I’ve got this elaborate decorating scheme in the back of my mind that involves a lot of mirrors. Basically, I want to get about ten or twelve celluloid hand mirrors and hang them on pegs in a cluster in my kitchen or bathroom.This mint green fantasy is my newest inspiration.
[Via The Cottage Log]
One-sided fantasy phone exchange:
“Tim Burton called and wants his skeleton armchairs back.”
“Oh wait, they belonged to Vincent Price? And they were modeled after a rare 18th-century chair?”
“Well, then.”
[Via Morbid Anatomy]
The apartment lust list continues! More things that I want, need, desire from Etsy. I want all white dishes, lots of stoneware and Fire King and tons of interesting light fixtures. I also just discovered Raymor ceramics (the sugar and creamer above): gorgeous!
[From top left: Four Vintage Horse Ashtrays; Driftwood Wreath; Fire King Dinner Plates; Raymor Cream and Sugar Set; Tall Ring Tower Sculpture; Fire King Tea Cups; Custom Branch and Twig Chandelier (LOVE!); Egg Basket Pendant Light; Antique Leather Bound Mirror; Cast Iron Homburg Paperweight]
So, I’m sure you’re already sick of hearing me talk about my future apartment (bear with me, friends!), but my enthusiasm just knows no bounds. Seriously, I’m squeeing all the time about living with Jeff, getting kitties and decorating to my heart’s content.
That’s where this sassy little item comes in. I bought this decorative plate forever ago and never hung it up, because — well, because it wasn’t really “my house” to hang it in. However, my new place? Well, this is going to be (gently) slapped up on the wall first thing. I’m going to spend all of my time at home in my skivvies while eating night cheese. If that’s not doing as I darn please, then I don’t know what is.
Hehe! To the future!
You may or may not know that I love rot, abandonment and a general state of dereliction, whatever the style or age of the building may be. However, when there’s an aristocratic bent to the decay — well, then the bread pudding thickens. Hannah of Hello Mr. Fox recently visited Calke Abbey, a 1704 country house and estate in Derbyshire, England preserved in 20th-century decline. The story of this Baroque mansion is that of an eccentric family given to massive taxidermy collections and lots of hoarding. (Drooling. Cannot close mouth. Attempting — to — breathe.)
According to Hitchcock Blonde:
“Calke Abbey is a kind of architectural elegy to the extinction of the rural peer, a giant version of the taxidermist’s tanks that fill its rotting, forsaken rooms. A twelfth-century Augustinian priory (go figure) tucked away in Ticknall, Derbyshire, Calke was inhabited by the ambitious Harpur family from 1622 to 1980, suffering a slow and spectacular decline as its rooms fillled with a marvellous and mundane miscellany of art, fossils, shells, children’s toys, books, butterflies and birds: the fallout of fruitcakes with fulsome funds.
“Calke is a 3D map of mild psychosis, from the collections of Henry Harpur (1789), the baronet with ‘an unhealthy taste for solitude’ who married a lady’s maid, to the christening present bought by Richard Harpur Crewe (1880) for his nephew, a silver-mounted ostrich egg with decorative boars’ tusks.”
This country mansion has since been donated to the National Trust after the family died off and fell into massive debt. I’m so pleased that they’ve allowed it to stay as it was — and that there are tours! Learn more at the National Trust’s website.
[Via Hello Mr. Fox]
Porch swing / bed? Yes, please.
Now to wile away the sultry summer nights on a (slightly cramped — okay, crowded) fire escape. The fragrant breezes of Anytown, U.S.A.* will soon be coming my way!
As a huge fan of Elisabeth Dunker’s work and Fine Little Day, I am jumping up and down to see her latest pieces for sale: wallpaper designed by her son (those sail boats are just magnificent) and cutting boards with her illustrations (as well as those delightful painted face spoons, which I lurve). Check it all out in her shop.
[Via design*sponge]
Hummina.
Chambres en Ville is the best of both worlds: a historic mirror factory (so mystical!) converted into a five bedroom home, ri-god-damn-diculously beautiful and available for rent while in Brussels. Sold. I’m heading to Kayak for plane tickets as we speak.
And can we talk about those kitchen shelves with all the dishes? And the library — with a ladder? Swoon city!
[Via THERSIC]
Moving in with JB is exciting and fun enough (living in sin!), but the thought of being able to decorate an entire apartment? I was at Home Deport looking at paint swatches after we finished signing the lease! (Not really, but about three days later I was pawing through all the dusty grays and blues they had in stock.) I’ve got so many ideas of how to make our new home as cozy as possible, while simultaneously as true to our Victorian/Edward Gorey/Depression era inspirations. I call my decorating concept “derelict museum.” Just envision the cobwebs and dust bunnies on the taxidermied pheasant’s beak and let your mind wander.
Also, we acquired a couch very similar to the one pictured for a song last night. Craigslist, you make my dreams come true!
[Clockwise from top left: Vintage Antlers; Buster Leather Chair from Restoration Hardware; Cow Skin Rug; Vintage Hardoy Butterfly Chair; Statue Drawing; Natural Ceramic Vase; Hamilton Leather Sleeper Sofa; Vintage Taxidermy Pheasant; Vintage Anatomical Poster; Vintage Bakelite Radio; Glass Science Apothecary Set; Antique Immigrant's Trunk]
“We thought our first home together would be more purely Victorian, but as things fell together, we saw a closer resemblance to Depression-era stylings.
Jamie picked out the colors, which I love; they remind me of that time when folks would gather around the radio in the evenings. I like that feeling of comfort.
The office interiors of the film Downfall were a big influence on our color palette. In general, it was a mixture of Flowers in the Attic, Pretty Baby, The City of Lost Children, and Spaceballs.
If we could live in a novel, maybe we would try Anna Karenina or The Count of Monte Cristo, but I think the opulence would bug us.” — Jaime Isia and Anthony Malat on their apartment aesthetic in New York Magazine
As of June 1, 2010, Jeff and I will be living in sin in our own little nest. Expect endless Polyvore mood boards and decorating thoughts to come! I’m so excited to spread all of my antlers, portrait paintings and cow skin rugs all over our new place and let some kitties roam. Eeeeep! This bedroom gives a good idea of where I want to start, decorating wise (but in a railroad apartment, not a barn). More decorating thoughts can be found in my dream house post.
[Image via Aubrey Road]
My Google Reader is full of blogs on the quickly fading architecture and history of NYC — Forgotten New York and Lost City are faves — but none fills me with glee like visual smorgasbord Scouting NY. As a film location scout looking for historically appropriate buildings and spots off the beaten path, Scout gains access to the sorts of places I didn’t even know existed — like the abandoned mansion in Yonkers shown above. (It is blowing my miiiiiind!) According to the post,
“Alder Manor was built in 1912 by William Boyce Thompson, an extremely successful copper magnate. Boyce hired architects to design a 72-room country estate for entertaining (he lived in New York City at the time) on 22 acres of hilltop land in then rural Yonkers. After the death of he and his wife, the mansion fell into ruin as it was traded between owners who had no use for it.”
The moldings, the grand staircase and the library (be still my heart!) are enough to make me venture out to Yonkers on the next train. Can you believe this place exists? It’s like a dream! Check out the entire post here for more details on the magnificent “Clue Mansion.”
Butch Anthony is an inspiration: he’s a cook, he’s a folk artist (with a festival, the Doo Nanny, where they burn giant vagina effigies in honor of the Burning Woman, as opposed to the Burning Man), he builds log cabins, he wears only overalls and straw hats…the list goes on. Also, can we talk about his log cabins, because they are blowing my mind: I want to go to there! The old fixtures, the rust, the beaver sticks as window treatments (sticks beavers chewed up!), the simple white interiors: it’s all so enticing.
Read more about Butch Anthony in this piece in the Times. Watch the slideshow here. So good!
So JB and I were casually walking down the street on Saturday when he spied a flier for a “collectibles sale” with dolls, bones and furniture (um, yes) going on a few blocks away. We toddled on down to find that the sale was in a building that we obsess about, adding to the allure. This is where I started to get a good “cheetah sweat” going, as I was ready to pounce on anything that caught my eye — I get all elbow-y and my hoarding instincts rear their ugly head. (It’s not pretty, but it’s effective.)
There were tons of religious icons, paintings, furniture, skulls, old dolls, a Gibson guitar from 1970 — and the mantle above. It was so convincing as a display piece that I had to wonder if it was, in fact, a real fireplace, and when I found out the price (which included the log lamp — I already have two, but I’ll soon be parting with them in my Etsy shop!) I had to get it. I’ve been looking for a colonial faux fireplace for the longest time, and this little beauty certainly fit the bill — look at the moldings!
Jeff and I hauled it home and quickly set all of my plants and various baubles in place. I’m so excited to drink tea in front of the electric glow and hang tiny stockings come December. Yay!
P.S. I can’t neglect to mention that I got to go a live studio audience taping of Saturday Night Live with Zach Galifanakis as host. It was so incredible! The studio is so small, the energy is high (running between skits while changing wigs, etc.) and you really feel like you’re a part of it. My favorite character? The peach onesied dual rock flute player. Jeff and I also couldn’t get over the fact that Zach shaved his beard during the show to play a pageant dad (clip not online, sadly). You can see the backstage footage of him hastily shaving and later applying a fake beard to cover here.
I’ve been dreaming a lot about what my future home will be like. This is a mood board of all the various components: wood and stone, a roaring fireplace, sleeping kitties, windowsills decked with plants, a garden, black walls and more… It’s my ideal.
[Note: All of the photos link to their origin. Thanks for all the inspiration, internet friends!]
Wanted: wrought iron bed frame, the creakier and more hospital seeming, the better. This looks about right.
Living in a log cabin seems like a dream come true. Though the cabin in my mind’s eye is primitive and cozy with an ancient hearth and roaring fire, this miniature modernized version, designed by Piet Hein Eek, seems pretty dandy as well. It was even built on wheels for easy transport. Can I roll it over to my backyard? [Via Erie Basin]
There was a time that I never thought of France. It somehow seemed the obvious place to visit, with it’s romantic and “whimsical” connotations. (“We’ll picnic under the Eiffel Tower, mon cheri! Bring your striped shirt.”)
However, I’m glad to say that I’m over my misguided delusions (with the help of Julia Child and David Sedaris). France now seems like a wonderland of amazing flea markets, medical museums, stinky cheese and taxidermy for miles — all on my “can’t live without” list. Joanna Maclennan‘s photos of Avignon boutique Vox Populi exemplifies all of my expectations.
Artists and Vox Populi owners Pascale Pulin and her husband Bruno have translated their many collections into a life-size cabinet of curiosities. Located in Provence, the peeling wallpaper, bell jars and many scattered bits and pieces of ephemera give this atelier a storybook quality. It’s as though I’m stepping back in time. In the words of Alice Sebold, “lovely bones.” (I think I want to make that my new catchphrase.)
I now want nothing more than to visit France’s winding cobblestone streets. Bring on the fromage, mon cher!
[Via The Constant Gatherer]
