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.

A Poem for Wednesday

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Excerpt from Mary Oliver's The Summer Day; Photo via Audrey Hepburn Complex

Inspiration 8.4

via Marie Claire Maison

Inspiration 8.3

via This is Glamorous

Etsy Fave: White Owl

After several seasons of heavy costume jewelry, my neck is really, really tired of being weighed down with 2-pounds of fake pearls and beads. While, a little birdie (cough, mom) told me I will be receiving a sweet (and mericifully lightweight) gold Peretti bean necklace for my birthday this week, I'm also loving these lace necklaces from White Owl. The pieces are as dramatic as costume pieces but, happily, lacking the resulting neck and back pain.

Inspiration 8.2

I'm not usually a fan of modern architecture, but the skylight here is just gorgeous. I would love to see a smaller scale version of this room off of a more traditional country house.

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.