Book Club: My Favorite Design Books in 2014

My favorite thing to ask for at Christmas time is art and design books. I love to have them stacked all around the house, but I keep most of them on the base shelf of our library bookshelves. Since browsing Pinterest doesn't always feel that relaxing to me, I like to steal a few minutes of every day to lounge on the daybed and flip through an inspiring design book. Nothing helps me more to get those creative juices flowing! It's fun to catch my kids thumbing through them too.

I've found some great additions this year that I think would make amazing last-minute gift ideas! I snapped some photos of a few inside pages, just to give you a taste of what these are all about.

1) I think one of my favorite interior design book purchases this year was Designers at Home by Ronda Rice Carman.  The title tells it all - page after page after page of amazing rooms in the most famous designers' homes. 

I loved seeing different angles and styling of some familiar rooms, but most of these spaces were new to me. My only teeny tiny complaint is that I wish this book was a bit bigger so I could soak up the details even better.

2) I think Heather Clawson and I share an obsession over creatives' workspaces. Her book shares wide and vignette shots of the coolest artists and designer's offices.

It was fun to see more details of Jenna Lyons' beautiful office.

And find a few new favorite spaces to obsess over.

3) This book is seriously inspiring, even for the fair weather Wes Anderson fan. It's a beautifully designed behind-the-scenes book packed with inspiration images, interviews and sketches. I love it.

4) My friend, Samantha Hahn, is a truly talented artist. You've seen her work in all sorts of cool ad campaigns and in the most beautiful magazine layouts. Her book, called Well-Read Women, is still one of my favorites to flip through.

She pairs her gorgeous portraits of famous women in literature with beautiful lines from their stories. This is a great book for gifting.

5) We all know and love Erin's blog and her new book doesn't disappoint!

Not only are the images beautiful, the text is as informational, hilarious and genuine as the Elements of Style blog. Well done, Erin!

\

(PS Recognize the gallery wall here on the right?) :)

6) The Remodelista book is stunning. Many of the images, especially at the front of the book, are pretty modern and sparsely styled, but the foundational design choices are SO good and super inspiring to me. I would be tempted to add a layer or two of color and accessories, but I still really connected with the rooms in this book.

My favorite spreads are toward the back, where some of the editor's homes are featured. Makes me miss New York like crazy.

They also have a section that lists 100 of their favorite housewares. I LOVED this part - it's like getting a peek at your most stylish friend's wedding registry list. 

What books have you bought and loved this year? Here are a few that are on my Christmas list:

Kate Spade Things We Love  //  A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey  //  

The Furniture Bible  //  Sunday Suppers

Gallery Wall of Mirrors

There's a hallway in our house that has the lowest ceiling you could possibly imagine and not a ton of natural light. Actually, there's like, no natural light. It's a dark, squatty hallway. The playroom is at one end, our bedroom is at the other and the guest bathroom and the laundry room are in between. So, you know, it's a high-traffic space and I wanted it to be a little less of an eye sore.

Mirrors are a great way to brighten up any space. It really is like adding a window! In my case, I wanted to add about 10 little windows...

I have a ton of art hanging around in the hall and in the guest bath, so besides the added light factor, mirrors felt like a good way to find balance with the rest of the art on the nearby walls.

I've collected most of these mirrors over the years from thrift stores and flea markets. It's not all that easy to find a good place to hang an individual small-sized mirror, but I love the way they all look hanging together!

And I really like the way the gold tones mix with the silver/nickel and the wood. I've mixed metals all over our house, and this little hallway sort of brings all that together for me.

Remember this pretty mirror from the garden level entry of the brownstone? The square mirror to the left was a more recent find, on sale at Anthropologie.

The Mexican mirror was another more recent find at a cool junk store near here called Turtle's Treasures. Only $5!

The Louis Phillipe style mirror is really old - the glass is foggy and super warped. I love it!

It's always a good idea to hang art at eye level. I hung these as if there was a chalk line at my eye level and then I centered the mirror(s) on that line.

It's sort of a dark day here, so you'll have to trust me when I say the mirrors are really brightening up this hallway! :) I'm so happy I was able to find a place to hang all these little treasure of mine, and that they look all the more special hanging together.

Now I just need to work on finding some new wall sconces! :/

DIY: Gold Leaf Brush Strokes Vase

I was stocking up on some gold leaf at the craft store last week and saw this variegated rose gold leaf next to my regular yellow gold stand by. The wheels in my brain starting turning and I knew I had to use it for today's vase project!

I worked with a great online florist called The Bouqs on this post. I used their company to send one of my friends a bouquet recently (they have a promotion right now where you get a free bouquet with your first order!) and she was super impressed and begged to find out where I could find such pretty ranunculus at this time of year. The Bouqs ships their flowers directly from their sustainable, eco-friendly farms on the side of active volcanos (!) in Equador right to your door, so the buds are always fresh and so beautiful! 

There's no silly teddy bears or weird upselling, just beautiful flowers at great prices and always free shipping. It's a perfect solution for when you want to send thinking-of-you flowers to your friends, but you don't really want to spend a ton of money on a dumb arrangment. These flowers are from the Marshmallow bouquet (one of my favorites on their site). I love how the bright white buds pair with the pretty purple larkspurs and the coral color of the DIY vase. 

To do the quick and easy leafing project, I picked up a couple of clear glass vases at the craft store, cleaned them well, and taped the entire outside of the vase with painters tape before spray painting the insides. 

I used Rustoleum's French Lilac (can't get enough of that one!) and Design Master's Coral. I sprayed on a couple of very, very thick coats and let the paint dry for at least 12 hours.

When the paint is dry and the tape is removed, the paint looks like milk glass! It's such a pretty effect - I did a similar project here to get a blue opaline look for my jewelry trays.

I wanted to go a step further on this project though and give the outside of the vase some metallic love using the variegated rose gold leaf. Any leafing project can get a little messy (but it will be the most beautiful mess you've ever laid your eyes on!). I like to lay down a sheet of thick brown kraft paper before starting, which makes clean up a breeze.

I poured a small amount of leafing size on the top of the vase and used a 1" brush to very loosely paint the size on the bottom half of my vase. I went really easy with the size - being careful to not overly smooth out the brush strokes and to leave little gaps here and there too. As you let the sizing glue dry, watch for drips and either brush them off or lightly dab them up with a paper towel. You want the coat to be thin and even.

The size will be completely clear and tacky to the touch when it is ready for the leaf. I applied the sheets with a soft bristled brush, but it's fine to just use your (clean) hands too! You want to really flatten the leaf sheets against the vase, making sure there are no air bubbles or wrinkles.

The leaf will magically stick to where ever the size was painted on, but will brush right off the rest of the vase.

If there are any cracks or gaps, I just use some of the extra leaf bits on the table and rub them onto the size with my fingers. It's really so easy to get a smooth finish!

I think the dimension of the finished vase is so pretty with the bright color inside the glass and the rose gold on the outside!

After the leafing is done, you'll want to paint on a layer of sealer to help protect the gold leaf. 

When the sealer is all dry, you're ready to start arranging your bouquet! I know it's tempting to do a blunt cut at the bottom of your flower bunch and just toss them in a vase, but I'm learning it makes for such a more beautiful bouquet if you cut and arrange the flowers one by one. The Bouqs is also a great place to get tips on floral arrangement and care (here's the page on ranunculus).

I tried to keep the arrangement organic and swoopy (the tall larkspur stems helped there!).

This arrangement was a gift for my friend, who needed a little extra love this week, and I love how it turned out. The Bouqs suggests that if the water is changed every few days, the flowers will last an additional 1-3 weeks. They suggest adding a little sugar or Sprite to the fresh water once you've run out of the flower food that comes in the packets.

A big thanks to The Bouqs for sponsoring this post! Check out all their amazing bouquets here, and get a FREE bouquet with your first purchase!  I think this one would be perfect for a holiday gift to a far-away loved one.  :)