Freaking out

Lately I've been feeling a little bored.  I flip through magazines and blogs at record speed, barely feeling like anything registers because it feels like so. much. the. same.

Yawn.

But then!

Yesterday!

THIS:

Okay, so I generally hate it when people post whole spreads from the glossies.  I feel like that content is getting "scooped" for me and I prefer to experience it in the magazine first.  But I am making an exception because you guys!  The brick work!  The headboard!  Those sculptural roman shades!

I love what the designer has to say about artisan's creativity:

People kept asking me to sketch everything out, and I said, "No, I'm not drawing the herringbone fireplace or those angled tiles."  I need artists I can tell, "Here's how I want this to feel.  Don't think too much!  Get excited!  Put your energy into it!"  All these tile setters would come up to me, beaming, to show me what they had done with subtle tone changes, like they were putting their own stories into the house.

The designer is Erin Martin, and now I am down the rabbit hole of her pinterest pages and her website (which is NOT your average cookie cutter designer white box of a site!).  The story is in House Beautiful, so go buy it if you don't subscribe.

My faith in creativity and originality is fully restored.

Quilted

I've been kind of into quilting lately, when it shows up in unexpected place, like these leather chairs from overstock, kind of like a Chanel handbag (only cheaper! ha.)


This quilted headboard is underscored by the simple quilted-silk coverlet (I almost bought a remnant of black quilted silk like this for the guestroom headboard, but ultimately decided it would be too dark.)

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A geometric quilted version of the ubiquitous garden stool

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And this insane vanity. (Okay, in this case there's a fine line between "tufted" and "quilted" but I'm just going with it.)



Last time I was at S.R. Harris, I asked for some samples of quilted silk. The Russian guy who always thinks I'm crazy gave me the teeniest sliver of this pink one, (it's $60 a yard, well minus 50%, but that is WAY high end for this place.) It's not really for any specific project, I just felt like I had to have it.


The woman who mans the registers was a bit more generous with her cutting of this green woven-look quilted silk, which I would like to put on the headboard in a guest room, if I can get the "client" on board with the project (Mom?)

The scans totally don't do them justice, but believe me, they are gorgeous.


And so, when the most recent House Beautiful came out featuring this crazy sunroom, where the designer Rob Southern had this salmon Brunschwig & Fils chinzt hand-quilted for all the upholstered pieces, I nearly died and went to heaven.




So old fashioned, yet somehow fresh, and, of course, pretty over the top.

Maybe I'll get myself some quilted chucks to satisfy the craving, for now!