Design Public

To continue the previous post, I found a few more examples of indigo and lime, including this Tricia Guild table arrangement from her book Flower Sense…

…and fashions from Aprils issue of Bazaar…

I was perusing the photos I’d marked as “faves” in flickr last night and came across this one from flickr member patia.  The color combination was fresh and at once familiar, so I started to flip through all of my sticky note-laden magazines to find more examples of deep indigo blue and bright lime green.  I thought I’d share them with you:

from House Beautiful (I love the unexpectected use of indigo grasscloth in a few of these):

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As far as trend-prediction goes, I pretty much suck, but here’s a stab at it. I saw this article in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution last week and chuckled. Apparently, Petra the swan has fallen in love with a swan boat. After I read it I felt like I’d seen a lot of swans recently. Someone mentioned Make Way for Ducklings in the comments section a few weeks ago, which made me think of the swan boats in Boston. Another blogger (was it Sally? I can’t remember!) had the Marc Jacobs swan featured a few months back, and I remember swiping the picture. Now I can’t find it, of course, but just as well since I can’t remember to whom it belonged.

You know, let’s back up a little bit for some swan history. Bjork was always way ahead of her time. I’m thinking that her swan dress might fare better this season. I always thought it was totally cool and totally Bjork to wear that to the Oscars, but maybe I was biased because I always loved The Sugarcubes too much (I mean, I still call Katie Terris on her birthday and sing “Today is a birthday-ay-ay - they’re smoking cigars…” 20 years later, that is, when I remember her birthday). Anyway, the swan dress (see below) was a hell of a lot more interesting in whatever heinous confection Hilary Swank comes up with for the Oscars each year.

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I shared the nature study aesthetic with you a few weeks ago, inspired by Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Since then, I’ve found a few more inspiring images that also fit the look. It’s amazing the range of looks this idea can inspire. Here are some that tickled my fancy:

From Amy Sedaris’ wacky Village pad, just one vignette of her collections:

from InStyle Home:

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As some of you know, I lived in Charlottesville Virginia for eleven years. Every time someone came to visit, we went to Monticello. Then when I went to graduate school for landscape architecture there, it seemed like I was either walking what was then the future site of my Roads teacher Will Reilly’s walkway up to Monticello or doing a historic preservation class and studying Mulberry Row, or exploring the roundabouts starting way below at his father-in-law’s estate property. Once my friend Chad even got me access to the Dome Room. I think I could give the Monticello tour with my eyes closed.

Last night I went to bed thinking a lot about old T.J. and how he had his foyer arranged. Is my life racy or what??? Anyway, it was meant to be a museum, full of artifacts from the territory in the Louisiana Purchase, maps, Natural History and American History. This is how one hangs antlers Louis-and-Clark-style,* under the auspices of a Natural History Museum:

Don’t you feel like designers today are still emulating this composition? It’s so interesting! Maybe this will bring real antlers back in, who knows.

I just received my copy of Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern (yes, I wait until books get a little cheaper sometimes, thus I’m a bit behind). I loved the way Amy and her husband David have created what they call “the nature study.” Amy describes it as “a kinetic environment where we can study and display our finds. We really have a ‘catch and release’ program with rocks, leaves, shells, plants, and branches. In order to keep it from cluttering up, we’ll study a piece for a while, and then take it back outside.” I love it! It’s so Jeffersonian! This idea also translates well for families with kids - what better idea than to provide them with their own mini-musuem.** Check out Amy and David’s Nature Study:

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I love it when I get good information from the comments y’all leave me.  Yesterday’s was a goldmine.  First, Nicole from Making It Lovely (one of my favorite blogs) let me know about eBay seller U-Turn Vintage Wallpaper.  Thanks Nicole, and congratulations on your one-year blog anniversery!  This cuts out a lot of sorting through the horrid ’80’s wallpaper (the kind that scared me away from wallpaper for the last decade or so) when doing an eBay search.   The selection they have in their eBay store includes the following:

The other comment came from Melissa.  Of course I clicked on her URL as I always do when reading comments, and I came across her blog, The Inspired Room, where I found a few kitchen pictures that are T.D.F.: (more…)

Briefly, I just wanted to go over just a few of the design styles and designers who had a great influence the past year. We love to track trends and trendsetters, and this group of both kept coming up over and over again whenever I was trying to post. Yes, we are leaving out a ridiculous number of hits and hitmakers, but hey, I want to get this out before 2008, so this is it. As I started to try and name trends and think of style names, I realized that it seems like we are almost running out of catchy combinations to characterize design. As a matter of fact…I’m back in love with The New York Times again, just a week after they annoyed me. Julie Scelfo’s article last week called “Marketing Decor for a Conflicted Era” really nails everything that’s going on in design, by simply discussing the problem of trying to find nomenclature for styles that are designed to defy tradition. Scelfo asks the question of “how to stand out when rebellion has become the rule?”

How indeed. This year was ruled by eclecticism. When everyone is eclectic, is it still eclectic? Or does that make the thing that used to be banal and traditional the new eclectic, since it stands out in a quirky way from all of the formerly quirky eclectic stuff. It’s kind of like going to the bike messenger bar 97 Estoria, where every girl there has the same shade of fakey maroonish-auburn hair I have personally dubbed “alternachick red.” Is it alternative if everyone you know has the same color? Have we overused different adjectives put together with “classicism” or “traditional” or “modern” so much that it’s been done to death? (more…)

Sorry for the lack of posts this week.  I’ve been completely jet lagged after the 12 hours on the plane home from Prague and my brain has been a few sandwiches short of a picnic this week.   I know we’ve all seen the Vitra Panton chairs in all kinds of settings, from Elle Decor to The Real World: Austin house, but I spied my favorite context for them yet - Old Town Square in Prague.  Thought I’d share:

When I think of flying, I think of making sure I have socks on to get through security planter’s wart free, being wedged between two large men who hog the armrests and most of my personal space, crappy peanuts and cranky flight attendants who should have retired at least fifteen years ago.  However, it seems that my hometown airline is trying to change these perceptions.  Delta has opened the temporary Delta 360 lounge in NYC through November.  Included in the lounge are the new flat-reclining seats that will be coming to Business Elite soon, OnDemand HBO shows, free coffee and Coca-Cola products, cocktails created by Randy Gerber, a menu created by chef Todd English and free wi-fi.  This seems like a pretty clever marketing move, designed to suck in those coveted few patrons who actually (more…)

“They’re gonna give Daddy the Rain Man Suite” declared that the suite given to Ray Babbit in “Rain Man” in Vegas was the be-all, end-all of Vegas luxury and started a crazy game of one-upmanship with Vegas suites.  Remember when the name Maloof did not ring a bell? While watching a ridiculous reality show I am totally addicted to last night (OK, it’s “The Hills,” I can’t help it! That Spencer is such a tool!), I was thinking about how overexposed The Palms hotel is, and how sick I am of hearing the name George Maloof. That hotel has whored itself out to every reality TV show out there (not even “Sunset Tan” is too lowbrow for this joint), ever since it hosted those crazy kids on “The Real World.” For awhile, “The Real World Suite” became the most popular $5K a night suite around.

After watching The Palms for a bit, I flipped over to HBO and caught a bit of the movie (more…)