look what the cat dragged in (our finds from the weekend)

everyone was all abuzz last saturday about the domino tag sale in NYC, so m21 thought he'd share with you his finds from the weekend too- just to prove that you don't need to go somewhere fancy like a magazine editor's tag sale to find the good stuff- our two finds are from a yard sale (the screen) and a flea market (the table).
we've never seen a chinoiserie screen in beige lacquer before, so we were thrilled to find this one, especially with the cool large carved lotus motif- quite chic we think. if we go for darker tone walls in our living room, this light colored screen will look lovely (we're thinking a teal- just thinking right now, mind you). the table could be in better condition, but who cares? it's an original dorothy draper espana collection piece from the 1940's, and we got it for a song (not to rub it in or anything). lamp and chair are some old pieces we had hanging around in le garage, brought in to flesh out our vignette a bit.

richard likes our draper table too, though he was disappointed it was already in less then perfect condition- he prefers to be in charge of the destruction himself! oh well, he'll just have to be satisfied with shredding the last remaining bits of our sofa fabric- when we reupholster, we're gonna use chain mail! it's a trade off- you can either have pretty things in pristine condition, or you can have pets, and live with the damage inflicted. we'll take the pets, and a bit of a disarray, thank you! furniture is replaceable, the love is not...

kill. me. now. (m21 crosses over, and likes what he finds)

wool & acrylic throw, $79.95- love the b&w updated flamestitch design

b & w cotton throw rug- $159.95 for an 8 x 10! that's a whole lotta rug for the price...

b & w crewelwork pillow- $19.00. total bargain!

3 pretty and inexpensive home decor items, right? so why the kill me now in the title? because of where they came from- we're afraid we've crossed over the line from a middle-aged man, into elderly shut-in grandma. you see, all three of these items are by nate berkus for the home shopping network. yes, you heard us right- home shopping network.

soon, gramma m21 will be calling in to HSN at 2 in the morning:

hi nate, we just love you here in oskaloosa, arkansas!

that black and white throw is just the snuggliest! i loved it so much, i ordered 3, so the grandkids won't fight over them when they come to visit. are you going to be on oprah again soon? i just LOVE when you are on her show- my two favorite people in one place!

bye, now and god bless!

kill. me. now. but they're kinda pretty, right? please say yes- gramma ordered a pillow.

happy mother's day

happy mother's day, mom.
i love you and wish you were here so i could tell you in person- but you already know that.
baby m21 & his mom, on his first birthday. if mom was still around, she'd kill me for using this photo, with her less than chic outfit, and undone hair- but hey, we lived in hawaii, and i'm sure it was hot and humid on my bday. did they even have air conditioning back then? was it flintstones style air, with a dinosaur on a treadmill and a block of ice?

happy mother's day to all moms, everywhere- where would any of us be without you?

spotted!

"spotted" at vicky's yardsale- this "so bad it's good" needlepoint cheetah pillow. utterly charming, reminiscent of good outsider art (and also completely original- you won't find this at every tchotchke shop on the block). good eye, vicky!
and of course, this post is dedicated to one of my long-time blog commenters, who m21 knows only as T.O.C.H.A., or the original cheetah-hating anonymous. so are you in the cheetah camp yet? (and yes, cheetah "camp" is a bit of a bad pun- sorry).

pretty inspirational...

athletes warm up before competing, artists sketch before committing paint to canvas- so what does a decorator do to get in the decorating mood? well, this decorator for one, looks at tons of decorating books and magazines, and well as the wealth of photos available on our beloved decorating blogs. not necessarily THIS decorating blog though- you know we are far, far too wordy, and the picture to paragraph ratio is disappointingly low here at maison21... ;-)

the other day before heading off to a client meeting, we pulled down a random stack of decorating magazines to get us in the mood to talk decoratin'. not necessarily to find images to show our client- they are hiring us to fulfill their vision of living a more beautiful life, not hiring a decorator to replicate a look in a magazine. nor would m21 ever want to copy a room from a publication. get ideas and inspiration, yes; imitate, no.

anyway, while we were thumbing through our old magazines, we came across this image from a june 2006 house beautiful (possibly the very issue where the magazine transformed itself from drab to fab), and we thought this vignette of a room designed by kathryn scott, perfectly embodied the look we hope to achieve in our client's home- simple, but not minimal, organic with a hint of rustic, yet never going near country kitsch (shudder)- too tailored for that. rest assured that our design will end up looking NOTHING like the photo (we're going way too vintage meets modern for that- then there's our non-magazine sized budget, too), yet we sincerely hope to capture the "feeling" of the room, but not the style.

holding the "mood" in our head, we went into our client meeting confident and warmed up design-wise. lets hope our project turns out half as pretty as our inspiration photo!

see why we were inspired by this classically pretty vignette? just lovely:

photography by ellen mcdermott.