Friday Flowers

I love the combination of white flowers and evergreens for some Christmas themed arrangements…

Habitually Chic

Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles

Verdigris Vie

Habitually Chic

 

White Bedding Love

Always love white bedding (and a touch of blues and grays)…

Eleanor Cummings

Pinterest

Shabby Chic

Ashley Goforth Design

Ashley Goforth Design

Vicente Wolf

Lee Mindel

Neutral and Glittery Christmas Decor

Glitter and Christmas Décor go hand in hand for me…

Slipcover Chic

While I love a beautifully tailored piece of upholstery, a slipcover is just so very practical for my own lifestyle.  It gives me comfort knowing that the dirt and mud that my dog and son (and me!) can track onto it are easily cleanable.  Plus it gives a casual air to a room, and that is definitely something I am all about in my own house!

I love white fabrics but I could never let myself upholster a piece in a white material… I know it would be damaged goods in no time!  But with a slip I’m able to use my favorite non-color without any worries (besides an extra load of laundry every once in a while)!

I love how a room can be tied together so well with matching slipcovers.  Who knows what fabrics are underneath these slips- they could look horrible with each other, but matching slips you’d never know.

These natural linen slipcovers are really more practical than white ones… they still give the overall effect of a light slipcover but they are much more forgiving with markings. 

Always have loved the steely blue gray of this slipcover.  The double ruffle is a fun detail that  you don’t have to permanently live with in case you ever veer towards a more minimal look.  And as a design schizophrenic, that flexibility to change styles with slipcovers totally appeals to me!

 

Look how good the dark accessories look next to these more slouchy slips!  Definitely goes to show that white slips aren’t just for the summer, but for all seasons. 

Casual, comfy and chic all at the same time. 

Cote de Texas has one of the most comprehensive blog posts on slipcovers you could ever read.  Enjoy!

Friday Flowers

Hanging onto summer with these blue hydrangeas!

Pool Perfection

Isn’t this setting just the absolute picture of an idyllic weekend!?!

{Image via Martha Stewart}

If you love Paris…

Then you must see Midnight in Paris!

A little surprising, enchanting, and entertaining all at once.  The low moments were made up for by all the beautiful scenes of Paris, which they gave gave us plenty of.  The movie also travels to Versailles, Giverny, and Paris of the 1920’s and stars some wonderful actors.  

The interior scenes are just charming too- a toile covered hotel suite, cafes, the Versailles gardens…

If for nothing else, see this for a virtual vacation!

Friday Flowers

Its almost the weekend.

Time to tidy up the desk and head home… just don’t forget the flowers!

{Picture of Vicki Archer’s chic desk  via her blog French Essence.}

It’s All in the Details: Slipcovered Chairs

I bought some French style chairs at an estate sale last year.  While they are not perfectly historically correct in their design and are most likely repros from the 70s, I just couldn’t pass them up.  They were practically free and I knew with some new fabric and a plumped up seat cushion they could look fresh and cute.  Plus, I’d rather have “sort-of French style chairs” than NO French chairs!  Skip ahead a year and a half and I’m finally just getting to them now.  I decided to slipcover them instead of re-upholstering them and suddenly every detail became a laborious decision in my spinning head.  Tabs versus ties, plain linen versus a pattern, yada yada yada.  Ridiculous, I know.  I certainly have other more important things to think about and spend time on, but I oddly enjoy obsessing over details like these.  I suppose it’s obsessions like this that make designers valuable- I mean really, who would want to wrack their brain over this if they can have their designer do it for them?!?  And  wouldn’t one WANT his or her interior designer to be attentive to every little detail?  Ok, I’ve made myself feel much better about my OCD now.  And all kidding aside, I do feel grateful for this type of “dilemma”.

Back to the slips, I have always liked the striped slipcovers on Suzanne Rheinstein’s Living Room furniture.  I love that she outfits her whole room in the same classic pattern for the summer.  Her attention to the details of these slips is what keeps it from being boring.   She put ties in the right places to accentuate the curves of each piece.  She used a more contemporary flat flange of coordinating blue fabric to make edges more distinct.  Her choice to use an abundance of one single fabric in a bold stripe and in the perfect color brings her formal pieces down to an everyday level, and she hasn’t sacrificed an ounce of  style or elegance in doing so.

 

 

Joni Webb of Cote de Texas slipped her Breakfast Room chairs in white linen.  The thick graphic quality of the tabs highlights the shape of the chair and balances the sweet scallop detail at the hem.  Her choice of a solid white linen is very fresh and will work well in a variety of settings.  It allows you to let the rest of your space evolve without having to worry if those darn slipcovers will work with those new changes.

 

After years of being plain-linen-happy, I was actually itching for a patterned fabric for my slipcovers.  But in the end I decided that even though white linen may seem like the “easy” fabric for me to fall back on (and it will likely be in the wash every other day after sharing a space with a 14 month old), it just felt safer and more enduring of my taste than anything with a pattern or color.  Plus a pattern or color meant two other factors to obsess over.  Obviously.

{All photographs from Cote de Texas.}

I’ve got a thing for books, and I’m not alone…

“One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.” 

-George W. Bush

Now who could disagree with that?  

  If there is one relaxing and indulgent activity I like to do on the weekends, it is leafing through my design and art books.   Wouldn’t you love to be left to explore some of these libraries with their stacks and stacks of books?  I know I would.

Iris Apfel’s Manhattan apartment.

 

Gwyneth Paltrow.

 

I admit, this one IS a bit over the top with the stacking of books.

 

Miles Redd mixes books, art, and decorative objects.

Nigella Lawson among her bevy of cookbooks.   If this was my library, I’m sure I’d never make it into the kitchen to cook anything!

 

John Stefanidis mixes dining with reading… so cozy and perfect for those times when you just can’t put a book down.

Another thing I’ve been incessantly reading through in every free second this weekend is the blog A Lovely Being and her tumblr page Fallon Elizabeth.  It’s total eye candy.  Every picture I’ve posted came from one of those with the exception of the last one. 

Art in the Kitchen

Giant Sink.  Gas range. Refrigeration.  Artwork. 

There are a FEW more things on my essential Kitchen item list, but that’s for another time.

See more art in the kitchen here.

{Photos 1. & 2. via Inspiring interiors and 3. Southern Living}

More blues…

If there is a season for blue, summer is it. Spanning art and fashion to interiors here are more blues of all shades and all styles.  There’s no rhyme or reason to the order of these pictures and hopefully there’s a little something for everyone…

 

Cobalt and gilding complement each other just as well as Baroque and Contemporary do.

 

Pale and calming background.

 

Blues that are almost purple in this beautiful painting by Paul Signac.

 

Love the persimmon color against this off-blue.  Michael S. Smith always gets it right.

 

Regal.

 

More is more for this blue house.

 

Gorgeous Portugese tiles. Michael S. Smith again.

 

Mary Cassatt’s Young Thomas and His Mother.  The blue makes a striking backgound. 

 

Jackie Kennedy’s feminine blue dressing room in the White House.  Designed by Sister Parish I believe.

 

Blue Ikat is so summery and fun. Photo via Habitually Chic.

 

Mmmg notebook.

 

A beautiful sky blue background. Photo via The Peak of Chic.

 

Love the contrast.  Photo via Luphia Loves.

 

Charlotte Moss’ Kips Bay Showhouse bedroom with an array of blues and patterns. Photo via Cote de Texas.

 

Crusty blue featured in House Beautiful.

 

More portugese tiles.  They just look so fresh.

 

Gondolas in Venice via Pinterest.

De Gournay handpainted blue wallpaper.  From the color to the whimsical chairs this is such a dream-like space.

 

Bold.

 

Blueprints are such a beautiful form of art.  I love this Thomas Jefferson toile fabric by Kravet. Certainly not your typical toile.

 

Another beautiful room with blues by Charlotte Moss.

 

Jason Martin painting featured in Elle Décor.