Now that I have implanted a devious musical seed in your collective head that will surely germinate and take over the rest of your day, let me just say that it’s good to be back. New Orleans was fantastic! Amazing! Splendiferous! But we’re still in the process of home renovations, last minute repairs, and the inevitable move which is scheduled for next week. That’s right — D Day is one week from today and I’m shaking in my boots (because it’s 56 windy degrees this morning and I can wear them — who dat?!). We have NOTHING ready. Nothing. So, while I would love to regale you with tales of my trip, with pictures of my new floors, and with a big reveal of Sander’s handipaintwork, I just can’t this morning. Because I have to pack up my entire life into tiny boxes, taking care to leave toothbrushes and undergarments accessible at all times. Excuse my tres gauche patois here, but it’s going to be a clusterfuck, y’all.

Nevermind all that. Let’s look at this beautiful house designed by Tyler Dawson, shall we?

I don’t get House Beautiful but I should, because the November issue was pretty swell. Thanks to my decor obsessed hairdresser Lisa for letting me slobber all over her copy.

I’m really trying to work up some nervy color palettes for New House. I think the paint color was a huge step in the right direction, but now what???

A colorful rug would be a chic, family friendly choice since pattern hides dirt (and strawberry jello) so well. I am obsessed with this Chinese deco rug. There are a few on craigslist I’ve been stalking for a while, but I have yet to find one under a grand. I’m also considering a non neutral couch…

I may even get some patterned curtains for the kid and guest rooms. I know? Who the bleep am I???

Perhaps I am experiencing some residual delirium from all the absinthe and jambalaya, but I don’t think so.

What do you think about non neutral large pieces like couches and rugs? Crazy or crazy good?

Update!  I am still totally in love with gold!  I thought that maybe I was leaving my go-to-gold-and-gray color palette for my new lover chrome-and-camel, and, don’t get me wrong, C & C is totally my boyfriend on the side but Gold remains my long term love.  We’re soul cell mates as my husband likes to say.  How was my burning desire for gold rekindled you ask?  I’m pretty sure it was the exact second I saw this puppy:

What is wrong with this picture?  Yeah, that’s right:  Nothing.  This example of walking / talking perfection comes from the design duo meier / ferrer

While this is most certainly enough to rekindle a waning romance, I knew my love was never really gone since I can’t seem to get this light out of my head:

The Sciolari ceiling light in Kelly Wearstler’s own home is nothing short of amazeballz.  I have a few personal spaces I’m working on right now and I want this light for all of them.

I will also be willing to settle for this gold gem.   (BTW thank you Andrea for the find!)

Although I think I’m going to have to forego the $4500 light and spring for something more like this.  It’s gold, I’ll be fine.

Oh!   I’ll especially be fine if it looks like this.  See, I really just will never get over gold.  And it is with every fiber of my being that I say: Yes, I absolutely would 100% live here:

Yep.  All over it.

Let’s talk shelter mags for a minute here:  1. Architectural Digest used to be total crapola.  Like, really bad.  Then 2.  Margaret Russel left her post as Editor in Chief at Elle Decor for the same position at AD last fall and ever since 3.  Architectural Digest has been pretty awesome.  Simultaniously 4.  Elle Decor: not so good (as evidenced by this cover, hello zombi cox).  However, and this is what I really want to talk about today 5.  The September issue of Elle Decore Brought. It.  It killed.  Not only was it better than AD, it was easily one of the best issues of ED I’ve ever ever seen.

My very favorite article featured the San Antonio home of designer Gwynn Griffith and, wouldn’t you know it, my scanner doesn’t work and there are NO pictures of this home online save one crappy one:

No justice is done here and I encourage you to pick up the rag and check it out.  Meanwhile, I’ll show you pictures of another stunning home from the September Issue which probably has Erin panting and sweating with all it’s acid-waspy wonder:

Behold, the San Francisco home of Alexis and Trevor Traina. Exaggerated proportions plus 80′s symmetry plus ironic, expensive art = trippy good times.

Yes to all of this.  Even those upholstered dining chairs aren’t getting me down, which is unusual

Could you imagine growing up here?  We need to make this happen for Eero

There are, like, 12 elements here that Erin currently has in her home.  I think she might cry when she sees this

Another day another giant ball sculputure right in the middle of a million dollar gallery space.  yawn.

Ficus Figs on steroids: check.

Yes to that tarot card photo.  If I were Erin I could probably tell you who took it.  But I’m not.  I’m Karly, enjoying our all-time record breaking 70th day of triple digit, rain-free heat, not to be confused with Erin who is currently laying on the beaches of Hawaii.  Small difference, easy mix-up.

Also in this issue:  The San Francisco loft of designer Steven Volpe, which is pretty dang awesome.  Just go pick the dumb magazine up already.

It’s Monday. The gods in all of their infinite wisdom have decided to bless me with a filthy house, no food in the fridge, and a computer in revolt. Also we leave for Hawaii in two days. The gods be crazy, yo. I may have to take matters into my own hands.

I’m working on my serenity now pose. It looks a little something like Mike Myers’ fantasy sequences in Wayne’s World, but maybe a little more like this room.

If this is back to school day for you or your little person, then you need a steaming dose of serenity even more than me. Let’s hold hands and sing kumbaya and try to survive this day, friends. Or we could just take this post to its logical conclusion.

Happy Monday. Try not to die.

[Richard Powers]

There is nothing sweeter than an interesting room seen through the eyes of a fantastic photographer. Ok, perhaps world peace, equal rights, and true love might give a pretty picture a run for its money — but not much else. So it is with much whiz bang shazam that I present the work of Vincent Leroux, whose photographs strike a perfect balance between edgy and sophisticated, all seen through the glory of natural and ambient light. Overdone photography is the devil’s work. Thanks the lords of the internets for showering us with some good stuff.

Later, y’alluns. Gotta go run errands before it gets face meltingly hot.

We’re still (eternally) shopping for houses, and I need your savvy input. What do you think of Tudor home design?

Sure this sucker is wearing way too much eyeliner, but is there anything that could be done to save it — to modern it up while retaining its vintage English charm?

I mean, I really always imagined myself in something more like so, but Daddy Warbucks hasn’t adopted me yet. What if I did up that Tudor more like this?

And less like this?

Could it work?

[Elle Decor, AD, Living Etc]

Is buying a white couch a fool’s errand? What if you own one toddler and might have plans to make it a two fer? What if you have a long haired gray cat who thinks she’s a wad of velcro? Deep down inside I know buying a white couch is probably a very bad idea, but my superficial exterior thinks it would transform my living room into a shining beacon of glory. I do know what I won’t be buying, though…

A white SUEDE couch. I mean… wow. White. suede. Hasn’t Robert Couturier ever seen Can’t Buy Me Love?

Cindy is going to be in big trouble when mommy finds out she spilled wine all over the megabucks white suede outfit Cindy jacked from her closet…

Another thing I’m not going to buy is a white chesterfield. Sure, it sings its siren song of leather and whispered promises of easy clean up, but that’s a dirty lie. Cleaning gunk out of those little buttons is the bane of my existence, and our chesterfield is dark. I can’t even imagine what cleaning a white chesterfield would look like… Hell, methinks.

I want to like this, but I think the cushions look cheap. Agree? Disagree?

Still I really want a white couch. I’d love something slipcovered, but I don’t want it to look like a slipcovered couch. The one above would do nicely.

Am I crazy?

Please answer with regard to the white couch question only.

[Robert Couturier, Lili Diallo, Lazaro Rosa Violan, Met Home]

If you tried to visit our site yesterday or the day before and were warned that zombies might bite your face off upon entrance, rest assured that the walking dead have been laid to rest. Ok, and we also promise that there are no viruses or malware here. Thanks to all of you who let us know about the red screen of death — we spent the better part of a day working to delete comments and pingbacks that may have inserted nefarious code into our fair site. So if your comment got deleted somewhere and you’re feeling all WTF?! about it: oops. Sorry about that.

But let’s move on and look at some zombie free rooms, shall we?

No zombies.

No zombies.

Still no zombies.

Maaaaaaybe zombies…

But you know how Martyn Lawrence Bullard is…

He thinks eating human flesh is totally delicious.

[Frederic Malle, Chahan Minassian, Met Home via Chapman Interiors, Martyn Lawrence Bullard]

Do you think the rope trend is preparing to hang itself?

I shorely do love the rest of that room, though.

Happy weekend!

[Steven Volpe]

I can’t lie — I don’t have any time for the blog today. Between hosting out of town family, designing kitchens, braving the wilds of Ikea, consulting for a client (what? what?), and buying MORE RUGS (to be revealed shortly), I haven’t really combed the interwebs for any earth shattering design news. What I can tell you is this: yellow is pretty. It is summery. It’s a blowsy good time dressed in an itsy bitsy teeny weeny polka dot bikini. And I like it best when grounded with neutrals and unexpected color combinations. Behold the bold and the beautiful:

I think I just talked myself into eating a lemon bar for breakfast.

Going to design a kitchen at Ikea. If I’m not back by noon, send in the National Guard.

[The Interiorist, Thomas Loof, World of Interiors, you have been here sometime, Nicolas Matheus]

Tomorrow, tomorrow people I will be stepping aboard an airplane alone with my 8-month old child.  We will be flying an in-direct (as in changing planes with an 8 month old + acutremonts) flight to Virginia without any assistance from any man or beast.  For it is just Eero, the 24 pound acrobat with 6 teeth, and myself stepping into the great unknown

I need some time to prepare myself.  You dudes spend some time telling me what you think of the situation pictured here, I really just don’t even know.  Maybe they could have painted a straight line.  Or a diagonal line?  Why am I still even typing, you’re supposed to be writing this junk today.

For a long while I’ve lived in a frightening jungle of chaos, which I had the temerity to label “eclecticism.” Don’t get me wrong — I love a good mix, but now I’m working on adding some match. I simply don’t think my Type A control freak personality is right for the boho jumble (which some people obviously put together with super panache and style). Because when I try, it just comes off as bag lady chic. Thanks to your comments and emails on this frantic post, I’ve turned to the symmetry side. I need some pairs of things. This may require buying actual new furniture (ARRGGHHH), which is a terrifying prospect… so terrifying that I will probably procrastinate. A lot.

So for now I’m going to study a bit.

Suss out the possibilities.

I do love a good pair of interesting objects.

This is my favorite room right now. I want my house to look like this, forever and ever. Amen.

Look at that — four pictures. No odd numbers. Two pairs — I am working on this symmetry thing already.

Or I am turning into Rain Man.

Shit.

[Roger Davies, Stuart McIntyre, World of Interiors, Elle Decor]