Category Archives: Styles

Decorating Look for Less: Tulip Table

Decorating, Interior Design, Look For Less, Mid Century Modern, , ,

The Saarinen Round Dining Table (designed by Eero Saarinen for Knoll) is a go-to piece for interior designers. It’s a wonderful mid-century modern piece that can work well with many different aesthetics. The basic version features the cast aluminum base with a bevel-edged laminate top.

Saarinen Round Dining Table, White Laminate Top, $1,879.00
knoll_saarinen
photo credit: DWR

The “deluxe” version features a beautiful white marble top from Italy. $2,868.00.  It’s also available with customized choices (other marble tops, wood tops, black base, etc.)

knoll_saarinen_marble
photo credit: DWR

These are fantastic if you can work it into your budget! However, if not, there are some fairly decent options to get the designer look at a value price!  Here is Ikea’s Docksta table… only $199.00!  The base doesn’t have quite the same elegant lines and the table edge isn’t beveled, but for $199 can you really complain?
Ikea_docksta
photo credit: Ikea

If you have your heart set on marble…here’s a reproduction on Amazon made by LexMod for only $843.35.

lexmodern-marble
photo credit: LexMod at Amazon

NYT: Living in 704 square feet

Architecture, Eco Friendly, ,

The New York Times Home & Garden section has an interesting article about a couple and their 2 dogs who live in a 704 square foot 1 room home.  What do you think of this?  Could you live comfortably in a small space?

704sqft
photo credit: Aaron Leitz for The New York Times

It’s not as bad as it sounds really… because they have a huge yard including outdoor living space and 2 storage sheds.  The large room is divided into functional areas with a bookcase, and a curtain to separate the bed area from the main area. You can see more photos in this slideshow, here.  Eco-friendly features are a green roof planted with local flora and a 550 gallon rain barrel for collecting storm water for reuse.

I think it’s fantastic!  “Tiny living” forces you to pare down on “stuff” and keeps operating costs low. Bravo!

Decor Accents & the Oslo Duvet Cover

Bedrooms, Decorating, Duvet Covers, Interior Design, Mid Century Modern, , , , ,

I’m really fond of our Oslo duvet cover set by Echelon that is currently on sale (20% off), so I thought it would be fun to think of some pieces that would look good with it.  The scale and linking pattern of Oslo make it fairly modern looking, so I’d pair it with modern and mid-century modern pieces.

OSL-blue

I like rooms with some wood in them. Wood furniture warms things up, as opposed to say the super sleek look of lacquered items.

I think every bedroom needs at least one chair.  I always end up draping things on them.  This is a super cool Eames Molded Plywood Lounge Chair.

DWR_eames
photo credit: DWR

This bedside table combines the modern look of an iron frame with the hand-antiqued patina of the acacia wood drawer. Audrey Nightstand by CB2.

audrey-table
photo credit: CB2

I really like these Design by Conran ball lamps from JC Penney of all places.  Yes, this is the same “Conran” as The Conran Shop!

DBC_lamp
photo credit: Design by Conran for JCPenney
These look so cool, but are not very practical for bedside lamps, so I think I’d want one as accent lamp.

With wood items, I don’t think it’s necessary at all to have them all the exact same wood finish… looking too “matchy matchy” is so boring.

Zen Minimalism in Sweden

Asian, Bedrooms, Interior Design, Lamps

Elle Decor is featuring “Zen Mastery: A Serene Home in Sweden“, a beautiful blend of Scandinavian simplicity and Japanese serenity.
Exterior:
ZEN1
photo credit: Elle Decor

Here is the bedroom:
ZEN2
photo credit: Elle Decor
It’s super-minimalist with lots of wood.  I love the giant rice paper lamp!  I adore this look, but I don’t know if I’d have the discipline to keep things so uncluttered!  What do you think?  You can view the rest of the slides and article, here.

5 Websites for Home Inspiration

Interior Design, Styles

The Rainy Pot, strange and cute watering device for your plants. Photo Credit: design-milk. com

4 Men 1 Lady

This is a lifestyle blog run by Michelle, a mother of three living in a beautiful home in Utah. On the blog, Michelle documents various DIY and home improvement projects she currently and has undertaken. There are photo tours of her current and previous residence on the site and scrumptious recipes such as chocolate trifle to take inspiration from and try out.

Design Milk

This website not only features beautiful modern interior design and furniture but also new and interesting design ideas from architecture, fashion and the tech world. Check out this article on a strange and cute watering device.

the picket fence projects

This blog is run by a first time homeowner in very old(1860) New England home. On the site, Caitlin documents her various projects such as giving a stool a makeover and making DIY coasters and homemade mod podge. Just like 4 Men 1 Lady, there are plenty of detailed and close-up pictures for you to peruse and spark interior inspiration of your own!

houzz

The largest collection of  interior design and decorating ideas on the internet, the site features Ideabooks, user-made photosets, and articles about various topics on interior design. There are hours worth of photos visitor can browse and a photo for almost any interior design project you can think of.  Check out this article on creating a morning nook, a morning refresher space.

desire to inspire

This  website is run by two self-proclaimed “interior design junkies,”  one lives in Australia and the other from Canada. Kim and Jo were brought together by their love of interior design. There site features individual pages for each blogger, allowing visitors to follow each blogger separately and see through different perspectives.

Goop’s Guest Apartment

Bedding, Furniture, Interior Design, Mid Century Modern, Sheets

The latest Goop features The Guest  Apartment - the challenge: to transform an expansive but frill-free space above the garage into a cozy and fully outfitted guest apartment (or teen exile) – on a budget.”
Goop_guestroom
photo credit: goop.com
The room is planned out with functional areas: desk, sleeping, reading chair etc. I like how they kept the bed really simple with a white tufted headboard, white bedding and a heathered gray blanket draped across the bottom. Any pattern on the bed would have made the room look too busy.  The wallpaper is the “wow” statement-maker so the rest should be pretty low key!  I love the mid-century style bedside tables, you can get similar tables with white marble tops at Overstock.com! This style is modeled after the Saarinen Table by Knoll designed by Eero Saarinen in the 1950s. The real ones are rather expensive, so it is good that there are a lot of replicas out there.

marble-top-table
photo credit: overstock.com

If you need a great set of white sheets, our 800 Sateen, 800 Stripe and Percale are all wonderful options made with Egyptian cotton, and the prices won’t break the bank.

Julianna Margulies’ Elegant Modern-meets-Asian Bedroom

Asian, Furniture, Interior Design, Mid Century Modern

This month’s Architectural Digest features Julianna Margulies and Keith Lieberthal’s Soho apartment, with interior design by Vicente Wolf.  I especially like the serene master bedroom, a lovely mix of Asian and mid-century modern styles.
ADjulianna-margulies
photo credit: Architectural Digest,  photos by by William Abranowicz

The light fixture is stunning, it looks like a layered Japanese umbrella. Other dashes of Asian style are the carved wood sideboard, wood chest of drawers and the buddha statue.

The chair and ottoman look to be the Eero Saarinen for Knoll, Womb Chair set upholstered in a nice light gray.

Sarrinenchair
photo credit: DWR
This bedroom is beautiful but also looks cozy and livable!