Searching For Style

Friday Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:23:00 +0000

These cheery roses just make me smile!

Jane Moore Interiors, Peter Vitale Photography

TG Interiors

Happy Weekend!

Happy Independence Day!

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:59:00 +0000

Happy July 4th!

Here’s a little art, fashion and food inspired by the red, white and blue!

All images via Pinterest.

Friday Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 04:58:00 +0000

How beautiful are these peony arrangements and how fabulous would one of these photographs be blown up and displayed on a wall? You could have peonies year round!

Happy weekend!

{Image via Pinterest}

Classic and Contemporary

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:44:00 +0000

Classic white kitchens don’t always have to be traditional in style…these ones feel like a breath of fresh air when it comes to Kitchen design!

Pinterest

Stil Inspiration

Pinterest

Restful bedrooms

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:18:00 +0000

In theory I think a bedroom should be the prettiest room in a house. A place of refuge, calm and comfort that takes you away from the hurried stress of the day. A place of rest for your mind and beauty for your eyes. Hoping these pictures will inspire you to de-clutter your bedroom just as I am hoping to- I notice none of these spaces have the “charming” piles of laundry and ironing and other things that I let clutter my own bedroom!

Pinterest

Axel Vervoordt, Timeless Interiors

Shannon Bowers

Friday Flowers: Easter Table Inspiration

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:21:00 +0000

Bottles, baskets, burlap and blooms sure do make for pretty arrangements!

Friday Flowers: Heather Purple

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:32:00 +0000

Not normally a purple person, I have seen some of the prettiest shades of lilac and heather purple lately… seems very fresh and pretty for spring!

Certainly a departure from your ordinary grocery store rose colors!

Who would ever think purple curtains in a dining room could ever be so elegant? I love the muted tone of these by Pamela Pierce.

This pop of color makes the room seem so current!

One last shot of a pretty table scape with pretty flowers!

Images from Style Me Pretty, Pinterest, Pamela Pierce, and Inspired Design.

Friday Flowers: Dried Hydrangea

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 00:28:00 +0000

Hydrangeas come in so many colors and always look gorgeous- freshly cut or dried, summer or winter! I love the delicate color and texture of all these dried arrangements…

Pinterest

French Essence

Pinterest

A wreath of dried blossoms woven into a grapevine wreath.

Pinterest

French and fab

Pinterest

Adorning simple baskets, even these brown hydrangea look pretty!

Friday Flowers… Pretty In Pink

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:47:00 +0000

French Essence

Pinterest

Inspired Design

Friday Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:47:00 +0000

Sometimes one blossom is all you need.

Image source here.

Taupe

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:34:00 +0000

From fashion to fabrics to interiors to exteriors, I’m a lover of all shades of taupe. Sounds pretty boring until you take a look at how pretty this color can be…

All Photos via Pinterest.

Friday Flowers… roses and relaxation!

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:46:00 +0000

Desire to Inspire

Looks like the perfect weekend setting in this picture!

Love the blues…

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:31:00 +0000

Always drawn to blue accents, blue bedrooms, and luxurious finishes with a touch of worn blue… all shades from pale powder to deep indigo bordering purple. Most of these pictures are from Pinterest- a wonderful and terribly addictive website!

Pinterest

Perhaps it’s because I’m painting several pieces of furniture right now, but I absolutely love the surprise of color on the inside of this antique desk. It’s it a fantastic surprise and a great way to use a bold color for those who are color-shy?!?

Cavallini

Beautiful Florentine Style frame

Jane Moore Interiors

Worn chippy blue against a neutral background.

Cote de Texas

Love the blue duvet at the foot of the bed.

Pinterest

Another purpley blue antique piece in a neutral room.

Pamela Pierce featured in Veranda Magazine

I love how Pamela Pierce has used a variety of blues in this room without making it too overwhelming or too matchy-matchy. She is so good.

Shannon Bowers via Cote de Texas

Shannon Bowers pretty settee that I just can’t get enough of and have posted repeatedly, not to mention all the other blogs whom have posted it too! Love the color, ruffles, and the pop of hydrangea blue in the background.

Better Homes & Gardens

Fun and fresh way to display linens. Ahhh, to have a linen cabinet this organized!

Pinterest

Another pretty room with light blue, natural wood, and an accent of periwinkle. Love it.

Farrow & Ball

Farrow and Ball’s Powder Blue… a favorite among designers and blue lovers. Heard many enticing things about this on a ceiling…

The Inside Story

Cozy and fresh. Love blue with baskets and natural textures.

Hue-ol-ogy

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Gray. Paris Gray is the top runner for a few of my paint projects… I can’t wait to see this pretty shade in person every day!

Pinterest

More blue and natural linen color together. Such a great combination, isn’t it? A blue chair is so fun. I suggested my sister do this in her living room with this chair:

Pinterest

It isn’t always masculine.

Pinterest

So soothing.

Pinterest

The French truly have the best blues.

Pinterest

Love the fluffy white cushions and the backdrop of French blue. Inviting and elegant normally aren’t words that you hear together but this room does it.

Pinterest

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in a mix of Louis Blue and Paris Gray.

Eyetalia

Gorgeous Italian tablecloth. Saturated color like this is so beautiful.

Pinterest

Blue cabinets have never looked so good have they?!? Love the slight patina on these.

Pinterest

And a last word that a pop of blue is really all one needs- this image is one of my favorites because of that one little square of blue.

Colored Mats

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:37:00 +0000

I really love the look of a framed collection and think it’s a great way to fill a wall with artwork in a budget friendly way. I’ve been eyeing framed collections where the mat or the background is an unusual color…. it keeps things classy and coordinated while adding a lot of interest!

Kathryn M. Ireland via House Beautiful

Jan Roden

Holly Mathis Interiors

How bold and beautiful are these blue mats!?! Can you imagine how lifeless these pretty birds would seem on a plain white mat?!?

Eleanor Cummings

A thin border of a bold color works so well too…

Delight By Design

Young House Love

Simple, inexpensive Ikea frames look so sophisticated with these linen background mats… not to mention how much the artwork really pops against them! Another benefit to something like this is that Ikea mat openings are not standard to American photograph or artwork sizes… this solves that problem!

Amy Meier Design

I love the subtle accent of color these pink rimmed mats bring to these black and white illustrations. Perfect for a soothing nursery!

Yellow Monkey Antiques

Gilded edges with black and white is very handsome!

Jane Wood Interiors

Love the combination of the burlap colored mats and the mostly black prints… so historic but so fresh because of the airy design of the rest of the room!

Pinterest

While this mat isn’t colored, I love how the background is! It’s bold but simple at the same time. Again, you could easily take a plain-Jane Ikea frame and make it into something like this.

Hope you found some inspiration in these!

Friday Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:07:00 +0000

I love the combination of white flowers and evergreens for some Christmas themed arrangements…

Habitually Chic

Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles

Verdigris Vie

Habitually Chic

White Bedding Love

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:24:00 +0000

Always love white bedding (and a touch of blues and grays)…

Eleanor Cummings

Pinterest

Shabby Chic

Ashley Goforth Design

Vicente Wolf

Lee Mindel

Neutral and Glittery Christmas Decor

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:31:00 +0000

Glitter and Christmas Décor go hand in hand for me…

Slipcover Chic

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:12:00 +0000

While I love a beautifully tailored piece of upholstery, a slipcover is just so very practical for my own lifestyle. It gives me comfort knowing that the dirt and mud that my dog and son (and me!) can track onto it are easily cleanable. Plus it gives a casual air to a room, and that is definitely something I am all about in my own house!

I love white fabrics but I could never let myself upholster a piece in a white material… I know it would be damaged goods in no time! But with a slip I’m able to use my favorite non-color without any worries (besides an extra load of laundry every once in a while)!

I love how a room can be tied together so well with matching slipcovers. Who knows what fabrics are underneath these slips- they could look horrible with each other, but matching slips you’d never know.

These natural linen slipcovers are really more practical than white ones… they still give the overall effect of a light slipcover but they are much more forgiving with markings.

Always have loved the steely blue gray of this slipcover. The double ruffle is a fun detail that you don’t have to permanently live with in case you ever veer towards a more minimal look. And as a design schizophrenic, that flexibility to change styles with slipcovers totally appeals to me!

Look how good the dark accessories look next to these more slouchy slips! Definitely goes to show that white slips aren’t just for the summer, but for all seasons.

Casual, comfy and chic all at the same time.

Cote de Texas has one of the most comprehensive blog posts on slipcovers you could ever read. Enjoy!

Friday Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 19:45:00 +0000

Hanging onto summer with these blue hydrangeas!

Pool Perfection

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 23:23:00 +0000

Isn’t this setting just the absolute picture of an idyllic weekend!?!

{Image via Martha Stewart}

If you love Paris…

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 23:21:00 +0000

Then you must see Midnight in Paris!

A little surprising, enchanting, and entertaining all at once. The low moments were made up for by all the beautiful scenes of Paris, which they gave gave us plenty of. The movie also travels to Versailles, Giverny, and Paris of the 1920’s and stars some wonderful actors.

The interior scenes are just charming too- a toile covered hotel suite, cafes, the Versailles gardens…

If for nothing else, see this for a virtual vacation!

Friday Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:45:00 +0000

Its almost the weekend.

Time to tidy up the desk and head home… just don’t forget the flowers!

{Picture of Vicki Archer’s chic desk via her blog French Essence.}

It’s All in the Details: Slipcovered Chairs

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 06:21:00 +0000

I bought some French style chairs at an estate sale last year. While they are not perfectly historically correct in their design and are most likely repros from the 70s, I just couldn’t pass them up. They were practically free and I knew with some new fabric and a plumped up seat cushion they could look fresh and cute. Plus, I’d rather have “sort-of French style chairs” than NO French chairs! Skip ahead a year and a half and I’m finally just getting to them now. I decided to slipcover them instead of re-upholstering them and suddenly every detail became a laborious decision in my spinning head. Tabs versus ties, plain linen versus a pattern, yada yada yada. Ridiculous, I know. I certainly have other more important things to think about and spend time on, but I oddly enjoy obsessing over details like these. I suppose it’s obsessions like this that make designers valuable- I mean really, who would want to wrack their brain over this if they can have their designer do it for them?!? And wouldn’t one WANT his or her interior designer to be attentive to every little detail? Ok, I’ve made myself feel much better about my OCD now. And all kidding aside, I do feel grateful for this type of “dilemma”.

Back to the slips, I have always liked the striped slipcovers on Suzanne Rheinstein’s Living Room furniture. I love that she outfits her whole room in the same classic pattern for the summer. Her attention to the details of these slips is what keeps it from being boring. She put ties in the right places to accentuate the curves of each piece. She used a more contemporary flat flange of coordinating blue fabric to make edges more distinct. Her choice to use an abundance of one single fabric in a bold stripe and in the perfect color brings her formal pieces down to an everyday level, and she hasn’t sacrificed an ounce of style or elegance in doing so.

Joni Webb of Cote de Texas slipped her Breakfast Room chairs in white linen. The thick graphic quality of the tabs highlights the shape of the chair and balances the sweet scallop detail at the hem. Her choice of a solid white linen is very fresh and will work well in a variety of settings. It allows you to let the rest of your space evolve without having to worry if those darn slipcovers will work with those new changes.

After years of being plain-linen-happy, I was actually itching for a patterned fabric for my slipcovers. But in the end I decided that even though white linen may seem like the “easy” fabric for me to fall back on (and it will likely be in the wash every other day after sharing a space with a 14 month old), it just felt safer and more enduring of my taste than anything with a pattern or color. Plus a pattern or color meant two other factors to obsess over. Obviously.

{All photographs from Cote de Texas.}

I’ve got a thing for books, and I’m not alone…

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 19:14:00 +0000

“One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.”

-George W. Bush

Now who could disagree with that?

If there is one relaxing and indulgent activity I like to do on the weekends, it is leafing through my design and art books. Wouldn’t you love to be left to explore some of these libraries with their stacks and stacks of books? I know I would.

Iris Apfel’s Manhattan apartment.

Gwyneth Paltrow.

I admit, this one IS a bit over the top with the stacking of books.

Miles Redd mixes books, art, and decorative objects.

Nigella Lawson among her bevy of cookbooks. If this was my library, I’m sure I’d never make it into the kitchen to cook anything!

John Stefanidis mixes dining with reading… so cozy and perfect for those times when you just can’t put a book down.

Another thing I’ve been incessantly reading through in every free second this weekend is the blog A Lovely Being and her tumblr page Fallon Elizabeth. It’s total eye candy. Every picture I’ve posted came from one of those with the exception of the last one.

Art in the Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (alice) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:48:00 +0000

Giant Sink. Gas range. Refrigeration. Artwork.

There are a FEW more things on my essential Kitchen item list, but that’s for another time.

See more art in the kitchen here.

{Photos 1. & 2. via Inspiring interiors and 3. Southern Living}