Schumacher Introduces "Studio Bon" !

Last week, our friends at F. Schumacher introduced a new collection from Dallas-based fabric designer, Bonnee Sharp of Studio Bon Collection.  Besides being beautiful and edgy, Studio Bon is created with a silk screen process one lovely yard at a time right here in the good ole USA!
You can read about her process here.

I also love the names that Bonnee assigns to her fabrics....clever girl!
Pictured above is "Grass", "Wired" and "Fuzz".

Check out some of the other colorways.

Other colorways in the collection are seen in "Wired" and "Grass".

Whimsy and playful are great adjectives to describe the collection from Studio Bon.  Silk screened on linen and cotton, these fabrics are perfect for all kinds of upholstery, window treatments and other soft goods.

"El Sol" in Mink Mousse

"Ellen" in Black

An

And last but not least....she named one after me!  (I wish!)

"Sally" in Fire!

Schumacher has a great "to the trade" showroom in Dallas, run by an awesome guy, Brad Scott.  Brad is raising funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) as a participant in their Team In Training program, and I told him I would pass the word around.  Maybe you would like to help him by making a donation to his fundraising campaign.

You can go directly to his fund-raising page here and help him help others find a cure for these diseases that affects so many.

Good luck, Brad !  Train hard!

Contact the team at Sally J. Designs for all your design and decorating needs.

We make dreams a reality!

In the Pink

I'm thinking pink today.

It was my favorite color when I was growing up, and I don't think I've ever grown out of my Pink-Love.

But just like me, pink is all grown up. 

Jonathan Adler

Country Living

The fabric houses have gotten on the pink bandwagon as well.

Here's a few of my favs.

                

Lee Jofa, Jane Churchill, Highland Court, Duralee

Duralee, Manuel Canovas, Schumacher, LeeJofa

There's often something whimsical about Pink, and that usually brings me to a happy place....not a bad place to be!

Canadian House and Home

seen on Life in Pictures blog

Betsy Johnson for the Valentine House

Otthan magazine (Hungary)

I like Pink when it's unexpected....which is most times...

Laufen.com

I so wish I had the nerve for this!

Seen on Life at 514 blog

It's not just for little girls anymore, although it will always be great for them too.

Caldwell Flake Interiors

Robyn Karp Interior Designer

Whether it's soft or bold, sweet or sassy...It pretty much makes me happy to be around it.

Truthfully, doesn't it do that to you too?

Sigh.....

Decor8

SCORE !!

I am a junker.  I love the hunt.  It's not even about the money any more, although I love to find a deal.  I really love it when I can see something wonderful amid the junk and garbage.

So a couple of Saturdays ago, with a little extra time on my hands, I stopped into  my local Salvation Army to see if there was anything I could find to repurpose.

I had hardly walked around the corner when I saw them.... A set of rattan coffee tables!

Check these out!

But here's the best part.....

SCORE!!

Based on the research I've done, these are vintage 1960's from the high-end McGuire furniture company.

I didn't find these exact same tables as I was researching, but I did find these McGuire tables on 1st Dibs....

.....and they are selling for $2,400 !!!!

Ask me what I paid....

go ahead....ask me.....

$19.00 for the pair!!!

Did I say SCORE!!

Although they are in pretty good shape, there certainly was some wear and tear.  All the rattan was perfectly attached and the 1/2" glass looked really good.

But I didn't want to live with old brown tables...even if they are McGuire.

I know I probably killed the resale value of the tables, but I pulled out my trusty paint brush and went to town.

TA DA !!

Aren't they awesome!!

Revisit....."The Man Chair"

On Father's Day last June, I did a post on "The Man Chair".  

As a designer, we have to be sensitive to the way that people want to live in their homes, and clearly, men want........

 "The Man Chair".........sigh........

At the end of that somewhat irreverent post, I showed a sketch of a custom recliner we were doing for a client. 

We installed this chair in the client's home last week, and just let me say...houndstooth is very cool!

It's still a man chair, but this one has some attitude!!

We're waiting on one more chair for this space, so when everything finally arrives.....hate backordered fabric!.....I'll show you the whole beautiful space. 

Steve....I hope you love your chair!!

Another Orange Slice

This week's post for http://www.loweroaklawn.com/ is all about the Orange trend in fabrics.  In shopping the Dallas Design District, it is clear that orange will continue to be a hot color for the fabric houses this year.

Want to see some of the best sellers?  http://www.loweroaklawn.com/

Yall come on in!

One of my projects for the upcomming weekend is to paint my front door.  I think I know what I want to do, but because I'm obsessive about "shopping" ideas before I make a decision, I've been looking at alot of pictures of doors.

There are some very creative door treatments out there in the blogesphere!

This is probably what I'll do.  I love an orange front door.  How happy and welcoming is that?  I wish I had the white stucco walls to surround it like this one seen in Charleston, SC.

I'm not sure I could do a purple and green door, but I'd be very interested in having dinner with the people who are brave enough to do it.  Don't you know that would be a great dinner party?

Emily Henson's studio

I love the idea of a black door too, especially if it's on a pink house!

Seen in the French Quarter

This beautiful tuquoise could be an option for me as well.  This is more the color of my brick.  Love the touch of yellow in the wreath!

Seen in New Braunfels, Texas

I remember hating my sliding glass door, so I went with a full-view French door instead....but then again, this is not my "perfect-house-for-a-cool-sliding-door.

I can't imagine a better door for this modern space.

Home of the Goldman family, Dallas, Texas as featured in D-Home Magazine

Exterior doors are not the only door love out there.
Interior doors are a great place to bring some style and panache to an ordinary space.

Check out this bathroom door...almost can't see where it begins and ends!

Dmitry Velkovsky

The very cool and stylish Miles Redd certainly didn't leave his own doors unadorned.  Green leather with nailheads...ah...how the stylish live!!

 Another slider for those times that you have dirty dishes in the sink to hide.

Ponte Mellor Architects

If you've read my blog for a while, you know I have a designer crush on Lisa Martensen.  How beautiful is this?  And we've turned up our noses to mirrored doors....who knew they could be this stylish?

Lisa Martensen's house

This door speaks to my wild side.  I'd love to have the nerve to do this!

Again.....Mr. Redd

(Do you think all the doors in his house are upholstered with nailheads?)

Miles Redd

This door has been inspiration for me for a while.  Just need to find the right house to do it in!  Any takers?

Southern Living Magazine

I'm fantasizing about my life living in this space.  Maybe I'm in the south of France....or Wimberley, Texas...not sure, but either one would do.

Kay Douglas, Interior Designer

I sometimes even love a beautiful just to hang around.  What a great way to add an architectural element to a basic wall.

Tracy Morris, Interior Designer

More than anything, I want my door to open up to wonderful people, great experiences and an amazing garden would be a real plus.

Yall come back now, ya hear?

Where are you, Sally J?

It's official.
I have not died.  I am still here.
Let the posts continue!!

I'm sorry for being absent last week.  Some weeks just take the wind out of our sails, and such was the week I had. 

Do you do too much sometimes? Do you take on more than you should...mostly because you know you can? 

It made me start to think about how my design eye has changed over the years.  It's like I started out in the Victorian period...lots of stuff, lots of competition for what to look at...lots of busy-ness!

and like the Craftsman period that followed, I've needed to pare down and focus on the beauty of space and light and singular things that I love.

"Falling Water" house - Frank Lloyd Wright

Isn't that usually the way things go?  Especially in design, the pendulum doesn't swing slow.  It usually knocks us in the head as it's moving from one direction to another.  We get caught in the middle...not sure we're ready to leave the comfort of what we know, but ready for something new and exciting anyway.

As a designer, I never want my clients to be on the end of a trend.

Remember when this was new?  Oak cabinets, little blue flowered wallpaper and matching border?  How many homes built in the 80's go on the resell market still looking like this?

I think this is why we have so many painted kitchens these days.

Traditional Home Magazine

We go from dark to light, light to dark, cluttered to minimalist, curvy to straight lined, open to closed... etc, etc, etc.

So where in all the shuffling around do we find our own design aesthetic?
Is there ever a time when we stop chasing a trend and settle of what's "just right" for us?

Perhaps that's why we settle with "traditional" and "classic"....not because it's what we love so much, but because we just don't want to have to change it in 5 years.

This is beautiful.  We know that we can live with this for many years, and that pleases the husbands who can't believe what you spent to get this look. 

But is it US!

Do you wish to get on the Mid-century train for just a little while?

Kasey McCarty, Interior Designer

Or pehaps you'd like to visit the 60's again.  (Having lived with it the first time, I'm not sure I can do it, but Jonathan Adler is a master at it !)

Jonathan Adler

I have great remembrances of the Bohemian look from the 70's, and there's a large part of me that embraces that look even today.

Better Homes and Gardens

I am really in awe of people, designer and clients alike, who are sure of what they love.  They are sure of themselves enough to plant themselves firmly in one camp or another, regardless of trends and current styles.

That can be good and bad.

In the meantime, where I'm living today, I'm loving being here....

Lisa Caldwell Flake, Interior Designer

and here.....

Emily Walker, Interior Desiger

and even here.

Rod Mickly, Interior Designer

They say that life is a journey,

And so is design.