pistachio ceilings soften an industrial-chic restaurant in melbourne

What I adore about TRUNK-- the melbourne restaurant that I just discovered from an astonishingly gorgeous blog with a pitch-perfect design sensibility that I also just discovered (lark about) -- is that it marries

THIS aesthetic (fundamentally, that of the 19th c. draftsman's study, an aesthetic vocabulary that we sons and daughters of architects, many of us anyway, speak fluently...)



with THIS...


or rather, a hint of this....



While Trunk is clearly leaning in the Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch direction, with those dark dark floors and lots of dark shelves and dark tables and industrial lines everywhere, that pistachio ceiling elevates the whole room into something beyond direct historical quotation.

The thing is that my design roots always take me in the direction of wonderful, pre-pre-war architectural bones, deep dark woods and slates and the rough, "quick, grab a pen-- let's sketch it out now" kind of feel. But I am also a girl who loves design elements that are a little (or a lot) more opulent, a little unabashedly pretty, a little delicate and delicious and dazzlingly chromatic.

dear Trunk, we tip our hat.

(& we may even get out our paint chips...I've got two mammoth bookshelves to paint and I'm thinking that a dull absinthe green on the wall, and glossy black for the shelves, might complement and punch up our foamy grey living room...)

silk felt soil dips its toe into the waters of midcentury modern....and finds the temperature quite lovely!

news:

i bought a loveseat!

I'm only going to post this teeny weeny pic of it because I don't want to BLIND you guys. I admit, it's not its most charming self at the moment. But doesn't it have potential...? soo many ways we could go with this little one.

lighting: tripod-esque lamp from west elm

I picked up one of these over the weekend. From its over-sized shade, to its sweet dangly pulls, to its adjustable height, its multiple settings for brightness, and its architectural angularity, it's charmed me beyond all expectation.

kitchen reno: we're on Smallest Coolest AT:Kitchen!

some fun news today! our kitchen is up on AT:kitchen! it would be so great to hear from you all, in comments and.. of course... votes!

here is the link to "Phoebe's Crisp Organic Kitchen"

... update later today with some more details and so on....
x,
P

kitchen reno.

for those of you who remember the saga of our kitchen renovation, this shot might even look good to you.

today i'll be submitting the photos of our completed kitchen reno to the AT smallest coolest kitchen contest... looking forward to hearing your comments next week!

in the meantime, have a great weekend...

xxp

small spaces at home: try a painting or photograph gallery

images, from top: david netto design; southern accents via style court; marie claire maison.



PS: confession-- as much as I love clusters of paintings or ordered groupings of photos, I am a bit of a perfectionist and thus take a verrrry lonnnng time in putting up art in the house. This time around I'm thinking of starting small, doing a gallery of my brother's amazing b& w photographs [H*A*P*P*Y B*I*R*T*H*D*A*Y, JAMIE!] from top to bottom of one wall in our 'thirties b & w tile bathroom. Would welcome thoughts or suggestions! xx p

zara home: high-impact, contrast-rich neutrals with lots of texture

As someone who is totally enthralled by neutrals (chalk whites, camels, slate greys, hits of black and navy), I'm always psyched to see examples of interesting, punchy, modern neutrals in the home. So, question: if these Zara home interiors work for you, would you share with me what you like? What makes them work for you?

I think hit of silver here really works, and the warm wood and caramel tones, and the sculptural objects (the horse bust, the cactus-like forms, that geometric thang). For me what doesn't work is the throw and the print-- I love the texture that each piece brings, but the overall effect is a bit busy for my taste-- something feels slightly off-key.


Another example of a softer neutral look from Zara:

I love the chalky background color of the cubbies, the stone floor, and the hits of these beautiful deep pinks from the embroidery on the wall, and the straw hamper. Substitute a real bed for the crib and it could easily be turned into an adult bedroom.

--> if anyone has tips on where to find shots of neutral interiors, do share! I'm looking for ways to turn our entry into something a little more high-impact....



(& thanks to Imelda for the link to Zara home)

sexy brass hardware

question: am I a bit of a sucker for having been seduced by Domino editors, Thomas O'Brien, and others into believing with all my heart that brass hardware in a kitchen is the chicest thing?






These pieces (from top, 1, 2, 3, 4) from White Chapel ltd (and Restoration Hardware) just might make me MISS Sucker. I especially love the nautical vibe of the flush handled ones....

PS: and why stop at kitchen cabinets? any of these would turn a flea market console, or even a parsons desk from West Elm into a serious hottie.

our kitchen renovation: a hansgrohe faucet it is

I feel great about our choice of this Hansgrohe "interaktiv spray faucet" today! we ended up going into Home Depot determined to buy something in stock, but I just couldn't go through with it (very few goosenecks to choose from), so we checked out the H&D catalogue and found this little beauty. One more thing to check off the list!

our kitchen renovation: the demo...

Happy Friday!



So. From before, to this fun stage of utter disarray: the cabinets have been taken out; the rough plumbing has been done; the old stove (ick!) has been disconnected and is ready to go; and today they're finishing up the rough electrical (3 days of rough electrical, for a teeny little job-- it's the old, 1930's wiring, so the electrican tells me; who knew the electrical would take longer than the plumbing?). Then I clean up the rubble as best I can, and tomorrow the carpenter starts with the drywall and perhaps even hanging the cabinets if we get lucky.


(and tonight, no thoughts of cabinets, but several parties, where I will forget the renovation woes.... my friend erika, for one, is having a blowout to celebrate the completion of her amazingly brilliant and capacious dissertation on "alphabetics" in renaissance literature!) congrats....


e!)

blackboards, cy twombly, and architectural salvage

Old chalkboards, blackboards, are the stuff of my fantasies, no joke. This fine specimen (from decorator Mariette Himes-Gomez's NYC apt) is almost an exact match of a serious and enduring fantasy that I've been having recently about a large chalkboard -- not for the kitchen (don't have the space) but in the living room, in lieu of a large painting. I've been toying with the idea, wondering if it would work, ever since I found out that Old House Parts, a local architectural salvage resource, is currently selling slate from old schoolhouses for $10-14 a sq foot...



The kitchen image above convinces me more and more that a large old blackboard is not just a passing fancy of mine. And, after all, the way I see it...


it's a pretty nice stand-in until Sotheby's gets around to shipping our Twombly.

our kitchen renovation: pendant lighting options

My main man and I are redoing the teensy galley kitchen in our new home... We were able to really think big (well.. relatively big!) because my dad is an architect, and so has generously done countless studies and drawings for us. One of the exciting changes we decided upon will be the one to re-locate the sink from one side of the kitchen (far left in the dark-ish "before" pic), to the end of the kitchen underneath the window (thereby getting the fridge away from its currently obstructive position!). And now we come to the raison d'etre of today's post: the lighting. I'd love to have a beautiful old pendant light over the sink; and yet my man is concerned that it will block the view of window. Thoughts? Would love some views on this.

Some of the industrial-style pendants that I covet...


(First two antique beauties are from Re-found Objects, in England; the final (gorgeous!) light is the "Harmon pendant" from Restoration Hardware).

These are sweet as well, made from vintage jelly molds:

william morris wallpaper: "sunflower"

This is one of my favorite William Morris wallpapers. I love how dense the pattern is-- it's like the 19th c. equivalent of Tord Boontje! Last December I actually ordered a sample from Charles Rupert of this print, and I'm still quite taken with it. Too bad my main man isn't a fan of wallpaper, full stop! Hopefully he'll turn around...

Note that Charles Rupert is a Canadian company that makes reproduction William Morris patterns and has not, to my mind, realized its true potential yet (in terms of modern tastes, one has to be a bit patient to find great prints); that said, I've noticed that Domino and Blueprint have both found CR, so likely we'll see some reformulations of their colors, and so on, in the near future as they adjust to a new audience.

Agile Rabbit Editions: utter delight!

I have just discovered the Agile Rabbit editions of the Pepin Press, a Dutch company to whom I owe my eternal gratitude! The genius of these books is that not only do they collect gorgeous, eclectic images all in one place, but also, and most crucially-- each book comes with a CD of high-res versions of each image from the text. A couple of days ago I bought the Agile Rabbit Book of Historical and Curious Maps, and plan to make a series of 4 or 5 giclee canvases of some of the really lovely ones (for the living room? bedroom? entry? we'll see).

(I wish I could share with you some of the fantastic images but for copyright reasons this isn't possible. Suffice it to say, these books are highly recommended-- I'm finding that I crave each and every one...)









Happy Friday!

outside in: chinoiserie garden furniture indoors

No one does the preppy/bad-girl/anglo/chinoiserie mix better than Kelly Wearstler... this image is from her gorgeous Viceroy hotel in Santa Monica, which I have had the pleasure of visiting a couple of times.

In that vein, so it seems, is this potting desk from Mecox Gardens-- the chinoiserie feel, the celadon green color. I think the piece might be fairly simple to reproduce on one's own... certainly the color could be experimented with on various items- headboards, closet doors, and such.


It also got me thinking about bringing outdoors design inside; when I lived in England for several years, I really saw that the distinction we make in the States between indoors and out isn't made as much there, because gardening is so much a part of life, even for the ordinary home-owner in a suburban area. The conservatory peeking out of brick houses is a very common sight...

But as for me, a gal in the city, I would be happy with just a potting desk as a console, or even a ceramic garden stool or two around the living room, as functional little sculptures, shots of color, or accents of white.

New home. . .

Right now it's not ours, ours. But soon! it is really perfect for us, with beautiful old windows, lots of light, and a really nice feel to the place. With a creaky, antique elevator just down the hall.

I never thought it would happen this fast, but we found it and couldn't pass it up.

Have given all my old copies of Domino a new look, and right now am really inspired by vintage maps, the faded, golden, buff and cream tones of Carolina Herrera's Madrid apartment, old black and white photographs, and golden, grey chinese silk screens... it is so exciting, the chance to really do something with a place, to make it your own.