Come to Mama

Mother's Day is once again upon is, and being a mother to two young girls myself, it's always a time for reflection. All I want this year for Mother's Day is to be surrounded by my lovely daughters laughing, playing, and just enjoying one another's company.

KIDDING!

Here's what I really want:

Mommy loves you, Piper and Romy, but nothing can come between a woman and her love for vintage glass lighting.

I often see to-die-for lamps from Swank Lighting used throughout projects from favorite designers like Tobi Fairley, but I haven't yet had the opportunity (read: budget) to place any of their pieces in a project. I certainly hope to remedy that, because these lamps are gorgeous enough to make an entire room.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there who keep the world turning, hopefully with more grace and composure than this mom manages. Treat yourself to something swanky!

Dog Gone It (or, How Oly Saved Two Dogs' Lives)

I often think that interior design is 20% creative, inspiring work and 80% problem-solving and trouble-shooting....everything from tracking back-ordered products to securing missing components to replacing damaged goods to figuring out how to handle a drunk contractor -- but that's a story for another day.

Earlier in the week I received a forlorn e-mail from a client who had just taken receipt of a few fabulous, not inexpensive case goods from Oly Studio. My first instinct when I read the words, "I'm so sorry to bother you but..." is to brace myself for what will follow, but what I read surpassed even my wildest expectations. Here's an excerpt:

"This may or may not be a first for you in client dealings, but here goes: I was hoping that when I woke up this morning, it was a nightmare of some sort, but one look at our dining room at 6:15 am reminded me that it wasn't! Our dogs (1 big and 1 small) slept out of their crates last night for one of the seldom nights that we let them. They are so well behaved and easy going that leaving them roam and sleep where they choose has never presented a problem in the past. So, when I woke up at 1:15 am to a funny noise I assumed it was them fighting over a piece of stray bone or dog toy. To my incredible dismay!!!!....they had been gnawing on the leg of the brand new dining room table. Maybe they mistook the claw feet as real?! I don't know but they normally aren't chewers. I almost started to cry."

I almost started to cry myself, reading this, as she had just taken delivery of the table only a day or two earlier, after waiting several months to receive it, and it was not an inexpensive purchase.

Here's what it looked like when she received it:

And here's what the legs looked like after man's best friends had their way with them:

The horror!

I immediately contacted Oly, who were not immediately optimistic about remedying the situation, being that their pieces are all handmade and not assembled from components. However, to my delight, I received a call from their wonderful claims manager, Tammy (yea, Tammy!) letting me know that in an amazing coincidence, they had just received another Oscar dining table with a damaged TOP -- the legs of which can be refinished to match our black top, and they are providing it to my client AT NO COST!

We all hear so many stories of horrific customer service that I simply had to share this tale of heroic effort from Oly. Readers, please visit Oly and buy, buy, buy! Of course I am happy to help with the "buy" component. ;-)

Thank you, Oly, for thrilling my client and allowing two dogs to live another day. I'm betting they will be doing some serious crate time going forward.

Design Ramblings

Whew! Craziness abounds here between project deadlines, ill children, and wrapping up the final loose ends for the impending store re-d0. BUT, in an attempt to avoid addressing the mountain of paperwork next to me, I thought I'd share a few fleeting design-related thoughts on this dreary mid-week day.

First, did you hear the news? Stephen Drucker (aka my personal BFF, as discussed here) is leaving the helm of House Beautiful, where he has worked wonders over the last few years, to head up sister Hearst publication Town & Country. Sad for HB (although it will now be under the capable leadership of current Creative Director Newell Turner, so potentially few stylistic changes forthcoming -- a good thing in my world) but excited for Town & Country, heretofore mostly an eye-candy-filled snooze-fest on the interiors front; I expect great things from Master Drucker, based on prior results.

Even more surprising? Domino (cue sound of angels singing) founding editor Dara Caponigro is taking the reigns at Veranda! Now *that* is going to be interesting. How long before we spot our first lacquered Parsons table or vintage Moroccan rug inside a Veranda issue? Shall we start a pool?

Thanks to Jackie Blue Home for breaking the news to me this morning.

Second, I have set a minor life goal for myself today: to evaluate the new listings on 1stDibs without having to sort by lowest to greatest price. Who out there knows what I'm talking about?

Take a look at one of today's beauties. You shall be mine. Oh, yes. You shall be mine.

Third, reminded again this morning of the insane beauty that is Jonathan Adler's Bond Collection. Did you know you can purchase these pieces--or any of our beloved Adler items--through us?

I drool a little every time I look at this.

Now back to my stack of accounting...or perhaps I should reorganize my fabric library. That sounds MUCH more important. As you were.

Pillow Talk

Sometimes in life, we receive necessary messages from the universe in the most unusual of places. For me, the latest message came in the form of a pillow -- more specifically, the above pillow, referenced yesterday by one of my favorite blogs, Style Court.

Breezing through the post, of course the lovely embroidered pillow from Anthropologie caught my eye--I've developed a sort of thing for parrots lately, and have a long-standing weakness for embroidery--but what really got my attention was the reference to the pillow's designer, Shelley Hesse.

Shelley is a fabulous New Orleans artist, but more significantly for me, also an old friend and former roommate from my college days at the University of Georgia -- one of a group of girlfriends from all parts of the South except Georgia, where almost everyone else there seemed to hail from....maybe that's what brought us all together, but I'd like to think it was more than that.

The last time I spoke to Shelley was also the last time I saw her, and the last time I saw any of my old college friends: more than five years ago, at the Palm Beach home of one of the girls in our group. Over a wonderful sunny weekend we ate, drank, lounged on the beach, and gossiped about the old days as well as the new. Carrie, our hostess, was the first of us to get pregnant, and we threw her an impromptu baby shower at which we forced her to parade around, belly on full display, in the decidedly un-maternity-like lingerie we had given her to mark the occasion.

Since then, two of the girls have gotten married, four have had children, and at least one more is recently engaged. I've managed to stay in touch with a few of them courtesy of Facebook, but others (including Shelley) I haven't connected with since that weekend years ago.

Just as the recent sudden death of a cherished friend from my youth reminded me of how much I continue to love and value the connections I formed as a child and teenager, so did seeing Shelley's pillow remind me of how much I miss the connections I formed afterwards, as a college student trying to find my place in the world.

Between work, family, and all the responsibilities in between, I seem to get so caught up in the daily demands of life that I tend to forget to make time for the people who have helped make my life what it has been. So thank you, Style Court, for inspiring me to reconnect with Shelley and some of my other old friends. (Polly and Dana, you two are next!)

Check out some of the other lovely pieces from Shelley's collaboration with Anthropologie:

This is actually my favorite of the pillow offerings -- I love the contrast of the colorful embroidery against the black background.

I love the Lobster rug almost as much as I would if it came with a cup of melted butter on the side. If only real lobsters were so colorful, I might not have the heart to eat them. Oh, who am I kdding? Of course I would.

I love the idea of these dessert plates as a summertime hostess gift.

The collection even delves into bedding, which begs for a closer look. Beach house, anyone?

A peek at some of Shelley's artwork shows the inspiration behind the collection:

Green Parrot

22" x 30"

Large Shell Study

27-1/2" x 39-1/2"

Unsurprisingly, my own favorites of Shelley's work are her interiors:

Green Room

40" x 60"

(The fact that this is already sold causes me physical pain. Love. Love. Love.)

French Desk

40" x 60"

I've been a fan of Shelley's work for years, and I couldn't be happier that masses of Anthropologie shoppers will be joining me in the club.

Now if you'll excuse me, there is a fabulous parrot pillow waiting to meet its new mommy.

My Imaginary Client

At the risk of you thinking me even nuttier than ever, I have a tiny secret to reveal: in between working on real projects (or usually, in the middle of), I like to create imaginary clients and assemble fabric schemes for them. Sometimes I go even farther and add in furniture, other materials....though I usually stop short of giving my imaginary clients names. (That counts for something, right? Notice I said usually.)

When creating schemes for actual clients, I often stumble across fabrics that aren't quite right for the project at hand, but I'll realize they would be perfect with that (insert name of wonderful fabric here) I've been dying to use. Thus the imaginary client is born. After cobbling together the ideal scheme, I make a mental note of everything and await the appearance of an actual client it might be perfect for.

Won't you say hello to my current imaginary client? She's a girl of around 8 -- she likes pink but is not one of those "princess pink" types, so we're balancing things out with some navy.

This guy from Kravet is the star of the show...

...but I have since developed a small obsession with his friend from Andrew Martin:

Also represented are my old faithfuls -- a few indoor/outdoor selections and a pair of favorite patterns from Alan Campbell. My client has such impeccable taste!

I'm also thinking we could work in a few pieces from the shop:

These lamps with some framed vintage Florence Broadhurst wallpaper panels?

Perhaps some additional throw pillows for her dreamy twin canopy beds?

And what young girl's room is complete without a vintage cloisonne vase? Ha.

Clearly I still have navy and white on the brain...just scored a lot of striped Sunbrella yardage on eBay, soon to be a pair of dining chairs. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, my imaginary client is beckoning... She is one fierce taskmaster. Kids today!

In the Bag

Sometimes in life (okay, a LOT of times) it's the little things that bring you the most delight.

Take, for instance, this bag. Trade fabric showrooms all use promotional bags to send their clients out the door with, and some of them are more creative than others in their designs. One of my favorite fabric lines, Schumacher, also produces some of the best bags around, using their fabric patterns as design features.

When I saw my friends at the Schumacher showroom displaying their latest issue around the floor, my heart skipped a beat. And then I looked inside the bag:

Ah, heaven. I absolutely love the pairing of the scenic Asian print with the crisp geometric. Pattern perfection. And to cap it off, they threw in a coordinating braid handle.

Am I total nerd or what? (Don't answer that.)

Fabrics shown are Schumacher's "Nanjing" in Porcelain (Asian scene) and "St. Tropez" in Navy (an indoor/outdoor fabric, I might add, that would be perfect dining room chair cushions or pillows on the patio).

Come see us for some fabric -- or a bag (we got a few) -- of your own.

Lucite for the Masses

We've previously discussed the lusciousness that is Lucite, and I've long kept a running tally of how much it will set me back to bedeck each and every one of my kitchen cabinets with my favorite of the high-end Lucite pulls I've researched over the last year or so.

Enter Atlas Housewares.

These perfectly lovely clear acrylic pulls are a fraction of the cost of others I've been dreaming of, with the same high-end glam look.

I just snapped up a handful of the 6"-long versions to update a mid-century dresser: George Nelson meets Liberace. (Sadly, it's going to take a big design project to cover all-new kitchen hardware.)

And through March 31, you can save 10% on the entire collection by entering "MARCHSPA" at checkout.

Let the Lucite love commence.