Blacksmith Blossom Chair

This is the kind of chair that's capable of inspiring the look of an entire room. It's industrial, playful, romantic, quirky, vintage-y looking and utterly modern. Absolutely a new favorite.
@ Anthropologie, $248

Kobo Motif Candles

We swear by soy candles when we're hoping a scent lingers for a while. Right now, we're loving Kobo Motif soy candles. They come in a range of heavenly fragrances, such as Figue Blanc and Gardenia Royal. Bliss.
@ Sprout Home, $35

Penguin Classics Couture & Clothbound Series

Design*Sponge is one of our favorite daily reads, and through them we learned that Penguin books will soon offer cloth-bound issues of their classics.

So we popped over to Penguin Classics for more details and discovered that fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo is doing some super-chic covers for their new Couture Classics series. Penguin explains:

He 'dresses' three of our beloved classics—Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, and The Scarlet Letter—in couture-inspired book designs. Please, judge our books by their covers.

Love those. But we really can't wait to settle in with a mug of tea and their new cloth-bound series (below) once the weather cools down.


Cover artist Coralie Bickford-Smith picked some inventive images to represent their books, and we especially liked the clocks on Oliver Twist, the chairs on Emma and the pink flamingos for Alice in Wonderland.

Couture classics series @ Penguin, $16 or Amazon,$11
The clothbound series will be available soon @ Anthropologie and UO.
The embossed hardcover series, also designed by Bickford-Smith, can be pre-ordered @ Amazon, $14. (Scroll down to see all titles.)

We recently wrote about pink rooms, and now Nook, our sister site, just discovered Tracy Reese bright, mostly pink bedding sets and modern quilts are available at Amazon.

We originally saw these a year or so back at Anthropologie. They no carry them, so we're glad to find that Amazon has the Folk Song, Saigon, Big Blooms and Almost Famous styles at reasonable prices. It's hard to tell from these pix, but the colors and patterns are lovely in real life.
@ Amazon, from $200

Ballard Design Door Stops

Finally, grown-up door-stops. There are oodles of bright, funny, clever door-stops that make us giggle out there, but few that we're willing to leave out during a dinner party.
@ Ballard Designs, from $15

Trend Spy: Pink Rooms

House Beautiful

Think Pink! Fuschia Perfect! Everything's Coming Up Rosy!

We predict a lot headlines like these in the near future, because we're seeing so many pink rooms lately. Major design publications and trend-spotters are touting colorways like magenta, peony, strawberry and blush. In posh homes, it does seem to grow from a little girl's cutesy-ness to sophisticated, and not necessarily feminine, chic.

Even as longtime fans of pink (oh yes, we're girly girls), we still find it hard to imagine using pink -- light or hot -- as the primary color for our living room. But these rooms may change our mind. Is there a room in your house that might convince you to think pink?

Metropolitan Home

Maire Claire Maison

Betsey Johnson's home in Elle Decor UK [via Apt. Therapy]
Betsey Johnson's home

Betsey's Johnson home

House Beautiful

John Robshaw Printed Textiles

Here are just a few examples of John Robshaw's gorgeous printed fabric. His patterns are drawn from traditional printing, dying and weaving techniques in India and Southeast Asia. The above prints were made from hand-block printed on linen.

While Robshaw's fabrics are only available to interior designers and trade professionals (boo!), our consolation is that his lovely prints are widely available on quilts, duvet covers and all kinds of bedding.
@ Garnet Hill

Framed Objects

These pictures remind us of something we once overheard at a museum: Put a frame around it, and you can call anything art. Well, maybe they're not exactly art, but they certainly are a smart, chic way to show off flowers, books or a pretty scarf.
@ the., $100

Patricia Urquoila's Déchirer Tile

We just love these (admittedly subtle) porcelain tiles by the dynamic Spanish designer, Patricia Urquiola for Mutina.

Déchirer (French for 'torn' or 'ripped') tiles remind of a once-ornate surface that was left to the mercy of the elements. Elle Deco likes them too, and gave them the International Design Award (EDIDA) in 2009 in the wall coverings category.
@ Stone Source

Charmed by Charm Hill Interiors

Charm Hill Interiors -- one of our favorite blogs -- has been dazzling us lately with several posts featuring whites + naturals looks... some of which are from a masterfully designed double-wide mobile home!

Here are some images from a few of their recent posts to give you a sense of why we can't get enough.

All of them showcase neutral rooms that combine chipped, shabby white pieces with textures and typography, iron and galvanized steel or other strong visual elements. Can you guess which rooms are from the mobile home? Visit this post to find out.

Etsy Find: Sara Paloma Pottery

We must be on an Etsy winning streak. We found Sara Paloma's pottery site, and loved her simple, but posh style. Her white pieces would look stunning against a dark accent wall. Hmmm....
@ Etsy, from $60

Etsy Find: Watercolors by Geninne

These wonderful, little watercolors are painted by Geninne, a Mexico City-based artist. They're vibrant and compelling, and we were instantly smitten with them.

They're small (most are 6x8"), but we think they'd be able to hold their own with larger photos or paintings, especially centered in a large, matted frame. Each piece has so many creative details, they draw you in for a closer look. Her blog is equally lovely.
@ Etsy, $25

Vintage Wall Shelf Brackets

Sometimes, an impromptu wall shelf is all takes to declutter a space or revamp a life-less area in a room. Plus, the wrought iron flourishes add a pretty accent anywhere, but we like them best when hung over a desk or bed.

It can be hard to track down detailed vintage-style brackets, but here are a few places to start:

Top row + middle row, left @ Urban Outfitters, from $18
Bottom row + center @ Anthropologie, from $22
Middle row, right @ Rejuvenation, $30

Simplified: Poufs

Poufs (in case you couldn't tell by their name) are the imps of the furniture world. They're cheeky, high-spirited and generally fun to have around. They're never -- or should never be -- too serious or well-behaved. Instead, they're a perfect way to infuse a little merriment into any room, no matter how formal it aspires to be.
Here are a few that capture the spirit:
Clockwise, from left:

Lana wool ottoman @Modern Dose, $395
Missoni cube @ Unica Home, $490
Marimekko Fat Boy @ Zwello, $300
Sweet 40 @ Gervasoni Spa [via Design Milk]



Flora pouf @ Modern Dose, $550
Milos @ Moss, $1,700
Sheepskin, dhurri & hemp poufs @ West Elm, $190