So a lot of pros on the "Big Black Book" panel recommend Williams-Sonoma Home for their beds and headboards.  Honestly, I love just about everything this chain makes, but I'm still not about to pay $2300 for some fabric-covered foam.  Plus there are more interesting shapes, like on this Regency Silk Headboard from Urban Outfitters:

At $280 this is cheeeeeeeap, but you do get what you pay for.  It ain't silk and it mounts on the wall, not the mattress platform.  I'd get it for the shape and buy three or four yards of another fabric (or one of their chintz bedspreads), upholster over the nailheads and glue some cord on tape from M&J around the edge of the design.

I have had this page from a magazine so long I can't even remember the publication, so I am afraid I can't credit it.  But I LOVE this floor and am about to do a bathroom floor like this in a job that I am doing.  I just wanted to put it up as I think it is a great idea and an alternative to painting the floor one color or having a break from an all wood floor. 

I meant to put this post up in the spring after i got back from London, i went to visit Giles Deacon in his studio in Arnold Circus, East London, all the beds were planted with poppies and daisies, it was so pretty. If you are in London, or going, it is worth checking this area out, on sunday Columbia Road flower market is amazing and cheshire street has one of my favourite stores, Labour and Wait. During the week the Rochelle Canteen is open for lunch in the School (situated in the south east corner of the circle) which is an off shoot of St John, the fabulous restaurant on St John St. This is a well kept secret, look at this review in The Independent.

I was looking at the new issue's "Big Black Book" section on rugs trying to think of an inspiring budget option when I remembered the feature a few months back on Lulu de Kwiatkowski's exotic pad (April?  May?).  She had a beautiful braided rug and the mag sourced L.L. Bean.  Whew, that took me back to a childhood of blue duck motifs and oak furniture.  I used to think these were way too Country Living but check out the Bean's "Vintage Red" :

Gorgeous -- so many colors to pull out of the braid and $339 for a 5x8.  I see this on a deep chocolate wood floor in a white or pale blue entrance hall with a French console comme ca from Wisteria and a modern mirror.  You likey? 

Custom framing can be so expensive.  Last Christmas I hesitated to give my boss an unframed watercolor of a matador I found at the flea market because if he liked it I knew he'd spend a small fortune on a French mat and frame.  (He liked; he spent).  His friend, uber-classicist architect Gil Schafer is also a fan (see current issue, page 53).  So crisp and rich looking:

As usual I recommend faking it.  If you have a steady hand -- don't come to me on weekend mornings -- you can use a fine-tip Sharpie, paint pen or exacto knife to get the same effect.  Store-bought frames with any detail usually look cheap, so stick with plain, rectillinear stock, maybe a half inch wide by about an inch and a quarter deep.  If it's silver or gilt try painting the sides black.  Then get a simple mat in a color and width to fit the artwork (pale blue is always nice).  On scratch paper work out a spacing design with varying pen tips and colors, then break out the ruler and pencil and make some guidelines.   You could also cut marbleized paper into strips and adhere with rubber cement.   Then maybe you'll have a second job at Pocker?

Please don't mistake this post for showing off, but tomorrow I am decamping to California for the rest of the summer.  Given that I find myself coming back from places, reporting on them and finding a ton of comments from bloggers telling me about fabulous places I could have gone to, I thought I should put this up so that I can get the heads up before I go.  So please, if there is anyone reading who is in or from or who has some bright California ideas, please share them. 

Ever heard of Laytner's Linen & Home?  Perhaps not the first name in luxury, but if you can't afford real Pratesi chain link on page 48 of the current issue--and honestly who can??--why not try their embroidered scalloped sheets?

You can buy a whole king sheet set AND king duvet set with shams for less than the cost of one teensy little Pratesi boudoir sham, about $180. They claim it's 400 thread count! While burgundy has never been my favorite color I'm guessing the blue (not pictured on the site) is actually pretty. I think every shade of blue is pretty! Elfya, my Belgian chocolate, thank you for this one.

I went to so many places in Boston and Cambridge (I know there is a massive difference!) that I will never be able to include them all in the story for the magazine, so I am figuring that there is nothing wrong with reporting on the places that we never got back to to photograph.  One of these places was Reside in Cambridge, they had some really good pieces.  It's full of mid century couches, lamps and chairs.

i love this Vernor Panton light. I saw one in London the last time I was there, and have tried to use it a couple of times. This one was $275.  This is a very good resource, although it is a hit and miss shop--some days you will strike it lucky and others not.  I also think that it is pretty close to Christina's ice cream shop in Innman Square with the delicous sounding ginger and molasses and burnt sugar ice cream that KateF mentioned in the other Boston post.

Who doesn't love a nice tray?  For drinks or mail or keys or remotes -- Delphine Krakoff and Steven Gambrel know they give furniture multiple uses and textural contrast.  But the ones they recommend cost more than an iPhone!  Or a Black Angus heifer, according to my friend Trevor who's visiting from the heartland.  For chic alternatives I went to domino mainstay Z Gallerie and love this set of nesting hyacinth trays (I'm a sucker for anything that nests) at $42.95:

Or this 16-inch raffia charmer (only $19.95)

I see this on a lacquer, marble or leather-covered coffee table. 

I have just gotten back from Boston where I was shooting a shopping story for Domino that will come out in November.  I was amazed by how like London the more residential areas of the city are. There is so much red brick, as well as tons of terraced houses. It's sort of a combination of the West Village, Brooklyn and the more Victorian areas of London combined.  One of the things I loved most were the gardens you see here. In England they are called Allotements--I have never seen them in the States before. Of course, it was raining when I took this shot, which made the whole atmosphere all the more English!

Since Katie Higgins asked about my bedroom wallpaper this seemed like a pretty good post.  I adore this wallpaper, Madras Violet - from Cole and Son. It is so pretty and because it has a simple repeat, it is quite modern.  I never got bored of it and still think it is one of the best floral papers on the market.

Cole and Son are well known for their handblocked wallpapers. They took a few designs from their archives and surface-printed them, making them more affordable while retaining some of that hand blocked look.

But...I have just called Coles to find out why they don't have it on their website.  The fools have discontinued it! So this is now only available if you order it handblocked, which is a minimum order of 30 rolls, which I think are about £100 each.  Grrrrr. Am so upset.

Time for me to start blogging some items in the new "Best Of" section, where esteemed designer panelists (including our Lovely Rita and my Mugatu) revealed all their likes, dislikes, tricks of the trade, secret sources and so on.  I can tell you they don't all come cheap!  First up is this "Canyon" bed from Ralph Lauren Home pictured on page 62:

Don't get me wrong, Ralph makes gorgeous furniture, but this bed starts at almost $4k!  No way Jose.  I recommend this good ripoff, suspiciously named the "Cayman" bed, from Restoration Hardware:

On sale right now for $1370!! 

Today a Chiasso catalog came in the mail -- does this line remind anyone else of that "Nuni" skit from Saturday Night Live, about husband-and-wife Swedish art dealers who are both named Nuni?  Chiasso doesn't offer chairs made from gorilla hair but most of the stuff's a little out there.  Howevs I do like these big stainless steel pinwheels as styling objects:

They're 12" in diameter and 41" high -- wouldn't a few look great in a glass cylinder or bright ceramic vase on your dining table?  $14 each.  Cheeky and whimsical with a hard edge, sort of like Jeff Koons' stainless steel "Rabbit" from 1986 (one of my all-time favorites).

I was short a few bits of furniture the other day--domino was shooting my apartment and I realized that I needed a coffee table pretty badly and a hall table - not so badly.  So I ran down to Lars Bolander's store on Gansevoort Street.  He has wonderful pieces and is a great stop for those things you need at the end of a job.  Lars is not where you go for a bargain, but he has some lovely things and not all are very expensive. This bookcase for example is about $5,000, which for something of this size is not bad. It would cost about three times that to have it built, and it's a good investment piece, becuase it will work in so many spaces. In one house it might be great in a kitchen, and then if one moves it could work in a library/sitting room or bedroom. And it's important when buying furniture to consider how easily it will move around.

I'm in love with anything on casters right now so should I propose to this new desk from CB2?

Parsons-industrial charm powder coated in orange that reminds me of certain French house formerly known for saddlery.  (So many of you kind readers have tried to help me with accent marks ... still no luck).  No drawers though so I might used this as a rolling bar in a living room with two white porcelain garden stools or a French-y painted low table underneath.  $149 and there's a matching bookcase for 50 more bucks.   

I have to vent a little this morning.  I went to Fisher and Page the other day for flowers, and came home with a huge bunch of Hydrangeas. Twelve hours later they were looking pretty shabby; the following morning they were dead.  Now, the beef I have with this is that not only is the flower market in NY no cheaper than anywhere else (in London at the market you are buying where the florists buy each morning -- it is all wholesale), but the flowers are not particularly fresh.  This is the second time this has happened to me. The last time they were dead by the end of the day (both times F and P flowers).  So I then went to a really charming florist on West 10th St called VSF. They always have amazing things. I came out with an armload of hydrangeas again, but this time with instructions - smash the stems (cut them on the diagonal and then slice them). They told me to pour the sachet of powder they gave me into the vase (I have always chucked the in the trash before)  and put them in a vase of hot water, and don't be nervous of how hot.  Well this photograph is day two of their stay here and they are looking better than the first lot ever did.  So two things I am doing from now on: buying VSF flowers and following their directions.
VSF Flowers: 204 West 10th Street, NY NY 10014 Tel: 212 206 7236

I used to think that there was no way around this kind of hideosity:

A friend of mine is renovating her apartment and switching out doors like these would add thousands to her budget.  I was stumped, but then thought if I turn to paint for 99% of my decorating problems, wouldn't it work on some ugly mirror?  Newish construction tends toward flimsy moldings and metal framed doors and windows, so I say paint it all the same color to disguise the lameness. THEN I would pick a stencil (Greek key?  Moorish arch?) and paint a border ON the mirror itself.  I wish I had a picture to illustrate ... maybe in a few months if she takes my advice!   

Here is the sofa (okay, loveseat) I've been searching for, and I'll tell you why:  it's upholstered to the floor and has loose buttoned single seat and double back cushions with no welt (piping).  I'm not really a beige linen kind of guy but the design is just so Brooke Astor's rec room circa 1974 .  I even like the diagonal arm corner piece:

I see these in any combination with bright orange satin square pillows and a low black lacquer coffee table.  $1199 for the loveseat; $999 for corner from Brocade Home.  And as for the rest of that catalog boy does the name say it all! 

I have just been looking at Decor8's blog, she has this post up which is about Modern Euro Country. It is strange actually, as I was sitting down to write this post and got sidetracked by her comment on the suger cone post.  Anyhow, Flamant feeds exactly into this aesthetic.   Flamant is a wonderful Belgian company that produces country furniture, the sort that you could scavenge a thousand flee markets for, wonderful country sink units, sofas, shelving, lighting and china and on and on.  It is hard to contact them in Belgium, or at least ever get a response, but RenebyFlamant is a website based in the states that deals in their product. They are completely charming and are very quick to respond to enquiries. I have just bought a sofa for a client there and so far so easy.

When I was at home in Florida my friend (and muse) Kay had bought all sorts of fabrics to decorate her adorable apartment in an old Victorian house.  They were so chic and very domino -- I knew she hadn't found them at JoAnn's or Hancock's (not to knock those old standbys).  Turns out she has this amazing source in Daphne, Alabama, of all places called RichTex fabrics.  They carry a mind-blowing selection of discount decorator fabrics and if you sift through the sage and burgundy florals you'll find some serious style, like this Red & Black Abstract beauty ($12.95 a yard) and below it this Kelso Brown & French Blue Canopy Stripe ($6.95).  Can't beat the prices, plus it's nice to support a family-owned business.

I have recently found a wonderful new blog, there aren't many out there that I like, I have to be honest, and I am not a big blogger. Is that a terrible thing to admit? I have no idea really how to find them.  Anyhow this is a really good one - AllTheBest.  At the moment she has this divine hall by Steven Gambrel up on her current post which is all about pink--a subject close to my heart. I think this is a very harmonious full circle, as I know this image has been published in the magazine. I think it was even shot by domino, and I have also used it in a lecture. (Steven, you really struck a chord with the girls when you did this interior!).  The rest of the blog is filled with beautiful things and a column on the side of wonderful books, that I either have and love, or long to get my hands on.  Check it out. 

Tim just linked me to this Paris Hotel Boutique, which I love because sometimes I just don't have the time or energy to troll the flea market.  These folks have done it for us all with great results, like this McGuire faux bamboo table (more like giant sheaf of wheat?):

I think it would make a great base for a big oval mirror or glass dining room table top.  Or this cute side table:

The prices are a bit higher than you'd find at the old Chelsea Annex ($225 for the piece above), but you'd spend as much if not more at Crate & Barrel. Check here first for something with character!  Plus they have some out-of-print design books for literally hundreds less than I've seen in fancy stores, like David Hicks on Home Decoration.   

I spent last weekend with the super stylish interior designer Steven Gambrel at his house in Sag Harbour.  Amongst the eye candy I found these cones of sugar sitting on a tray beside the coffee machine.  One wrapped in blue waiting for the moment the carved out cone in a bowl was finished.  I fell on them and was told to go to Jas Townsend & Son Inc where they sell all 18th century American goods.  There is a lot of pewter, which I have always found terribly depressing, but strangely once surrounded by a satisfactory amount of marble it becomes pretty chic.  Anyhow the sugar cones are wrapped so beautifully and are only $3.50 each. Popped in a pewter bowl with the sugar cutters, the whole thing is rather fabulous - helped by the Francis Francis coffee machine and a charming tray with some heavy little glass jugs - to mix up those natural materials.  Head straight for the sugar - please resist the temptation to indulge in an 18th century night gown.