Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Banded Pillows Inspired By Kelly Hoppen

Good morning,

Before I move on to show you more of the banded pillows that I've made here at my house as well as some that I made for a recent client, I wanted to share with you where the inspiration came from. I'm talking about Kelly Hoppen.

I've found that bands are a really affordable way to add a designer touch and to give pillows something unique, they also tie elements and colors visually and texturally together. Pillow bands and stripes play off the grid formation of a room which is what Kelly Hoppen is all about. According to her design style and methodology any room that you have be it inside or outside consists of a grid with horizontal and vertical lines, and when designing and decorating a room you have to bring focus to both. In layman's terms you are either working off making a room taller (vertical) or wider (horizontal). A great example of this would be when painting stripes. When you paint stripes in a room vertically you are drawing the eyes upward thus making a room feel taller. On the opposite, when you paint stripes horizontally such as in our home you are lengthening a room and making it seem larger and wider.

Kelly Hoppen who I blogged about here is my timeless design hero. Her use of contemporary, modern design has a very worldly influence especially Eastern, and I'm not referring to the "buy a Buda from Home Goods" worldly. I'm referring to the travel the world and find unique treasures, philosophies, beliefs and styles.  She puts thought and concise detail to every aspect of her rooms down to the directional flow of a space, and I absolutely LOVE her style.

Here are some of her designed rooms with banded pillows to give you a point of reference.











Now, if you look closely in these images you will see that the pillows are certainly not the only element in these rooms that has vertical and horizontal lines. In fact most every element in the rooms show them.

I simply can't get enough, and I look forward to showing you other places that I've used this technique and had a great success. If you are hungry for more Kelly Hoppen DO NOT MISS her many books which will have you pouring through the pages over and over as I do.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Banded Pillows And Brass Sea Urchins

Good morning,

I FINALLY received my brass sea urchin that I obsessed about and bought from http://furbishstudio.com/ and I was not dissappointed. In fact, I really wish I had bought more of the small ones to go with the large one that I purchased but at the time I was second guessing my purchasing spree of that week.

I also finally had my banded pillows done which were originally inspired form none other that Kelly Hoppen who is the queen of using banded pillows. I love the look of them and find that having pillows uniquely customized by adding bands to them can help tie in your entire scheme which is exactly what they did for me.

For my pillows I used a really nice faux croc vinyl that is the perfext juxtoposition from the soft creamy velvet pillow covers. I also like that the croc adds a little bit of tough edge to the room. I had the bands sewn at 5" and find that having a thick band always makes a better statement.

In no particular order here are some showcase pictures of our little brass sea urchin and our new faux croc banded pillows.


















As you can see there are touches of gold and black coming in left and right which was the plan. My next step will be to add some Ikat pillows to the sofa to complete the look which I'm having custom made. Stay tuned~

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Moroccan Treasures At West Elm

Hello,

I just received an email about some new things that are happening at West Elm. Now if you're anything like me, you have an OBSESSION with Moroccan inspired treasures.

I have been lusting and DYING for a Moroccan wedding blanket style rug/blanket for a very long time. The problem is that they are super expensive so alas I've not been able to get one.

Well it looks like West Elm got the memo. It started earlier this year with the Souk rug available in multiple sizes and currently sold out!
Souk Rug

And now with their new line of Moroccan accents and rugs that are just fantastic. Here are some of my favorites.



Found Moroccan Wedding Blanket $399

*There's a good chance that I'llown one of these babies one day.

Found Battini Pouf- Patterned $299
*Love the outdoor room styled above!!! A-MAZ-ING!!!

Found Moroccan Berber Rug- Large     $2,499 (8'x10')

Just in case you need the added inspiration check out some of the styling from these Moroccan wedding blankets and watch your very own obsession grow!











There are also many new Turkish rugs, throw blankets and wooden accessories on their site as well. It's definitely worth checking out.

Thanks West Elm, for staying on point!


Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Blinging Out Some Ikea LACK Shelves

Hello there,

I just got back in town from a whirl wind weekend for my daughter's soccer tournament in Disney this past weekend and didn't get a chance to post.

I want to show you a little mini makeover that I did with our Ikea LACK shelves above our TV in the family room.

Ours have moved with us and are constantly evolving along with my moods and taste. Since I'm going with "bring in the gold" as a theme, I found a great idea on a blog called http://timmythewienerdog.blogspot.com/ where Bri added gold brackets to her LACK shelves. Her blog is quite hilarious and if you haven't already seen it you should definitely stop by. She has quite the knack for DIYing things in a very Kelly Wearstler kind of way and her raunchy non apologetic humor is a guilty pleasure.

I used different brackets on our LACK shelves which I found at Home Depot for only $2.70 for 4 (you will need 2 packs).

Here are the results:

















It's looking pretty good.

*As a reference for the elements on the shelves:
-I simply glued on the brackets which was quick and easy.
-I always layer pictures ,and fount that Target has some great double pained glass frames which will let whatever is behind the photos show through and also don't limit you to a specific picture size or direction.
-I included both silver and gold elements on our shelves which I found gave a more interesting high end look.
-I spray painted 2 sea fans with 24K gold spray paint and it turned out really nice and was so EASY.
- I  gold leafed 2 candles that I bought in white ceramic from West Elm which again was harder than it looks, but gave another texture and tone in gold that was much needed.
-I bought the silver antelope on a black base at Home Goods because I decided that I have WAY too much beachy-oceanic touces in this house which I'm sure is a result from a past obsession. New goal will be to find different types of accessories.

What do you think?