I saw these cute little vases sitting on new lacquer trays in Pearl River's store window:

Upstairs in the 'Pearl River Home' store-within-a-store the trays were marked an unreasonable $49 but the little lotuses were $13.50.  It's hard to tell from the pic but they're much more delicate than anything you'd find at West Elm or Target, with a thin lip and  pleasingly opaque glaze (no crackle/luster ugliness).  Would look great with a single peony or chrysanthemum. 

I'm a sucker for obscure household products with cute packaging, like this "Renaissance Wax Polish":

Greek key, lion's head, New York magazine type.  But what does it do?  So much that Amanda (who opened the info packet in the mail today) kept murmuring "this is amazing ... amazing" until I turned down SkyFM All Hit 70s at my desk and was like "Mmhmmyeahwhat?"  She brought it over and suggested I blog.  Developed by researchers at the British Museum in the 1950s, the wax cleans and restores almost ANY material-- wood, metal, even paper -- with a combination of natural and man-made waxes that won't harm original finishes.  Works so well that a gal named Her Majesty the Queen appointed Picreator Enterprises Ltd. (its distributor) Official Supplier of Products for Restoration and Conservation. $15 for a 65ml/2.25 fl.oz. tin at restorationproduct.com.

Get your dhurrie in a hurry: Madeline Weinrib is having a sample sale. I don't normally plug sales but this is too good to ignore ... If you don't know her work then maybe it's time to redecorate the rock you've been living under! 40-60% off home and fashion stuff, from towels to pillows to carpet bags to sarongs.  Best of all are the RUGS -- wool and cotton flatweaves from $100-$800 (down from $225-$1400) and the delicious wool Tibetans at $800-$4000 like this 'Alexander':

Love the cheeky take on a Beni Ourain. Oh and I'm told this is a one-time-only deal -- not like waiting a season to get your Theory pants half-off -- so get thee to the ABC flagship at 881 Broadway on the lower level.  Sale runs through May 11th, Mon-Fri 10-8, Sat 10-7, Sun 11-6. 

Since reading Simon Doonan compare la couture to hippies in Big Sur making tooled leather belts I've been stuck on this idea, but I'm not sure it qualifies as a trend.  Points to any reader who can produce an image of Kate Moss in the recent French Vogue wearing all kinds of leather jackets and cutoffs in a mangrove ... similar feeling but is it 'Big Sur'?  Crate & Barrel has offered this table for years, and these tooled leather journals sold out on Etsy in a matter of weeks:
But the makers are from Argentina.  Hmm.  See other items here.  In any case this is my style inspiration for Summer '08: biker gangs clashing with hippie craftspeople on rock jetties in northern California. I'm off to burn my name into this belt I just bought from J. Crew!

So I'm ready for summer.  If hits 80 degrees tomorrow it should stay that way until after Labor Day.  One cruel April during college a Nor'easter hit New York City ... I still have no idea what that means but I remember kids made a frickin' ski jump on the library steps!  I'll have none of that in 2K8.  Give me this tie-dyed beach towel for $17.50 (which looks like a psychedelic nautilus shell) from Land's End:

Why not buy a couple of these and have your upholsterer make trippy-dippy, washable outdoor furniture cushion covers?  Solid beige with contrast piping can get so booooring.

Who wants to explain The Company Store to me?  Like Linda Richman might've kvetched, it's neither a company nor a store. Discuss.  Now discuss these recycled plastic boxes:

"De-clutter your life and be kind to the Earth" they say.  As if it were that easy!  But these white woven thingees with hunter green cotton (not acrylic) handles are more stylish than ten pairs of Birkenstocks, and stacked on a book shelf or under a console they could be very chic. They're marked down a whopping seven dollars --such a deal! -- to $62 for a set of three. They also make me wonder why nobody's successfully knocked off T. Anthony luggage?  It wouldn't be that hard!

How long have I been waiting to use that one?  Pretty much since compadres bppi and Decorno made me reconsider my stance on the material here, and since I saw this dining table for $685:


Eat your heart out, Marcel Breuer!  What do you think?  Is it too 9 1/2 Weeks?  I really love the giant tubes in a tripod and I might experiment by tying some stainless steel twine around where they meet -- the late, great Babe Paley had a dining table with two faux bamboo tripod bases tied this way (though hers was bronze and Jansen!).   If the marble top is too cool (or too cheap-lookng) you could make a new one in cerused oak.  I think I'd like the marble better if paired with some Louis XVI chairs or anything more trad. 

I want to live in a world designed by Kate Spade and Wes Anderson (whom I'm told lives above a Popeye's Chicken, amazing).  I stumbled onto Kate's "Things We Love" page and it's a frickin' goldmine -- like the ultimate cool friend you look to for guidance on music and stuff and blogs (or shamelessly steal these from and claim as your own).  Kate led me to another goldmine, Kiosk, which sources chic junk from around the world.  I swear Wes Anderson could fire his art director and use only their site for his next movie -- where else could one buy old-school airmail envelopes ($6):

or this red and white striped mesh tote I desperately need for the beach this summer ($21):

They're doing treasure from Hong Kong now -- wonder what's up next? Hope it's India!!

This Marimekko wall hanging makes me wish I still had an oregano green apartment:

Sigh.  Cute though, right?  $39.95 at CB2 and it's 57" x 36" - a nice scale.  I'm not sure I'd pay $24.95 for hanging hardware though.  I'd rather buy two and hang them on the vertical with canvas stretchers or just part of one to weigh it down.  And while we're on the subject of fruits (ahem), who went and changed the Juicy Fruit logo?  Hmm?? I thought bubble letters went out with the first Bush administration. 

Today at New York Central Art Supply (home to the world's largest selection of decorative papers!) I saw these adorable printed papers from a company called Brookfield Letterpress:

From top:  Gingko, Red Diamond, and Indigo Blossom. NY Central will take phone orders (1-800-950-6111) for 20" x 26" sheets at 5 bucks apiece -- see their selection here. Wholesaler OrangeArt showcases all the designs plus Brookfield's line of stationery and miniature books -- WANT -- but you have to use their 'find a retailer' function.  Kate's Paperie turns up bupkis.  Anybody seen the note cards in a store in the tri-state area?  I think my fave is the new 'Atlantis':

Looks like Wisteria is having a blue period along with West Elm and Ms. Jane Carolyne Smith Roehm Kravis -- I'm a green guy myself but love those cobalt garden seats.  And I'm really stuck on this bookcase from their new collection:
I guess the giant casters make it industrial and maybe more functional, for scooting around huge lofts like those in my pal Diana Lind's gorgeous new book Brooklyn Modern (check out the bookcase on the cover!!).  But here in my mousetrap across the river I'd ditch the wheels and paint the shelf edges black or a bright color. Not exactly Mugatu's level of polish but still charming. $599 for the single and $799 for the double-wide.

Plastic, right?  Bakelite, resin -- more fancy names for plastic?  I'm still guilt-ridden over that giant floating island of polymers out in the Pacific but can't resist these orange and red bowls from Tarzhay:

They're re-usable, they're reduced (on clearance at $11.99 for a set of EIGHT) and they'd make my Grape Nuts n' Probiotic Kefir so much more appetizing.  While we're walking the virtual aisles let me ask where the Isaac Mizrahi for Target furniture line went?  My Platonic Life Partner Kay scored the best white lacquer chest of his, like, two years ago for pennies and now I'm SOL.  Nothing gold (or white lacquer) can stay apparently...

Last weekend I strolled through the CB2 store in Soho (which a kind reader informed me is NOT the first) and gave this Dempsey chair a closer look:

Clean, modern, sorta boring.  But now from the side:

Dempsey's a manorexic! I bet he lives in Brooklyn and only works at CB2 to afford a studio space. Hot. But like many a hipster his clothes are dingy and boooooring ... this chair begs to be reupholstered in a wide stripe or big Marimekko print, or polished leather like his rich cousin RL-CF1:

$599 versus $16,500, sheesh.

Promise I'm not soliciting swag from the good people at West Elm, but they deserve more 'attaboys' (my dad's term; the opposite of a 'nastigram') for these new rugs:

The jute diamond, only 129 bucks for a 5x8!! Love the pattern and that it's not chenille-y wool.  And now my favorite:

This blue-on-blue Tangiers dhurrie makes me downright giddy -- $399 for an 8x10 -- don't tell Maddy Weinrib.  Unlike orchids chevrons never get old to me.  And is Yves Klein having a moment right now or what??

Today's post is brought to you by Bette Midler, before she went all Vegas (Please tell me that Vegas is NOT where everything goes to die!).  Check out my new favorite Clam on the Half Shell:

Real versions of this giant undersea beauty can sell for more than 1000 clams (forgive me), but the resin shell is a big 21" long, super realistic and only $169.  Looks fab on a bookcase or bar or even on hall table to throw your keys and wallet. 

My dear colleague Melissa "Mimi" M. recently asked yours/hers truly for suggestions on stylish and inexpensive curtain rods.  Good question!  Hand-carved water gilt curtain hardware from Joseph Biunno is stunning but will run you about as much as a hybrid car.  So I told her West Elm had some good modern options, but what to do for a more traditional room?  Turns out there's a site called CurtainRods.Com selling all components in a variety of finishes as well as unfinished wood.  I think this oak leaf finial could look cool on a 2-inch fluted pole in their white finish or painted a glossy, pop-y color (only $18.50 for a pair -- pardon the pics):
  But I also might do away with finials altogether and use straight wood poles (available in 2-inch or 1 3/8-inch diameters) and these unfinished wood elbows, or what decorators call "returns," for $13 each :
Sleek but substantial and you can stain or paint in any color.  Oh, and their simple rings with eyelets are only $12.50 for 4.

Determining scale is the hardest thing about shopping for furniture-n-stuff online.  I'm not on a 1stDibs budget or anything close, but let's take a look at this Vega Mirror from Ballard Designs, on sale right now for $179.99:

Even with the cheesy orchid and liquor bottle I'd still have no idea that it's 44.5 inches in diameter (why not chuck all the junk and put a Coke can front and center??). Anyway that's BIG, and the right scale to hang over a sofa or console table.  Dinky mirrors are a major pet peeve of mine ... an ordinary 30-inch wide mirror on a empty wall looks sad and unconsidered.  I'd paint the Vega's frame chalky white and pair with some blocky, modern lamps.

We have a lot of sayings in our little decorating dungeon--er, atelier-- some of which can't be printed here, but one fave is an affirmation from the boss that begins, "I do love a ..."  For example:
"I do love a toffee treat."
"I do love a glazed chintz."
"I do love a clean surface."
Last week he declared "I do love a galvanized garbage can" :

Awful pic but the design is so delightfully Oscar (the Grouch).  I love shiny galvanized metal but these also look great painted in solid colors or in contrast stripes on the indentations.  Wish some finagling I could also see one sans top as the base for a round breakfast table as it's 29" high.  $41.18 each!!

I've just searched every Urban Outfitters location in Lower Manhattan for my size in this pair of Levis.  No dice.  But in the sea of acrylic scarves and springtime military gear I noticed a beautiful quilt:

My main gripe about Urban's home stuff is the drab colors: too grayed-out or too literally 1970s.  Not here -- I love this bright red, indigo and sky blue combo on a white field with a yellow stripe on the reverse. The whole effect doesn't so much remind me of the Gobi or the Mojave as it does Prada  Spring/Summer '04, when Myooch did ombre and Venetian postcard prints:

I love! How cool would this quilt look in a sky blue bedroom with red and indigo ombre curtains?  $100.

I couldn't even keep a goldfish alive through the weekend (true story) so kids aren't exactly on the horizon in the Olsen tenement.  Plus I'm barren. But thank God for Amanda, who has two little baby geniuses of her own and reads blogs like Mighty Junior.  Today she linked me to these adorable galvanized metal pails:

So bright and shiny and available in 13 colors from Bucket Outlet -- what a goldmine -- at only $9.15 for a 10-quarter.  Just like B.O. says, they're ideal for kids' craft projects, gift baskets, planters, ice buckets, table decoration, shower gifts, Jack and Jill's precious agua ...

As you may know I'm a sucker for almost anything with a Greek key -- I say almost because there are too many uglified versions of this motif!  For instance the stock key molding I saw at Gracious Home was not only pressed wood, the detail wasn't crisp at all.  More like a 60s-Vegas-hotel furniture effect.  But today Office Comrade David ("Killer D") sent me this beautiful Molding Greek Labyrinth from Enkeboll Designs (via HomePortfolio):

Loving the high relief in solid maple and classic(al) design accentuating the horizontal.  MSRP is $123 for an 8ft length (check for local retailers).  I don't necessarily think it'd take Norm Abram to chop one down and glue pieces over the hokey top and bottom parts of this Ikea bookcase, then paint the whole thing glossy black.   

Well spring ain't sprung yet, but I just wandered back to ReproDepot.com and got inspired by these fun Japanese prints:

From the top: Notari Sweet Pea in red, She Is Cosmos motif (?!?) in yellow, and Jinsenji Wavy Stripe in black. All have BIG repeats and are only $8.50-$9.50 per half yard.  I'd acrylic-back the Sweet Pea to use as wallpaper and mount the black stripe on a canvas stretcher for something a la Franz Kline. She Is Cosmos? Well I see her more down the center of a big French armchair or comfy Bridgewater.

File this one under "Doesn't Take Much," but I am totally over-the-moon-gaga-excitified by this pot trellis from IKEA:

Forget plants, I see wall adornment that puts West Elm's interlocking squares to shame! For $2.50 EACH I'd buy about 30 in one color and glue gun 'em onto my walls and/or ceilings in the octagon design seen here. A perfect way to liven up feature-less new construction (like so many of the dismal rentals I looked at last month).  Spray paint them to match any room? Absolutely.  It looks like they're only sold in the stores ... has the Red Hook Ikea opened yet? 

Is it safe to judge an e-commerce site by its layout?  Sometimes I hesitate to go off the beaten web path, concerned over quality and customer service, but I think lots of decorating gold comes in not-so-slick packaging.  For instance check out this five-tier pyramid etagere (I finally learned how to make accents but then Typepad goes all Cyrillic on me!):

The photo is enough to make my eyes bleed -- three books and a tigerlily arrangement? Yikes.  But it's nearly six feet tall, made of black metal and has a perfect obelisk shape.  I also like the mini-ball feet and finial. I could see a pair of these filled with plants flanking a sofa on a screened porch or one in a living room with books.  Might be tempted to replace the glass shelves with shiny black plexi (or antiqued mirror if I had the $$).  "Sine assenbky recquired" makes me nervous, but it's 225 bucks and Yahoo's got their back, so why not take a chance? 

So I've dumped the much-maligned the Elliot Sofa for one named Ross:

Crate & Barrel has sorta modernized this Syrie Maugham-esque Belgian beauty the boss recently bought for a client.  Here's what I like about it:

1. individual, down-filled cushions against a tight back that aren't boxed out

2.  a single long seat cushion, boxed but with no welt (piping)

3.  strai