Keeping with the theme of Fashion, there are two designers who have recently expanded their empires beyond clothes and accessories.

BOOKMARC

Marc Jacobs recently took over a new space in the West Village and opened a bookstore. Its called Bookmarc (400 Bleecker Street at West 11th Street) and on top of having a nice selection of art and design books, there are also lots of little Marc Jacobs items for sale. I went to Bookmarc just the other day and bought a couple of his tote bags. He also has a line of notebooks, keychains and some cute pens that look like lipstick. Overall a nice place with some affordable Marc Jacobs knick-knacks. Could a Marc Jacobs Home be far off?

(Photo from NY Magazine)

Here’s a shot of what I bought at BookMarc. All in all it came to about $58…not bad

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG HOME FABRIC LINE

Also, Diane Von Furstenberg has just produced 87 patterns for home fabrics and plans to roll out a line of tableware, bedding and bathroom accessories in early 2011. The fabrics are available through Nate Turner (http://nathanturner.com/). She also recently redecorated 20 guest rooms at the Claridge’s Hotel in London.

(Photos from Elle Decor)

Army green, leather, canvas and heavy boots. All of this is really more inspired by military uniforms from the past (think Inglorious Basterds) not the camouflaged outfits worn in more recent years. For the home, you could go with things that have a vintage industrial look. Leather is a good texture to include especially if its distressed. But maybe lay off on anything in camouflage…if you can make that work let me know.

Clockwise from Top Left: Victory Pendant Lamp $149, Carrots Green Pillow $29.95, Mayfair Steamer Cube $1195, Library Leather Chair $1595, Vintage Cotton Bin (Set of 2) $159, Leather Pillow Cover $59, Bottlecap Green Pillow $24.95, Contact Stool $129

Over the labor day weekend I went with my boyfriend to visit his parents in Houston, TX. Aside from all the other fun things we did, I was able to experience a HomeGoods store for the very first time. I had heard about HomeGoods through other bloggers like LittleGreenNotebook, but since the closest one to me is in Staten Island, I have never been able to check it out. During my visit I was not disappointed. This store lived up to its reputation. In a word, HomeGoods is AMAZING! If there is one where you live I hope you appreciate what you’ve got! Don’t be fooled by the T.J.Maxx vibe (it is actually the home furnishings branch of T.J.Maxx), this store has some really cool stuff. I found some awesome lamps for $30 and they had a bunch of pretty vases for cheap. Here are some photos from my visit. I didn’t purchase anything because it would have been too hard to get things back to New York. But now I am seriously considering a trip to Staten Island.

Oh yeah, and then once I was finished frugally browsing at HomeGoods, my boyfriend got a new iPhone 4G. Yeah, he sucks. But the 4G is awesome too.

Over the weekend I was determined not to spend money. So it was probably a mistake to go the Brooklyn Flea on Saturday. I went with a friend and while both of us went in with the intention of “just looking,” we ended up walking out with bags. Oh well. After much rationalizing I ended up buying the awesome vintage McDonalds/Muppets glasses pictured above. And I don’t regret it either! I haven’t quite figured out where they are going, but they are definitely going to be for display only.

Then earlier today I was [digitally] flipping through the new Lonny Magazine and one house in particular really caught my eye. It is the home of textile and home accessory designer Cath Kidston (http://www.cathkidston.co.uk/). What I love about her home is her sense of humor. It made me realize that without even thinking about it, I have acquired several things that are the opposite of serious. These glasses are a perfect example.

Another example is our beloved velvet painting bought in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

I think its great when a person doesn’t take themselves or what they do too seriously. And I never get tired of combining high-end items with kitschy things.  Here’s some photos of Cath Kidston’s house. Here approach is definitely over the top…What do you think?

Of the Mickey Mouse painting above her mantel Kidston says “It makes the room friendly”

Her bathroom is covered in photos of roses and her dog.

We have been in our new place for a month now and we are still very much in the process of setting up everything. The living room, after much debate (and thanks for all your votes!) is painted a solid gray BUT will have molding added in the next few weeks. I’ll be sure to share the finished room once its ready.

Now I’ll introduce you to our kitchen. So far, I have painted it and we have made it functional. But I think now is a good time to take a step back and figure out how to take this room to the next level. Right now it looks like a half-baked space (which it is). I’d like it to feel more intentional. The foundation is there, I think we just need to hone in on some details and refine the color palette a little bit.

The Paint Color

I LOVE the color we painted this room. It is Benjamin Moore Lido Green. Its a soft green with a touch of blue, and it works really well with warm colors. I actually love how it looks with reds and oranges! So the good news is that the walls look great.

Work Station

I’m really proud of how I was able to re purpose an old IKEA desk from our old place and turn it into extra counter space in our kitchen. It was certainly a moment of genius when I put 2 and 2 together. But enough bragging, lets be honest. While the skirt on the table creates a great hiding space for things like cat food bags, I have to admit that it is being held up by the shoddiest velcro job EVER! It could definitely use a refresh.  And the shelf above the workspace has so much potential for greatness, but right now its just kind of blah. Here is what I’d like to change:

Shelf: Some functional bookends is probably all it would take to make this shelf look and function better. (Skribent Bookend from IKEA $4.99)

Table Top: I want to add a butcher block since the desk surface isn’t ideal for the kitchen. I think a bread box would also help with storage and keeping the space clear. (Polder Chrome Bread Box from Bed Bath & Beyond $29.99, Exklusivt Butcher Block from IKEA $24.99)

Table Skirt: Instead of the dark gray, I like this fabric from IKEA. I think it would have a fresher look. (Burta Ruta Fabric from IKEA $8.99 a yard)

Stove Area

This area is already pretty cute (if I do say so myself). I like the shelves we installed and the pot hanger. The window more than anything  could use some work…

Wall Shelves: I just love the way orange looks against the Lido Green. So I think it would be really cool to get a great piece of cookware to display. This would be a bit of a splurge but its the kind of thing you can keep forever. ( “My First Staub” Round Cocotte 2.5 Qt through Zappos $99.99)

Window: This window gets a great amount of light, but the cheap-o blinds we got are not really cutting it. Ever since I read Little Green Notebook’s guide to making roman shades from cheap blinds I’ve been dying to try it. I’d like to attempt something that will end up looking like the shades pictured above. Except the ribbon trim should be a bright, bold color. (Ribbon Roman Shade from Pottery Barn starting at $71)

Window Part 2: This window poses an additional challenge because it faces our neighbors. The bottom line is that I need to be able to go to the fridge late at night and not worry about someone seeing me in my underwear. This window decal by Emma Jeffs would be a great solution. Its a bit on the pricey side though, so I might try to come up with a DIY alternative. (Emma Jeffs White Moroccan Tile Adhesive Film through Design Public $76)

The Floors

These floors are cheeeeaaaaapppp! And they like to show every single scuff mark and every stain. They immediately get dirty and they like to stay looking dirty. In short, this floor is not a team player.

Flor Tiles: My solution is a simple rug made from durable (fabric) Flor Tiles. I’ve never really considered rugs a great idea in the kitchen, but this situation is somewhat serious. And I remember a really cool kitchen featured in Domino that had Flor tiles covering the entire kitchen floor (see below). I probably won’t go that far, but I think an area rug would be a nice relief from this awful floor. (Take A Ribbing Flor Tile in Black $11.90)

The Fridge

This area looks pretty junky. We need to use it for storage, and I think I had the right idea with the basket, but it would be nice not have all our cereal boxes on display.

Top of Refrigerator Storage: I think more baskets is the answer. Maybe our cereal will peek out the top, but at least it will be somewhat organized. (Byholma Basket from IKEA $15.99)

New Lighting Solution: Right now, we have a table lamp on our fridge. All it does is take up space and look awkward. I want to get rid of this lamp and install a pendant light to replace our ugly overhead fixture.  (Fado Pendant Light from IKEA $39.99)

Its been a really hot summer. And while I sit inside huddled next to my little air conditioning unit, I imagine a more glamorous way to spend the summer…far far away from Brooklyn. How about the famous Beverly Hills Hotel? Ok, that might be out of my price range, but the famous hotel (also known as the “Pink Palace”) has some famous decor. Maybe a little Beverly Hills-inspired decorating would do me some good?

Martinique Wallpaper

This is perhaps the most iconic decor of the hotel. The famous banana leaf “Martinique” wallpaper has been a staple of the hotel’s famous Fountain Coffee Room since it opened in 1949. It is a stunning print that is totally over the top. You might recognize it from the Golden Girls. Blanche’s bedroom featured Martinique wallpaper AND a matching bed spread. Blanche sure knew how to do it up!

Pictured below are two more modern examples of the wallpaper:  Nicky Hilton’s kitchen (InStyle Magazine) and Brian Atwood’s Milan apartment (Elle Decor).

Green & White Stripes

This is another major motif of the hotel. And there are countless ways you can mimic these stripes. In fact, IKEA has some great striped fabric that is very reminiscent of the hotel.

Grecian Touches

Its nothing new, but Grecian design motifs are definitely synonymous with many luxury hotels. Check out those Grecian bungalows by the pool.

Getting This Look

While the hotel is also known for its coral pink, I think it is safe to say that this color is probably only going to work in the pristine halls of the Beverly Hills Hotel. When it comes to our real world homes, let’s not go there. So please forgive me for banishing that coral from my shopping suggestions below.

Clockwise From Left To Right: Martinique Wallpaper, Green and White Striped Pillow $20, Yellow Lacquer Ice Bucket $39.70, Yellow Greek Key Trim 3 yards for $8.80

A Little Side Note

Not sure if anyone else remembers this move, but Troop Beverly Hills is a film from the 80′s about a ritzy Beverly Hills girl scout troop. I credit this movie with first introducing me to the Beverly Hills Hotel. Watch the trailer below and feel some nostalgia!

We made it through our move and we have sore muscles and bruises to prove it! Moving it turns out really sucks. Of course I already knew that but I think I forgot how bad it really is. So I need to live here at least long enough for the past week to fade in my memory. Our building is full of old Russian ladies who love to sit outside the front entrance in a long line. I think I might end up becoming one of them because I will refuse to move ever again. But then on the other hand, decorating a new apartment might just make moving worth it.

To introduce you to my new place I made a floor plan so you can see what the space is like. (Btw to do this I used a great site called FloorPlanner.com.) You enter the apartment through a long hall. On the right are a couple of closets, the kitchen, another closet and the bathroom. At the end of the hall is the living room and right off of that is the bedroom/office.

The obvious benefits of this apartment are that it is an actual one bedroom, gets a ton of natural light (I never knew it was so bright at 5am), is on the corner of the top floor so we are isolated from neighbors and it has great pre-war details. Oh, and also the bathtub is giant!

The only major downside so far is that we are lacking closet space. This is typical of pre-war apartments. I don’t know what people did with their stuff back then, but they certainly weren’t putting it in closets. This is posing a bit of a problem, but I think with some clever management we can make it work.

As we settle into our apartment I plan to chronicle our successes and failures (and there have already been a few). Most of our place is still in disarray, so the first space I’ll share with you is our hallway.

Even before we moved in I decided that I wanted to use the long wall in the hallway to store our books. To do this, we bought four wall-mounted IKEA shelves. My boyfriend was a little skeptical of this idea, but once we installed the shelving and started putting our books up I think we were both excited and pleased by the result.

The other idea I had was to use the hallway to display our myriad of wall art. I have a bit of a wall art addiction, so we have a ton of stuff. And this collection is even more superfluous in our new apartment. Our old place was built in the 1950′s and was basically just a plain box with no architectural details, so it needed a lot of decorative additions. Our new apartment has pre-war details everywhere. Most notably, our living room and bedroom have beautiful molding. Since the molding means there is already a geometric design decorating the walls, we don’t want to over do it with too much stuff of our own. So the hallway (which is sans molding) seemed like a good spot to feature our collection. I was also inspired by my recent trip to Europe to set up the wall in a casual salon style with the items filling the wall completely. I’m pretty happy with the result. The hallway is beginning to feel like a very cheerful way to enter our home.

Below are some photos of the hallway. It is still a work in progress, but I hope you enjoy seeing what we’ve come up with so far.

Our books are out of the way on this wall-mounted shelving.

The view coming out of the bathroom into the hall

I love the way we have arranged the images...and there is room for more!

And best of all, we inherited this hulk hogan light switch from the previous tenant.

Posting two days in a row after being MIA in Europe for 3 weeks! Gasp! I was just so excited to share this really resourceful, cheap and renter-friendly DIY light fixture project. So, here it is…

I’m sure all renters will know what I mean when I refer to the amazingly cheap and ugly ceiling light fixtures that landlords love to install in apartments. They typically consist of some frosted glass and a decorative flower or two. Gross. I’ve always hated the fact that as I renter I have to overlook my ugly overhead lights. But this DIY project is a perfect option for renters because not only is it cheap, but it is also incredibly easy to install and will not require you to rewire or remove any part of the fixture (except the frosted glass part).

This is coming from the people at Young House Love. Basically, they just took a large lamp shade, covered the bottom end in fabric with some fabric glue and then screwed it onto ceiling using the the rod that is already there for the frosted glass part to be screwed onto. Hmmm that sounds more complicated than it is, but trust me! If you have the typical cheap-o light fixture this should work.

Check out their step-by-step instructions and photos here.

Good luck and let me know if anyone tries this!

Earlier this week I spent an afternoon in the Meatpacking district of Manhattan (oh the joys of being a freelancer!). First I wandered into Chelsea Market, which is known for gourmet food shops and great specialty stores. Originally the home of the National Biscuit Company in the late 1800′s, the space has a wonderful industrial feel that is pretty refreshing considering how so many Manhattan spaces are designed to be “cutting edge” and modern. Blown out brick walls and industrial metal ceiling fans are a nice contrast to the boutique food stores that are housed here.

Next, I walked up to the Highline Park, which is an amazing public space that runs along and above 10th avenue. Built in the 1930′s, the space was used to transport freight trains without interfering with the streets below. The park’s design is reminiscent of the space’s original use utilizing indigenous plants (that you might see growing around railroad tracks) and a linear pathway reflective of the old tracks.

These spaces got me thinking about a trend I have been noticing more and more – vintage industrial. To me, vintage industrial is a relief from all the sleek modern furniture that has been the rage for the last decade. Often you will find items in galvanized metals or reclaimed wood. Castors are also a trademark for vintage industrial style peices. Here are some items I’ve spotted that fit the bill.

Rolling Side Table – $158

Cooper’s Small Draftsman Stool – $159

French Industrial Coffee Table – $579

Miner Side Table Stool – $149

And for a more modern interpretation…

Go-Cart Media Carts – $129 – $149

And the saga continues! As you might remember, a couple of weeks ago I made a curtain to hide the messy bookcase over our desks. So last weekend it was time to tackle the wall opposite to our desks. Historically this wall has always been a problem area…a magnet for the random junk that we had no where else to put. But now thanks to some ingenuity, we have made a vast improvement. What was once a wall of random shit is now a really functional work surface with enough added storage underneath to equal the size of a closet. Best of all, this cost nothing…that’s right NOTHING!

The table tops are made up of some old desks we had in our storage space. They are from IKEA and consist of two table tops and adjustable legs that you buy separately. We set up the tables to stand as tall as possible to ensure the maximum amount of storage underneath. Next, I took some old IKEA curtains that I had lying around and simply cut and hemmed one panel so that it would wrap around the table. I attached it with strips of velcro.

And Viola! We have a usable space! This is a huge improvement on the mix of stuff that was there before (a dusty exercise bike, old lamp shades, etc). And now we have a great work surface that is perfect at standing height. I have to thank my boyfriend Josh for his help with this project. It was actually more of a collaboration than anything else we have done in the apartment lately, and I think we are both really happy with the result. Teamwork!