But watch your back, Seymour…

I love this chandelier. Yet am slightly afraid of it. Originally unveiled as part of designer Tony Duquette's one-man exhibition at the LA County Museum of Art in 1952 and then hung above the dining table in a private residence in Bel Air, it has been reproduced by Baker in exacting detail. Timeless artistic antique? Or Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors? Discuss.

Hold the phone, Domino may be calling

That’s right fellow shelter mag junkies, I said Domino. The word in ad-land is that Conde Nast has a soon-to-be-released Gourmet app –- that may be followed by a Domino version.

The Gourmet app launches in November, and while it will include selections from Gourmet’s treasure-trove of classic food editorial, it will be a social experience “that will involve earning points, spending virtual currency and sharing recipes.” According to Ad Age, Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend said other shelved brands that failed as print publications during the recession could be brought back in different forms, such as the beloved shelter title Domino, "one of those brands we know has real legs."

I can see the attraction of a recipe and grocery-list app for a smartphone (I already have 3 for my iPhone). But when it comes to a potential Domino version, two things worry me: the impact of good decor photos will be completely lost on the small screen of a smartphone*, and the prospect of user-generated decor photos + virtual currency + social experience makes me think of Farmville decorated by Apartment Therapy. And that can’t be good.

That’s not to say I wouldn’t be one of the first to download once it becomes available, however. ;-)
*hmmm, would look great on an iPad…

Teeny, tiny, terrific

My friends Laura & Anna's teeny-tiny (380 sq ft!!) Boston digs survived the Sweet Sixteen bracket in Apartment Therapy's SmallCool Contest. Please vote and help get them into the Final Four (Yes, basketball fans, I am using NCAA Finals terminology. This is *exactly* like March Madness. Except it is May. And about home design instead of basketball. In a space that is 1/12th the size of a regulation NCAA court. Etc.)

Sex in the City, Quiet in the Country

No, we're not talking about me here (I'll never kiss & tell), but Sex & The City author Candace Bushnell, a Glastonbury, CT native whose country home in tony Roxbury, CT is featured in the Home section of today's Hartford Courant. One of my non-Resolution resolutions is to purge everything from my home office and start over with a nice clean slate, kind of like her desk here:

{photo by Cloe Poisson, click here for more photos of CB's surprisingly country colonial.}

Below is a pic from her NYC apartment, which was featured in Elle Decor a few years ago, one of the few issues I kept because I really like her style and use of color, but with white walls in most of the apartment.

{"Candace Bushnell, Elle Decor", originally uploaded by Jessica Condatore}

I really like the color of my living and dining rooms, but since my apartment faces north, every winter I get the urge to lighten and brighten with some paint. Luckily for the BF, who has volunteered to help me paint, my Gemini nature has issues with choosing a color, so we'll stick with Behr's Caribbean Coral for now.

PS - thank you for all the well wishes with my lousy sinuses over the holidays. I'm all better now!

Don't sit. Don't sit. Don't sit so close to me.

{photo by Steve Lakatos in the Hartford Courant}

This photo was on the front of the real estate section of Friday's paper. It's a model home, which means it was staged, which means you'd think someone would know better.

Bon appetit!

{The renovated kitchen in Julia Child's former Cambridge MA home. Photos from Premier Properties of Boston}

{Julia's kitchen back in the day, now on display at the Smithsonian. Julia had the counters custom designed at a height comfortable for a 6'2" woman to cook at. On the right is one of two pegboards designed by her husband to hang all her pots, pans and molds. Photo from the Smithsonian via current.org}

The late, great Julia Child donated her famous Cambridge kitchen to the Smithsonian, so it stands to reason that the house it came out of would need a slight remodel. Now that the house is for sale, the world can peek into the rooms that never made it on camera in the 40+ years that she lived in and filmed her Boston-based public television cooking show.

The original kitchen has a homey look that contributed to the success of her show, which focused on the approachable aspects of gourmet cooking. But I think she would have appreciated the bright airiness of the new kitchen, especially as it features Miele, Sub-Zero and Kuppersbusch Okotherm appliances, as well as a big marble-topped island perfect for rolling out pastry dough. As it should, for $4.35 million, no?

I love my DVR, and Sarah Richardson

I have been battling The Mother of All Colds since Tuesday night, hence the lack of posts. Between fits of coughing and being in a coma sleeping, I have been learning how to program my new DVR (yes, I am late to the game). Now that I have this newfangled toy, I can catch all the design shows that I can never remember when they are on, including one of my favorite Canadian designers, Sarah Richardson. I had my own mini-marathon of her yesterday. I love her style, her sass (in the episode with the LR/DR combo (pics below) she kept replaying the tape of the client saying "I defer to you" every time the client disagreed!) and that she is not afraid to show her clients used furniture that can be reupholstered vs the "all new all the time" approach that others have.

{client kitchen before}

{client kitchen after}

{client living/dining room before}

{and after. ALL photos from Fine Living Network site}

I also like that she shows the sometimes tedious and non-glamorous side of the all the details and time that go into a design project. Things like having furniture delivered, taken away, redelivered, etc. so the client can see it in the space. Or waiting around for the client to meet them on the shopping trip, or going to ten different shops to find the right sofa, or finding out that because of one delay, the whole project is on hold until the carpenter is available again. Too many design shows, in an effort to keep up with the pacing and presto-chango that viewers expect after seeing "reality" design shows like While You Were Out, Trading Spaces and the completely unrealistic Extreme Makeover, make it seem like the Magic Decor Fairies come in and do everything overnight.

A-M over at The House that A-M Built, is chronicling the long process of having a house built from the ground up, and the millions of tiny decisions that go along with it. She started on April 1 when they acquired the land. The first hole wasn't dug until May 28. Where are those magic overnight fairies when you need them?

Not your average brown bag

{A b.happy bag in the Leslie pattern}

I'm managing a big event in Chicago in a couple of weeks, and among the schwag are these fantastic, upholstery-grade, 100% cotton, made-in-the-USA grocery (etc.) bags from b.happybags. We ordered three different fabrics (because we couldn't decide on just one) and hopefully there won't be too many fistfights over who gets which pattern. I'm partial to this pattern, since I have a thing for Jacobean prints, and I think the plaid on the side is not as Burberry-ish as it looks in this pic.

b.happybags was started by two Phoenix-area women whose goal in producing these bags "is to appeal to the people that think you have to don your Birkenstocks to make a wise post consumer decision." Plus its way cooler to carry your cat litter in a Pucci-inspired tote.

The last thing I need, however, is another cotton grocery bag. I have been bringing my own bags to the grocery store for about 6 months now, and while I occasionally have need of a paper grocery sack to store the newspapers before recycling, for the most part it has been an easy switch for me. And I actually remember to bring them into the store with me 99% of the time. I keep them all in my trunk in a tote-shaped basket with leather handles that I use for heavier canned goods.

Okay, maybe just one more bag...

Form and function

Me, to neighbor, while digging through cabinet next to stove and moving utilitarian red fire extinguisher out of the way:


"Why are these things so ugly? Why can't they be prettier? Then I wouldn't feel compelled to hide it in the cabinet."

Well, the smart folks at Sweden's FireInvent have come up with a stylish alternative to the ugly red (but necessary) safety tool:

{form AND function. What a novel idea! by FireInvent Design}

Wish I thought of it first....