“A modern Chinoiserie breakfront, a Dunbar Japanese-influenced sofa, silk Dupriani drapes, Murano vases, and a classic Drexel end table.”

-Betty Draper’s Decorator

I find set design so fascinating, especially when they completely nail the surroundings from a certain era. Mad Men takes place during such a transitional time, and it’s so much fun to see different influences showing up in the design. Here Mad Men‘s set designer explains how this breakfront set the tone for the room and everything else followed it. LOVE this bar set…

…and this stereo:

Love what I think is purple grasscloth, the orange trim on the drapes…

The art is getting a bit more abstract. Oh, and I love that Betty doesn’t care a bit about the hearth being the heart of her home…

…so she covers it up with this fainting couch:

The decor is a major part of this show, and I’m so glad that this week’s episode really gave it its due.

all images via amc.com from this video.

Sorry for the delay in inspiration. I’m not sure where my Monday went! Besides a mountain of laundry and a bunch of catch-up phone calls, a good part of it got sucked into AtticMag, the online magazine founded by Jane Freiman. It’s filling a good part of the dominomag.com hole for me. Here are a few images from a whitewashed room post:

AtticMag is also chock-full of yummy recipes, great renovation advice, and marketplace resources.

images via AtticMag.com, I believe via Living etc. if I am reading correctly.

Well, O.K., they aren’t technically on Flickr yet, and I took all of them on my camera phone, so they aren’t exactly going to win any awards, but here’s the deal: My DSL connection here in Maine sucks, WordPress is wigging out, I’ve somehow copied the gallery pictures into the gallery twice, to bring up flickr would take an eon or two, and actually viewing our Fresh New Spaces Group contributions would thus take an eternity, and I don’t even have the software to crop my own foot out of that shot of the rocks at Crescent Beach. There – excuses excuses! However, I thought it would be worthwhile to show you some Maine color as fall is just arriving. The red maples are already on en fuego here, and the goldenrod are just going starting to go by. Sorry for all of the odd spacing in this post, it’s just going to be an imperfect post today – what else is new?!?!?!

Bonus: The Dream House. Honestly, in this setting, all I need is a humble shack, but they sure did do a beautiful job on this home.

Here’s the view from the dream house:

I’m off to get some pancakes from this joint (their burger was named Best in Maine by The Food Network):

I think I truly mourned when G.F. McGregor’s in Rockland Maine closed. You know how you find that very small handful of shops in your life that truly inspire you? They are curated and merchandised to perfection, and you just want to move in? That was how I felt about G.F. McGregor’s, but yesterday, I found a shop to fill the void.

My aunt bought some gorgeous Thomas Paul pillows for our family place in Maine (much to my chagrin, as I could have ordered them at DP), but when I asked her where she’d found them, she sent me to fourTwelve Home in Rockland. Formerly just the clothing and accessories boutique, the shop acquired the space next door and opened up a home store.

Home Goodies to the left, Clothing to the right…hey, there’s my Mom!

This shop combines just the right combination of historical preservation and regency glamor. The original wooden floors are painted light gray with a tiny hint of green/blue in it. The original exposed brick walls are painted white. The ceilings are covered in white tin tiles, and the exposed pipes are painted white. That’s where the the old patina shows through; everything else is shiny and fresh. It is a perfect balance. There are fabulous light fixtures hanging in a line down both halves of the store, there is oversized floral wallpaper in the dressing rooms along with benches, there are gorgeous mirrors and mirrored furniture, there is a large velvet ottoman in the boutique (it looks like it came straight from Nanette Lepore’s closet), and there are little peacocks peeking out at you here and there from the tops of shelves.

Included in the home items were John Derian decoupage, Jonathan Adler vases, Thomas Paul pillows, Bob’s My Uncle sea life plates, emu furniture, funny books, gorgeous soaps and bath items, those cool Caspari long match matchbooks, and a fun array of letterpress cards. It’s a perfect stop for accessorizing one’s own home or for picking up a great gift for just about anyone for any occassion at any price point.

By the way, among all the great articles of clothing they had in there, I kept pulling out the cutest pieces and they were all by Beth Bowley, whom I hadn’t heard of before. It turns out she is the owner, a Parsons grad, and she launched her clothing line in 1998.

Overall, the decor reminded me of the jewelry available in the store. The newer lines are very delicate, and handcrafted from silver and gold. In addition, they have a wide array of vintage pieces that are unique with some hints of funk and a few well-earned signs of age. It’s a new inspiration I know I’ll keep in the back of my mind whenever I am decorating.

Labor Day is over. This is when I start to think about switching up my bedding to cozy up for the winter – I like my room cold with lots of blankets to snuggle up in, and I find it’s the easiest way to switch things up when I get bored. Since I am trying to incorporate being more eco-friendly into my life, I decided go for 100% organic cotton and thus browsed DP’s sustainable bedding section.

The easiest way to keep your bedding different is to keep a neutral duvet cover and shams, and switch out your throw pillows, quilt, and/or blanket. Unison’s Larch print provides such a graphic punch that I’m picturing it changing up my bedding, and then once I get antsy to change things up again up there, throwing it over the back of my sofa to give my living room a new look.