Bloggers With Books

The coffee table book niche in publishing seems to be going stronger than ever. Especially hot is the category dedicated to design books. It seems like about twenty new titles come out every week on Amazon.

Bloggers are a community, and we design obsessed ones are indeed a close community. We support one in another by reading each others blogs, sharing sources and experiences, and in general lend an ear when we are endlessly enthusiastic about a world we love. So when one us crosses over from blog writing to getting a book published, the grass roots support is tremendous.

So as you get into the full swing of the holiday shopping season you might consider picking up one (or more) of these books written by bloggers for a gift to yourself, or for someone else who loves decorating. 

I'll start with my book House Proud Unique Home Design Louisiana. Even if you don't live in Louisiana you will love the homes in this book, as I love each and everyone of them. I tell the back story of each home owner. The photography by Sara Essex Bradley is gorgeous, and the homes are gorgeous in an accessible way. And I give takeaways (blogger style) in each chapter for the reader to consider trying. This is a great gift for decorators, the house proud, and for those who love New Orleans.

Buy House Proud Unique Home Design Louisiana HERE

Next, is Reflections on Swedish Style, by Rhonda Eleish and Edie Van Breems, photography by Neil Landino. These girls spearheaded the tremendous popularity of Swedish style in the USA, and this their second book on Swedish style is gorgeous and filled with great ideas of how to incorporate Swedish design into your lifestyle and decor.

Buy Reflections on Swedish Interiors HERE

Ronda Rice Carman has a very popular book out now and  it is already in its second printing called Designers At Home. She cleverly segued her blog style from her interviews with designers on All The Best into a gorgeous print book. I think she needs to do volume two! There are a ton more designers I'd like to see represented in this clever format.

Buy Designers At Home Personal Relflections On Stylish Living HERE

Another very popular blogger, Jennifer Boles has a great book out called In With The Old, Classic Decor from A to Z. This book is destined to become a classic like her idol Dorothy Draper's book Decorating Is Fun. This is a perfect gift for anyone just starting out to decorate, or a nifty reference for the well seasoned designer. 

Buy In With The Old Classic Decor from A to Z HERE

Brook and Steve Giannetti led the way last year being one of a group of bloggers to get a book published, and if you don't have it, get it! Patina Style is a beautiful and useful book that perfectly illustrates the Giannetti's luxe organic style. I heart the Giannettis.

Buy Patina Style HERE

Another book that has been out for awhile is by the wildly popular bloggers Sherry and John Petersik of Young House Love. Their book has the same title as their blog, and it is cute as a button with tons of DIY ideas chronicled from their personal saga of setting up house. 

Buy Young House Love HERE

And lastly the book My Marrakesh by Maryam Montague, another extremely popular blogger that was one of the first bloggers to get a book deal. Again, written in a breezy blogger style that makes for easy reading while offering great ideas of how to use a specific ethnic global style into your decor. 

Buy Marrakash By Design HERE

 

So there you have it! Go out and support a blogger today and buy their book! They would do the same for you. 
I have every one of these books, and I feel a special connection as I flip through the pages of works done by friends in the blogging world.


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What Quirky Collections Are Part Of Your Decor?

Collecting. It is so personal. Most of us display what we collect in our homes. Sometimes the collections take over. Once we are attracted to a particular thing it seems to multiply. Besides hunting and gathering what we ourselves love, people notice what you collect and all of a sudden every gift that comes your way has to do with the collection.

What collections do you display in your home?

Collections can evolve over the years. The ceramic and brass owls I loved to collect at age 18 are long gone. The time line of my life could be written by the collections that have come and gone.
In my 30s it was Art Deco. In my 40s white Ironstone and Majolica. In my 50s tango shoes. And now...Well it's not so much about collecting anymore. I will always love dinnerware and glassware (with thoughts of dinner parties).  I have always loved "curiosities", shells and bones, and things from nature, and a pretty set of plates can always make my heart flutter.

Transferware  is lovely to collect

I don't bring much into the house now, unless something goes out. It's a matter of finite space. But I still have a lot of stuff by any standards.  I like looking at things. I like arranging things. I admire minimal spaces, but they're a nice place to visit (cue rim shot:  But I wouldn't want to live there).

How do you incorporate your collection into everyday life?

Don't you love to look at what other people collect? And it is always fascinating to see what people  choose to display in their homes. Is collecting an elegant way of hoarding? I think humans need their stuff, don't you?

Kitchens are a natural showcase for collections

Of course as all of us hurl towards death (and yes young ones you too have an end coming sooner than you think), one tends to think about the fate of the accumulation of cherished objects and brick-a-brack. Let's face it, most of us do not have museum worthy stuff. At best it might fetch a few modest dollars on eBay. Even if you leave a detailed will, you can never be sure that your stuff will ever be loved as much as you love it.

Have you  been bringing "nature" things from outside into the house since you were a child?

So is there a life lesson here? Not really. Collect and enjoy. And tell us what you collect and  how you you use it your decor. Comfort comes in the sameness we humans share. After all, we are a social and gregarious lot.

Bugs can be beautiful

All of these images are of the home and studio of the jewelry designer Gabriella Kiss. It is a microcosm of nature, history, and the creations of family and friends.

Tiny frames and intaglios displayed under a large mirror is quirky

Read all about her and her collections in an article in The NY Times by By Pilar Viladas, with photographs by William Abranowicz.

Mantels are a magnet for collections

From the article: "For starters, the small 19th-century white clapboard house doesn’t look like a workplace. Located across the road from the converted 1820 church in Bangall, N.Y., that she shares with her husband, the furniture designer Chris Lehrecke, and their two sons, it contains a nitty-gritty studio (the former garage, which connects to the house by a new breezeway) and a parlor-like showroom furnished with things like a taxidermied miniature African antelope and Belgian chandeliers that Kiss and Lehrecke bought on their 20th anniversary."

Sculpture always is good place to display and store jewelry

Don't you love a tabletop covered with interesting bits?

Who could resist using taxidermy for ones jewels?

From the article: "Kiss, who studied sculpture at Pratt Institute and worked for the jewelry designer Ted Muehling before going out on her own in 1988, is known for understated jewelry that highlights the beauty of semiprecious stones, as well as bolder pieces like earrings in the shape of snakes or clipper ships. She also sees beauty where others may not."

Seeing beauty where others do not is really at the core of all collections don't you think? Where do you see beauty?

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The Incredible Patina Style Of Peterson Moon Yokum

Do you ever wonder what happened to the people you crossed paths with? Peter Yokum spent seven years at The Art Students League in New York in the 1970's. I took classes there then, and also was an artists model there. We were both 26 in 1975.

Peterson Moon Yokum in 1975 - Read a great interview with him that took place then HERE

Yokum, went home to New Orleans, and little did I know back then that I would end up living here some 25 years later.

The front parlor with the amazing ceiling - and a mantelpiece with a Napoleonic style. 'The Smithsonian wanted to buy this from my grandaddy because of this highly intricately carved honeycomb and bee design," Yokum said. As a stylist I would have removed the fan before a photo of this gorgeous room was taken

A closer look at the Napoleonic fireplace mantle

His family home, a grand Creole townhouse (and believed to be the oldest house in New Orleans) called Casa Hinard in one part and Case Hove in another, is legendary. It is a study in the beauty of patina style bar none. Often rented out for Hollywood movies always on the condition that nothing can be changed.

The Creole home of Peter Yokum is the oldest house in New Orleans - The building is of "significant historical and architectural value, " said a spokesman for the Williams Research Center of The Historic New Orleans Collection. There are plenty of conflicting dates, stories and theories as to when what was built and who owned it at what time, but "absent any records that may have been burned, it is a possibility" that a portion of the structure dates to the 1720s".

There are so many generations of treasures in this house, including paintings by his mother, Rita Hovey-King, a Newcomb College graduate who used her maiden name on her work. "She was a helluva painter, " he said. The shop on the ground floor of the house that fronts Toulouse Street, was once the Hove perfume shop, which she ran after she took the business over from her mother. And long before that, it was a gunsmith's shop. Now you can find Yokum's art gallery on the first floor

The door to Casa Hove via

Take a look at a round up of images of this incredible patina style.

The front gates opening to the porte cochere and courtyard, called The Money Gates because they came off the old US Mint, and are said to bring good luck to those who rub them - The original gates were melted down to make bullets during the Civil War

Fan light windows have original hand rolled glass

The dining room with old plaster walls that have not been repainted for hundreds of years

Some of Peter Yokum's art - When he was interviewed at age 26 he said he likes to paint  "Faces, nudes, landscapes, still lifes, anything that's pretty, anything that moves me, anything that I feel is worth capturing." I wonder if he has any paintings of me from the 1970's ha ha

Talk about art in the kitchen! I wish there were a larger photo so we could see the old porcelain sink and vintage stove - I love the way the small brass desk lamp is used as a picture light

Old family treasures, art work, and an old brick wall make for a perfect patina style vignette - Yokum makes his own paint colors, he says "It was taught to me by my instructor, Frank Mason, at the New York City Art Students League. He calls it the Maroger medium." The Art Students League was the place to study classical painting, with the methods of the old masters taught  to students. When I was there I learned what rabbit skin glue was, and all about painting with glazes.

Peter Moon Yokum in his studio - He also plays music - "I got a little group. We drink a little liquor, get all fired up and play some music, make some noise, " Yokum said.

Peter Yokum in his courtyard - "Everything's intact. I don't want to mess with anything, " he said. "Cypress railing, I don't care if it's chewed up, me. I'm going to keep this old cypress railing. Cypress basically lasts forever. These posts are all original. Wouldn't change anything until I don't have another option, and even then I'll try to go get the old stuff."

Some images from Our Louisiana Magazine. Sadly they do not have the story on line. But read these two fascinating articles one from Nola.com HERE, and one from the interview with Peter Yokum when he was 26.

And vote for Jenny today HERE

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My Patina Style

Steve and Brooke Giannetti coined the phrase '"patina style" in a beautiful book they wrote using that phrase as the title. Patina style is all about using things that show age and wear, that become more beautiful as the years pass. Kind of like girls my age ha ha.

I too, have always loved things with a patina. When I was a little girl I was always fascinated by things from "olden times". It gave me my first glimpse into wrapping my mind around the elasticity of time passing, and moving forward. That fascination grew into a life long appreciation and quite a few collections put together from antique shops, flea markets, and estate (yard and garage) sales.

Detail of Audrey painting by Ashley Longshore and print of Chanel bottle by Anne Harwell  of Annechovie

So every now and then I want to post a few photos I call The Vamp's Patina Style. Just little detail shots of things that seem charming to me.

Frayed satin slippers and frame fragment

I  am sure that you all have a version of your own patina style, with treasured objects and pieces of furniture.

Silk drape with frayed edge and rusty wheel on a cart - a cartwheel!

Paperweight in the form of a dead bird

Vintage skeleton anatomy chart from the 1960's

Necklaces draped on a cross

Stack of books on an iron table - I spy Patina Style that inspired me!

Now go out there and find some faded, rusted, crusty, frayed, chipped, fabulous patina style!

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Giannetti Home on One Kings Lane

Hurry! Starts today, Steve and Brooke from Velvet and Linen, and authors of the fab new book Patina Style have fabulous finds on One Kings Lane.

You know they are going to sell out, so get on over there now!

From the book Pat5ina Style by Brooke and Steve Giannetti

Patina Style

Brooke and Steve Giannetti have a beautiful book out called Patina Style. It is a direct descendant of one of the most influential decorating styles that affected a huge swath of the general public.

Buy Patina Style HERE

That style is what became known as Shabby Chic, pioneered by Rachel Ashwell in the 1990's.  It was her style that launched a brand, and introduced the term into the vernacular of interior design.

Wikipedia says:"The term was coined by The World of Interiors magazine in the 1980s and became extremely popular in the US in the '90s with a certain eclectic surge of decorating styles with paints and effects, notably in metropolitan cultural centres on the West Coast of America, such as LA and San Francisco, with heavy influences from Mediterranean cultures such as Provence, Tuscany and Greece."

If you look at Rachel's work, you see a level of sophistication and an edited style that perhaps has been taken for granted. The beauty of Shabby Chic is its accessibility. Who among us has not felt empowered to paint it all white? The downfall of Shabby Chic was the perhaps corrupt interpretation of it by the very masses who loved it. It morphed into a busy cutesy style of the constant shopper who loved to do up rooms in a very forgiving fussy cottage style.

I first saw and fell in love with Shabby Chic in the 1990's in Los Angeles. Rachel Ashwell was there, and Lynn Von Kersting, and shops like Pom Pom and Le Maison. At the same time my friends Sharonne Einhorn and Honey Wolters opened the first Ruby Beets in the Hamptons (in New York), and everyone from Donna Karan to Barbra Streisand plundered their shop to create the romantic shabby chic interiors seen at Ruby Beets. I still have pieces I bought from that first Ruby Beets shop located on The Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton.

So now we have Patina Style. The images in the book are familiar if you are like me, a regular reader and fan of the blog Velvet and Linen. I don't mind seeing familiar favorite images over and over again. The publishing world has a weird aversion for re-showcasing things seen on blogs or in other publications. I think if something is good, we all love to look at it countless times. And every photographer and stylist interprets things differently.

You might recall a photo on the Giannetti blog of the living room Brooke decorated for their home before it looks the way it does today. It was classic shabby chic, ruffled white slip covers, and accents of chintz, and lots of white furniture. It was lovely.

A look inside at the pages from the book Patina Style

But all artistic types evolve, and so it goes with Brooke. She has developed her talent for interior design to the in demand status that it is today. Her partner in all of this, is of course her husband Steve, who is a talented and respected architect. He and Brooke have formed a perfect meeting of the minds in their aesthetic they call Patina Style.

Brooke Giannetti has made Patina Style the interior design du jour

Their Patina Style is evolved and getting more and more refined as they work on new projects. Touchstones of using the faded, chipped, tarnished, and tattered, along with the best of the most current building materials, and fabrics and furnishings available in interior design, combine to define the Giannetti Patina Style.

The book is lovely. Most of the photographs are done by Steve, truly a Renaissance man (architect, designer, painter, photographer, writer). Brooke and Steve write beautifully, and the book is organized with chapters that are both inspirational and useful. They share many decorating tips that they use, and that they make you feel you can try yourself.

From inside the pages of Patina Style

Most important, is that when you read the book or the blog, you like the Giannetti family. They live in  a golden place, and do work they love. They have a beautiful home, and a beautiful family. As a couple they seem very much in love and in like with one another. It is a story and a style and a success we would all very much love to be a part of, and of which they actually make us a part of via their blog Velvet and Linen.

From inside the pages of Patina Style

I cast a resounding vote that Patina Style will have the defining success that Shabby Chic had. It is time for the update of this interior design style for a new generation, and for those of us who loved it back in the day to revisit it again with the eye of experience. We don't get old, we acquire patina.

From inside the pages of Patina Style

Stop by and congratulate them!

Stay tuned for another post with a photo essay inspired by the Giannettis of my personal patina style.

The Visual Vamp Hearts Patina Style - photo by Valorie Hart