Hootie Hootie Hootie Hoo!

You've probably noticed the owl has been making a HUGE comeback the past few years! You see him in everything: wall decals, fabrics, baby rooms, and my favorite, jewlery. The owl represents different ideas in many cultures and lores. In Greek, the owl represents widsom and knowledge. It was the symbol for Athena, the goddess of wisdom. In other cultures, it means bad things like death but we're just going to stick with the Greeks! I have, like many, fallen in love with the owl and have become mildly obsessed! I hope you enjoy some of the images below. The one to the left is from blik, which is one of the coolest pages for decal art. This series with the owls is from artist amy ruppel. They come in multiple colors and are a cute way to jazz up a plain wall. I also love using wall decals because they aren't permanent and you don't have to pay tons of money for a muralist to paint something you may only like a few years. The very last one is my favorite! Its been "retired" but I hope they bring it back for when I need to decorate a nursery one day! :) If not, I can recreate one and send it to blik and they can make it for me :) Now time for this night owl to head to bed!

Love this blue on blue space

adorable pillow

{i'm just saying...I think this would scare a baby!}

sweet red owl

cute retro owls

cute lil retro lamp

cute little chunky one

love this blue-eyed cutie

love the tiered pendant

Cool Coincidence :)

While working on my wallcovering post, I discovered a unique coincidence! Favorite {residential} wallcovering company Cole and Son and my current favorite furniture designer Tom Dixon have collaborated for a wallcovering line for Cole! :) The collaboration happened in 2009, but it's new to me! While I'm not a HUGE fan of the retro 70's patterns created by Dixon, I do think in all things in design, they have their proper place! I do love the geometric honeycomb, link and striped patterns and the super retro colors! More Tom Dixon to follow...

And one last really cool pattern from the AMAZINGLY talented Vivienne Westwood's collection for Cole and Son and in honor of the fab Brit Tom Dixon! It's called Union Jack!

Light as a Featha...Clean as Carrera

I came across this post from apartment therapy {amazing website}. It is a few photos of Gweneth Paltrow and Chris Martin's new Tribeca loft. I have been a huge fan of Gwyneth since high school and love most of her movies {Shakespeare in love, sliding doors, anniversary party and great expectations to name a few} and think she has a beautiful goddess 'ness' to her. Chris Martin won me over more quickly, as music is what keeps my blood pumping, by his ballads of love and heartbreak on the Parachutes album. So when these 2 got married, I knew it was a perfect match for this fan! :) Below are the images of their beautiful new loft, designed by Roman and Williams.

There are so many things I love about the picture above. I love the Dior grey seating cubes, the white shag carpet, the exquisite built-ins, the suspended floating settee, all feeling light as a feather. But to me, what makes this weightless 'ness' keep from floating away is the gorgeous, simple black coffee table. Without it, the room would feel blah to me. Yes it would be filled with beautiful objects but you would look right over it in a magazine without a second glance. I also love how with 2 kids, the Martins aren't afraid of the white! I think its great they didn't sacrifice the design because of small children.

This bed for Apple's room has to be custom made. This is when I look at that and think, "I mean how hard could that be?" Then I realize that there's no way I could ever create this. What a beautiful room for a little princess. I wish the picture showed the ceiling, as I imagine it feels like floating towards the sky!

I've saved my favorite shot for last. The oh so chic, oh so New York "classic 6" kitchen reno made almost entirely of beautiful Carrera marble. My love of carrera marble began in 2004 when I moved to THE city and started working for Craig Nealy Architects. I got to come in on the end of a residential project for the at the time CEO of Vera Wang. He passed before we got to complete his project, but in the months I got to meet with him, I learned so much about true style. His bathroom that he and Craig created together is still one of the most memorable and striking spaces I've ever entered. It's shown below Gwyneth's kitchen. {I will create a new post later dedicated to that amazing project.} For now, lets stick to the marble. Again, I just adore the use of white on white on white with grey on white. I can only imagine what is beyond those terrace doors. Back to the kitchen...my only critique would be the poorly selected undercabinet lighting, which is causing some nasty hot spots on the stone. There are sooo many more even strips you can put under there that put off the "glow" that they are so desired and known for. Either way, I'll be waiting for my call from Chris and Gwenie and when it happens, I'll bring them new lights :)

Now a few of my favorite carrera marble shots! One day soon, you will see one from my bathroom when we finally get around to installing my tile.

{Love this sweet vanity stool}

{love the stainless soaking tub with white porcelain bottom}

{Can Ann Sacks do anything wrong...I think not}

{Now one of my Italian porcelains, Onice, made to look like the real thing!}

The final image above is of the project I mentioned earlier for the CEO of VEW, Ltd. This is only a sneak peak, but it's a sexy one!

Walls....They should be Covered!

My OBSESSION with wallcoverings began in 2002-but not the way you think it would have. I had always loved weddings-one of my favorites is the design-color schemes, table arrangements, lighting, just all of it. {So my wonderful mother shared the same excitement about weddings too-so much so that she had a subscription to Bride magazine.} While flipping through this BRIDE magazine, I stumbled across a perfect wedding design scheme. It was set in Charleston, outdoors and very chic. The color scheme was black, white and apple green. There was white lounge seating in tents, a table of green candies in apothecary jars {love these}, black glass taper candle holders, green and white Japanese lanterns, etc. But what struck me the most was this amazing paper pattern they used as the aisle runner, place cards, on the cake, etc.

I saved the article and it wasn't until I got engaged that I came across it again! I was able to look up the wedding online {booo it's not online anymore or I would TOTALLY post it!} and find out what that "paper" was. Turns out it was a English wallcovering from the amazing Cole and Son Wallpaper company. I was able to find out through one of my reps how I could get a sample.

<---------------This is it!

It's from their series New Contemporary Collection 1 and it's called Malabar. History blip: Cole and Son was founded in 1873 and today is the only remaining wallcovering company in the world producing hand-made flock wallpaper in the traditional way. Cole and Son owns more wooden pattern blocks than any other wallcovering company. Coles is now the prime source for entirely authentic period wallpapers printed by the original method and has provided wallpapers for many historic houses, including Buckingham Palace and the White House.

By going to the website and looking through all of their collections, I began to have a passion for wallcovering again. {I should note that I get this from my mother, who always had the most beautiful taste in wallcoverings in my houses growing up. I didn't appreciate them then, and thought they were SO UGLY but now, I love them!}Below are some of the other colors of Malabar as well as a few prints from their new Vintage Glamour and Fornasetti collection. Enjoy!

This one has to be the coolest wallcovering ever!!! A little creepy with all the faces but striking!

Here are a few pictures from my wedding showing how I used the Malabar wallcovering as the table runners and around our "lumpy" cake! :)

I still have all the cuttings and will do a future project with them one day! Just haven't figured out what or where! :) It's so striking-it just needs the perfect small room!

Now I'm Post Happy :)

So now that I've started posting items, I can't stop. Now I see how people get addicted to these things. I already have an extremely addictive personality to new things, so I really shouldn't be surprised. Ok, so I've already mentioned the AMAZING Kelly Werstler {house of kwid}. What I haven't mentioned is my OBSESSION with chairs. If I had the time, I'd sit in the book store every day and read the book 1000 chairs. Learn all the creators, styles, construction, time periods, etc. If I could have it my way, I'd work to design new cool chairs everyday. So, all of this ties together below. At the present, this is one of my favorite rooms {i will overuse the word favorite a lot on this blog} of course done by kwid. I just think at first glance, there appears to be a lot going on, and it's not going to fit every one's aesthetic, but when you really stop and look at all the pieces, it's pretty spectacular!

I mean, can you count how many different chairs there are in this space? Not just seating types, chairs! 7 different chairs! Which ones are your favorite? It's hard to pick, but I'll go with the one set I missed at first and second glance! To the left of the picture, the "chairs" with the black wooden carved seat and 2 curvy posts for the seat back. It is my mission for the weekend to go and find out what these chairs are called and who designed them. If you know, let me know!

In an earlier post, {i know i only have 3 so far} I mentioned by second favorite chair. Below is my absolute favorite chair! This may change someday, but for the past year, this is the one!

The chair is called 'Wingback' by Tom Dixon.

Tom is kind of the "furniture designer of the moment." {I mean obviously, right?!} What I love about this chair is its modern take on the old classic. I love the grandeur play on proportion and delicious curves ~ how this chair can add a avant garde 'ness' to any space. Click here to see the construction of how the wingback chair is made. Below are some other pics of my favorite chair hanging out in some cool settings and colors. Enjoy!

{I will have one....one day! :) }

Relighting the flame...

Ok, so what started this whole blog thing was doing fun research for my friend Ann. She was just awarded her first project for her new interior design company, DPOV {design point of view}. It's going to be a super chic hotel in Miami! Below are a few images from one of my FAVORITES that I will probably mention on here often, Kelly Werstler. She is the gravy to my biscuit, the perfect shade for my antique glass lamps, the vodka to my soda water. She has such an amazing aesthetic ability ~ to pull the most foreign of objects together and make them work beautifully in a space. It's sheer brilliance. I have followed her career since 2004 when I got to meet her in New York at the D and D building {mecca for NYC interior designers and decorators}. She had just introduced her new line of fabrics for Decorator's Walk. Hope you enjoy as much as I have!

{love the wall colors, art arrangements, chair couplings, organic side table, the way the coffee table is staged, I mean all of it}

{my second favorite chair ever in my favorite accent color}

{again with the yellow! Love the art deco "ness" of this! chairs-amazing mixed with the wall color. I love how she mixes multiple chair types together in a space. Just in this one shot there are 3 different chair types-all blend seamlessly together}

Is anybody out there? :)

Sooo....Hello. This is my blog. I've always wanted one and have a million friends that have amazing blogs...I just never thought I'd really have anything interesting to blog about. Then a week ago, I started looking into my favorite design style, Art Deco, and the fire came alive again. You see, I am an interior designer...always wanted to be one since I was 8 and my Nanny {grandmother} showed me the movie Pillow Talk In the movie, Doris Day is a interior decorator in New York City and just fabulous. I knew at that moment 2 things:

1. I wanted to be an interior designer when I grew up and

2. I wanted to practice design in New York City!

Fast forward to 2010, I'm 29 and I've done both! I went to design school at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, graduated with a degree in Interior Design in 2004. After graduation, I moved to NYC, and spent a year practicing design in THE city. Then I moved back to Knoxville {for the love of a really good man}, practiced design for a few more years then major change occurred. I quit my design job for a sales job in the design community. While its been great, and has so many awesome benefits like meeting and hanging out with new people everyday, I miss design.

LONG story short, fast forward to today: my new blog. This blog is going to be anything and everything that I love, that inspires me, that I question and that motivates me. One of my favorite games as a child was called "eye spy with my little eye, something that is {blank}." My sister and I still play it on road trips. So for anyone that chooses to observe this blog, I hope you eye spy inspirations, things that make you laugh and things that help spark your own design ideas!