WEEK ENDNOTES: From Mad Mix to Zen

It was a long, cold week on Freeman Street, and the next two weeks at least don’t promise to be much different. But at least there’s some warmth and fun to be found surfing the web. Here’s what I ran across…

K&H Design

First up, this hallway/stairway in a Notting Hill home. I love how the hexagonal tiles look as if they broke free to climb up the stairs as patterned carpet. The art is cool, too. This home is full of surprising mixes of pattern and color. Follow the link to take the full tour.

I don’t know who did the tile work on the first photo, but these tiles are handglazed terracotta and part of Italian designer Elisa Passino’s Souvenirs D’Ete collection. They have a wonderful midcentury modern feel. I’d love to see them in an installation. Follow the link to see the designer’s suggested layouts.

House Beautiful

This kitchen gave me my midcentury modern “Mad Men” fix for the week. I love its sleek, menswear appeal, from the zigzag wood floor, to the coordinating cabinets to the bar stool upholstery and clean lines. And those enormous pendants over the island make my heart go pitapat, just like it used to when Don Draper (Jon Hamm) appeared on-screen.

House Beautiful

I’ve seen this chandelier in a couple other rooms, but the rich blues and reds in this sitting area really make it come alive. Those retro chairs are to die for, too.

I’m not typically a wallpaper gal, but this exotic elephant paper would make me feel like a seasoned world traveler every time I–well, you know–used this powder room. You might find me just standing in there, turning round and round and staring, too. Love how the yellow is carried onto the ceiling. This is from the London home of an artist and art collector. You’ll want to see the whole place, believe me.

This DIY caught my eye

Here’s something I’d like to try on my nighstand. These are pages from a vintage garden field guide decopauged using Mod-Podge. I’m an avid gardener, and our bedroom right now could handle the extra pattern.

The nightstand was in the guest room at our condo, which doubled as Chris’ office. We had a menswear theme going on there, so we covered the drawers in a tiny houndstooth fabric. I think now that it’s back in the master suite on my side of the bed, I’d like it to look a little more girly.

Gotta start thrifting to find the right pictures!

A Beautiful Mess

Or head on over the A Beautiful Mess to check out a thorough listing of paper collage resources. I could get addicted to this stuff!

I could wear AND decorate with these…

Topshop

How terrific this would look hanging on the coatrack in my foyer, where I’d grab it to go out and get the mail each day.

Then there’s this exotic “nomad” jewelry, which would also look great encircling a lamp or hanging off a door or cabinet knob. Head on over to the Nomadic Decorator–a cool blog on its own–to see all the sources listed for buying these wonderful trinkets without leaving home.

Here’s your signs, sorta

No, but it is fantastically curated and layered.

This one I GOTTA HAVE. It would be PERFECT for my laundry room, since that’s where the cats enter their litterbox through a pet door into the garage. Zen Cat also looks like my Scout. And the laundry room has a black-and-white vibe going. The print’s available in 5-by-7, 8-by-8 and 8- by-12 inches, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find a place to tuck it in.

Speaking of cats…

These two kittens made me smile.

This weekend at home

BoHoHome.com photo

On the one day it wasn’t raining this week, I managed to dig out a few more of my garden decorations from the mess we call our garage. Chris hung the flying tiger cat mobile that was sitting on the chair in the last photo I shared, and my concrete sleeping cat (my favorite garden ornament because she looks like my former kitty, Molly) is now napping on that chair.

I positioned my garden pointer finger with the chickadees on top iin the planter on the right. The pansies have stood up to the cold well, but not proliferated yet because of it.

Today Chris is busy priming the new drywall in the garage so he can paint it NEXT weekend. Tomorrow we’ll head back across town to our daughter’s to finish up (I hope) her home gym adds. Maybe while she and Chris are mulling over directions and screwing things together I’ll brave the cold and prune her hydrangeas.

Houzz

I’m also continuing to plan what I want to do with our new yard. It certainly won’t look like the one pictured here, which caught my eye because it appeared in an article entitled, What Will We Want in Our Landscapes This Year? A list of trends, definitely worth taking into account.

Here’s MY plan:

  • SPRING: I’m hoping to make our front entrance stellar-looking this by moving a few shrubs around that the builder planted, adding a couple accent shrubs, and planting some shade-loving perennials along the walkway.
  • SUMMER: We hope to get a retractable awning installed, as well as two privacy panels designed, built and installed for the back patio area,
  • FALL: We want to plant a couple trees and some deciduous shrubs at either back corner of our property to frame our view of the lake and screen out a storm-sewer intake.

Whew! An aggressive list.

THIS weekend, though, I’m staying out of the cold mostly (snow predicted today) and continuing work on a Mother’s Day gift surprise I’ll offer readers on my blog. It will be my first downloadable project, and I can’t wait to share it with you. Maybe next week?

Back atya then,

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