thanks, kids! (m21 here, there, & everywhere!)

i just wanted to thank all you kids out there who voted for me in apartment therapy's annual homie awards. over 400 blogs were nominated and with your support we placed 16th- not so bad! i know many of you have been hanging out with me since the beginning over 5 years ago, and i can't express my gratitude for your faithfulness. y'all are the best.

and speaking of hanging out, you probably already know in-between blog posts you can follow along with me on my other social media outlets right?  i'm always posting sumthin' somewhere!  whether it's facebook, twitter, pinterest or instagram, you'll find general silliness and sometimes even designery stuff  at least one of them, updated several times a day (ps- instagram is now web-based for those of you who don't use it on your phone)

last, i'd like to thank cision navigator for naming me the top interior design blogger on twitter- i may not have been number one over at the homies, but at least i'm number one somewhere! thanks, cision! ;-)

grace home furnishings

two weeks ago, i attended a luncheon to celebrate a highlight video produced from last year's legends of la cienega design festival, and was reminded of all the fun i had last year creating my window display at gray morrell. i met so many great people during the festival, and forged many new friendships within the local design community, and it made working on my window one of my (many) highlights of 2012.

me, relaxing on a hot summer's day in custom swivel barrel chair inside the beautiful grace home furnishings showroom. you can tell this photo was taken a while ago as it's not quite shorts weather right now!

one of the friendships i struck up was with the nice people at grace home furnishings. when i was stuck trying to make the screen that was so essential for the backdrop of my window display, grace home furnishings graciously (sorry 'bout the pun) stepped in and made the most amazingly beautiful lacquered wooden screen for me. i was so relieved as i had thought of building it myself and was terrified that my homemade 8 foot tall screen would topple over and smash about a bazillion dollars worth of antiques. the screen grace made me was so well made, in additional to being beautiful, that i think it would have stood even if we had an earthquake! and they made it in the extremely tight timeline i was working under.

my window would have looked like le poo-poo without that amazing backdrop of the grace home screen with tracy hiner's fabulous watercolor panel insets. grace home truly has my eternal gratitude for going above and beyond the call of duty!

GH's avery cabinet, inspired by a piece spotted in london.

i've always ben a fan of grace home's polished style, first posting about them in 2008 featuring their hayworth nightchests as one of my all time favorites. grace home has a knack for producing some the prettiest mirrored furniture pieces around...

visiting the showroom always provides design inspiration- the showroom vignettes are  consistently  some of the loveliest in LA.

masculine and mirrored don't always go together, but grace home manages easily with their vendome  cabinet, another of my favorite pieces in their own line.

grace home definitely isn't short on glamor... bed and slipper chairs are lovely examples of their high luxe aesthetic.

it's also a great place to grab accessories and gifts- roger and michael have a great eye, so you can't go wrong.

pretty doesn't mean it can't be family friendly- i loved how this young girl made herself at home while her parents shopped. 

i'm a big kid at heart, so i was THRILLED to receive two coloring books and a t-shirt during my showroom visit. ted and richard would now like their own branded coloring books by the way.

the highlight of any store visit is meeting gracie in person- i mean we've all seen her in the ads in  every design magazine, right? and let me tell you, she is a charmer!

design lovers, if you find yourself in LA, do yourself a favor and stop into the showroom in brentwood. you'll be glad you did!

grace home furnishings 

11632 barrington court

 los angeles, california, 90049

 310-476-7176 

monday - saturday, 10-6

 

i just can't help myself- another sneak peek! (oh & be a homie, wouldya?)

i know, i know-  i said no more project sneak peeks, but i'm so proud right now i'm fit to bursting!  my amazing clients matt and adam sent me the above snap of a window screen they sourced and DIY'd themselves, and i couldn't be more thrilled with the results. at the beginning of our project, i proposed a screen to provide privacy from the street for their large and unusually shaped front window but my custom sources couldn't give us the moroccan/mid century vibe we wanted for a realistic price, so i was a bit stumped on how to make it happen. obviously no cheap shoji-screen was going to cut it  but those kids wren't going to let my idea go without a fight, so adam ended up finding the perfect vintage-inspired decorative screen online, and then matt thought of using the light filtering vellum he uses for his amazing photography as a privacy film, and bam, the perfect solution was created.  and don't get me started on the cuteness of of the gallery wall they installed this weekend in their hallway but we'll save that for the final photoshoot.  i love working with creative peeps, and sometimes it takes a village to decorate a house so i couldn't be happier with the results of our creative collaboration... in this case, 3 minds are waaaay better than one!

click on the house to help a homie out!

and on a totally different subject, i need YOU to collaborate with ME so i don't get embarrassed over at apartment therapy's annual homie awards! voting started last friday, i've made a good showing so far thanks to my delightful facebook and twitter friends, but the blogs who actually deserve to win are starting to get out the vote, and i'm dropping like a stone (insert sad trombone sound). my friend emily, the fancy schmancy HGTV star, casually mentioned the awards on her blog today and leapfrogged over me, (and about a dozen others) to take 1st place- which she totally deserves, mind you- but still, we'd like to at least make a good showing by not finishing in the bottom percentile.  so if anyone reading this would like to throw me a pity vote, i ain't too proud to beg! and the best part is, that while you take pity on me, you can actually vote for all your other favorite blogs at the same time- they are all on the list!  and i should know- i spent a good portion of friday night nominating all my friends and faves!  (including matt & adam who deserve your vote not only for matt's awesome food blog, matt bites, but also for that rad screen that made me so happy this weekend! they are under best food photography on a blog, btw).

now go cast your pity vote for me, and all the other blogs who actually deserve to win, and thank you for your support!

and this time, i'm for serious- no more sneeks!  ;-)  oxoxo!

it's in the details (a mini-lighting installation sneak peek)

i know, i know, i practically never post and here i am busting out two in a day, but i am so excited that i had to share:  my amazing clients, matt & adam, just had their handyman install the sconces we picked out together last weekend, and the transformation is unbelievable.  it took a while to find sconces that provided the right size, scale and drama factor, plus worked with the house's 1927 spanish revival architecture, and didn't require that matt & adam try to sell one of their adorable little dogs to pay for them, but we found them, and they are perfect! now i just need to stop sharing these lil sneak peeks before i've shared the whole project and there are no surprises left! (i guess there will be some left- i think we'll all be surprised when i figure out what the heck to do with all the niches in matt & adam's living room! ;-)

oh- i also bought them this brutal style sidetable on scowters.  the minute i was emailed the picture to do my post on our sale, i knew this bad boy had to be mine! i was skerred when i posted it, i'd draw too much attention, but i was like a madman with the refresh button during thursday's sale and scored it!  it was meant to be.

oh wait- i forgot i had a before pic, as matt & adam found the place when they purchased. we lightened and brightened the wall paint color, and painted the beam and mantel a darker brown to closer match the newly stained floors (the color they were before was unfortunate, to say the least- not to mention the dead matte finish). and since many of you have emailed to ask, the sconces are not vintage, but reproductions, purchased from crown city vintage lighting in the pasadena antique center. a teensy improvement on the existing sconces dontcha think? wtf were those, anyway?

scowters: your new source for vintage & modern, part deux

last nights scowters facebook flash sale was an ENORMOUS success, so i'd like to thank all of you who turned out to "LIKE" then shop, browse and buy! my fellow dealers really turned it out with a fabulous collection of wares.  i'd also like to remind everyone that the sale runs 5 days so you have until tuesday evening to shop! please visit and browse! here's some screen grabs i made to give you an idea of all the fabulousness on offer- and seriously there are some phenomenal buys still left...

next sale is tuesday february 5th at 8 eastern / 5 pacific!  see you there!