One Very Cool Arm Chair

It's usually a good idea to add a couple of arm chairs to your living room configuration. You can do a really fun fabric to punch in some colors ; add some dimensions of the room by varying the height so it's not so flat, and perhaps most importantly, style it up a bit.

Here's a really cool one that we like:

The chair is made by Jessica Charles, a division of Hancock and Moore. The price depends on the fabric, but it ranges about $1400-1600 or so.

Picking Colors for Your Decor

Don't you find coordinating colors to be the hardest thing to do? It's really is a headache, actually, trying to get a paint to go with the fabric that coordinates with everything else.

Robert Allen has a very nice tool that we thought you might like. They have different room themes already mixed & matched for you.

See below for some samples:

To see more, click here.

PS The paint is from Sherwin Williams. You can also search for fabrics from Robert Allen site from the link above. It doesn't give pricing information, but you can find that on our Robert Allen fabrics section by entering the name of the pattern in the search box.

Living in a Mansion

Don't you love reading about how other people live? Rich people, specifically. It gives us a little escape and a little fantasy, don't you think?

If you haven't had a chance to read the NY Times today, check out this article about this couple living in a mansion in Newport. What interests us most about it was not that the house was grand, but how this couple--who seem really unpretentious--manage to live a very authentic life that reflects who they are. There's a quote in it that we love--"At some point you'll have to come to terms with who you are, however unpleasant, if you are going to be anything at all".

Not to mention the pictures are eye-candies too. To see the slide show, click here. To read the article, click here.

Source: NY Times

New Jamie Young Lamps

Have you seen the new Jamie Young lamps lately? They have some beautiful new fabrics...

If you are not familiar with Jamie Young, check it out. It's a really cool line. Well-made and not too terribly expensive. Plus you can swap out the shades to create different looks.

Here are some of our favorites:

We'll be posting these up in our Jamie Young Lamps section by the end of this week.

PS Did you notice the slideshow? Cool heh? We just discovered it on Picasa. It's free and super simple to use.

Gimme My Decorating Magazines Back!

The NY Times today has an article on The Selby. You probably heard of the site. It's about real people in their homes--some famous, some not. The article also went on to discuss how people can relate more to "real places" than professionally decked up places frequently featured in decor magazines, which contributes to their ever growing popularity.

We love the Selby too but in a way, it's like watching Rachel Ray cooks vs a professional chef. There is no competition! Magazines offer beautifully shot, gorgeous decor that we can fantasize about. We don't want to look at houses that look just like ours, for god's sake. For example, look at the image below from Homebodies, one of the blogs mentioned:

We want our decorating magazines back! We miss them, terribly.

Thom Felicia Fabrics for Kravet

Thom Felicia is one of our favorite designers, mainly because his designs are very liveable and very approachable.

Here is a fabric collection he did for Kravet that we thought are quite nice. The prices are not too bad either (about $99/yard but you usually can get it for much less).

To see the rest of the collection, click here. Pricing and production information can be found on our Kravet Fabric section.

Contemporary Dinnerware

Do you ever go to fancy restaurants and wish you can buy the dinnerware? The ones that are so cool and make everything look better? Well, we saw some at the Dallas show and we thought we'd share it with you. It's so cool, and not too expensive either. The line is made in Germany--very contemporary and sleek.

Here are some examples:

You can buy them directly at the vendor's web site. They are sold in Euro.