Howdy kids, hope you all had a swell weekend! We spent the days doing yardwork and the nights eating and drinking yummy stuff, so it was mostly lovely and relaxing… and I am totally unprepared for the cold hard wall in my face that is Monday. Thank jeebus for Wallpaper Magazine, because they always have the most interesting spreads (when they aren’t showcasing 20 pages in a row of disgusting albeit beautifully photographed raw steaks… although maybe that also qualifies as interesting?). Anyway, look at this:

How about that Ligne Roset bed? Amazing! What’s that you say — something is obscuring your view of it? Oh yes. Giant taxidermied animals were obviously necessary to illustrate the hipster appeal of these fine furnishings.

That Jaime Hayon chair is certainly foxy, though.

If I only had 5 seconds to grab something out of this room, I’m not sure if I would yank the lamb away from gaping lupine jaws, or put that Herve Van Der Straeten console table under my coat and run for my ever loving life.

What do you think? Is Wallpaper too clever for its own good?

Or maybe just crazy like a fox?

Most of the time I am perfectly happy with my quiet, perfectly neutral decor. It’s harmonious! It’s blendy! It’s versatile! At least that’s what I tell myself. It’s also kind of beige. And kind of boring. I kind of have the urge to do it up righteous in a riot of color. Like Karly, I might just want to color it rad.

I’m still into the crazy acid wasp idea — psychedelic neotrad will definitely amuse me for a while — but occasionally I yearn for some straight up crazy, old school Design Crisis style.

Kind of like this.

This feathered friend made its way around the interwebs a while ago, and recently I stumbled upon the rest of the house designed by Ghislaine Vinas (who is definitely cuckoo for cocoa puffs). Raise you hand if you want to take a tour… Yay! Let’s dewit.

Subtle, no?

The kids’ rooms are sock knockers, even if the vaguely sinister murals by Mark Mulroney may be nightmare inducing.

I think this is as restful as this place gets.

Sheep + green carpet = a trifle heavy handed?

Winning!

I declare the kids’ bathroom to be 100% adorable.

And I’m kind of a sucker for any room featuring a giant Vik Muniz photo.

But WTF is this thing??????????? I may never sleep again.

Well friends, what do we think? Good drugs/bad drugs? Maybe a little of both? Do you wish this type of design would go out like the abominable snowman, or will you always have  a place in your heart for the graphic homes that boldly go where no (wo)man has gone before?

[Interior Design]

No fancy post today, for the babe is bubonic sick and my throat is swollen up like a basketball. Instead of struggling to shower you with wit information words of any kind, I’m just going to imagine that I’m here:

I’m a huge fan of pretty much all of Ilse Crawford’s work, and her renovation of the Dinder House is grand yet eminently livable. So if Calgon is going to take me anywhere, I hope this is it.

Happy Weekend, friends! Back Monday, hopefully in better form.

[NY Times]

Will you think less of me if I admit I’m a bit of a shelter mag virgin? Sure, I’ve been blogging art and interiors for going on three years now, but until recently I depended on the internet for my resources. Thanks to a generous holiday gift, I am now the proud owner of AD and Elle Decor subscriptions. I’m sure trees everywhere are throwing up their branches in disgust, but what can I say? I’m addicted to the glossies already.

So I was pretty stoked to get AD. I mean, Margaret Russell at the helm = instant awesomeness, right? Well, my January issue arrived and I was bewildered. The February issue arrived and I was confounded. As it turns out, the current issue is the first with La Russell’s indelible mark. So now the March issue has arrived and I’ve been full on flashed by naked drunken boobies — metaphorically speaking, of course.

That’s not a bad thing. I like boobies.

Heiress and tastemaker Daphne Guinness’ New York apartment almost warrants two black bars to cover up the naughty bits. Guinness maintains her space combines, “the shine of Metropolis… with the lush flora of Suddenly, Last Summer… a sort of savage modernism.” I have to say that I sort of scratched my head at her apartment until I read that sentence, and then everything just clicked into place for me. I won’t post the rest of her home, but you can see it over at 2THEWALLS (a seriously fantastic blog).

Beyond the types of projects featured this month (a glorious home designed by Commune, among them), the biggest change that stands out to me is the photography. I swear, AD homes always looked like nothing so much as mausoleums, darkly photographed using only artificial light. Downright dead and dull.

With Thomas Loof on duty as principal photographer at Guinness’ shoot, and the inimitable Francois Halard at the helm of Pierre Passebon’s wild and wacky pad (designed in collaboration with Jacques Grange, no less), things are looking a lot brighter. Alive, even.

RIP, old AD. Boobies in your face.

Sorry about yesterday. That was some ugly bizness, but I’m hoping to make it up to you. Let me prove it, baby. I’ll never hurt you again.

This gorgeous French home was designed by architect and decorator, Pierre Yovanovitch, and it should act as a healing salve for your sad eyes.

This place is P.I.M.P. Trust.

Later, dudes. I’m going to build a fire and try to avoid freezing to death.

Stay warm.

I love old stuff. I’m sure a lot of my appreciation comes from being a photographer — the camera loves decay like Top Chef loves Padma’s boobs. I also grew up in a turn of the century house, and my earliest, fondest memories are of peeling fabric wallcoverings, stained ceilings, and wood burning stoves. It’s the stuff teary eyed nostalgia is made of. So when I saw this renovation of an early 1900s abandoned building, I could almost feel the paint chips dusting my eyelashes. Ah, memories.

Industrial designer David Hurlbut has spent the last 10 years renovating this 20,000 square foot building in Selma, Alabama. Purchased for the ridiculous sum of $100,000, Hurlbut has also spent an additional $150,000 in renovation costs.

Considering the size and previous condition of this beast, I’d say that’s next to nothing. Apparently the home was in shambles when Hurlbut moved in; the pigeon offerings alone filled several dumpsters.

Much of the low renovation costs can be explained by his sense of preservation. Whenever possible, all of the original flooring, woodwork and walls were kept and simply cleaned.

Other finishings were bought second hand on the cheap, like these vintage light fixtures.

The refrigerator was purchased from a New Orleans jazz musician for $100. The story goes that Louis Armstrong also used the fridge a time or two.

A few items — like the hand cast gargoyle above the bed in this room — were made by Hurlbut himself, who is an industrial designer by trade.

In other cases Hurlbut kept and refurbished fixtures — case in point, these original chandeliers.

More examples of frugality personified: the chair on the left was $3 and the working ham radio was a gift.

“It’s a joke amongst my friends… If if’s not big, old, heavy, and obsolete, David doesn’t want it.”

I love it all, except the peeling paint looks like lead poisoning on a stick. Cover that with a clear satin finish, stat!

It’s really a wonder that I’m not dead from some kind of toxic dust, considering that I spent 15 years living in an old house that was constantly under renovation. Still, I would do just about anything to live in a house like this again… anything except move to Alabama. Sorry ‘Bama lovers.

Check out the beautifully photographed NY Times slide show here.

Francois Halard is perhaps the interiors photographer of which I am most jealous. He’s the guy who takes the pictures that make me go, damn! I wish I had made that. It’s not just that he’s a gifted seer of light (the most important aspect of any good photograph), but that he also has taste and style. He takes interesting projects in interesting places, and renders them with a unique painterly touch. I can almost always spot his work without knowing beforehand who took the picture.

Check out my favorite home from his new book, Visite Privee:

Carlo Mollino was a mid century architect, a photographer, a novelist, a furniture designer, and apparently a decorator. He worked on his home in Turin over the course of eight years, but he never even lived there.

Filled with antiques, an avant garde collection of photography (featuring works by Man Ray, among others), and decorated with a contemporary spin on classic design, it could easily pass for the current work of a very eclectic and talented designer.

Hello Stejnar chandelier, Japanese lanterns, and Saarinen dining set — plus there is a giant clam on the wall. What’s not to love?

And is the leopard wallcovering not insane (in a good way)? Other details include:

A peeping butterfly in a portal between rooms.

Wallpaper reminiscent of offerings by Zuber et Cie.

A Mollino designed chair set atop Italian ceramic tiles.

I want this book. Chock full of amazing homes occupied by extraordinary people — Cy Twombly, Julian Schnabel, and Robert Rauschenberg, just to name a few — it has a respect for the handmade that I find very refreshing.

Let me get arty on you for just a second (sorry in advance): famed philosopher Walter Benjamin pointed out that photography’s most important quality was its mechanized reproducibility, its sameness, its democracy, but Halard appears to employ antique photographic processes to create images as intimate and one of a kind as Twombly’s paintings.

Of course the only way to access the images is through the internet or the book, which takes us back to the whole reproduction issue, but that’s besides the point. Mostly.

Forget the lecture and buy the book. It’s pretty.

So the furnace was broken and we called our trusty heating and cooling guys who, when last time we called, literally moved a wire and the unit was fixed. This time was equally embarrassing as we had already gone through the pains to install a new igniter (I didn’t install it, my handy stepfather did it — neither the husband nor I are capable of such things), and it turns out one of the little tubes that connects a something to a something else was clogged. One blow of the magical repairman’s breath and it was unclogged — and $125 later, we had heat! I guess since it took less than 5 minutes to fix, the repairman (lets call him Bill) felt obligated to critique our old houses heating system. This is actually a good thing I guess, since we are officially on the market as of a few days ago. However, after hearing what Bill had to say, I felt like giving up and taking a short sale right then and there (I get discouraged easily). Anyone in Kansas City want to buy a sweet little 50s bungalow in the Plaza area? Probably not after I mention the problems that were so blatantly overlooked when my husband purchased this nightmare house 4 years ago. Don’t get me wrong; the thing is cute as a button, but DAMN — you almost have to have a degree in construction or whatever to live here. So as a future warning to peeps living in old houses, you might want to check for a few things in your heating and cooling system:

1. Is your flue lined? I think Bill was talking about the chimney flue, however we were in the basement when he was telling me this and I’m not sure which flue exactly he was referring to. But he said that the previous owners had installed a high efficiency furnace (at this point I’m thinking — Yay! A plus for once!) which isn’t supposed to be used with a flue like ours. (Fabulous)

2. Are your duct pipes double lined? If they are exposed and hanging about the basement as ours are, they should be double lined because well, they get really hot! Not only that, but going back to the flue issue, if the flue is not lined, non double lined pipes collect acidic moisture in them and eventually, they will disintegrate which makes it pretty darn hard to heat the house.

3. The crème de la crème was the asbestos tape coming loose. (Asbestos!?!?!! WTF) I had no idea we had asbestos. Cancer treatment centers of America — here I come. I have no idea who the jank-ass inspector was that my husband used when he bought this house 4 yrs ago, but he sure didn’t mention the A-word. I’m gonna be so pissed if I get mesothelioma before this is all said and done.

On a much lighter note, let me introduce myself, I’m Liz and a guest blogger here. Erin and Karly were so kind to let me be a part of their amazing site and I hope I don’t totally ruin its rep. Since the theme is design, I’m going to introduce you to an amazing new firm/furniture design team called Autoban based in Istanbul, Turkey. The team are young architects Seyhan Özdemir & Sefer Çağlar and their crew of designers is barely old enough to have graduated architecture school (Yeah, I’m Jealous). Autoban mixes old and new – (hence the this old house theme… clever EH?). They do residential and commercial and there are some definite patterns running in their work, the main being stark minimalism set against ornate traditionalism in the moldings, paneling and other ornate prettiness, and they soften it by painting it all white (which I love). I guess in Istanbul most of the residential architecture is pretty darn old, and the way Autoban handles it is Autobantastic! Ok I’ll stop now.

Sorry the pics are so small.  I love this gold ceiling and the stark minimalism of the carrera marble counters (must have cost a fortune.)

Painted brick is always a good idea.

Neon butterflies = happiness

Introducing my newest obsession — the box sofa (on left) with its super clean lines and tufted leather yumminess- I’m sure it don’t come cheap.

Gorgeous hotel kitchenette — Witt Hotel, Istanbul.  I’m sure I won’t be visiting anytime soon, but it’s nice to dream.

For more info on Autoban go here: www.autoban212.com
Hope you enjoyed the post!

Ever since I posted my cozy cottage fantasy, designer Molly Luetkemeyer has been on my radar.  Most recently in the form of her own blog, which is my new current web obsession.  Amazing taste and razor sharp wit to boot?  It’s like looking in a mirror.

Go check out my new buddy’s blog, then maybe come back here for some interior posts, or birth announcements, you know, whateves.

Molly’s Loot is here, yo.

Molly waxes poetic on the wonders of lucite here.

Stuff is expensive. Cool, unique stuff is both hard to find and exceedingly expensive. So it’s really no wonder that interior designers have a short list of favorite finds that are either purchased for multiple clients, or — just maybe — shuffled from home to home. It must be nice to find that you’ve got the cherry on top ready and waiting, especially when the sundae already cost a small fortune.

Fornasetti Moro chair, Michael Haverland Architecture

Creepy black angel, Darryl Wilson Design

And it must be even nicer to put that special finishing piece into production, so that every Jane, Sue and Sally, can own a piece of the magic (for a price).

Hot pink lacquer coffee table, Atelier Abigail Ahern

I totally understand the attachment some designers have to their favorite pieces, kind of like a decorating security blanket. I myself have a golden boy named Brian, and even when everything else is shot to hell, Brian makes it all better.

Do you have some special piece that makes every room feel finished, whether it accents a clinically modern room or a chintz blitzed extravaganza? Spill the beans, please. And I will try not to copy you.

To celebrate Ike and Connie’s shared birthday, I’m setting aside my usual irreverence and posting something… nice. It’s such a magical day that I can almost feel the corners of my mouth turning up as I type that. Almost. Sure I’m delirious from planning a first birthday party for a kid that won’t even remember it, but I could swear that there are unicorns with sparklers dancing across a rainbow right outside my window…

But seriously, check out the work of Jeroen Koolhas and Dre Urhahn, two dudes who turned a frown upside down by painting a slum in Rio de Janeiro with the brightest palette imaginable. By painting favelas (Brazilian/Portuguese for slum), Koolhas and Urhahn transform communities through color as well as education. Locals are provided with training and pay while reworking the favelas.

To learn more about the Favela painting project or to donate, click here.

Back in black on Friday so enjoy the rainbow while it lasts…

[Link via Arch Daily]

Hey buddies, I’m still a little worn out from all the drama, so today’s post is gonna be hasty but tasty. Remember Laura Day’s amazing living room from the Lonny before last? I want to roll around in that room and rub my face all over it like an alley cat marking his territory. Like minded enthusiasts will be happy to know that Day has launched a webzine called — what else? — Laura Day Living, full of cute rooms and cute ideas. To me it reads like a cross between the dearly departed Cookie magazine and Domino, which is perfect for us breeders, but still engaging for those who aren’t too haughty to bust out their Spin Art machines in Central Park (note to hipsters: Damien Hirst is doing it, so it’s ok for you, too.)

See? A little spin art never hurt anyone.

Day’s Hamptons beach home (don’t hate) is filled with sunny neutrals, which leaves plenty of psychic space for daughter Olivia’s massive toy collection — all stowed neatly away in bins, of course. I love that she was able to make her home stylish yet kid friendly, because it’s damn hard.

But don’t let the wipeable surfaces and locking cabinets fool you — Day is still a decorator. Even though we don’t share the exact same aesthetic, I appreciate the way she mixes and matches, and mostly I just think her rooms are pretty.

Although the Baughman chairs and lucite tables are pretty badassical.

Oh, and momma like that light fixture. Vintage Mazzega, I’m guessing? Maybe Kalmar?

Plus you gotta love a gal that can afford the best, but has Ikea countertops.

Ok, that’s it for today — it was a long weekend full of summer fun, but now it’s time to pay the piper. I don’t think y’all would even recognize my house if you saw it today. It looks like tornado alley up in here.

Maybe Laura Day has space for guests?