Just thought you might need reminding. I would love to have one of these prints.  They have just the right amount of kitsch. And you’ve got to love that 80′s style

Wall looking plain and boring? Not sure what it needs? Then might I suggest vintage silk scarves.

These scarves are a throwback to the days when Betty Drapers walked the earth. They may feel too grandmother-y to actually wear (depends on your style), but when they are laid flat and framed you can really appreciate their wonderful designs and great square shape.

Recently, I purchased a Girl Guides scarf off of Etsy and framed it. I LOVE the result. There is something very satisfying about a square, symmetrical design.

You can buy silk scarves individually or in lots for very reasonable prices. And there are tons of options on Etsy and Ebay. One brand in particular called Vera and designed by Vera Neumann has some really great designs.

Here are some stand outs that are available right now:

For Sale on Etsy – $24.99

A vintage Givenchy scarf (needs dry cleaning) but only $9.99 on Etsy.

Tassel Scarf on Etsy – $10.95

Red, White & Blue Vera Scarf – $15.00

And here are some other examples of framed scarves

A framed vintage Hermes scarf in Wary Meyer's living room

From House & Garden

From World of Interiors

From Martha Stewart

*All scarves in the first image are designed by Vera Neumann and photographed by Scott Lindberg

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.

Bunting is a trend I have seen all over the internet and for good reason. Its really cute! These flags/banners are a combination of kitschy and sweet, and they look especially nice outdoors. I had no idea what “bunting” was before, but apparently the term comes from the making of flags for the Royal Navy. Now it simply means any kind of decoration that includes flags or pieces of fabric attached to a string.

A Quick Bunting How-To

So now that we have the definition, lets take a look at how you create something like this.

Materials

• some cool fabrics (check out the fabric lots for sale on etsy)
• a rotary cutter (not sure what this is or how to use it, click here)
• a sewing machine
• a piece of cardboard.

Some Basic Instructions

1. First, use the cardboard to create a triangle template.
2. Then, use the rotary cutter to cut out triangles of fabric.
3. To connect them, you will need to have one long strip of fabric called bias tape. Creating the bias tape will probably require cutting several pieces of 2-inch wide fabric and then sewing them together into one long piece.
4. Once you have the bias tape, you fold down the edges (to hide the ragged cut edges), and then fold that in half over the triangles and sew it all together.

*For a full on How-To and more images, check out the one at Stitch.Rip.Repeat.

(Above Photos from Stitch.Rip.Repeat)

And Here Are Some Images To Get Us Inspired.

If there is one person that loves bunting its jewelry designer and stylist Cheri Messerli. Not only does she sell bunting-esque necklaces, she also used bunting in her wedding and in her home.

And there are tons of bunting examples on Etsy. For instance the store Sparkle Power  sells a “Vintage Flag Garland” for $26

Bunting and the World Cup seem to go hand in hand. You could make a paper one with all different flags or just your favorite team. (Someone needs to take this idea and run with it!)

This wedding featured on Style Me Pretty has some really cool bunting and also an awesome rock candy cake!

Bunting can be subtle too. Here is an example from Emersonmade

Scalloped bunting is another approach. This is from the Etsy shop MyFavoriteDress.

You can even make mini bunting! Here’s a how-to from How About Orange.

Dress and Fashion: Design and Manufacture

Empire and Regency: Decoration in the Age of Napoleon

Dust Jackets from American and European Books, 1926-1947

Ocean Flowers: Anna Atkins’s Cyanotypes of British Algae

Ornament and Pattern: Pre-Victorian to Art Deco

Pictures of Science: 700 Years of Scientific and Medical Illustration

No matter what our age or our budgets, there is one thing that we all have…personal photos, old birthday cards and various other mementos. These sentimental objects are usually stored away in a shoebox or a scrapbook, but don’t you think you would enjoy them much more if you could experience them everyday? So why not use them as a design element and put them on your wall? And the good news is that there are countless ways you can display your photos that are more inventive than just framing and hanging. Here are some ideas.

Tape It Up!
Your personal photos are just that…personal and so its ok to treat them a little sentimentally. By skipping the formality of framing and taping up images in an informal arrangement, you are giving the photos a very comfortable and personal treatment.

Frame Them But Don’t Hang Them
Remember, these photos are of the people you love, so arrange them informally and it will have a warmer effect then if you hang them symmetrically in matching frames. It’s ok for the photos to look a little cluttered as long as it is a sweet and sentimental clutter. Think of your grandma’s shelf and all her old photos…that’s what we are going for! You could arrange framed images on a table top or you could use picture ledge wall shelves like the ones pictured below. West Elm sells these for $35- $55.

Forget What I Just Said
Ok, remember how I just said this: “it will have a warmer effect then if you hang them symmetrically in matching frames”? Well, I don’t mean to be disingenuous, but here is an idea from the late great Domino that does just that. What’s so great about this idea is that the frames are the IKEA RAM frames that cost $1.99 for a 3 pack. Cheap and cool! Awesome!

[This] is a series of pictures and frames my sister-in-law – who is an amazing photographer and artist – made us for Christmas.  I was never that in to nature decorations before but the pictures are really calming, and good to look at in the middle of an East Coast winter when you’ve forgotten what green looks like.

I love this drawing/card that drawn for my birthday a few years ago. The artist was an awesome four year old, Rowan.

An editor where I used to work rescued this paper and wire “taxidermy” from the side of the road in Tribeca. He’s perfect for my room,  which has a lot of traditional furniture with more modern, playful fabrics and accessories.  I like his big scale (at 36″ high, 22″ deep) and how he brings the eye up,  drawing attention to my high ceiling. I’ve resisted any temptation to paint him to cover the bandage on the snout because I love the ethereal quality brought by afternoon light shining through the paper. And I love him more for his imperfections!

PS. Nice paint color!

I found this gem at the Brooklyn Flea Market in DUMBO. It’s just a beat-up, discolored metal tray, but if you hang on the wall like so, you can hang all kinds of beautiful things from it! I used it for my earrings. Very rugged industrial femme, no?