Online Shelter Magazines Are Huge This Month

The top three online shelter magazines, rue, House of Fifty, and Lonny, have all dropped their May issues. And each one put out huge issues with lots of pages and good content. It's really been a treat to spend time looking at them all.

Lots of reading to do this month in the online magazines - I spy Debra Shriver's book Stealing Magnolias in this picture in Lonny - Stealing Magnolias is the best book about New Orleans, to gift or to keep for yourself

Lonny focused on road trip to Morocco, and there is a huge feature on Maryam of the blog My Marrakesh. Her house is amazing. And I love the piece on Jamie Meares too.

Jamie Meares in  Lonny - I love this Jackie print - I had no wall space for it so I got a client to get it!

Of course I was so happy to be included in rue, and House of Fifty, and loved the rest of the content in both magazines.

So happy to be in rue - A corner in my bedroom

There are tons of take-way ideas in all three magazines, so hunker down and read them all.

I have had two sheets of the same handmade paper for two years, as  seen on the back wall in this room by Jamie Meares - The take away idea is how to frame them, shown here floating on linen with a pretty silver frame

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Vintage Living

It's no secret that using vintage home accessories, whether from a flea market, thrift store, boutique, or a fancy place like 1stdibs is ingrained as a part of adding nuance and layering in home decorating.

And fashion on the red carpet is often described as "vintage" when a glamour girl is queried about her beautiful dress.

I wore vintage clothing exclusively for about 10 years of of my younger years, and still pick up a piece or two. Vintage looks good on younger girls, or more advanced girls (as seen on the Advanced Style blog). Somewhere in the middle you have to choose to wear it judiciously. But man I love vintage clothes, shoes, bags, and home furnishings.

The bottom line, is that vintage living has entered the mainstream as part of a lifestyle, so it is no surprise that a new magazine is in the making, called Vintage Living.

Vintage Living - I love how glam it is!

You can become a mogul of sorts and get in as an investor. Check out this link HERE. How fun to be a venture capitalist and part of a start-up for just a couple of bucks, and get in on the ground floor of this very exciting project.

Go to Kickstarter to read more about Vintage Living Magazine

Do you have a favorite vintage piece of clothing or accessory? Piece of furniture or home accessory?
Where did you get it?

An old Polaroid photo of me in one of my favorite vintage coats with matching hat - When I was young I dressed old ha ha

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Decorating With Chanel And Hermes - Sources For My Bedroom In Rue Magazine

Love these photos via La Dolce Vita. What girly-girl doesn't love Chanel and Hermes?

Using Chanel in your decor - photo via La Dolce Vita- go visit to see the whole fab space

Anne Harwell of Annechovie does the best prints of a Chanel perfume bottle that are so cute and affordable.

So cute! Ger it for your house! Anne Harwell at Etsy

And what girl doesn't want an Hermes purse?!!!!

Love how the purses are displayed as decor - photo via La Dolce Vita

Anne also does a fab print of a Kelly bag, and it comes with your choice of background color. I love them all, but I love the one with the Hermes orange background the best!

You can affor4ed this Kelly bag!!! Anne Harwell at Etsy

I got four of them and used them in my revamped bedroom. I framed them in black with white mats (frames from a big box store) to play back to the black trim on the lamps, and the black trim on the accent wall.

Decorating with Hermes as seen in rue magazine - photo by Sara Essex Bradley

I upholstered it in green linen (from fabric.com - they are out of what I use, but I gave you the link for something similar). I purposefully chose black trim on the hotel bedding (from an eBay store), with the oversize black monograms in a font called Tango (done by Uptown Embroidery).

I used extra green linen to make a bed skirt. The upholstered  headboard and  slip covered bench are done in Schumacher Nanjing in Jade Green. The headboard is very affordable from Country Door. I had the double piping removed by the Leonels the upholsterer, The chevron Missoni style rugs come from a big box store, and I put two together to make a larger rug,

The lamps are vintage that I painted to look like alabaster, and the oversize shades came from Lowes.
The nightstands were a close out that I got about six years ago, and have been painted a couple of time.
The color is Benjamin Moore Kelly Green.

The flower ball chandelier is discontinued, but it came from perch. and I am sure they could find you something similar.

It takes a village to make a pretty room, and I thank Anne Harwell and Mitchell Settoon for their help, and rue magazine for including me in the current issue May/June 2012 issue.

Next time I will share some sources in my living room.

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Beni Round Up

Like Suzanis and Ikat, and Oushak rugs, the Beni rug has become entrenched. You can poo-poo all these things as been there done that, but really these classic global designs have been around for hundreds of years and they are not going anywhere.

Beni 1

I recently recommended a purchase of a repro Beni for a client, an eBay score of a discontinued Pottery Barn one. Now stop your groaning. Pottery Barn-groan. Repro-groan. eBay-groan.

Beni 2

The rug is brand new and perfect. I like the standard room size (9 x 12) for our purposes. The authentic Beni is woven on narrow looms, so the rug sizes at best are like super runners. And the authentic Beni rug can soar into the thousands of dollars.

Beni in the bedroom where I would like to put the one we purchased

Beni 3

Mrs. Client loved it, and while Mr. Client liked it too, he did not understand how it is relative to the contemporary design he is particular to. So I made this little round up for him.

Beni 4

The Beni is a chameleon, a rug that looks great in all settings from Trad to Mod. And it is hear to stay despite the petulance of trigger finger bloggers.

Beni 5

Beni 6

Beni 7

Beni 8

Beni 9

Beni 10

Beni 11

Pottery Barn Beni - It looks great in person

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I Love Me Some Advanced Style

I am very blessed.

Valorie Hart in rue magazine - photo by Sara Essex Bradley - art work by Anne Harwell of Annechovie

rue magazine did a wonderful feature of my design work! Being the quipster that I am, I say that I am the oldest thing they have ever put in the magazine.

This brought to mind one of my favorite blogs Advanced Style. I often wonder at what age does one qualify to be of advanced style material.  Ari Seth Cohen who writes the wonderful fashion blog, now has a book due out any moment culled from the photos he takes and the wonderful chats and interviews he has with all the amazing people he features. Cohen is in his thirties, yet he he is attracted to the older set, finding a wealth of inspiring style for any age, and really giving guidelines on how growing older is something to embrace (instead of something to fear and resent).

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Advanced Style - Buy this book

I think there is another book idea here: "Advanced Decor" (is my publisher listening?).
Just think of the lifetime of collecting and experience that one accumulates by a certain age.
Nicole Cohen of Sketch42 regularly features photos of her grandmother's home that are absolutely beautiful and stylish. Her grandmother's home is one I would definitely include in my book "Advanced Decor".

I would put this in my book called Advanced Decor! via Sketch42

In the meantime, I wrote an article for the anniversary issue of House of Fifty, a lifestyle and design magazine produced by the older and very stylish generation. Go check it out, and tell me does your decor tell your age?

Read: Does Your Decor Tell Your Age

The big fat gorgeous anniversary issue of House of Fifty

And while you are reading magazines today go check out rue - It is a really good  (and huge) issue.

Love the current cover of rue magazine - the young girls are playing granny dress-up!

Valorie Hart interior designer - photo by Sara Essex Bradley

 

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Jenny Jenny

In the words of the great Little Richard: "Jenny Jenny...The greatest little momma
You oughta see her reel and rock".

Jenny Andrews of My Favorite and My Best, or MFAMB has been rockin' my world for a couple of years now. I was among her first fans and encouraged her to blog from the minute she put up her first post.

Jenny is talented, funny, and a mom. Her blog evokes discussion because of her choice of metaphor. To dismiss her as a potty mouth is crazy, because this little mama has decor chops and a keen eye and a penetrating social voice.

Don't let Jenny get spanked!

For some reason she entered some crazy ass contest. I totally understand having entered a couple myself. We do it on a lark, and then we get into it, wanting those votes, wanting to win win win!!!!!!!

So peeps she needs our vote! It's really a horse race between her and one other blog. They are number #1 and #2. They other blog is okay. But it is not Jenny who makes us laugh, and lets us into her world like no other blogger. Jenny is an original, so let's cast a vote of the unique and original!

We are  Jenny's back up girls! Get over there and vote for her now!

You know I support all of you, so now it's Jenny's turn, so let's support Jenny. It's super easy. No sign ups or sign ins (are you listening Apartment Therapy?).

Just go to the link and read Jenny's account of her fight for the vote ( I guarantee it will put a smile on your face and who doesn't need that), and then go to the link she gives and just press "vote" for MFAMB.  She is still #2 so it's easy to find her.

AND You can vote again and again, once every day, so go back and do it like we do in Louisiana, vote once and vote often.

Thanks!

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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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Widget Working Now

What does a widget look like? We know what midget looks like, and we know what Gidget looks like, but what does a widget look like?

Gidget

I never even knew what a widget was until I started blogging, and then I found out they are little thingees you can have to make your blog better. Go HERE to get some.

For the past few months my Blog List widget has been broken. I haven't been able to add or remove blogs from it. It was frozen. Now suddenly it is fixed. I think Blogger is always fooling around with the software to make changes and updates, and when they do certain things just don't work whilst under construction.

WTF happened to my widget?

So now it is working again, so all of you who have been asking me to put you on my blog list, or update your URL, please email me again, now that I can do it.

mizvtheb@yahoo.com

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Copy Cat Chic DIY This Dining Chair

I am always looking for the perfect dining room chair. It's not as easy as you think. Gone are the days of buying a "set", with matching chairs and table. Pairing a disparate chair to a table is tricky. Not everyone loves a Ghost chair ha ha, or a Mid Century plastic shell chair. It becomes a Goldilocks story, with each chair being too this or too that. Add the cost of chairs these days and multiply times six or eight, and you have a hefty investment.

Love these dining chairs from Neiman Marcus - only $1600. each

When I was a younger, I often bought used chairs from the restaurant supply stores on the Bowery in New York. The chairs were around $2. each back then. They were a perfect scale for an apartment, and the were sturdy, and the design whilst boring, was clean and classic. The chair could be painted, and the fabric on the seat and back could be changed out easily with a yard of fabric and a staple gun.

With that in mind, I think with the design sensibility all you clever bloggers have, you could take the humble restaurant style chair and doll it you like the one from Neiman Marcus pictured at the beginning of this post that sells for $1600. each!

You can copy cat chic this chair! Really!

And to help you out, I offer a couple of sources for supplies, including the chair.  Of course, check out your local restaurant supply stores for used chairs. I doubt they will be $2. like in the olden days of my youth, but I suspect they will be eminently affordable.

This is a chair from a restaurant supply - It's brand new - You can get it HERE - It has a very similar form to the NM one

The chair color is good as it if you like wood, but if you want a painted chair go for it - Everyone seems to love this Annie Sloan chalk paint touted as chick decorator paint because it is so easy to use - Anyone want to share the dealio if they have used it for a DIY project? It's a little pricey - is it worth it?

The chair seat looks good as is - You could just re-do the chair back - I love the houndstooth fabric on the expensive chair, and found a site for you with a few houndstooth fabric choices HERE - But any fabric you love would work

Adding nail head trim to the existing bottom seat and around the new fabric on the back will make the chair have that couture look - Nail heads are hard to do, but the nail head strip makes it a little easier - You can get them at your local hardware store, or you can get them online HERE

I'm not saying this is a quick and easy project, but it certainly is a way to create a chair with an expensive look for a lot less money than 1600. per chair!

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