Heraldry, Weaponry, and Hunting Prizes

Meant to include this one in the post on enormous fireplaces… this one looks normal at first glance, as  proportional to the wall, until you look closer and see the chairs as proportional to the wall and realize the ceiling height is insane.  Love the wall decor of “heraldry, weaponry, and hunting prizes.”

Since I forgot to post this with the fireplaces, I’ll go ahead and throw in a few other images from the house, they’re all pretty unreal.

The home of Lady Dufferin, of the Guinness family, the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, in Northern Ireland.

 

  

 

From W Magazine (including quote at top)

Rob Ryan

Here is the description from the Paul Smith:
If you believe in love, but find it difficult to explain – this is for you.
-Rob Ryan
Rob Ryan has been cutting pictures out of paper for many years. He has exhibited all over the world, and recently collaborated with Paul Smith
This book is a limited edition of 500. It contains an exclusive signed and numbered Rob Ryan screen print presented in a gift envelope.
‘An enchanting, rare book that is a pure delight from beginning to end’
Sophie Dahl

[PS- If you started reading this blog right before Valentine's Day, you probably thought I was posting a lot of lovey stuff just because of the holiday.  Well, as it turns out, I have a general obsession with all creative ways of expressing love, all year round... things I call sentimentia... creative bits of sentiment.. hope you enjoy it too!]

Bon Weekend

Gone With the Wind

Jim Denevan’s exacting and graphic earth works are tediously created, only to be destroyed by the elements.

 

 

 

 

Jim Denevan

discovered via Pixels & Arrows

DomestiTransformer

Maybe it’s from living in New York, but I have a near obsession with clever ways to live in small spaces, and I think there are tips to be found everywhere from boats to urban Asian dwellings like this one…

With quite a different style and approach to The Zach (store everything in plain sight and style it so it looks good), this guy in Hong Kong uses movable walls to create up to TWENTY-FOUR different rooms within his 330 square foot apartment.

Though not really my style, this is so incredibly clever. Above, pushing the bed up against the wall for daytime. 

He manages to get a full-sized bathtub into this space, but he doesn’t fail to make use of the empty space above– there is a fold-down bed for guests that covers the tub.

Watch the video tour here in which he demonstrates how all the walls move– you can skip the intro about Hong Kong and start at 1:15.  Make sure to catch the kitchen behind the TV and the screening room at the end.

Though most of this is too high-tech to apply in your own home, there are still some good (and age-old) ideas for small spaces, like mirrored and reflective surfaces to increase the light and make things feel more open.

Young Love

These two lovebirds met on a blind date, bonded over their Sicilian heritage and shared desire to return to the island, and spent the next year travelling together and falling in love. One day she opened her front door to a bouquet and a note that said, “I love you, I need you, let’s get married!”

My own widowed grandfather remarried at a spry 91, to a scandalously (as he liked to think) younger 85-year old bride, and these incredible photos by Elizabeth Messina remind me of his school-boyish love for his woman. They are actually of her own grandfarther!

More here.

Cosmic Overlap

I really liked the light fixture in Gjeline (next post), and was wondering who might sell something like that and oddly enough I came home to an email from Diane telling me to check out this dealer, Obsolete, in Venice– WHERE I WAS TODAY.  Gjeline is in Abbot Kinney, which is in Venice.  Weird, right??  So that was the first coincidence.

Then, I went on their website, and lo and behold, under their lighting section, there is a fixture so similar to the one from Gjeline!

Ok, so it’s a dealer in the same place as the restaurant I liked, with the same kind of fixture that I saw there… I’m thinking this is more than coincidence…  Maybe that’s where Gjeline got theirs?  And actually, they might have gotten like all their tables and chairs from this place, all of Obsolete’s stuff looks reminiscent of the restaurant.

But the crazy coincidence is that Diane, who is in Atlanta, and didn’t know I was going to be in Venice or that I would really like this industrial fixture (and the whole look of the restaurant), told me to check them out. 

Lots of cool stuff in their inventory…

Like this staircase architectural model.  I have an absolute thing for these.  I love them.  They are on the lustlist. 

These two above are from France, early 20th c.

This one is an architect’s model for a complicated top to a building.  Also France, early 20th c.

Cool desk lamp!  Like the caged bulb.  America, 1940s.

Italy, 1930-1940s.

I love this!!  It’s a collection of 28 horns for sale.  As a set.  Brilliant.  Italy, circa 1890-1910.  Wouldn’t this be cool displayed on a wall of a restaurant? 

And one last item of interest, an American military daypack from the 1930s.  Simple perfection as far as these kind of backpacks go– a totally worn canvas with leather details and olive green straps.

More from Obsolete, here.

Gjelina

I’ve started to see this look a lot, but I still love it.  It’s a sort of an industrial meets apothecary-chic look, with chairs with wood seats and metal bases, Edison bulbs, grain sack cloth, raw wood planking, etc. The most recent example of it here….

Today, a friend in LA took me to this super cool restaurant Gjelina in Abbot Kinney in LA.  Gjelina aside for a minute, Abbot Kinney is such a cool neighborhood!!  I seriously loved it.  As soon as we entered the neighborhood, I saw a Steven Alan store, and I knew I was home.

Ok, back to Gjelina.  LOVED: the wood planking on the ceiling, the brick floor inside, the big light fixture with all different shapes and sizes of Edison bulbs, the paint color (dark grey but with brown in it, and very matte, like a chalkbooard), the light mint green industrial stools, and the different sized glass-front cabinets that make up the bar-back.

This isn’t visible at all in the photos, but possibly my favorite detail was about an 18″ tall border around the top of the wall of antique mirror set on top of a cornice that wrapped all the way around the room.  It totally kept the very tall walls from becoming vast and boring, because your eye was drawn straight up to it, and then to the pretty ceiling.

Also you can’t see this in the photo either, but the big high tables have handles (like cabinet hardware handles) on the ends, and for some reason that detail totally delighted me.

And, as if the decor weren’t pleasing enough, the food was soo good.. not any one particular style of cuisine, just good ingredients turned into wonderful things.  We had roasted beets with burrata that tasted like ice cream, roasted sunchokes with parsely pesto, and a gruyere, caramelized onion, and arugula pizza.

I hiighly recommend it!!!
Restaurant website here.

Alexa Chung for Madewell

 

 

 

 

Shortly after finishing this collaboration with Madewell, she signed on to do a collaboration with highly-respected British label Mulberry. #baller

Ok, I feel like I’m breaking my own rule since I just posted Spring/Summer looks and complained about how F/W looks are showing right now, when we all can’t wait for spring and can’t even begin to think about NEXT fall and winter, but I couldn’t resist posting this one.  Alexa Chung is having a moment, and if I saved this for next summer, when we’re all dying for fall again, the moment might be over.

But afer this one, I’m back on the wagon.  I really do think, if you’re a normal person and not in the fashion industry, that psychologically we should all be looking at spring and summer looks right now.  It messes with my head to think about what I’ll be wearing winter a year from now.

Alexa Chung for Madewell F/W’10 show via Refinery29

File Under: People Who Make You Feel Unaccomplished,
along with THE Zach (post below), >25 Olympians, and Taylor Swift.  Don’t worry Amanda, I’m perfectly happy with my life, but seriously, they make me wonder what I’ve been doing for the past 23 years.

Something To Look Forward To 2.18.10

I can’t wait for spring and summer and dresses! And I LOVE these ravishing dresses from Sophie Theallet’s S/S’10 show.

I think it’s utterly confusing how the fashion world works– that it is currently Fashion Week for F/W of this year, and that these images above are now “old” since they are from the last fashion week, even though they are for weather we haven’t even gotten to yet.

But I personally like looking at spring and summer images when spring and summer are approaching, so I’ve been saving these images for a while, and I just couldn’t wait any longer to post them.

You may remember Sophie Theallet’s name, as she won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in ’09, and Michelle Obama has also sported her looks. 

via Pomegranita