Lately I've been enjoying Spike TV's James Bond marathon and all the obsolete-looking gadgets and remote controls.  Thoughts on the Roger Moore era?  He may not be the most virile Bond but those movies have such a 70s louche elegance ... anyway, it seems all I want now are old phones (see previous post) and tape decks and such.  Boxy and black are back!  A year ago Amy bought a matte black iBook and I thought it daring, now I regret not springing for one myself.  (Apple totally gouges you on style as the no-frills laptops only come in white).   To tide me over I'll buy one of these Guts of Time alarm clocks from Urban for $20:

Totally looks like something Q would whip up.  Oh, and my other style prediction for 2008 is smoky everything: plexi (like this clock's casing), mirror, glass, and topaz plus the Smoky Mountains, Smoky the Bear, etc.  Happy 2008 everybody!

I am about to leave for the airport - am on my way to Harbor Island. So I am afraid that posts are going to be sketchy. Back on the 3rd. Will report all findings then. TTFN and Happy New Year. xox

Before I went home for the holidays (known in my family as the Seven Days of Starches) I heard about a website called oldphoneworks from fabulous clients who apparently hate the look of new telephones as much as I do.  This place sells hundreds of new and used phones and phone parts (they have an entire "orange" category!), some for as little as $12.95, like this Golden Eagle Trimstyle in red and green:

No, these aren't retrofitted for multiple lines and intercoms and buzzers but one might be perfect in a guest bedroom (or anywhere that's not Command Central or a Panic Room).   

I have just got back from Savannah where I was shooting a shopping story, due to be published in March.  One of the highlights of the trip was Alex Raskin's antique shop on Monterey Square.  The store is in a wonderful  house - totally Grey Gardens in its eccentricity and perfect state of decay.  I took this picture there. It shows the window treatments in the second floor sitting room - Venetian blinds and thin voile curtains.  I thought this was really chic and a very good way to deal with large windows on a budget.  Longing to copy this somewhere. 

Perhaps it's no coincidence that style chains Muji and CB2 have opened their first U.S. stores next door to each other in SoHo. (Kind Readers have informed me that Chicago boasts not one but TWO CB2 retail stores.  Woops!) And the fact that Pearl River is a block north practically makes this stretch of Broadway its own niche neighborhood (Take note, Bo Concept).  I love CB2 but the whole look is a bit Miami, no?  On the other hand, Muji stuff says nameless Japanese factory town. Or Brave New World.  Compare:
Ten dollar black vase

and Lip melamine plate from CBDos

versus Muji's utilitarian aluminum wall hanger for $19.99

and this adorably sterile green dispenser bottle (less than $4 for 250ml version)

I love it all -- style is in the mix, right?  Like wearing your sequined tube dress with corrective shoes.  Too bad there's no online Muji store ... yet.

This is my Christmas gift to you all. I was at lunch last week with a very chic couple. They had both been using this product for their eyelashes; the husband previously had barely any eyelashes at all, and with Revitalash, they had grown thick and long. So I went online to find it. It was developed by a doctor for his wife who, after chemo, had lost her eyelashes. The results are amazing and my friends last weekend are huge tried-and-true fans.  I have already got a small list of people I want to give this to, including a friend of mine who is growing a beard, which is a little patchy at the moment!

I might have made little progress with my Christmas shopping but I have got the wrapping sorted.  I started with these tags by Cavallini & Co. They are a San Francisco based company that make the most charming labels, gift wrap and various other paper things--notebooks and files, usually with birds and post marks on them.  Charmant.

Dear Santa,

Here is my list for Christmas 2007.  I've been a very good boy this year: I kept up this blog, started paying off my credit card, and went into work extremely hung over only, like, five or six times.  So won't you help me out with a few of these items on December 25th?  My new apartment has a fireplace so you shouldn't have trouble getting in -- granted it's straight out of a Jacob Riis photograph, not the high relief splendor I used to know -- but just wait until you see this place next year!  Thusly I am asking for:

1. Peace on Earth (duh)
2. A bolection mantel with pale green marble surround and hearth
3.  A Moroccan rug
4. An IKEA red lacquer kitchen or one in custom stainless steel from Master! Kitchen! Builders! in Chinatown
5.  A mini-fridge as I am not a family of five (and a dishwasher and ice maker if you're feeling generous)
6.  A flat screen TV compatible with my remote and widescreen format DVDs (not like this French Audiovox abomination I have presently)
7.  A monogrammed shower curtain
8.  A Dyson vacuum

And ....

9.  A perfectly slim-fitting peacoat
10.  Our curtain maker David Haag's Martin Margiela boots in tan suede and chocolate brown leather
11.  Custom fit button-down shirts from Polo (if they ever start making them again!  PLEASE Polo!)
12.  A better haircut
13.  Books without pictures

I'm sure I'll think of more, but that can get you started.  Oh, and I could use a few elves around here to work on this shirred/tented ceiling idea have so maybe you could spare a few once your high season is over?  Let's talk. Thanks Santa. 

Nick

(Readers, tell me what's on your list this year!!!)

I got an email the other day from one of my favourite London dealers, Sean Berg of Berg Brothers to say that they were joining 1st Dibs and that the British site was about to go live, which it now has. They have got all the top names on there and certainly all the dealers that i like to check out when i am in London. I am wondering when 1st Dibs are going to go to Houston....?

I recommend this source all the time.  Their basic seagrasses don't cost much more than the jute area rugs from West Elm, but you can order custom sizes with binding fabrics in varying widths and a bunch of different colors:

My two cheap favorites are the Aspen hemp and Magellan seagrass:


Kindly note that I'm not recommending these for durability!  But I wouldn't hesitate to cover most of an ugly wood floor (or even do wall-to-wall) with seagrass or sisal.  In fact I wish more folks would layer rugs -- I hate to see a postage stamp 8x10 area rug on a huge expanse of wood floor.  It's totally chic to lay an antique carpet on a natural texture and maybe even a small hide on top of that. The tattier it all gets, the better (see also: 'old money').

I forget which Domino supahstaah recommended Wendy Goodman and Hutton Wilkinson's new Tony Duquette monograph but I can't wait to mine it for inspiration!  I knew him for the lush Hollywood interiors but not as much for these wackadoo found object sculptures his official website turned up:

I look at these and immediately think of Anthropologie, or of how Jonathan Adler is re-issuing classic Curtis Jere sculptures.  But that stuff is expensive!  Crunchy, folk-arty stuff used to freak me out, but now I'm really digging things like this Guatemalan jaguar mask, $30 from the Museum of New Mexico Foundation:

Or you can always get some metal scraps and pheasant feathers and make some sculptures of your own!

West Elm, if lovin' you is wrong then I don't want to be right!  Right now it's only 50 bucks for my fave Greek key wall bracket (or "Mandarin" according to W.E. marketing genies) in gold :

And $59 for this two-tone bamboo/cotton throw with blanket stitching and festive fringe! 

Just the kind of timeless, anonymous style I flip for.  And who says you can't paint these brackets to match your room, hmm?  Or hang a pair flanking a modern hall mirror topped with huge rock crystal or amethyst geodes?  Or blue and white porcelain -- think to yourself, What Would Mario Do?  And I bet stitching two of the throws together would make a great tablecloth.

I received the new Persephone Books catalogue last week (one of my favourite publishers that you might have read about here as I have blogged them before).  It is a small company that publishes novels from the 20th C that have fallen out of print, and the results are the most delightful books that you simply disappear into.  You can give or order for yourself a subscription to their books so that once a month, a new books falls on your mat. You can also do it for 6 months, which might give one a little more time to finish or fit another book in.  Anyway, I can't think of a nicer thing to receive--I always want to order every book they have.

Forgive the Grinchiness of my last post.  I actually really love the holidays.  And I love wrapping presents: the razor-sharp corners, that careful color/texture balance between paper and ribbon (my boss: "your mincing fingers were made to tie bows") ... but isn't there a certain Vans-esque, 80s charm to these diamond checkerboard printed gift boxes?

$2.50 for a red and white shirt-size box.  They save you time and a trash bag full of wrapping paper come Chanukkah--starting today!--or Xmas (if you're not a militant re-user like some people I know--me).

I have just been down to Broome Street to this wonderful store. Strangely, it is a company that I knew in England, but didn't realise had opened a fantastic shop here in NY.  The store is filled with their glass lamps and upholstery, and amongst all of that are ceramics, glasses, wonderful wooden trays and hand-turned bowls, quilts, onyx bowls, Paris flee market mirrors, cabinets and long tables.  It is really a great stop for the home.  Hurry down.....

The holiday season is upon us, a time to pause and reflect on the passing of time and give thanks for everthing and everyone we hold dear.  And if I could telepathically communicate those sentiments to all the folks on my list, I would!  Thoughtful gifts? Actually mailing out cards? Who has the time?!  Okay, I kid ... sort of.  For cards this year I think I want to do a mass mailing with minimalist-slash-kindergarten flair and a buy a ton of plain stock cards and envelopes from Kate's Paperie (or anywhere, but these are on 60 cents apiece):

And a roll of 100 snowflake stickers

slap some on the card, express my glad tidings in, say, five words or less, and be done!

I am on my way out to Washington, CT to see my mother, who is signing copies of her new book at the Hickory Stick Bookstore.  If any of you bloggers are in the neighborhood, do come by. Fairfax, if you are near please come with some of your brightly colored pens!!!

Her latest book is called Elements of Design. I really think it is her best yet and reassuringly helpful for anyone tackling the sometimes overwhelming prospect of decorating their own home.