So it was my birthday yesterday.

I got together with my high school girlfriends (Jeannie, Jeanne, and Robie) and my old college roommate, Gertrude, on Sunday for brunch at Universal Cafe. They gave me this beautiful terrarium--and Jeannie was the mastermind behind the design! Really nice work guys.

At Universal Cafe, Gertrude and I also ran into Cindy, our dorm floor friend...years ago. Which reminds me: when we first moved into our dorm room they so kindly put our names on the door: Gertrude and Margaret (that's my real name). Um, we sounded more like ladies pushing 80 in an assisted living facility than college freshman! Oh yeah, folks were knocking on our door JUST wanting to hang out with us.

And yesterday, I had dinner with my family. And I was surprised to see these paper plates that Marvin bought from the grocery store. I have to say this is pretty cool for Dixie (or whoever makes this), way better than cheesy florals and grapes. Wouldn't this be a nice pattern on fabric?

And this. Well, these snazzy placemats (yes, those are dogs wearing bunny ears) were a gift from my mom. Needless to say, I was speechless.

From Janet:

Forget stocking up on reams of paper for your child’s creative urges: consider this simple Chalkboard Table instead. The Offi Woody Chalkboard Table is $299 at Design Public.

Posted by Bluelines

It comes as no surprise to us that our talented blogger Scott Horne would have an equally creative and gifted sibling.

Ken Horne, brother to Scott, studied drawing, painting, and photography in Los Angeles, London, Burlington, and Denver, where he now maintains a studio.

Because his day job as a child welfare social worker often brings him face-to-face with dark scenarios, Ken infuses his art with light and color.

The artist is inspired by nature, society, and modern design. Ken constantly explores and experiments with line, form, balance, and color.

But, enough from us. Let his stunning work tell the story.

What's your favorite?

I was featured in the Wall Street Journal yesterday in a cool little article called "Crafty Hobbyists Create New Careers Using the Web". Though in the article it seems current, I actually started that wedding invitation business with a partner many moons ago...like 9 years ago and sold it about 3 years ago!

And I was also in another article back in February in the Washington Post and Entrepreneur.com that I forgot to mention. It was an article called "The Benefits of Pregnancy". I like how she used the term "blindsided" to describe my pregnancy (my tactful parents had a better word to describe it) --which just means that when you're crazy busy running your own business (and trying to go to grad school at the same time) you sometimes forget to take a certain daily dose of a certain something that stops surprises like this from happening. So take note women business owners! And seriously, I don't know what possessed me to think I could run a business and finish architecture school at the same time. Sometimes I overestimate my abilities to multi-task. Just a little bit. And I also have to point out that contrary to the article, I do not own a "craft store" (it might have been confused with the wedding invitation retail shop I used to own). I do have a studio in Berkeley, but please don't come knocking on my door looking to buy foam stamps or glue guns. Though I may part with my beadazzler for the right price.

Isn't it amazing how people who were once celebrities can fade into obscurity? The same thing can be said for celebrity decorators, especially William Pahlmann. Okay, so perhaps he's not an obscure designer, but he does not have the name recognition of Dorothy Draper or Elsie de Wolfe. If this were 1950, we would all be talking about Pahlmann. After all, he was one of the most famous decorators of the 1940s through the 1960s.

Pahlmann, who was educated at Parsons in the late 1920s, first gained notoriety after designing a mirrored bed for the first Mrs. William Paley (this according to Legendary Decorators of the Twentieth Century by Mark Hampton). Getting her seal of approval was the impetus he needed to go onward and upward, eventually landing him the job of head of the decorating and antiques department at Lord and Taylor. Pahlmann became known for his model rooms for the department store- rooms which garnered attention by the press and brought flocks of customers to the store. After a brief hiatus during World War II (serving in the Air Force), Pahlmann returned to New York where he set up his own decorating firm. He even had his own syndicated newspaper column titled "A Matter of Taste".

Pahlmann's interiors after WWII are quite evocative of the post-war era. While Pahlmann was quite capable of designing in the traditional style, much of his work celebrates mid-century modernism. Pahlmann was a champion of modern materials, including rubber flooring and rayon and other synthetic fabrics. The exotic also played a role in his interiors. Artifacts and objects of various cultures and countries mixed freely, lending his rooms a sort of well-traveled look. And let's not overlook Pahlmann's love of color. There was nothing primary about his chosen color schemes. In fact, in his book The Pahlmann Book of Interior Design, he wrote about various color combinations that he had used thus far in his career. These included cerulean, lime, magenta pink and white as well as deep sage, ripe persimmon and French blue.

Pahlmann was so well-regarded in the design world that when a young Albert Hadley first ventured to New York seeking a job as a designer, he sought out a meeting with his design idol. Hadley describes Pahlmann as "a man of great charm with a flamboyant personality and certainly he was not shy about anything."* Pahlmann encouraged Hadley to enroll at Parsons School of Design, just as he had.

While many of Pahlmann's room may seem a bit dated today, don't you think it's worth revisiting the career of this late, great decorator?

(Pahlmann's work is featured in the upcoming Acanthus Press release New York Interior Design, 1935-1985. Another "lost" designer whose work I greatly admire is George Stacey. I'll be writing about him soon!)



A great example of Pahlmann's fearless use of color. This bedroom's colors were inspired by a vineyard.


The mod floor in this living room was rubber! The mix is a bit unexpected: modern furniture with a Victorian sofa and Spanish altar candlesticks mixed with French candle sconces.


This was Pahlmann's own living room. I love the gunmetal gray walls and the robin's egg blue leather chair. According to Mark Hampton, the cabinet is actually a snakeskin Victrola.


I couldn't resist this image of an Empire-style tented room. Pahlmann admired Napoleon and Malmaison- might this have influenced the design scheme of this room?


Pahlmann designed this living room for Mrs. Walter Hoving in 1948. In my opinion, this room is one of Pahlmann's more elegant designs. Much of his later work seemed to be more casual, much in keeping with the times.

(*Hadley quote from Albert Hadley: The Story of America's Preeminent Interior Designer)

Have you ever noticed how Chinese ancestral portraits seem to grace many stylish interiors? Once I spotted them in one interior, it seemed that I started to see them everywhere. Of course, the paintings found in the interiors below were used strictly for decorative purposes, and I can certainly see why. There is something very dignified and regal about these portraits, and they also seem to add a little touch of Eastern exoticism to their surroundings. But what we shouldn't forget is that the purpose of these paintings was anything but decorative.

Ancestral portraits were long an important part of a Chinese culture which revered and worshipped family ancestry. From what I've read, it seems that these paintings were commissioned by family members not just out of respect for their forebears, but also out of fear. A disgruntled ancestor might be tempted to become a ghost and make life difficult for the living. In order to prevent this from happening, and to elicit good will and fortune, the portraits were worshipped by family members either in their homes or at family temples. Ceremonies, which at times included offerings to the ancestors as well as kowtowing, were often performed before these portraits.

So with this in mind, here are a few of the interiors that I have found which display these ancestral portraits. In a way, it seems that even today these portraits still command respect and awe, much as they did centuries ago.

(If any of you are experts on Asian art and wish to add to this, please do so by commenting- I would love to learn more about these portraits.)



Frances Elkins used them in a few of her projects, including one of her most famous: the library of Mr. and Mrs. Kersey Coates Reed. I think the portrait looks smashing against the Hermes goatskin paneled wall.


Jean-Michel Frank tried his hand at stage design in this set from "Les Fleurs des pois". The Chinese portrait rather dominates the set.


Yves Saint Laurent was obviously a fan.


Here are a pair of Chinese ancestral portraits in a contemporary setting- the living room of Liz and Steve Weinstein, decorated by Miles Redd (photo from Elle Decor; photographer Simon Upton)

Image at top: A pair of ancestor portraits, c. 1700-1800. From the collection of the Victoria and Albert

this sunday, april 6th is the first day of the 2008 brooklyn fleamarket! i’m so thrilled to be a part of this fantastic community project, organized by the gang at brownstoner. every sunday from now till later this fall, a wonderful range of vendors will set up shop in ft. greene from 10am-5pm, rain or shine. in addition to a great collection of vintage sellers, clothing, food and accessories, i’ll be curating a section of the flea called the design*sponge collective. if you’re a reader of the site you’ll probably recognize the names of our vendors (artists like lena corwin (image above), sian keegan, wayne pate and many more) but it will be even more fun to recognize them in person! so if you’re in the nyc area this weekend please stop on by and say hi to these incredible artists. i’ll be out of town for this weekend but i’ll be back, manning the section, every weekend (or as many as humanly possible) for the rest of the summer. hope to see you there! a sampling of the incredible artists and products in the d*s collective are below. want to attend? click here for details.

[image above: bags and pillow by lena corwin]

[image above: bracelet by mollie dash]

[image above: fabric radishes by sian keegan]

[image above: there will be fabrics cut and sold by the yard from repro depot in the d*s collective]

[image above: reupholstered and refinished chairs from chairloom]

[image above: new coasters from sesame letterpress]

[image above: prints and tshirts from wayne pate at good shape design]

[image above: stationery from moontree letterpress]

[image above: tshirt from jezebel design (stationery will be available, too)]

[image above: photographs by john murphy]

[image above: cards and prints from foxy and winston]

{top two photos by me in sonoma; last photo from the far niente website of the oldest known bottle of wine in california}

Nice logo and nice clothes by Dagmar. And they're Swedish...of course.