There has been much talk lately about the fate of Brooke Astor's apartment. I think many of us are on pins and needles waiting to see if the new owners (whoever they might be) will destroy the famous interiors, preserve them in all of their glory, or simply refresh them. But closer to my home there is another prominent house I'm worried about: the Goodrum House located on West Paces Ferry Road in Atlanta.

Built in 1929 by famed architect Philip Shutze, the house is considered to be a prime example of English Regency architecture. Before it housed its current tenant, the Southern Center for International Studies, the house was a private home. While growing up, I always heard it referred to as the "Peacock Mansion" because the homeowner kept peacocks on the estate. (In fact, I remember on a few occasions going to school and seeing traffic held up because a peacock had gotten loose and was wandering the streets!) There were many other wild stories associated with the house which I won't print on my blog, but needless to say they only added to the home's allure- at least to this wide-eyed gal.

And now the Southern Center is selling the home. My biggest fear is that whoever buys the Goodrum House will rip it asunder and remove anything original and unique to the home. Believe me, Atlanta is losing its beautiful old homes at an alarming rate. The whole thing upsets me, so perhaps I should put my money where my mouth is and join the Preservation Center. In the meantime, I wanted to show you a few photos of this beautiful home. They certainly don't make them like they used to. I just hope whoever buys this home realizes it.





A few shots of the entryway. Is that a banister or what! Wouldn't you be thrilled to have that in your home?




The dining room is famous for its glorious Chinoiserie mural painted by Allyn Cox.


The ceiling of this octagonal breakfast room was painted by Athos Menaboni. The effect is like being inside of a bird-cage. Menaboni also painted the niches as well. Can you imagine a better way to start your day than by having a cup of coffee in this room?



The living room. Although it's sparsely furnished today, the room has real potential. Just look at the molding and carvings.

I've been eyeing this Marimekko wall hanging at CB2 for sometime and I haven't quite pressed the order button yet. Of course, I love the primary colors.

Then I saw Joy's post on Maija Louekari, so I had to check to see if this piece was made by her. And indeed, it was. Damn that girl is talented!

Hey kstylers,
Just had to share photojournalists latest doggie shot. This was a vender at the Art n Bloom show in Medford and he had a "closet" full of biker dogwear for sale. I love the sunglasses. Talk about a "hip" dog. Things are very busy in my life right now. Waterboy is off to Annapolis Naval Academy for a national water polo tournament, the photojournalist's longtime girlfriend is arriving permamently from Mexico on Saturday and we have boxes piled up everywhere for the move in two weeks. So be patient. Will be fun showing the new house and decorating projects. We just need to get through the next few weeks. Hope all is well with you. talk soon, k

Have a voyeuristic itch to scratch? We do — peeking into homes far more luxe than ours is both a pleasure and tease. Happily, we found a new source on line for some mighty swanky kitchens. Over at epicurious.com, they’ve posted a few video tours of some famous kitchens of people we’d love to have dinner with (especially if they were cooking). Our favorite is Isaac Mizhari, who gushes about all of his kitchen accessories, including bowls from Target, a chic (Alessi?) bread box and his espresso machine. Click here to hang with Isaac and see more.

I love the description for this product: "a cheerful ode to urethane".
Soft Gems are squishy faux gems, originally used for costume jewelry, but now utilized for interior treatments. How cool is this panel from Philadelphia's Pod Restaurant? Has anyone been here? The site looks very futuristic and artsy.
What I like is the versatility of the product; here it is used for lamp columns.

My question, as a color fanatic, is: are the gem hues customizable to your specific needs? Not that I don't love the orange, pink, yellow and green palette. But what if someone wanted a cool blue palette, or all purple and reds?

How would you use these flexible panels full of colorful orbs?

images source

Lady luck has been shining on me lately! It just makes my day when I look on my front porch and see a brown package with my name on it, addressed in someone's personal handwriting. I was so happy to receive this:

From these fabulous bloggers:

Design Boner is the blogging team of Porcelain (Katie) and Cardboard (Jessica) who are very talented and creative, especially in the realm of photography. They have weekly photo mosaics that they share with all of us (Lucky us!) and also share their love of designer-y finds. Well, they had a little birthday sweepstakes. They were giving away something "nice and pretty" and something "hahahaha". Lucky me! I won "nice and pretty"! (Although I am very curious about "hahaha", what was it girls?!?!)

Now how did they know I love this color?

I think it looks very "nice and pretty" on my hall table.

It matches my eggs.

I almost lost the rock at the bottom of the box. But I have this habit of searching boxes thoroughly before throwing them away. After the diamond incident, I can't be too careful. Isn't it cute? (It even looks a little like their namesake.)

Thank you so much Jessica and Katie! I love it! I hope you had a fabulous birthday!

But Lady Luck did not stop there! I received this very lovely package from Diana Muse. I think Design bloggers have got to be some of the best gift wrappers around. I love this postcard!

Diana has one of the most lovely and inspirational blogs I have seen. Her images are wonderful and her sidebar is full of very thought provoking quotes.

Diana did a post about Moleskins, those essential little notebooks used by those who want to capture a thought, an idea, a moment on paper. She also had a sweepstakes, and lucky me, I received this:

My very first official Moleskin! I am so pleased and I cannot wait to fill it up with all the wonderful, crazy, silly, serious, happy, sad things that come my way.

Thank you so very much Diana!

And please, if you haven't already, I think it's about time you paid a visit to these very brilliant bloggers, don't you?

We took the night train from Lisbon to Madrid and straight on to Valencia where we spent two hot days and swam in the wonderfully warm Mediterranean sea. Valencia was a beautiful city with the magnificent marbled Plaça de la Verge where we spent an hour enjoying the free entertainment ...

My friend Amy just emailed me about a fabulous product she read about on Daily Candy: magnetic chalkboard paint.
I remember when I was a teenager, my walls were absolutely plastered with pages from magazines (mostly cute boys), photos of friends, posters, mementos... You could barely see the walls. And I can only imagine the damage I probably did to the walls themselves, with sticky tape and thumbtacks. This product seems like the perfect solution.
I remember seeing a great use for chalkboard paint in a family's house- they painted the bathroom walls, then wrote notes to themselves and each other (keeping it clean, of course).

Evidently, you can make your own chalkboard paint, too (via Martha Stewart)

And here's another idea- the chalkboard paint doesn't have to completely cover a space- you can artistically end it wherever you please.

Alas, I can't vouch for the quality of the paint. Have any of you had any experience with this product? What creative ways would you use it?

So I learned about this design duo Nickey Kehoe (Todd Nickey & Amy Kehoe) from Domino magazine's "Domino 10". I love that they describe their approach to interior design as avoiding "design diva energy"! I can understand that. While I can appreciate that type of diva energy and design style, it's not exactly something I'd want in my house. I'm sure their portfolio doesn't show their current projects, so I hope they add more images of their warm minimalist style.

In the meanwhile, thanks so much to those of you who have expressed an interest in writing some guest posts for July. There are still some open slots for more articles, so please don't be shy-let me know if you'd like to write a little something about color!

one of my most favorite things to say is "i'm going home" ~ because it's one of my most favorite things to do. this afternoon i'll be flying out for a family-filled fun 4 days . . . . . and i'll be bringing exciting news along with me to share. in a few short hours, thanks to the modern marvel of 3-d ultrasound technology, i'll be able to see my lil' baby-peach again and hopefully, if it isn't too shy, we'll be able to see if it's a boy or a girl. to say that i'm excited is an understatement. ants in the pants doesn't begin to describe it. so much to look forward to wrapped up all in one day!
i wish you all a delightfully delicious memorial day weekend!

From Julie:

We love this idea from Daily Danny, by the irrepressible Danny Seo: lining a pathway with beach rocks painted with luminous glow-in-the-dark paint. During the day, they charge in the sun, and in the evening, they reflect the stored light. A 7-ounce can of Rust-Oleum Glow-in-the-Dark Brush-on Paint is $7.79 at Blick Art Materials.

Don't you love that anticipation after you've ordered something special, knowing that anytime your little bundle will arrive addressed to you? My order arrived from Restless Things and I just adore every bit of it...


...I had to share these pretty prints with you.

(image from holly becker for decor8.)

Visually striking but totally functional - that's how Matthew Leverone designs his interiors. With over 25 years experience he creates spaces that reflect his clients' needs and their unique sense of style. His sense of scale, balance, light and colour plays an important role in these spaces. Liveable and authentic as well as stylish.

Absolutely stunning organic paintings.

Another post on block-print? Well, I am so taken by these beautiful Indian Kalamkari inspired designs by Mary Mulcahy, the one behind Les Indiennes.I am sure many of you are aware of the amazing line of products by Les Indiennes, but what I really liked is use of just one or two colours, using Kalamkari technique which traditionally uses multiple colours.

Vesper Jewelry offers these bird themed pendants that have a very vintage modern feel to them. I adore both designs.

via Blepharopsis. Several sizes to choose, canvas prints strethed and ready to hang or frame.

made from recycled skateboard via 2ReVert.

Nothing exists until or unless it is observed...