Blue and White

I know:  Super.  Original.  Post.  Blue and White: no one has EVER thought of this before,

But I can't help it.  I've actually been trying to avoid it for a while.  When I did this shopping round up a while back, I was feeling a wee bit obsessed with all the blue and white products at Target.  And then, look, here's an ad, featuring all the blue and white bedding:

It's everywhere!  Traditional Home even did a whole Trend Roundup on Indigo and Navy:

I'm getting on the bandwagon.

Frances Shultz, House Beautiful

 Meg Braff, House Beautiful

Valerie Smith, House Beautiful

Windsor Smith, House Beautiful

Now, blogging 101 says that you should not post the same old images without sharing something new.  So how about this:  Blue and White looks fresh when it goes a little Indian.  Swedish?  So expected.  Nantucket?  Been there, done that.  Chinoiserie?  So classic.  But that hit of block print together with natural materials like this raffia headboard feels fresh.

Alexandra Angle, House Beautiful

 I was drawn to this fabric at S. R. Harris recently (that fabric warehouse I am always, always writing about).

Pretty, no?  Makes me think of a slightly busier version of this Les Indiennes print:

Except this one is on sale for about $300 a yard, whereas the one I found is $12.99.  Just kidding: it's $12.99 LESS 50%.  Either way: a better deal.

Oh, and also this one from the Chinoiserie camp:

On a related note, I think Peter Dunham may have recently outpaced Muriel Brandolini in the category Designer I Would Hire to Do My Own Pad (if I had buckets of money.  Which I don't.  At all.  In fact, my husband just questioned my purchase of a little spring jacket at OLD NAVY.  ON CLEARANCE.  Just for the record.)  His designs have the global thing going on a la Brandolini, but a bit more traditional and polished.  I love Muriel for her over-the-top moments, but somehow right now I'm digging something a little quieter.  Maybe it's just overload from my living room, which seems to be shouting at me right about now.  When I resolve it, I'll share.  Don't see how this is "a related note"?  Peter Dunham = Indian Blockprint fabrics.  Duh.

Anyhoo.  Too many words not really at all about Blue and White.

And so, with that, Good Night, and Good Luck.

Oh, wait: blogger 102 says to engage the reader.  So, reader: who would you choose to design your space, if money were no object?  Just curious.  And/or: blue and white, thumbs up or down?

Just goes to show

When I was posting Danika's flashback on Friday, I found myself thinking that her "huh?" moments looked pretty good to me. In particular, she pointed out this checkerboard wall as a predominant "what was I thinking?" choice in her awesome carriage house.

[gorgeous shiny things]

Last night, I was looking through an old folder of tearsheets, and I found this.

[Elle Decor]

It's a bedroom by my very favorite designer Muriel Brandolini.

While I still (and always) think you should just do what you love in your home regardless of what other designers are doing, this just goes to show that one woman's "ugh!" might be another woman's "ahhhh," and that we tend to see spaces we have designed differently than other people will. We see the work that went into it, and all the flaws. Or maybe I should say "flaws."

Seeing this image again, I still feel inspired by the combinations of textiles and lighting--ornate with streamlined, fanciful with crisp--and while our tastes change, the way we combine things we love can continue to energize them and make them new.

Bird Cages

I love birdcages. Not for caging birds, but as beautiful objects, even architecture. I borrowed one from my grandparents to hold the cards at my wedding. I recently pulled this image out of Interior Design magazine--I love the effect of all those antique birdcages in a cluster in this San Francisco spa.

It also made me think of Han Fen's loft, which is altogether too minimalist for me, but lovely and serene, and I love the way the birdcage seems fanciful in an austere environment.

[From the book New York Living, by Lisa Lovatt Smith]

And then, wandering through the St Louis Park store the Mix in search of a chinoiserie console on a reader tip (and before my epiphany that the dining room needed art, not furniture), I spotted this.

Wouldn't it make an incredible chandelier? If I didn't already have a huge, dramatic fixture in my dining room, I would want to wire this baby. It's like three feet tall. Unlike the Ikea pendant we have, this bird cage wouldn't be showing up in every home and magazine, now would it?

In a way, it makes me think of my favorite chandelier of all time, this crystal boat in Murial Brandolini's living room. Z Gallerie used to offer a knockoff, but for the money I'd give the bircage a try first. (plus, I missed the boat on the knockoff--just went to their site and they no longer do the crystal boat thing.)

[New York Living]

Lovers of the Brandolini may notice that she has since redecorated, but i prefer the old space. Oh, okay, here's what it looks like now.

[Elle Decor]

The boat is one of the only things she kept!
How about you: have you remade objects into light fixtures, hanging, standing, or table? There are so many great ones out there....