3 rooms I forgot I designed

Every now and again I google “leather chair” and I GASP as a photo of my past work comes up with a questionable chair, or a suspicious wall color (not here). Generally this is work that I didn’t necessarily forget about, but they were never properly photographed (as you can see) so it was never blogged about, or maybe it was but that blog post has been broken for years (thanks to moving servers and hosts 4 times).

Years ago, when I did the show “Secrets From a Stylist,” #RIP, we styled two different looks in the same room for the first season. And THREE different looks for the pilot episode (shown here). The first look was always really extreme in one direction, with the idea that the second (or third) look would pull it back into reality (the two looks were based on their personality styles).

So here are four rooms that were only “first looks” and lasted 18 hours. Thank God someone photographed them (albeit terrible photographs) . . . and now they are burned into your (and my) memories.

The first photo was Ian’s house, first look. It was “mantique,” I think. Then for the second (with the black/white rug) we added “midcentury pop,” which I liked in different ways. For that one we painted out the back of the shelves. The third look is what you see here, above, which is the obvious favorite, and a mixing of all three of the styles.

Ooh this is fun. Ok, remember this?

This room was the first look of the “Spanish Mod” episode. They wanted super modern, but they lived in an old Spanish style house. So for first look we did it totally old world (mostly for the sake of the viewers). These people FREAKED out when I painted those walls dark green, and it was actually super awkward. We always had the intention of painting it back but man, they were pissed. Sorry, guys. They also hated the lighting, but I personally think that it’s better than what they chose (below). I actually still really like the green room, even though it was meant to look really old world Spanish. I definitely wouldn’t paint the ceilings again  – that looks stupid. I think we couldn’t find a break so we didn’t know what to do. Man the final look was so much better. These photos are all super low-res, sorry!!

Here is the second look:

I found one more angle on the internet:

That credenza is still STUNNING.

Ok any of you remember this? This was the first look of the “Industrial Kitch” loft that we did. The first look was meant to be super kitchy and retro (obviously). I still like a lot of the elements but altogether it was cuckoo.

Here’s a link to the 4 minute abridged version of that episode. I found a screenshot of the second look.

Pretty darn fun. It kinda says 2010 all over it, but there are a lot of elements I still like. You can’t tell, but check out that DIY crate room divider. Crazy. 

And then there was this bachelor, who’s fiance was moving in. So for the first look we did just his look:

He was extremely attached to that sofa which I have to say we made look REALLY good here. He loved this room so much and was like “please don’t do a second look, please.” But, we did:

He wasn’t as happy. But she was.  

I kinda wish we hadn’t put so many pops of yellow in there, but OOOHHHHWEELLLL.

OOh this is my new favorite game. All I want to do now is go through old SFAS episodes and critique the first version (I can’t really critique the second too much, obviously). Man these bring back memories. I can’t believe HGTV didn’t hire photographers to shoot them. They would hire a “set photographer” who would come in for like 10 minutes and grab a shot of me placing a pillow, but nobody that actually knew how to shoot interiors. So I started hiring my own for the blog, but I was so busy shooting the show that I couldn’t be there to style them. Such missed opportunities all the time. But now I get to dredge them up from the past and show them off to you.

If you are bored this weekend check out some of the old episodes or videos here. It’s not my best work, but man it’s super fun to revisit that life. I’ve never really talked about what happened to the show – but as you could probably tell HGTV went to a real estate/renovate formula that has worked very well for them. “The Property Brothers” first blew it up, Then” Love it or List it,” and now my favorite “Fixer Upper.” People ask all the time if I’d like to have my own show again.

It’s a complicated answer: YES. I would love to have my own show that is really, really, good. You’d think that’s obvious but there are a lot of bad/cliche/generic show ideas out there. Over the years I have been pitched or asked to do a variety of them, but to give up that much time (which makes my family life and this blog suffer GREATLY) it has to be a really awesome show, with a ton of creative/design control, and a large enough budget to make the space look good. Anyway, I tell my agents that when both kids are in school I might be less picky, but to miss so much of their childhood to host a mediocre show, that edits out my personality, and insists on mainstream design for the masses, is certainly not worth it. So that’s the deal with the show. I loved that show. I still love that show. Watching it now feels dated, sure, but every week was so different, and you could tell we were having fun. Hosting-wise I’m leaps and bounds better than I was then, but it’s still fun to watch my 30 year old self chat about style to my (still) good friend, Orlando.

Not sure how I got onto this rant. I guess watching a few of those old episodes made me nostalgic, and realize that I never fully told you why the show was cancelled. Despite it’s good ratings and big following, those real estate/renovate shows killed it. Props to Joanna Gaines for bringing some design game back to the channel – I love that family (who doesn’t?).

Quick Q – what shows do you guys watch on HGTV, if any, and what shows WOULD you watch? The makeover show formula feels done, but there has to be something that is more style oriented that could be fun to do and watch, right?

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Felt Flower Birdhouses

Hi friends!  It’s Amy from Ameroonie Designs here again to share this fun tutorial for making these cute embellished birdhouses.

You will need:

Birdhouses

paper

paint

sandpaper

brushes

felt

hot glue gun and glue sticks

wood glue

Assembly:

• Begin by lightly sanding all the wood pieces.


• Decide which papers will be on each birdhouse and paint with coordinating paint.  If you want to use the birds, paint them now.


• Paint all the bases and candlesticks white.


• Trace the birdhouses on the paper and cut out and glue to the birdhouses.  You can find a great tutorial for these steps here.


• Lightly distress the painted pieces with sandpaper. (optional)


• Glue the birdhouses to the bases using hot glue, then attach the birdhouse base to the candlestick.


• Embellish with felt flowers. (see tutorial below)

Felt flower How-to:

A couple of things to remember before making your felt flowers: flowers in nature are all different and none of them are perfect- so don’t get too worried about your flowers being exactly the same or exactly perfect.  That being said- working with felt can take some practice.  Don’t be afraid to make a few “tester” flowers first, to make sure you have the hang of it.  Also, you  might want to make them a little bigger than what you will want on your birdhouses when you are doing the test run, it will make assembling the flowers easier.  I used acrylic felt on these flowers, it’s readily available and inexpensive.  Feel free to use any kind of felt you like though.

I’m going to show you how to make the felt “roses” today.  You can find tutorials for the other flowers on the birdhouses on my blog, but if you just make the roses in different colors and sizes, you won’t really need other flowers, unless you want to.

1. Begin with a strip of felt about 1/2″ wide.  The length will depend on how full you want your flower to be- the longer the strip, the bigger the flower.

2. Cut scalloped shapes out of the strip of felt.

3. Take a 1/2″ square of felt and put a dab of hot glue in the center. (the black dot shown in the picture) and pull all the sides around the dot of glue to create a cone shaped center with a rounded top.

4. Run a line of hot glue along the bottom, straight side of one petal (the black line in the picture) and wrap the petal around the center you created in the last step.  Repeat with a second petal, on the opposite side of the center.  Continue adding petals staggering their placement so they are offset from the other petals.  Keep adding petals until you run out, or the flower is the size you would like.

Once you are done making all your flowers, create some leaves by cutting leaf shapes out of green felt.  I used two different colors to add some texture.  I tried to mimic the shape of the leaves in the floral paper I used, but you can do any shape you like.

Layer the flowers and leaves at the bases of the birdhouses and attach with more hot glue.

Now you have some beautiful embellished birdhouses you can leave out all spring long.

I hope you’ll come look around my blog and check out the other fun projects going on over there.  And if you’d like a $25 gift card to use toward this or another project from The Wood Connection- hop over to my blog and enter to win!

Thanks so much for having me today!

xoxo,

Amy

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MY CRAFT CHANNEL: A-Z

Alphabets can be used for just about anything, spelling your child’s name, a fun holiday word, a monogram for your shelf or front door. And the possibilities for decorating them are endless. This week on My Craft Channel we are showing you how some of our favorite A to Z font and how easy it is to make a simple monogram.

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The First Four Months with Two Kids

I’ve been meaning to write a personal/parenthood update for a while, but I feel like I just say the same things over and over: It’s magical and I’m tired. We are navigating life with two small children, which I liken to this: During the day it’s a pleasant, pretty country road with some twists, turns and maybe an adorable *bump* along the way, but it’s generally pretty happy, and often even so wonderful I could cry.

But at night . . . at night it’s as if you’re driving along the cliffs of Big Sur, in a convertible, not wearing a seatbelt, blindfolded . . . and drunk. It’s terrifying, and you aren’t sure you are going to live through it.

Go ahead, pop that birth control pill, I’ll wait.

While I’m obviously exaggerating, there is a lot of truth to it. How can some thing (children) bring me so much happiness and exhaustion at the same time?

Let’s get into the good first – and let me be clear: There is a lot of good. Elliot is an angel, full of such joy and total engagement. She watches us intently, smiles the second anyone smiles at her, loves her big brother more than anything, and will sit happily and and coo, even while I cook or work. And she loves me. She looks up at me like I’m the only person in the world (a feeling echoed by her dad, too). She makes you feel so special in a way that I haven’t felt before.

Every day is different right now, but I mostly try to spend time with her in the mornings so that Sylvia (our wonderful nanny) can take Charlie to his activities. And this is one of the biggest challenges (which will get much easier even in a year) – Charlie’s and Elliot’s needs are wildly different right now. He’s two and wants to run, play, explore, be social, etc., and she is four months and wants to be snuggled and loved, quietly played with, and shown how secure and predictable life with her mom and dad can be. So, I try to stay at home with her ’til noon when Sylvia gets back with Charlie. Then she takes Elliot while he’s napping, and I work from home, or go into the office. Then the afternoon varies – but often Brian finishes work by 4 so that he can take over. It’s a total juggle, everyday, but it’s manageable. And by manageable I mean every night we realize that we have survived.

Charlie is in a super “mama” phase which is VERY flattering, and he wants me to do everything for him. He wants me to get him his sippy cup, me to put him down for his nap, me to sit next to him while he eats. He freaks out if I don’t and cries/yells “MAMA, YOU FEASE READ DA BOOK,” and what am I supposed to do, say no? If I’m working from home I simply say “I can’t right now, love, I’m working and work is really important but I’ll be done soon.” I make sure not to apologize for work, because I don’t want him to think that it’s something to be sorry about. It IS important, and he needs to know that. But it’s not more important than him and I try to make that amply clear.

Sleep. AH SLEEP. I have a pretty strong theory, which might even be an unproven FACT, that a parents level of happiness is in direct proportion to the amount of sleep their children let them have. On the “7 hour of sleep days” I’m so happy, and I have basically nothing negative to say about my family life. But on the days where I’m under 4 hours I feel emotionally bankrupt, and I have to remind myself constantly that everything is truly really good.

So what’s the big night time problem you ask? Both kids are up. A lot. They’ve both been really sick for a a few weeks. Just a cold, but enough congestion that they both wake up coughing, and then they wake each other up. And now I feel like bad habits are being solidified by us getting up so quickly with both of them. Charlie begs for milk or a book, and he gets them because we are too exhausted to say no, and too scared he’ll wake up the baby to be firm.

I didn’t talk about it before because I didn’t want to be “that person” but Charlie was a FANTASTIC sleeper as a baby. He started sleeping through the night at 9 weeks. We didn’t take any credit for it, nor did we ever take it for granted. We knew every single day that we simply lucked out and got an easy baby. And he was.

Elliot isn’t a terrible, horrible sleeper, she’s just normal and now has a cold. She goes right back to sleep after feeding and doesn’t really cry, but she is waking up everything at 2am and 5am (AT BEST).  I know that all these pretty photos are good PR for having kids, but I swear my staff and good friends are thinking twice after witnessing the daily chaos and nighttime insanity.

I stopped having any good expectations regarding the kids sleeping months ago, and weeks ago it finally sunk in how we were to handle it. We just go to bed around 9pm with the understanding that we could be woken up nearly 7 times between both children. If we go to bed that early we can still clock in around 5 hours, which is doable. Speaking of sleeping you are probably DEAD ASLEEP because talking about child sleep habits is a syndrome that only parents of tiny children can relate too.

During the day, especially on the weekends when I’m not juggling work, it’s so wonderful and beautiful and life is so God damn good. I’m obsessed with these children and look forward to the weekend like a 6 year old does christmas, EVERY DAY.

Brian is an unbelievably good dad that takes on at least 50%, if not more, which makes the weeks and weekends bearable. During the day these kids are happy and fun and love each other so much. While we haven’t lucked out on the sleep thing we have lucked out on the “obsessed with each other and just make each other giggle all day long” thing. It’s unbelievable how seamless the transition is.

They have bonded and it’s starting to help us answer the “why did you have two kids so close together???” question. They’ll be friends. They’ll play. Someday they might even sleep. 

But going from one to two is tough. Here’s what it’s like:

Having no kids is like living in a tiny 750 square foot house house that you love but you have to clean, maintain, etc. Despite it’s small size, life kinda still feels like work. When you have one kid and it’s like tripling that size of house to 2500 square feet and every day you are like “woah, this is a lot more work but I’m so glad I have so much more space!” Then, one day you add a second kid and it’s like adding 10,000 square feet to your tiny manageable home. At first it feels impossible. You are the same people who could barely take care of 750 square feet, but now you have 10K to take care of with the same amount of time. But you start decorating, and getting house proud and while maintaining it is exhausting you wouldn’t go back to 2500. You couldn’t. You love this new life so much.

Then, when someone (grandparents, playdate, preschool) watches one of your kids it feels like all of a sudden you have one room again, and you are like “PHSHAW (AIR SLAP) THIS ONE CHILD THING NOW FEELS LIKE NO KIDS, AND IS SO EASY THAT I CAN’T BELIEVE ANYBODY EVER THOUGHT ONE KID WAS HARD!!!!”

Their tiny hands just kill me.

Every day is different, both schedule-wise and emotionally. The combination of exhaustion and gratefulness is absolutely mind-boggling. I’m sure i’m repeating myself but HOW DO YOU LOVE SOMETHING SO MUCH THAT CAUSES YOU SO MUCH STRESS??? If work caused me this much stress I would do something different. If one of my hobbies caused me so much stress I would hang up my apron. But kids? You can barely tear them from me for an hour on the weekends because I literally NEED and LOVE to be near them at all times. Such masochists. We are all such masochists.

I thought about whether I should even write about the challenges because I don’t necessarily want my clients (both big brands and individual design clients) to think that I can’t handle it, or that I’m distracted by my kids. But then I thought:

1. I shouldn’t be ashamed for trying to be a good mom first, and also manage a company second. Instead I should be (AND AM) proud of that fact. Both are a lot of work, and Brian and I work really, really hard to succeed.

FURTHERMORE (prepare for rant): I’m a firm believer that every person and company should put family or personal lives first, and that men should “lean out” instead of women “leaning in.” I believe that prioritizing your kids over your job is something to be admired, not embarrassed by. I know that the last generation of women didn’t have this option, and instead had to pave the way for us having this luxury. For this I won’t apologize and nor should any of you, male or female. Family #1, work #2.

2. Pretending to you guys that things are really easy is not an option. Charlie was easy, which is why I rarely wrote about being exhausted – we weren’t. He never cried, and he slept so very much. I made it look easy, because it was kinda easy. But two isn’t, so saying that it is would be inauthentic and also a total lie. 

3. I’m actually really inspired work-wise. I think it took me 6 months after having Charlie to get creatively back into it, but this time around my brain got back into it faster, strangely. I think that like anything, the second time around you bounce back faster.

4. I have so much help in every department, so even if I were overwhelmed to the point of paralysis, we are all good (which is a luxury, I know). We have a full time nanny. Brady and Sara have really taken control of the editorial calendar of the blog and they keep it moving. We brainstorm together, then I art direct and write a lot of the content, and then they take over. Meanwhile Ginny and our two new designers are tackling all our design clients. I oversee everything, and approve everything that goes to clients but Ginny is really is killing it, and I don’t have to babysit that department at all. I’m insanely lucky to have such talented and smart people work for me that actually care about the future of the business, not just performing their tasks well. Also the professional and personal lines have really been blurred the last four months with most important meeting being held in Elliot’s nursery. So thanks for, you know, sticking with me.

So, clients (and readers), due to points #1 – #4 you can see that despite my personal challenges WE ARE ALL GOOD :) Life is a big, happy, insane snow show. Those kids make us feel both young and old. Brian and I are hanging on by a thread, but its a really strong, happy thread that is actually indestructable despite how tight we pull it. I know its temporary. I know that in a year we’ll be in a different place and thank god I have a almost unrealistic optimistic personality (i’ve been told) which keeps me in a pretty good mood all day most days. I may not look back at these months with nostalgia or fondness, but getting through them is a badge of parenting that I’m going to wear PROUDLY and I’m still enjoying every second of our days together (well, the seconds in between toddler tantrums).

If you have any sleep suggestions please help. As soon as their cold blows over we are going to try the no-cry, or ‘save our sleep’ methods, but if there is anything you swear by please let me know.

Happy Weekend, y’all. May we all get some ZZZZZZZZZSSSSSS.

 

*All photos by Stephanie Todaro. 

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Fancy, Edgy Lady Luck

Remember when we did these? Well, we had one more and I liked it enough to show you guys. Who is this person?

This chick likes to drink dirty martinis, wears Manolo Blahniks stilettos, loves movies with Audrey Hepburn, is kinda unhinged in the sack, but on the weekends can relax in her Hamptons beach house. She’s a little bitchy, but pulled together enough that you probably still want to be her friend.

1. Green and gold wallpaper City of Light in Emerald City by Jane Blevin – Wallnut Wallpaper | 2. Stone – Scrap from the stone yard | 3. Flooring  Birch Metallic Collection in Platinum by Vanier – Build Direct | 4. Pale Grey large tile – Classic Tile and Flooring, Santa Monica | 5. Vintage hardware | 6. Pale green fabric Chesapeake in Tropic – Carleton V from Nicky Rising | 7. Chronograph knob – Anthropologie | 8. Fabric – Carleton V Chesapeake Tropic | 9. Wallpaper – Astek | 10. Crackle paint – Sydney Harbour Paints | 11. Green ribbon | 12. Paint chips – All Sydney Harbour | 13. Black and Gold patterned wallpaper – Astek | 14. Emerald green tile – Classic Tile and Flooring, Santa Monica

Check out the rest of the posts from this series (a little “blast from the past” if you will): Moodboarding With Personality | Eat, Pray, Glam | Contemporary Masculine Glam | Wild Strong & Earthy | Coral & Teal Fantasy | Young, Girly, & Likes To Party

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NEW BOOKS AND OLD LIBRARIES

I would like to apologize for the radio silence, and to give you a little update from our small corner of the world. Even though it seems very quiet at times, bound by books, work and deadlines, and softened by travel, friends, family, gardens, and a few fulfilled dreams too.

One of these fulfilled dreams has been a writing project that's had a five-year gestation period. (Which is not long for a biography, but very long for me!) It's called THE PICNIC, although some of you are already aware of it, having followed the progress of it on this blog. It's an illustrated biography of Lady Joan Lindsay, the elegant but enigmatic author of the bestselling novel Picnic at Hanging Rock.  It's part biography, part essay and part analysis, and yes, we DID unearth the secret to the mystery. That's what took five long, research-intensive years!

I have to confess that, at one stage, I thought this writing project would never end. Information, leads and insights kept trickling in from kind readers and generous strangers all over the world. But in hindsight, these contributions were what made this project such a special one to work on, and I'm deeply grateful that we've had so much assistance from those who knew the Lindsays personally.

After three publishers vied for the book, the highly regarded publishers Hardie Grant made a offer too good to refuse. (I would have been happy to go with the other two publishers, as I know both women and they're lovely people.) I'm pleased to say that the illustrated biography of Joan Lindsay and the story behind Picnic at Hanging Rock will be published in October / November this year (2016).  It's a beautiful story. I still tear up reading the chapter about Joan Lindsay's last year. So I hope you all love it, too.

These pages are only mock-ups so they won't be the final page designs, but they do offer a glimpse at the wonderful people who punctuated Joan and Daryl Lindsay's private world. Sir Laurence Olivier is pictured above, wearing Joan's gardening hat in the couple's walled garden of 'Mulberry Hill', while the photo above that shows Sir Keith and Dame Elizabeth Murdoch (Rupert Murdoch's parents), Joan and Daryl's close neighbours and friends for more than half a century. 

The story behind THE PICNIC is a truly remarkable story and I wish I could tell you more but it's embargoed until Hardie Grant release further details later in the year. For now, I'm very happy to leave it in their capable hands, and move onto another terrifyingly ambitious book for Rizzoli New York, which is all about gardens: a refreshing shift from the Edwardian era and all its glamorous spirits and mysteries!

AND A FEW MORE BOOKISH THINGS...

In between all these books, I've been taking the time to remember old books. Old stories. Old memories. This is because my mother is moving out of her large house in the country to a smaller place and our family has been helping her move.  I was coping surprisingly fine with it all until I saw Mum and Dad's study, which is being emptied of all their books. It's funny how things like that can make you sentimental, isn't it?  We may cull our libraries but the nostalgia for the stories we've read in them will always remain. So here, on the eve of Deborah, the Duchess of Devonshire's great estate sale at Sotheby's London (Oh, for all her garden books! I'm going to attempt to put in a few pathetically low bids...), are a few more bookish things to entertain you.

PS I'll be back to Instagram soon! It's been a big few months.

A GRAND LIBRARY RESIDENCE TO RENT IN PARIS

One Fine Stay, the international accommodation agency that's much like an upmarket Airbnb, has released a coolly elegant new residence to rent in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris. 

Its key features are not its French doors and its Instagram-worthy vistas over grey Parisian rooftops, but its grand, Neoclassical library and its all-white salon, both pictured above. Beautiful, non? And large enough for the whole family to be happy.

More details are this grand Parisian library apartment at on One Fine Stay's website at www.onefinestay.com 

Or here -- LINK

A WRITER'S GARDEN

I love the writings of author and garden columnist Anna Pavord, who received worldwide acclaim for her bestelling book The Tulip, but who had been penning moving and memorable pieces long before then. 

There is a gorgeous video on her garden, which gives her so much literary inspiration, on the link below. There are some other lovely videos on the same site, too, including the Duchess of Devonshire's garden at Chatsworth—all worth a look. 

LINK HERE

WRITERS' ROOMS

There was a joyful piece in the New York Times recently about the rooms in which authors work, including the beguiling study of bestselling author Jeanette Winterson. I love the enormous, light-filled artist's studio above. What an inspirational place to work.

 LINK HERE

LIBRARIES THAT FORM THE CORNERSTONE OF BUILDINGS

We've recently purchased an off-the-plan apartment in a quietly sophisticated new project called OPERA, which is located on St Kilda Road, a leafy boulevard in Melbourne. We're not yet moving from our semi-suburban life in the greenbelt area on the edge of the city, where we can ride our bikes in the countryside and be close to my mother, who will need us in years to come, but I am certainly excited about the idea of having a city pied-à-terre again! What most attracted us about OPERA was the enormous Library downstairs. That, I think, was even more appealing that the residents' Wine Room, the Winter Lounge (above), the garden terraces, the restaurant, the pool and gym, and the glamorous navy-and-marble interiors of the apartments.

I'm just hoping they fill the library with good titles. Wouldn't it be a cosy place to entertain clients or friends?

THE BOOKSHELVES OF A BESTSELLING AUTHOR

Do you read The Style Saloniste? It's a great blog written by former Vogue Living features writer-turned-author Diane Dorrans Saeks,  who now lives in the US where she's written many bestselling design and architecture books.  LINK HERE  One of her recent posts was on her extensive library, which has some of the most interesting design titles I've ever seen. (I was touched to spot a few familiar books among them.) She often does posts on her enormous library and always gives recs for great books. Some of her favorites are from publisher Persephone, which discovers old novels and re-releases them. If you haven't yet discovered Persephone, do look at their website: the titles alone make for humorous reading.

www.thestylesaloniste.com OR LINK HERE 

A FASHION TAKE ON LIBRARIES

I love how Net-a-Porter's magazine The Edit recently chose a library in which to do a fashion shoot with actress Dakota Johnson.  The backdrops were as charming as the clothes. 

LINK

A LIBRARY SUITE TO LINGER IN

My long-suffering partner is joining me in Europe this May, while I'm there to shoot gardens (we're also trying to plan stopovers enroute; all very complicated for this travel organizer!), and I'm trying to get him to agree to one night in this splendid place: the Library Suite of Blakes Hotel in South Kensington. 

Few people know that this exists; even the celebrities who check into Blakes don't opt for this room. It's a real secret in London; an enormous hideaway decorated with shelves and shelves of books. 

Now Blakes Hotel has lots of design and architecture books scattered around its foyer and rooms anyway, but I can't imagine anything nicer than actually sleeping in a library. 

I've always loved Anouska Hempel's interior design work, particularly the British Colonial antiques and other Asian elements she incorporates from the Far East. It reminds me of the romance of travel. And how often can you say that about modern hotels?

LINK HERE

AND THE DECAYING GRANDUER OF A LONG-FORGOTTEN LIBRARY

There was a lot of media late last year about this extraordinary place, which hides a grand but decaying library. It's called Berkyn Manor and it's the former home of poet John Milton who wrote Paradise Lost. 

The once-elegant mansion has been empty for three decades -- the last inhabitant died 26 years ago at the age of 96 -- but the rooms are still filled, rather eerily, with furniture, and the library is full of books. As photographer Josephine Pugh described it: “The house was so full of personal effects that it had an eerie stillness without the owners being there. Nowhere was this more evident than in the large, first floor room which housed an untold number of pictures and objects."

Apparently there are plans to restore the mansion and perhaps develop it as a residential estate, but let's hope the books are saved before all the looters get in and run off with the first editions... (NB There is now security around the premise, but many fear it's too little,  and has come too late.)

Let's just hope somebody saves those gorgeous, gorgeous book cabinets.

LINK HERE

How to Add Personality To a White Kitchen

Many of us want (or have) all white kitchens. It’s certainly the trend of the decade, and for good reason – it feels big, open, and easy to manage. The more color, pattern, and style contrast that you bring in to any space, the busier it feels. Kitchens already get really busy with people and sometimes those people actually “cook” with “ingredients” and produce “meals.” Doing such a thing can REALLY make a kitchen messy, and therefore even busier. So yea, I understand starting out white. But if you have a white kitchen and you want more style for either a special occasion, or just to look pretty on an everyday basis, we came up with some tips to help.

1. Bring in color –  It’s not a groundbreaking tip, but adding 1 – 2 colors won’t make it feel busy and will instead help it start to come alive. We brought this in via the pots/pans, fruit, and cookbooks. It’s curated, but doable if you want the lived in look that has restraint.

2. Add fruit/flowers – No need to set up a whole tablescape on your island, just buy or pick some seasonal fruit (leaves on preferably) and put them in, say, a 19th century dough bowl. If you have misplaced said bowl a simple, pretty, low-profiled bowl will do (but will not grant you admission into the lifestyle mafia like a $400 dough bowl will).

3. Display the utilitarian – Bring out your prettiest oils, salts and spices. Hang your prettiest pots and pans. You don’t go to Whole Foods for your health – you may as well leave that $29 salt out on display.

4. Kitchens deserve art, too. The kitchen gets neglected when it comes to art, with nary a wall space in sight. But there are places to bring it in – the counter and even inside the cabinets, if it’s small (behind a collection of clear glasses is a fun/unexpected place to put it).

For a photo don’t forget to give it the “someone beautiful was just here” look by splaying open a cook book with a lovely tea towel strewn just so.

If you hadn’t seen the before, I don’t think you’d realize how much you can actually do to your kitchen to add life. The kitchen was stunning before, and now it’s stunning AND it looks like a place I actually want to be in.

Craving some more styling GIFS? Check out: Styling the Perfect Window Shot, How to Style Your Bookcase, 1 Mantel 3 Ways.

For more about the book, behind the scenes, and a few more peeks inside the pages look here: Book Title And Cover Options | The Real Book Cover | Behind The Book – Styling The Perfect Shot |Styled On Shelves Now

*** Photos by David Tsay for Styled

 

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