ photo on the Wisteria site is so opposite of what I'd want my house to look like it throws me off a bit.  I like the materials, it fits the small-ish and round criteria, it could work inside or outside... it's cheaper at $500 (!!) than the other new coffee table that I want, yet still way more than I'm willing or able to spend.

I've been on the hunt for a vintage round coffee table for quite awhile now and can't seem to find one I like.  I'll keep looking, but meanwhile if I found an affordable new table I'd totally go for it.  I'm sort of considering this kid's table from Target, seen in Gweneth Paltrow's Nashville apartment.

Why is finding a coffee table so hard?

Interior Inspiration: Anita Calero

One of my all time favorite Domino Magazine stories was this one about photographer and stylist Anita Calero's East Hampton, NY weekend retreat from the June/July 2007 issue.  (I don't have a scanner, so I scanned these quickly at a friends and am not happy at the quality-- oh well).

This room (above) is pretty much perfect to me.  I've used this as the defining image for what my mom's house should feel like when it's finished.  Wood floors, dark beamed ceiling, leggy mid-century furniture, interesting art, and a cool house plant.  Perfect.  Also love the chunk of wood that is dividing up the stereo equipment, which completely distracts the eye from the stereo being out in plain sight.

In the February 2007 issue they featured details of her home in the Renovation Notebook section and showed these shelves, which I plan to copy asap.  The chunks of wood are a clever take on the ubiquitous cinderblock and plank shelves that used to be such a staple of dorm-room-on-the-cheap furnishings in the days before IKEA came to the U.S.   

Image credit: Anita Calero/GMAimagees.com and Jonny Valiant via Loft Life

This last image was poached from Loft Life, where there is a post showing Calero's West Chelsea loft-- lots more great pictures there.  Seeing her aesthetic translated between an urban loft and a mid-century vacation home is really interesting.  There are lots of little details that she's used in both places, like the color palette-- pops of red, sage green, mustard yellow with lots of natural wood, the cork front refrigerator, and pieces of nature brought indoors-- shells, turtle shells, branches, etc.  There is also a great post at knitsquirrel that contrasts the Domino spread with another from Martha Stewart Living, and you can see how the space has been rearranged or re-styled between the two shoots.  

Sigh.  Must stop wishing I lived in someone else's house now, and go cook dinner.  Anyone want to share their all time favorite homes from Domino?  (I also loved Ione Sky's house, which was in one of the early issues).