Saturday, December 20, 2014

Favorite 2014 Design Books : Friends & Design Heroes

This year has produced a bumper crop of stunning new design and style books. Here are some great last minute gifts for the design junkies and style divas on your list. I am proud (and half-bragging) that a few good friend's work deservedly made it to the Top Ten. I think bragging can be forgiven in the spirit of celebrating a friend's talents and accomplishments!


Good friends (and official design heroes) Fritz Karch and Rebecca Robertson just published a stunning book, Collected: Living with the Things You Love, that celebrates many different collector's aesthetics and inspirational displays.

Some highlights from the book below : 

JP & Allison Williams exquisite shelf




Leslie Williamson has delivered a literary one-two punch. Her first book, Handcrafted Modern:At Home with Mid-century Designers set a high standard for the design voyeur's peek inside the century's most iconic designer's homes. Her second book, Modern Originals: At Home with European Midcentury Designers, is the result of her intrepid kick-starter funded trek through Europe to capture the homes of thirteen of the most important mid-twentieth century architects and designers before they disappear. Suffice it to say, it does not disappoint. 

Highlights from Leslie's book: 

Studio Achille Castiglioni
Lino Sabattini
Roland Ranier | Alvar Aalto
Carlo Mollino
LouLou de La Falaise
Kelly Hoppen 

Malene Birger
Imperfect Home
Hans Blomquist
Terence Conran

This is a 'beautiful pictorial and narrative exploration of the significance of objects in our lives, drawn from her personal artifacts, recollections, and selections from the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.' The fifty pieces curated from the Cooper-Hewitt are now on display and worth a trip uptown to see. For those friends whose shelves are overflowing, you can always get them a membership to the fabulous new Cooper-Hewitt

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Mykonos Notebook: San Giorgio









 





Wanderlust Wednesdays: Greece has been at the top of my travel list for awhile, and this hotel has definitely accelerated my desire to see it soon. Love everything about it, especially the low-key simplicity and artisanal, handcrafted details. Dreaming about one of those rooms looking out over the Aegean.   Read more at San Giorgio-Mykonos


Sunday, July 20, 2014

Serene Sundays: Quiet Beauty





Working on a mood board for a project and came upon these lovelies. All images from the ever so inspiring and talented Gentl & Hyers. They capture light and mood like no one else.  
Happy Sunday...enjoy!

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Morocco Notebook : El Fenn Marrakech




   


Wanderlust Wednesdays: Planning a trip to Morocco in the fall, part pleasure part business. 
Can't wait. And by the way, mad for those pillows. Read more here at one of my favorite's, EST Magazine via Mr and Mrs Smith. El Fenn was voted in the top 5 hotels for Best Dressed. No wonder.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Fire Island Notebook: Painted Floor Dilemma


Citizens of Humanity LA Pop Up shot by Peggy Wong

Apologies for the radio silence. Busy few months, with good stuff to unveil soon. But in some ways I am right back where I left off, trying to finish our little house on Fire Island, yes a year and a half later, post-Sandy. Though most is complete, we just ran out of steam at the end of last summer and said basta to any more decisions, and closed the door and took off for Italy for 2 weeks for a much needed restoration of our own.

Our last lingering design decision is what color to paint the kitchen floor; white, grey or black? Then this week's visit to Montauk's Surf Lodge got me thinking about turquoise again....

These are some of my favorites, starting with the ever so chic Citizens of Humanity LA pop-up  designed by Rene Holguin of RTH Shop in collaboration with Amy Williams, CoH president,  and shot by Peggy Wong, ( more about that dream team  here.


Surf Lodge, Montauk
Surf Lodge, Montauk
or  all white...
MARCH SF
lovenordic blog 

Tricia Foley At Home in the Country
Emma's blogg
or shiny black....
NYC LOFT via Automatism
NYC LOFT via Automatism
or glossy grey...
via La maison dannag 

Naja Munthe's Copenhagen flat on Coco Cozy

We were originally going for raw, stained slightly grey and distressed:

via Greige Design blog
Andrew Corrie's by Ditte Isager
A hundred years ago, back when our house was built, they used whatever materials they could get their hands on, and it turns out that one side of our kitchen floor is oak and the other half, hard pine. No amount of  sanding, bleaching, staining, will give us a consistent color as we now have a grey color blocked floor. 


The whole house is so simple and white, perhaps I should follow my friend Mary Morant's advice and go for oversized painted diamonds...  


                                                                 What do you think?