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A salute to the purple couch.

Do you have a childhood moment that spurred your love for design?

I’m sure there were plenty of shopping trips to flea markets and hours in the fabric store with my mom as a child that helped build up my design-addiction.  One moment that sticks out in particular though is from a visit to my grandmother’s farm house when I was little; she invited us in the living room to show my mom and aunts her new upholstery project: royal purple velvet slipcovers for her couch. As a child, the thought of owning a purple velvet couch was probably the most magical concept to ever enter my mind, I was in love.

As teenagers my sister vocalized her desire to have it written into my grandmothers will that she would be the recipient of the purple velvet furniture should anything ever happen to their rightful owner and I still regret not thinking to stake claim first! So this is a salute to the infamous purple couch, may it live as long as it’s free-spirited upholsterer!

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via Homes and Gardens

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via Apartment Therapy

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via Patricia Gray Interior Design

Home

In it to win it.

The fabulous bloggers at We Love Domino have been doing a great job filling the post-domino void, and are now holding a “Domino Inspired My Home” contest to highlight reader’s homes that drew inspiration from the favorite mag. Since I actually ripped a picture out of the magazine last year and used it as my jumping point for my tiny apartment kitchen, I decided to submit an entry and share some pictures of my result.

This was my inspiration:

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I was so overwhelmed with the space challenges when we first moved in. For starters: the counter space is no bigger than 2ft by 2ft, there were no closed cabinets, and my storage space was limited to 3 small drawers.  Luckily, the tall ceilings afforded me some open shelving and I used that as a jumping point. The inspiration I took from the Domino kitchen was making use of the open shelves and essentially creating simple vignettes that displayed my cooking tools as part of the decor.  I stuck to the stainless steel, white, and jadeite color scheme in the photo, because it allowed me  rely on cheap classics from ikea and to make use of a lot of the stuff I already had!  Check out the result below:

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Deer Diary

Over on the Keep Domino Alive site, bloggers have been recounting some of the great icons of style that the magazine used in many of the issues. Today, Beth of Style Redux posted about how antlers were brought from the ski house to the downtown loft on the pages of Domino.

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I’ve always loved their rustic accent to a room, but there is something a bit jarring about a full animal skull looming over the room. Lately though I’ve been bookmarking some great faux-taxidermy mounts that I think could be fun alternatives, with different textures, colors and patterns; Check them out:

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Vine Deer Head from Zgallerie 

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From Made by Girl

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Antelope from Pieces Inc

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From artist Rachel Denny

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If these walls could talk.

I love gallery style walls of art in homes. While I’ve faced little difficulty in growing my collection of art, displaying it in a meaningful composition can be a challenge, especially when that collection is constantly growing and evolving.

Wes and Kayla from ApartmentTherapy just posted a great “How-To” on hanging art in a group that can grow. I’m anxiously awaiting until my personal collection is as robust and well-curated as these displays below:

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Image from MadebyGirl

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Image from Domino

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Image from GoGoAbigail

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Living in “The City”

Everyone has their vices;  some love their chocolate, some indulge in glossy celeb-gossip magazines, others enjoy a ritualistic evening cocktail… but me, I unapologetically crave MTV’s reality TV shows (OK, lets be honest – I can check “all of the above”).

My non-negotiable must-watch (faux)reality show is “The City.”   While I lust after their jobs and clothing and accessories and lifestyles, the real kicker for me is the immaculately decorated apartments they live in  (yes, I know, they’re probably just sets, but let me keep believing).

Whitney’s apartment reminds me of the vibe from Kelly Wearstler’s Guest House tour in Domino Magazine; a little modern with the Lucite bar stools, a little 70’s retro with the velvety teal sofa (that cost a mere $12,685), and very glam with the oversized tufted ottoman and metallic accents.

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And then there’s the girl you love to hate,  Olivia Palermo. Her digs are surprisingly less ostentatious than her usual fur-wearing-Gucci-toting-blinged-out- self.  Her monthly rent is probably more than I make in a year, but in a NY Post interview she shared that some of her design secrets (her couch: Jennifer Convertibles, her closet: Elfa Storage from the Container Store). I’ll give credit where credit is due, its a nice mix of high-end accessories and affordable staples (thanks to interior designer mom).

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Goodbye Dear Domino.

When I called a friend to share the horrific news that our favorite magazine Domino was going under, she initially thought I was calling to tell her someone had died because I was so upset.

The New York Times article  said that “while its circulation was strong and growing, advertising numbers, much more important, demanded it die…”

It seems like almost every blog post that came through my feed last week had people mourning the loss and reminiscing about favorite issues.  Many posts from European readers noted that magazine subscriptions in the US are relatively inexpensive, since most of the revenue is generated from ad sales.  I will say this, I would gladly pay a higher newsstand price if it kept my favorite shelter publications in circulation.

Several bloggers are convening at We Love Domino to post about the best of the magazine and it’s serving as a reminder of why we all loved it so much! Here are few of my favorites from the past few years:

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Life

Better late than never.

A month late on my new year’s resolution, I’m jumping into the blogosphere. Better late than never, right? It took me a month to actually start because I’ve been obssessing over what to write in the first post.  After reading hundreds of design blogs everyday for the past year, I promised myself i’d start to be a more active participant and create my own space for collecting inspiration and tracking my endeavors in design.  After much encourgement, this is it, the first step from reader to writer, wish me luck!