Pixelation

Images: 1) Daily Inspiration. 2) New Museum. 3) Keltainen Talo Rannalla. 4) Mitsubai. 5) Tattoo Designs. 6) Parade. 7) Just Interior Design. 8) Imagination for Breakfast.                   

Back to Black

I've long been a fan of black-painted rooms but kitchens with strong black elements are a newly acquired taste for me. Even the most rustic versions have a sophistication that I find hard to resist. They're kitchens where I can imagine cooking a big Saturday breakfast. But just as enticing is the thought of tiptoeing into them after midnight for a spontaneous snack. I also love the idea of strong masculine elements in a room that is often viewed as a female domain. Anything that breaks the rules gets my attention.

Images: 1) Apartment Therapy. 2) Stil Inspiration. 3) Inside Inside. 4) Keltainen talo rannalla. 5) Country Living. 6) Residence Style. 7) Architectural Digest.

Pajama Day

The weekend is upon us and I have a pajama day on my mind. In my case, that tends to mean staying indoors. But as New York Fashion Week Spring 2016 proved, pj's are as street ready as ever. The focus was on silk pipe-edged men's pajamas and beautifully tailored kimonos. For evening wear, a matching pajama set with select jewelry speaks to elegance that hasn't been over-worked. During the day a pajama top or short kimono with jeans strikes the perfect high/low note. These images inspire me to carry the pajama day vibe past my own four walls.

Images: 1) Vogue. 2) The Zoe Report. 3) WWD. 4) Bloglovin'. 5 & 6) Harper's Bazaar. 7) The Pursuit Aesthetic. 8) Glamour Magazine. 9) Honestly WTF.

Paint Effects

I previously wrote a post about half-painted walls here but I've been loving how the trend has been modified by creating interesting edges. Most appealing to me is the idea of rough edges. Besides looking great, it takes far less time and effort because tape is no longer required to achieve perfect lines. Using two or three paint colors in a ragged ombre pattern could take the effect to the next level. I love a weekend project that doesn't monopolize the whole weekend. Scalloped and zigzag edges are other options. When a lease doesn't allow for painting walls, there's nothing to stop you from adopting the effect on art frames, furniture and other objects.

Images: 1) Decouvrir Design. 2) Brit + Co. 3) Homedit. 4) Apartment Therapy. 5) Netta // Natalias. 6) Not a Paper House. 7) At Home in Love. 8) Refinery 29.

Artist: Dorothea Lange

I recently discovered how much great viewing there is on PBS online and was intrigued to watch a documentary on Dorothea Lange directed by her granddaughter Dyanna Taylor. Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning shows footage of Lange from 1962-66, combing through her vast photographic archive to choose images for an exhibit at MoMA. Her assessments of her own work are interspersed with the back story of a childhood bout with polio which left her with a limp, her two marriages and her struggle to balance art with motherhood. The photographs she took during the 1930s of the migrant farmers and their families fleeing the dust bowl states for the west coast (and finding that there wasn't work or shelter for them there) came to represent the Great Depression and eventually helped galvanize the public and the government to provide aid. As she traveled the country, often with second husband Paul Taylor (an economist and social scientist), she would introduce herself to her subjects and let them know what she was doing so that they were willing to be photographed. The result was a stark realism that still holds up 80 years later. Most sobering for me, was Lange's description of a series of photos she took of middle class women's mended stockings as they sat waiting to be given a bag of groceries to take home (a surreptitious bread line for women of a certain social standing). Their silk stockings were scarred with thin snags that had been meticulously darned, yet that looked worse for the mending. No self-respecting woman would have left the house in such a state unless those were the only stockings she owned and she didn't have the means to replace them. It's these small details that tell the story of such a difficult time and that remind us not just to look at what is in front of us, but to really see it.

                                   

Images: Dorothea Lange via Shorpy and Indulgy.

Old + New

My appreciation for vintage decor is long established: I discovered after college that flea market finds satisfied both my limited budget and my desire for originality, and later took my passion to the next level when I owned a vintage furniture and home goods store in Philadelphia (RevivalSmith). Having worked as a visual merchandiser for ABC Carpet & Home for almost 2 years, I've now come to see the beauty in sleek modernity. The most interesting spaces to me are those that combine disparate styles that shouldn't be compatible in a way that enhances the qualities of each. In the bedroom above by PROjECT Interiors, the weathered doors behind the bed keep the modern furnishings from feeling cold and serious. I've always had a penchant for the underdog so when an expensive space is inclusive of distressed salvage, it feels like a win. When I renovated a rowhome in Philadelphia a few years ago (featured in this post), an old barn door was the first addition to my living room. In my home there will always be room for the decorating equivalent of the velveteen rabbit.     

     

Images: 1) Home Adore. 2) Apartment Therapy. 3) Nicety. 4) Blog 'n' Blogs. 5) We Heart. 6) Architectural Digest. 7) Indecora.                                   

Picnic Season

Images: 1) Gloss! 2) Party Picnic. 3) 100 Layer Cake. 4) Sunset. 5) Houzz. 6) Heart Handmade UK. 7) Bicyclette Boutique.