Spooky Stuff

Halloween, Trancas International Films

In honor of Halloween I thought it would be fun to take a poke around the interiors of some of the classic scary movies.

I, myself, have sworn off scary movies long ago and just pulling these images together I understand why. So Spooky!!!!

The Omen, 20th Century Fox

The Exorcist, Warner Brothers

The Exorcist, Warner Brothers

The Shining, Warner Brothers

The Poltergeist, MGM

Amityville Horror, MGM

Nightmare on Elm Street, New Line

Have a Happy Halloween! Enjoy

Cheers,

BBS

I Have a Crush!

Miles Redd

I have a crush...it runs pretty deep...it has been going on for quite some time....now it might not be the kind of crush that you may be thinking...it is with the man above, but it is not for his dashing good looks...I have a Design Crush on Miles Redd.

Veranda, Miles Redd, Fritz Von Der Schulenburg

When I got home last night after a l...o...n...g day at the office, I was gleeful to find a shiny new issue of Veranda. As if by magic, the magazine flipped open to the page above and I almost burst with happiness. I mean have you seen a more beautiful room????

I apologize for the quality of the images as I scanned them from my actual issue, but Redd may have reached perfection! Those drapes! The zebra ottoman, the mantle, the soft green walls, the fabrics, the scarlet lamp shade. Amazing.

Veranda, Miles Redd, Fritz Von Der Schulenburg

Those canary yellow walls are stunning. I adore the mix of the rug, the red sofa, the patterned draperies, and the animal print pillows. Redd has a daring, unapologetic use of color and pattern that rarely achieves success. He not only reaches it, he blows it away.

Veranda, Miles Redd, Fritz Von Der Schulenburg

My list of favorite items in this room in no particular order: 1. The Christopher Spitzmiller yellow lamps 2. The animal print carpeting 3. The amazing de Gournay wall covering 4. The Oscar bed 5. The Lorin Marsh mirrored chests 6. Oh, wait.....everything in this room is my favorite....

Elle Decor, Miles Redd

I mentioned that my love affair with Miles (I mean we should be on a first name basis already) has been going on for quite some time. I collect images of his work when I see them published in magazines.

Elle Decor, Miles Redd

He has a wonderful use of lacquered walls, patterned floors, and colorful shades.

Miles Redd, Paul Costello-photographer

Really??? Do I even need to say anything about this space?

House Beautiful, Miles Redd

How amazing is the pumpkin colored tufted settee with the deep teal walls and woodwork on the herringbone floor paired with the ikat covered chair????

Veranda, Miles Redd, Fritz Von Der Schulenburg

On a separate note, I would like to congratulate Veranda on the most stunning cover of a design magazine in quite sometime. I love the simplicity of no wording and the gorgeous green walls. Beautiful.

If you do not already subscribe to Veranda, do yourself a favor and pick up the Nov/Dec 2010 issue at the news stand. You will not be disappointed.

Cheers,

BBS

Pink Power

Flowers at entrance of Cyan Design at the High Point Furniture Market

I have been aiming to put together a "Pink Power" post all month in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month so with only a few days left here goes....

I consider my mother a Breast Cancer Survivor as her battle with the disease was sandwiched between her more intense fight with Stage 4 Cervical Cancer that eventually took her life two years ago this month.

a stunning fuchsia settee in a showroom at High Point

When she beat her breast cancer, she and I grabbed on to the title of her being a "Breast Cancer Survivor". We exchanged pink ribbon charms for our matching Tiffany bracelets. She was gifted pink ribbon pins, charms, and jewelry. She even attempted to do the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer walk one year in a wheel chair, but extreme weather forbid it.

I believe she and I rallied around this title, because deep down we knew she would never, ever be a "Cervical Cancer Survivor".

pops of pink in the Wildwood Showroom in High Point

I think of her many times a day, but in the month of October her memory seems to swarm me.

I got to thinking about how we can bring more pink into our lives and not just for October. There are many ways to surround yourself in the "Power of Pink" in your home. It is truly one of my most favorite in a long list of favorite colors. It is a warming, comforting color.

I often specify Benny Moore's Shell Pink 883 for Guest Bedrooms, Baths, and even Master Bedrooms. It is a whisper of pink that looks fantastic with creamy white woodwork and dark hardwood floors.

benjamin moore

My Master Bath is painted Ben Moore's Peony 2079-30. I live in a house built in the 20's, so I have the original classic white and black tile in my bath and it looks great. It is a strong pop of color with all of the white.

benjamin moore

Benjamin Moore's Razzle Dazzle 1348 is a new favorite. Recently my friend Allyson and I selected this color for her walk-in Master Bedroom closet. It is fabulous!!!! Try it. All of her shelving is white and she is going to eventually do a shaggy white carpet for the floors. Everything, I mean everything in her closet looks great with it. Super fun.

benjamin moore

Do you want to do pink, but fear the intensity of a stronger, more fuchsia color??? Try a more salmon based pink like BM 012 Coral Reef. It looks amazing with soft greys and creams.

While "Breast Cancer Awareness" Month ends Sunday, let's surround ourselves in a little "Pink Power" and do our part in beating all cancers.

It doesn't take much. $10.00 here, an hour of volunteering there. Sign up for a charity walk with friends. Do what ever you can and I am confident in our lifetimes we will see a cure!



Cheers,

BBS

All photos are mine. All paint swatches belong to www.benjaminmoore.com

Hair on Hide

An obvious trend at this Fall's High Point Furniture Market was the unusual use of Hair on Hides. We saw it from our very traditional lines to the more modern ones. Designs from Western to European.

Many chairs and sofas were shown with animal hides mixed with different leathers, vinyls, and fabrics.

image from Universal Trading Co.

Almost every showroom we went into was showing hide rugs. They were displayed layered on top of sisal and Oriental rugs. They make a great accent piece in a room under a cocktail table where they can be seen and appreciated.

image from Guy Chaddock

I absolutely love this pony chest with the decorative nailhead. (See post "Hit the Nail on the Head" on nailhead from last week)

image from Harden Furniture

Don't you love how Modern these chairs feel with the black and white??? I think they look clean and fresh.

Worried about too much hide? We saw lots of hide accent pillows for a pop that is easy to change. Don't you just love these faux zebra ones I saw at Hickory White??? They look divine on the apricot linen sofa with stainless nailhead.


Cheers,

BBS

unmarked images were taken by me.

Hit the Nail on the Head

A definite High Point Fall Market trend was nail heads. We saw them used every which way and so creatively. I wish I had thought to start snapping pictures sooner in my trip, but these are some images from just our last day.

The upholstered wall above was in the Swaim showroom (always one of my personal fav stops) as you stepped down into a part of their upholstery division. The wall was upholstered in leather and I love how the nail heads were over-scaled and spaced apart.

I fell in love with this little detail. What a simple and inexpensive way to dress up a chair. Nail heads can usually be added to existing pieces, so consider that before buying new or re-upholstering to give yourself a new look.

This sofa arm is stunning all on its own, but the nail head is the punctuation!

This image is a little dark, but I loved the double row of nail heads on the top of the Campaign style chest.

Similar to the upholstered wall in the beginning, but the diamonds are smaller and the nail heads closer together.

This embossed leather is even more beautiful on doors of this chest accented by the nail heads. Note that they used larger sized nail heads for where the points meet in the pattern than used for the lines. Subtle, but effective.

Another diamond pattern over top of an accent paint color. It is a great way to delineate color changes.

Nail heads were everywhere and come in so many different shapes, sizes, finishes, and textures. It is such a simple way to really change the feel of a piece of furniture whether your a looking at getting something new or updating something you already have.

One of my favorite ways I saw nail heads used at Market was sewn on to pillows. The nail heads had a lot of detail and they were stitched on to accentuate the fabric pattern. So clever. We asked how they were attached and the rep said they simply hammered the posts flat and cut the sharp tips off. Then they used the flattened posts to stitch them to the pillow. Creative!

Do you have any pieces of furniture with unusual nail head? Or have you used nail head creatively in your home?

Cheers,

BBS

All images were taken by me on my blackberry. Please excuse the quality.

Trends, Trends, Trends

I have returned from the High Point Furniture Market recharged, re-inspired, and excited about what I saw on our whirl wind jaunt to North Carolina. I will do many posts from my trip, but I thought it would be fun to do a quick re-cap of the obvious trends I saw.

First of all...French Country is back. It is not the marigold, cornflower blue, and red French Country you may be remembering, but the love of all things french abounds. I heard the term, "European Cottage" which I loved, but the look is full of grey toned, crusty finishes and linen fabrics. We saw the look at all of our major furniture vendors. I snapped the picture above at Gabby Home, who I have blogged about before. We made a nice purchase from them, so we will have product coming in over the next few months in this look.

Everyone, I mean everyone, had a blue and white grouping. Some did it classic like Bernhardt above. Others like Century Furniture paired it with lime and aqua. Cool, crisp, and classic.

Animal prints never go out of fashion in design or clothing, but this market they seemed to have more of a presence. I loved this chair from Chelsea House. It had a cinnabar finish with two different scaled animal prints on velvet. A smaller print on the inside and a larger one on the outside back. Take note of the swirl to the arm of the chair. Perfection.

There is a real nod to the "Ralph Lauren" Thoroughbred look. It seems to be a little cleaner and brighter than Ralph's, but it was everywhere.

Ikat, Ikat, Ikat everywhere. Every color. Every scale. Every way. Love it.

Houndstooth became the fabric of market. We saw it on chairs, sofas, back of chairs, pillows, walls, drapes. We saw it in black, navy, hot pink, red, even multi-colored. We saw it mini all the way to very over scaled. We even saw a dozen or so women wearing houndstooth skirts. It was really all around us.

It was truly hard to pick a "Market Color Scheme" this year. Usually it is very evident, but if I had to pick it would be grey with gold. We saw it at Hickory White (shown above) looking very modern and we saw the combo at Century Furniture in a very traditional nod with a floral chintz and lots of trims.

There is more to come with pictures of what we saw and the fun we had, but now I have to catch up on the stacks of paperwork on my desk. Ahhh, back to reality.

Cheers,

BBS

all images were taken by me on my blackberry, so quality is not the best

Two days down...

image from GoogleImage

Well I have two days in the books at the High Point Furniture Market and I am exhausted. I have seen so many great trends and exciting new items which I will share with all of you, but for now I am too tired.

Until I can blog properly, I thought I would share some great color trends I have seen....

There is purple everywhere. Every shade and matched with every color.

Grey is being paired with golds, browns, and camels. It has a warm and more traditional feel.

Lime and Paprika, Teal with Cinnabar, and bright yellow with linen.

My two fav unexpected color combos were at Century Furniture:

Emerald Green with lime, turquoise, and black. Incredible!

And Canary Yellow with Silver, Bright Teal, and Black.

So much fun the past few days, but I am off to bed. More to see tomorrow.

Cheers,

BBS

Dwell Studio for Robert Allen

image from Robert Allen

I have loved Dwell Studio for quite some time now. Their patterns have a freshness to them. The fabrics have a wonderful nod to the past, but they are cleverly up to date and affordable.

Dwell Studio has partnered with fabric house Robert Allen this fall and I got a chance to see the fabrics in person last week. Impressed! Great patterns, great color combos, and once again, really well priced.

Check out the entire collection at http://www.robertallendesign.com/. It is sold to the trade only, so I would be happy to get you a price if you are interested.

Dwell Studio has a great blog I have followed for a bit called The Studio Blog. You can connect to it through their website http://www.dwellstudio.com/

Enjoy. They have lots of adorable and fun bedding for adults (and kiddies) on their site.

Cheers,

BBS

Why Hire A Designer????

I have been a little consumed this week with work, so I have been a neglectful blogger.

On top of my normal work load, I have been prepping to give a presentation on Friday. Asleigh, another designer at Lee Meier Interiors, and I will be giving a lecture at The Ohio Design Centre on the topic of "Why Hire An Interior Designer When Building or Remodeling Your Home" this Friday, Spet. 10th at noon.

We sort of inherited the topic, so we were tossing around ideas of how to keep our talk light hearted and fun. It is a pretty heavy title, so we decided it would be fun to create a "Client" and we would walk through how we would help said "Client" build her new home. That way we could involve lots of images and details.

Our client's name is Holly.

Holly Golightly, if you must know, and she is leaving her pad in the city and headed to the 'burbs. She has many special quirks we must accommodate like tiara storage and a place for a nameless cat, but we guide her easily through her building process. Come see how Holly's new house turns out....

If you are in the Cleveland area and would like to come see our presentation on Friday, please go to www.ohiodesigncentre.com and click on events or you may call Angela at 216-831-3767 to purchase your $10.00 ticket.

If you are interested in the topic and are not able to make the presentation on Friday, send me a message in the comment section. We will be doing it again in February at the Home and Flower Show at the IX Center. I will also be doing my lecture on Color: Be Not Afraid, so I will keep you posted once I get our dates and times.

Cheers,

BBS

image from Paramount Pictures

Live Like a Rock Star

You often hear the saying, "live like a rock star" and I thought it would be fun to take a peek into what that means in honor of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 15th Anniversary which is this weekend.



I am on the host committee for their big anniversary bash, The Rock Hall Ball, which is being held this Friday, Sept. 3rd, so I am all about Rock and Roll this week.

No photo credit given

What do you think of when you imagine a rock star's home? Crazy colors? Black leather furniture? Zebra carpeting? Naked women everywhere????

Well try to visualize the Material Girl singing away in the pedestal tub above, because this was Madonna's apartment in NYC designed by her brother before their infamous falling out.

interior design: Dilger Gibson photo:Scott Francis

This isn't exactly a "Little Pink House", but it is the home of John Mellencamp and his wife in Indiana. I love that grand window.

Kravitz Design

Now this is what I think of when I think of where a Rock Star lives. This is the epitome of Rock. Because this is the ultimate Rock Star, Lenny Kravitz's New Orleans home that he designed himself. When not writing, singing, touring, or acting, Lenny likes to dabble in interior design. He even started a firm called Kravitz Design.

photo:mhpbooks

Keith Richards fancies himself more of a librarian than a rocker, so this picture is perfect. Not what I imagined for a man who is famous for once joking that he, "snorted his deceased father's ashes", and most everyone took him literally.

interiors:David Dalton, ASID photo:Christopher Dow

You may never guess to whom this stunning home belongs, but it is none other than Meatloaf. I was blown away when I first saw it published in Architectural Digest.

interiors: Alain Mertens photo: Christopher Simon Sykes for Architectural Digest

Any guesses??? "An Englishman in NY"??? This is Sting's abode in England. What an amazing place to rock out and write new songs.

image taken from real estate agents photos on swamplot.com

How about ZZ Top band member Dusty Hill's home in Texas? Pretty subtle and elegant for a long bearded musician with a passion for exotic paint jobs on his cars.

So did these stars live like you thought they would???? Surprised???

image from picoday, no name given

Here is the ultimate house that Rock built. Above is a view from inside the beautiful Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum that was designed by the architect, I.M. Pei.

They party is going to be a blast. I hope to see you there!

If you would like to join me at the party there are still tickets left and it is going to be a fun night. Foxy Shazam, Eli "Paperboy" Reed and DJ Tommie Sunshine are playing and the museum is open for wandering. Go to www.rockhall.com/event/rock-hall-ball/ for more info and to purchase tickets. Use code AMVIP to get a discount off of the $ 65.00 ticket price and come "Rock" with us.

Cheers,

BBS




all images found on google image. Photo credits were given when they were provided.