New Talent

Since I'm going to be leaving for Aspen (yay! cooler weather!) tomorrow, I thought I'd leave my loyal readers (Kate/Mary) with a thought. This morning in the shower I started thinking about the time Bravo's Top Design came to Atlanta for a casting call. My boss asked me if I knew any "young designers" who could try out. I didn't know any my age (23). How can I become the next KatieDid or Style Court when I don't know any YOUNG (talented) designers.


I'm hoping they are all interning or assistants for Katie Stassi, Anne Coyle, Mary McDonald, Jan Showers (above) and the like, and they will all come out of the wood works in a few years for me to blog about.


I know Design*Sponge sponsored a contest to find young designers, and one good option, Paige Smith, seems to have made the finals (also a SCAD student, like I am!). Although she is a pattern designer, she clearly knows interiors (her drawing is the picture above).


The best I can find for now is from Domino's 2008 list of designer's "on the verge." But only two are under 30. We all love Daniel Pafford who is only 27, love his work (above). Mallory Mathison is 29, so cute and from Atlanta (below). She is doing a lot of design work for young Atlantans.

So I've decided to research this over my holiday. New, young, up-and-coming designers. I mean practically still students, probably just interns, possibly assistants. Most likely only with a blog (not that anything is wrong with that!) Young people just waiting to start their own business. Young people who GET IT. Any ideas anyone (Kate)? Have a great 4th!

Geode Bookends

Today on the way home from the lake, we passed alot of typical North Georgia road stops... boiled peanuts, carved wood stores, etc. One of these junk stores randomly sold only geodes. I saw some cool bookends that would look great on a clean bookshelf. Also geodes are pretty good decorative items in general. When placed in a clean context they add a little color. The bookends are functional and different and I love the idea! Here are some at Nature's Emporium.

Lulu DK

Lulu De Kwiatkowrski, a.k.a. creator of fabric line Lulu DK, just wrote her first book Lulu and it's such a great coffee table book. It doesn't have any typical text, only Lulu's incredibly creative collages with pictures. As much as we try to buy coffee table books that convey some sort of intellect through the words, we must admit most coffee table books come down to the pictures. This book unabashedly delivers. It's $100 in stores but much less at Amazon: click here. I really recommend!!

Re-Do Your Room Day!

Today I gave my room a retro makeover. And also since I'm very poor, did it all on a shoestring budget. Fun fun! I wish I had before and after pictures... oh well. A lot still needs to be done, i.e. either get rid of room TV altogether or get a new not so 1999 one. (Not pictured, thank god).

This is an old mirror I found from the Buckhead Thriftique. I spray painted it gold with Rustoleum gold spray paint:


At Lewis and Sheron Textile Co. I found this fabric for a throw/bedspread in the remnants room, so it was super cheap. Only $48 for all! P.S. Lewis and Sheron has this AMAZING little hidden section called StaceAge... click here to look at the cool stuff: STACEAGE.


Then in a stroke of luck, I found not one, but TWO of these heavy brass lamps at Buckhead Thriftique. $10 for both! Mainly because they didn't have harps or finials, but I found those at Home Depot for like $5 total. Voile... working matching lamps! Disclaimer: the shades came from the interior design store where I work, so that was kind of cheating.


Then at the Salvation Army I found this really cool chair for $2.99 but the upholstery was really gross and yellowed and horrible. I painted the outside parts of the chair black, but kept the original wood in the middle because it was in perfect condition and I didn't want to cover it up. Then again at Lewis and Sheron, I found some animal (not sure which) print fabric for $12/yard, because it was on sale. I did a really rigged job putting it on but you can't really tell. I just used little nails on the bottom. Then I bought this sheep skin rug at Ikea for $29.99. Click here to find one.


And finally, I needed a place to put my books and stuff. And I'm really into tomato red right now. So I got these two little table things from IKEA for $12.99. They are perfect for holding my old mags and books. Notice the Blueprint magazine (it's no longer in print, although it was the best magazine ever, collector's item to me). Click here to buy one.


This isn't that fun, but it is a fun place to put my jewelry. Just some sort of spongy stuff from Home Depot and white fabric. And push pins. See my new necklace from Banana Republic? Go here to buy one. I love it very much.


Still have a little work on something to go with these mini pillows I made with leftover fabric. Missing something...

THE END FUN DAY!

Interiors

Love the work Palmer Weiss does. Click here to look at her portfolio.

Dream Book Shelf

I moved today and realized the majority of my personal belongings is books. I love books. I love the way they look, too. Just love books. Functional and beautiful. This is my DREAM room..... I want this!!!

Fabric

I realize that it is a trend right now, but I still love Southwestern prints. The scarf is here. I also assert that it is just a mini-trend, and it will always be a classic print. I found all this fabric on eBay. Although some of it seems to have some sort of repeated jalapeno motif going on, other seems definitely salvageable. Maybe I'll donate the "issue" fabrics to some sort of neighborhood grill chain restaurant to use as napkins. Not sure what I'm going to do with the other. It will probably just sit with all my other packrat items, such as the 2 years of archived TeenVogues that I'm totally never going to need. Or maybe I'll think of something brillant.