Archive for the ‘INTERIOR DESIGN’ Category

Christine From Bijous and Boheme

So this week is BLOGFEST, an event hosted by Kravet, that’s brought together some of my favorite bloggers from across the web-o-sphere.

Bear with me for a minute:

This is a typical conversation between my mother in law and my mother: “You are the best in law! I love you like a sister!” ” Noooooooooo, YOU are the best in law!” “You throw the best parties and raised the best child!” “NOOOOOO YOUUUUUUUUUUUU are the best mother and party thrower!” ” Thank you SOOOOO MUCHHHH for your help finding a new XYZ, you are THE BEST AT THAT!” “AWWWWW NO YOUUUUUU ARE!” Cut to me rolling my eyes in the back seat and starting to tease them….

This is what blog fest is like. “OMG- Sketch42?!?!?! I LOVE YOUUUUUURRRRRRRRRR blog and your house!” ” NOOOOO, Erica, I LOVE YOUUUURRRRRRRRR HOUSE!!!!”  ”No, no, no- youuuu are so awesome…..”  ”NO, YOU ARE!!!!!!!!”

LOL. It’s one big giant humble/brag (as Alex put it)!  And I mean that in the best WAY POSSIBLE. It’s so exciting for everyone to meet up with the blogging badasses that we’ve been following from obscurity to success! Every one of these girls have made a name for themselves by putting themselves and their homes out there, and most have been published, or will be soon. Not only do they blog daily, but they have the balls to show us where and how they live. These are the people changing the conversation we have online about interiors!

So these are the apartments I’ve been hanging out with this week. HA.

Sue, The Zhush

Jamie Meares, Furbish

Chassity, Look Linger Love 

Erica, Small Shop Studio

Alex, Things That Sparkle

Erica, Design Blahg

Naomi, Design Manifest

Susan, House of Brinson

So much fun to hang with the girls behind the homes- many of which I’ve posted before- and the people behind the blogs that kill it daily in the blog-o-sphere…. So in conclusion:

Noooooooo, I love youuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrr blogggggggggggg.

Bryant Keller’s foyer. 

I missed the press preview of Kips Bay this year, which means I don’t have any of my own photos to show you. I had to glean photos from other websites, but since I haven’t gone to the show yet, I feel like we are all in the same boat in terms of formulating an opinion on it.

A living room by Drake Design.

So this was the 40th Anniversary of Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse. Every year, a townhouse or brownstone thats for sale is usually transformed for the show. This year, there were apparently no townhouses available and so they used two duplexes in the  Aldyn, a new high rise on the West Side.

Raji Radhakrishnan/Raji RM and Associates.

All the decorators were stumped as to how to go about decorating huge white cubes with 20 foot ceilings, panoramic views, soffits, bump outs, little or no architectural details and weird AC units that were apparently everywhere. In other words: The type of decorators that do Kips Bay do not particularly jive with the aesthetic of the raw space. They typically like elegant townhouse rooms, with a  few well placed windows, great architecture and lots of wall space for art. And they usually decorate in that very old school New-York-Decorator way: tons of fabric, rugs and stuff. Pile on the stuff.

I get that this is a show, I do. But one would think that rather than take a huge white box and try to make it feel like a regular show house, that they would maybe try to break the  mold a little and do something different? Like do you think that anyone who would actually buy a 15 million dollar penthouse duplex (instead of a townhouse, or prewar park avenue apartment) that looks like this would WANT their apartment to be decorated like this? I somehow don’t think so. (Sidenote: I would love to see what someone like Vicente Wolf would have done in here. He typically uses white walls and elegant spare and eclectic furniture, so I would love to see his take on something like this.) Someone buying a space like this would want something more contemporary, at least I think they would! And isn’t the first rule of design to not try to make something into something it’s not?

Todd Alexander Romano’s dining room might be the star of the show for me.

The rooms range from silly to beautiful – as in every Kips Bay. Granted, I haven’t been there yet, so I am relying on the angles of the photography to convey the sense of space in the room, which is never accurate. (Some of these photos are from the Times, and some are from Curbed, and they both have their shortcomings. The times are too cropped and small to get a sense of the space and the ones from Curbed need to be more crisp.)

A living room by the designer Brian del Toro, left. A room by Chuck Fischer Studio, right.

I think these two rooms are the right balance of elegant and “designer-y” and modern. I do love  a lot of the furniture and of course, I’m so into the heavy use of green throughout the house!

David Scott. Kips Bay always has specatular art. I love the modern painting over the traditional desk.

Another view of the Raji room and a living room by Bunny Williams. 

I included more photos and different views after the jump… What do you guys think of these rooms? Like I said, I need to see it in person before I pound my gavel and declare some of it tchotcke and overdecorated, but that’s my opinion based on the photos. Have I suddenly become a less is more person?

Thoughts?

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There is nothing new under the sun(including this sentence). But duh- it’s no secret that fashion and design are cyclical and that different eras are often revisited and drawn upon for inspiration time and time again. We are experiencing so many of those moments in fashion and design right now: The general aesthetic of the 90′s- which included recycling fashion trends- mixed with the primness of the 50′s and the luster and forms of the 20′s.  But what makes a trend more palatable (or less- depending on who you are!) the second time around  in my opinion is the reference point. You aren’t just wearing something bright, you are recalling in peoples’ memory a time where round sunglasses  and neon were worn without irony and without the smirk of “I can’t believe this is back”… It feels cool. It’s the same with the peplum: It’s coy and ladylike and sexy because it’s referencing a moment in time when people were ladylike- or at least pretended to be.

One of my favorite things to return in fashion and decor is Art Deco. No kidding, look at my choice of header, right? What is Art Deco? It’s an extremely eclectic artistic  and modern design style that began in the 1920′s in Paris. Unlike the preceding Art Nouveau period-  during the Deco period linear symmetry and geometric shapes dominated and drew inspiration from Aztec and Egyptian forms. Art deco represented elegance, glamour, functionality and modernity.

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said that the distinctive style of Art Deco was developed by ‘all the nervous energy stored up and unexpended in the War.’  Every design period ultimately reflects the zeitgeist of the time- the deco era reflected a move from a war torn world to optimism and Jazz Age extravagance.

Deco was widely considered to be an “eclectic form of elegant and stylish modernism,” because it was influenced by a variety of sources. During the Deco period, travel became easier and more widespread, and an interest in archeology in the 20′s as well as far flung countries influenced designers and artists. The era drew inspiration from the world at large, while using war-created machine age technology to create them. Some of the defining features of Deco era design are the chevron, stepped forms and geometric curves (as opposed to sinuous curves).  The use of luxe materials like shagreen, inlay wood, lacquer and stainless steel became popular. The deco influence is completely apparent in current decor trends- from the modern/eclectic aesthetic and the popularity of high gloss everything,to the ever present chevron.

My friend Stephanie, the fashion blogger The Mixtress – a new blog about mixing high end and low end fashion pieces to create fun fashion looks-  put together the above mood board of her favorite deco-inspired fashions for you, and I put together my favorite Deco- inspired DECOR pieces for you, which you can go check out on her blog HERE and to hear her spin on the Jazz Age and Art Deco.

Skirt: All Saints $275
Oscar de la Renta top: $2250
 Zara shoe: $70
 Lanvin Golden Dream Swarovski Crystal Embelleshed Metal Box Clutch, $4,500, Lanvin Stores (not available online)
Art Deco Chandelier Earrings $22
Low Luv by Erin Wasson Deco Ring in Gold, $49

Check out Stephanie’s blog, The Mixtress! 

Dessert Jazz photos via Vogue Turkey, March 2012 Photography: Phil Poynter

The Fairway in Brooklyn is housed in this gorgeous building… We took the kids there after Mother’s Day festivities and I snapped a photo from the parking lot. Then I googled.

The building is actually known as The Red Hook Stores and dates back to the Civil War. Towards the end of the war, NYC was receiving so many goods that the Brooklyn waterfront was a great alternative to over jammed city docks. This building was a warehouse, now it’s a Fairway.

Such a fantastic looking facade.

Ok, so two things before we start: 1. My blog has gone a little haywire and is randomly posting drafts of blog posts from the 80′s on the front of the blog. Well, not really the 80′s but lets put it this way: the interview I never posted with a New Jersey antique store is so old that the store doesn’t exist anymore. 2. I’m also heavily engaged in Stacy’s Boot Camp in the AM and thats why my blog post is late.  and 3. Nothing makes me more stabby than seeing photos that aren’t all the same size on a post, well except for blurry and crappy photos… so forgive me for using these. But thats what has to happen when you use photos you didn’t take yourself!

Anyway, this is the work of David Hicks, not THAT David Hicks, and well, yea, he’s dead but still kind of current, this one lives and works in Australia and is pretty damn awesome.

That white Platner chair- in general but especially with that screen is the stuff my dreams are made of.

 

Channels are the new tufts. YES! I could seriously live in this apartment.

Bookcase heaven… it seriously doesn’t get better than that bookcase on the left. I think the shelves are mirrored?!?! And that marble table! WOW.

I think he goes to the very awesome school of use sculptural chairs with bright art!

All photos via DAVID HICKS.