QUICK FIX COMBOS: SPIRAL STAIRCASE+MODERN TWIST

Whether it be in a grandiose entrance or a one bedroom loft, a spiral staircase with modern design is a great way to add drama and architectural interest to a space...

SOIREE SPECTRUM: BLACK

Sultry and sophisticated, Black is the perfect way to put a modern twist on a traditional celebration...

from top left: Green Wedding Shoes, Rue Magazine, Green Wedding Shoes, Erin Ever After, Daily Cup of Couture, Nevaeh Jewelry

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? JACKIE 0

It’s undeniable the charm and sophistication that Jackie O brought, not only as a First Lady, but in the years to follow as well.  A woman of class and style, her iconic image will never be forgotten.

1. Madison Avenue Gifts 2-3. Tiffany & Co 4. Z Gallerie 5. Oh It's Just Perfect 6. Anthropologie 7-8. Tiffany & Co

MAKE-A-WISH GALA AFTER PARTY

So if you remember, way back in March, I gave you a little sneak peek of the materials we were working with for the Make-A-Wish Foundation's Gala After party. Having finally gotten my hands on some fabulous photographs of the event from Team Photogenic, here is a look at the final product!

We filled an entire twenty-foot soffit with silver metallic fringe for dramatic effect over the dance floor and it paid off as people were dancing under the shimmery mass all night long.

Beneath the flanking soffits, we hung velvet drapery to create two small VIP areas on either side of the dance floor. The gorgeous white soft furniture was donated by Green Room Decor and gave guests a luxurious spot to hang out and relax after the Gala.  

And of course, after all was said and done I got to have a little time with my team to enjoy the celebration where Make-A-Wish raised millions for such a deserving cause.

RAMBLINGS: TORI TAIT

Along the road of my career and travels, I've been extremely fortunate to meet and work with an array of incredibly talented people. Ramblings is my way of picking their brain for more insight and juicy tidbits to share with you.

Tori Tait created Thoughtfully Simple with one goal ... to inspire the inner "Hostess" in every gal. After styling dozens of events over the years, Tori thought it is was necessary to prove that creating stylish events can be simple, for anyone! She offers visual inspiration, tutorials, and resources -- transforming even the most timid gal into the most confident and thoughtful Hostess.

When the "blogging apron" is off, Tori is doing what she loves most -- connecting with others, thinking outside of the box and working in fast-growing startup. As Community Manager for Daily Grommet, she is surrounded by fresh finds, unique gifts, and a lot of fun, smart, and engaging folks. What more could a girl want?

What is your greatest extravagance?  

Planning my own events. Prop shopping gets a bit out of control sometimes!

What career would you pursue if you weren't doing what you do now? 
College Professor.

Which living person do you most admire?
 My husband. He's kind, thoughtful and generous.

What three things can’t you live without? 

Coffee, my iphone, and my family.

What is your guilty pleasure?  

A glass of red wine and late night TV. I try to do this once a week after the house is quiet just to let my brain "turn-off." I call it my maintenance time.

What is your favorite color combination? 

This is tough because it seems to change with my mood! At the moment is white and coral. Especially in the form of nautical stripes.

 
What is the favorite room in your house, and why? 
I would have to say my favorite room is my kitchen. I love to cook and my favorite time of the day is when everyone gathers at the table to enjoy dinner together. Specifically though, I have these two shelves in the kitchen bar area that are my favorite. Most of my home is decorated in neutral, earth tones - and I am definitely one of those that like everything "in it's place." These two shelves however have a mind of their own. You never know what will find it's way up on these shelves. Typically bits of a project I am working on or stacks of cookbooks I've recently pulled out. I love that these shelves have a life of their own.

What is the most memorable event you’ve attended and why? 

I would have to say my oldest daughter's Kindergarten graduation. I was a wreck, it just hit me that now she would be growing up and entering the "real world." She is in 4th grade now but I still see her as that little 5 year old. I know I will be equally emotional when our youngest graduates Kindergarten too. I'll be in trouble when it's high school and college graduations, won't I?

What would people be surprised to know about you? 

That my idea of  a great night out on the town would involve a dive bar and a rock and roll cover band of some sort.

What is your biggest pet peeve?

Bad table manners. There is nothing worse than trying to enjoy good company and a good meal when someone has bad table manners.

QUICK FIX COMBO: INDUSTRIAL LIGHTING + MODERN ELEGANCE

  Be it your kitchen, workspace, bedroom, or living room, industrial lighting brings an unexpected touch of modern elegance to any space.

via houzz

via black*eiffel

via cococozy

via Vintage Barnlight

via Barnlight Electric

via Junk Culture

via decoist

via design*sponge

via Industrial Farmhouse

ANTIQUING AT BRIMFIELD

From left to right: Gretchen Aubuchon, Me, Brian Kelsey, and Cynthia Bogart

I am sitting at the airport in NYC and finally have a chance to reflect on the overwhelming craziness of this past nine days.  Three hotels, one sofa, countless bottles of bubbly, and many new friendships later I am on my way back to Seattle.  

It only seems appropriate to start at the beginning when I flew into NYC to do the Martha Stewart radio show with Besty and Brian.  Yes, the same Brian Kelsey that I featured on my Ramblings Series, and from the online series Kelsey on the House.    If you are a "tweeter" then you would know him as @kelsonthehouse.  When I walked in to chat about Brimfield I was reminded that Twitter is a powerful tool to build friendships.  Because Brian and I had tweeted back and forth it was like I already knew him.  Crazy!  I had been on the show with Betsy before, so I had a great time chatting about antiques and the upcoming trip Brian and I were about to take to Brimfield.   We were invited by Cynthia Bogart of The Daily Basics and Gretchen Aubuchon  of Gretchen Aubuchon Designs to attend the #Brimfield Tweetup and participate in a little challenge.  

First of all, a little challenge?  I wouldn't call giving me 20 minutes to shop  6,000 vendors a little challenge!  I was so distracted by all of the vintage finds - how is a girl supposed to design just one table.  Brian's task was to makeover a chair to compliment my table, and it was truly a team effort by all.  I even learned a really great tip from Will Aubuchon of Aubuchon Hardware.  If you haven't seen my Brimfield adventure check this video out...

The thing you don't see in this video is that we literally finished taping just as the rain started to come down.  

I went to Brimfield expecting to find fabulous antiques, and instead I came home with friends that I feel will be lifelong.  Oh, and  I can't forget to mention that I was able to chat with  Better Homes and Gardens and the folks at Benjamin Moore.  We had great conversations about design, tv, and social media.  I can't emphasize enough how these events are an amazing opportunity to build relationships and to build your career!  You never know who you might meet, and how they will play a role in your life.  

Looking for a more detailed recap with video clips and all.  Check out Gretchen's You Tube Channel and find Cynthia's wrap up here on The Daily Basics!  

Tomorrow a Blogfest recap that will include an  iphone video interview with Jennifer Powell of Kravet!  It is a two parter and not to be missed. 

SOIREE SPECTRUM: CHERRY RED

Happy Monday! Hope your weekend was filled with cheer, starting the week off right with snippets of my favorite hue...

from top left: Christian Siriano, 100LayerCake, Hermes, Bando, GreenBicycle, GreenWeddingShoes, CamilleStyles, ErinEverAfter, Snippet&Ink

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? CLEOPATRA

2,3,5,8, via Vivre 1,4,5,6,7 via Zara Home

RAMBLINGS: THOM FILICIA

Today I have a special EXTRA Ramblings for you. One of the talented cast members of Bravo's 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy', Interior Decorator Thom Filicia will be in Seattle tomorrow, Friday, May 20th at the W Hotel. A night of cocktails, light specialty bites and a chance to get a signed copy of Thom Filicia's new book: Thom Filicia Style: Inspired ideas for creating rooms you'll love will be held to benefit DIFFA (Design Industry Foundation Fighting AIDS). Tickets are $30, click here to reserve your spot.

In the mean time, enjoy a few juicy details from the man himself...

What is your greatest extravagance?

Fine Dining and travel

What career would you pursue if you weren’t doing what you do now?

Ski Instructor

 Which living person do you most admire?

Barack Obama

What three things can’t you live without? Humor, Friends, Fun

What is your guilty pleasure? Chocolate

What is your favorite color combination?  Brown and Blue

What is the favorite room in your house, and why? Living room – it’s the room in which I truly live.  From entertaining to relaxing it’s my favorite room to spend time in and it has amazing views of the Hudson River.

What is the most memorable event you’ve attended and why? The opening of the US Pavillion at the 2005 World’s Fair in Aichi, Japan. I designed the space and ther party was held in the VIP Suite. It was an amazing project and the event itself was spectacular.

What would people be surprised to know about you? That I’m about to do my second triathalon (I can also do 8 one armed push-ups!).

What is your biggest pet peeve? Mean people

RAMBLINGS: STACY KUNSTEL

Along the road of my career and travels, I've been extremely fortunate to meet and work with an array of incredibly talented people. Ramblings is my way of picking their brain for more insight and juicy tidbits to share with you.

Stacy Kunstel, a.k.a. StacyStyle, is a stylist, editor, and writer whose work regularly appears in Traditional Home, Better Homes & Gardens, Country Living, New England Home, and more than a dozen other national publications. A former editor at Southern Accents and Southern Living before turning to the world of freelance, she now works with the nation’s top interiors photographers and has created more than 30 cover stories in the past seven years.
 When she’s not traveling five days a week to find and style gorgeous houses, she’s appearing on the New England Cable News show Dream Home or working with interior designers and architects photograph their own work for books and portfolios.
 In 2010 Stacy co-founded and launched the romantic lighting and lifestyle brand Dunes and Duchess with photographer Michael Partenio. 

What is your greatest extravagance? Vintage and new clothing and accessories. My outfits tend to be an assemblage of different textures and eras with a bit of over-the-top thrown in.

What career would you pursue if you weren’t doing what you do now? I tend to think I’m on my third career. I’ve been a travel writer and an interiors stylist at national magazines since I got out of college. Now as the co-founder of a lifestyle brand, every day I’m dreaming up new product for the Dunes and Duchess line. It’s the perfect career for me now and combines so many of the things I’ve seen and learned in my career.

Which living person do you most admire? I admire any person who gets up every morning and takes pride in the work that they do. People who really care about how they do their job whether it is someone who paints houses or paints art deserves recognition if they do it well.

What three things can’t you live without? Dogs, music, beach time.

What is your guilty pleasure? Shopping and eating without restraint or regret.

What is your favorite color combination? A great store in Boston called Hudson displayed our International Orange candelabra with hot pink candles in the store window this spring, and I’m just crazy about the combination now.


What is the favorite room in your house, and why?
Outside in the garden is my favorite place to be when it’s nice. I love flowers and grass and eating, reading, relaxing outside.
What is the most memorable event you’ve attended and why? I went to a wedding a few summers ago on the tiny island of Anholt between Denmark and Sweden. It was a magical day. After a ceremony in a church lit only by candles, everyone walked and bicycled to the highest point on the island overlooking the ocean. We drank champagne, ate paté sandwiches and soaked up the sun before going back to town and dancing till 5 a.m. The sun only went down for about two hours that night.

What would people be surprised to know about you? I am a huge sports fan, particularly college basketball.

 What is your biggest pet peeve? Badly made things.

ENTERTAINING LIKE A ROYAL

Well as many of you know, we had Royal wedding fever around here and though the date has come and gone I didn't want to leave you out on all the juicy details of our own Royal affair...

For this very special occasion, I wanted to create a tablescape that combined both English tradition and modern elegance with of course, a lot of extra bling. Inspired by the beautiful Kate Middleton's stunning sapphire ring, Maxine's Floral and Gift created these flower arrangements for us out of navy crepe paper and gemstones. For a personalized touch I had calligrapher Katherine Malmsten turn inexpensive white dinner plates into monogrammed keepsakes with a porcelain pen. 

 The table settings were placed on jeweled chargers from Z Gallerie to represent the diamonds surrounding Kate's ring, and were completed with name cards done on a grey union jack flag hot glued to an over sized acrylic diamond.

An invitation is always important, especially for a formal occasion, so we enlisted the talents of Real Card Company to create a customized invitation fit for the Royal family but modern enough for a dinner party with your closest friends. And because you always want to give your guests something to take home,

why not make individual Lemon Curd in glass jars for each guest to enjoy in the week after your party?

For our extravagant night of champagne and high tea at The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, we created a little fact book about the royal couple that they could flip through while watching the procession. Complete with 'Kate and Wills' emblems ironed on guests' napkins, jewelry from Gold Farb Jewelers for each guest to try on, and bottles of the very same champagne being served at the Royal wedding itself, it was a night like no other.

The Fairmont gave us the Royal treatment in their Georgian room with the complete traditional high tea along with delicious food and pastries throughout the night. My team and I all sported fascinators from Henrietta's Hats and I was more than happy to wear a replica of the sapphire ring itself for the evening. For more details catch my segment on King 5 here and don't be afraid to continue to entertain like a Royal for any and every special occasion in your life!

HERMES EVERYWHERE

Well they've gone and done it again, Hermes is coming out with a new line of wallpapers and fabrics that are as uniquely 'Hermes' as their scarves. The mix ranges from loosely brush-stroked horse-races to intricately patterned imagery to oversized ikats, now you can have Hermes in more than just your closet!

QUICK FIX COMBOS: CLASSIC WHITE + TIFFANY BLUE

 via Serena and Lily

via abc home

via Urban Outfitters

Clutch via Amanda Pearl 

via Elmira Stove Works

GIVEAWAY: AMANDA PEARL CRYSTAL NECKLACE

I'm so thrilled to let you all know that I have teamed up with Wishpot and Amanda Pearl for a very exciting giveaway. Enter to win this fabulous vintage crystal necklace! Retail value $328

Tell : get 1 entry 

*become a fan/follower of Amanda Pearl or me (let us know on the contest page)

*share the contest on your blog (let us know on the contest page)

Show: get 2 entries 

*for posting our graphic and adding your own caption on the contest page 

Share: Want more entires?

Get an additional entry *everytime you Tweet about the contest include #pearlgiveaway (win vintage crystal necklace from @amadapearl @kelleylmoore #pearlgiveawayhttp://on.fb.me/e32uvL )

contest page
Contest will run through May 24th, good luck!