This month’s issue of Ready Made really stood out. I’ve been a fan of the magazine for awhile, but  the April/May issue really takes it to the next level. Ready Made has definitely taken the “k” out of “crafty.” Loved the peak into artist Rex Ray’s 900 square foot home:

Loved the articles about community farms, the “where I live” article about Poncey Highland, Thomas Wold’s wacky found object coat rack, the key challenge’s winning design. Loved it from cover-to-cover!

In semi-Readymade related news, today’s New York Times featured a house I covet in an article titled “When Skateboarders Grow Up.” A Ready Made stylist (perhaps former, I could not find that information), Claire Bigbie, and her boyfriend Jay Shapiro renovated their Noe Valley Victorian beautifully. You MUST check out the slideshow here. Here’s a little teaser:

People who went to RISD sure have the best art and furniture collections. I really need to start hanging out with more people who went to school there!

• Ready Made cover by Scott Little
• Rex Ray’s abode photo by Ken Gutmaker for Ready Made
• Bottom two photos by Timothy Griffith for The New York Times.

Wondering what to do to celebrate Earth Day? Check out the Earth Day Network. Perhaps start by calculating your carbon footprint here. Afterwards, try to think of one seemingly small thing you can do to try and offset it. I know sometimes we all feel green guilt and think that being green means we have to give up toilet paper. Maybe it does, but I’m not going to. In the meantime, do what you can. It’s not hard, it just takes a little time to come up with new routines. Here are a few very easy ways to help – c’mon, I know you know all of these, they are total “duhs,” but are you really following through? Just try one for a month, then add another one the next month, and so on. As a bonus, most of this stuff saves you money. If you are already doing all of these things, keep up the good work:

• Buy Local. Find out when and where local farmer’s markets take place; I promise it’s fun!
• Swear off bottled water.
• Vow to recycle more than just your newspapers and cans (for a guide to what to recycle and where you can recycle it, check out Earth911).
• Replace paper towels and napkins and switch to cloth. You’ll get over feeling like you need to iron the napkins very quickly!
• Unplug your electronics when they are not in use. Make sure the dishwasher and washing machines are full when you run them. If you use a dryer, try to do loads back-to-back.
• Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs. They’ll save you money in the long run, and the quality of light they emit has greatly improved in the last few years. I know at first they were about as flattering as the light in an airplane lavatory, but now they are fine.
• Install a digital thermostat. Pick one up at Home Depot and wait until the heating dude comes for maintenance. He’ll probably do it for you if you can’t figure it out, especially if you duke him a Jackson.
• Think back to what your driving habits were like when gas was $5/gallon. Have you slipped back into your old habits? Pretend it’s $10/gallon and act accordingly.
• Bring reusable bags to the grocery store. If you have them but always forget to bring them, keep them in the car. After you unload the groceries, make sure to throw them back into the trunk.
• Make the no coal call.
• Stop by and read one of the many fabulous environmental blogs. Some of my personal favorites include:

Inhabitat

The Lazy Environmentalist

Ecofabulous

TreeHugger

re-nest

These are just the tip of the iceberg. Do you have a favorite eco-centric blog? If so, please leave it in the comments section!

Grey Gardens is my home. It’s the only place where I feel completely like myself” -Big Edie to Jackie O. in HBO’s Grey Gardens

As I sat in front of my TV trying to take decent pictures (oh well) of HBO’s Grey Gardens on Monday, I was struck the most by the wallpapers. It’s funny; I was looking through images of this year’s Kip’s Bay Showhouse and somehow it seemed like the movie version of the Grey Gardens estate would have made a perfect showhouse. I wonder if they have ever considered using it as a theme (the 1930′s version of the home, obviously!). Back to the wallpapers. I would love to know where the set decorators found them. Check out the girly ribbon and butterfly pattern in Little Edie’s girlhood bedroom:

And this lovely Chinoiserie botanical in Big Edie’s room. I love the way they were not afraid to mix it with a slew of other prints, like the floral drapes and painted furniture:

Finally, my favorite one was in Little Edie’s room at The Barbizon. I could not seem to get a decent shot of this one, at least not one that does it justice, but here’s what I did get:

It’s a green botanical print, with a loose trellis pattern made up of tiny leaves and flowers, with different flowers featured in the middle of the trellis diamond shapes. It’s so sweet, yet still so interesting due to it’s geometry and the way the flowers are rendered. And check out that fabulous needlepoint chair on the right side – I would love to get my hands on that chair for my bedroom!

I have a few non-wallpaper shots I’d like to share as well. This is the foyer, according to Little Edie only a student of architecture could appreciate that carved banister. Those mouldings and the telephone tablescape are the cat’s meow (bad joke, I know). Also, the periwinkle walls are actually papered but it’s hard to see the subtle pattern in this shot:

This was the only shot I could get of that divine dining room. I did spy a set of chairs at my favorite store in Atlanta, Pieces, that are very similar:

Finally, this is the room that screamed “Showhouse!” to me at the highest volume. I mean that in a good way, as the Kip’s Bay Showhouse images always fascinate me. Chartreuse sofa, deep purple and gold fringed ottoman, layers and layers of pieces – phenomenal! This year Bunny Williams has created an Albert Hadley-inspired living room I wish I could see in person. I just flipped through and recycled all my magazines; I wish I could remember which one featured the 2009 house – does anyone know? 

Oh my gosh, P.S.! I just went over to check out Visual Vamp’s Grey Gardens posts and they put mine to shame. They are wonderful and she has fantastic images and great insight. Hop over here to check it all out. Thanks to Mrs. Blandings for the tip-off; Visual Vamp will now be a must-read for me!

I miss Vogue Living magazine. Every now and then, Vogue will throw me a bone with some heart-stoppingly gorgeous interior spread. I was just giving an issue from a few months ago a last flip before it hit the recycling bin, and I had to pause. The home of Michael and Alexandra Misczynski left me in awe. It seems so simple; with its limited palette of neutrals and black. However, the clever use of a variety of textures makes every piece and surface stand out. In spite of this, it is all perfectly balanced. This is not an easy feat my friends. It’s hard to tell on the screen, but the glass in the piece below is exquisite – old and warped. It stands out because of the way they have every element in that room perfectly arranged.

I’ll give you a little teaser of Francois Harland’s gorgeous photos, then link on over and enjoy the entire slideshow yourself.

Photos by Francois Halard for Vogue, as seen on style.com

I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again: If you ever need motivation to clean up your house, go rent the documentary Grey Gardens. If you want to see the HBO take on how it got to be such a mess, watch their version, as it provides that fantastic look to what the house looked like in its prime, and how it came to be covered with cat pee and newspapers a little bit at a time.

Over at HBO.com, they have some anorexic yet quality slides of the set design. They actually re-created the facade of the house in a few weeks:

Then they only had a few days to create the decayed version:

While they did not have a lot to go one, this is the recreated 1930′s version of the living room:

I was surprised to see so much deep purple.There was a wallpaper on The Barbizon set I simply must have and must share with you. I’ll leave you with this teaser while I go take pictures of my television screen and edit them!

One more thing, these set decorators and costume decorators were very meticulous. Remember when Edie would wear a tablecloth as a skirt in the 1970′s? They made sure that tablecloth was out on a table in the part taking place in the 1930′s. Nice.

all photos from HBO.com