New Year's Resolution: Read More

This is magic. And we all need a little magic in our Tuesdays, don't we?

Time to dive into the stack of books I received for Christmas. The truth is, I'm still the same little girl who reads under the covers with a flashlight!

PS: Makes my spine-out shelving experiment look rather tame, doesn't it?

PB is Flipping Out Too

My Mom sent me this link in an email, saying, "look at the books above the bed!"

Handsomely styled, Pottery Barn- and nice catch, Mom! Everywhere I look, it's backwards books. It's a sign- today I'm going to turn my library around.

Reversing Our Books (Again?)

This weekend I scored a copy of San Francisco Style for only $5.99 (hurrah!), and amongst its glossy pages I found the home of Oly & Ironies co-mastermind Brad Huntzinger. If I were one notch creepier I'd be combing the Oakland Hills and peering in windows to see the interior of his house for myself- really, it's that good.

I was particularly in awe of this little library bedroom. It's a snug reading nook, but feels calming and airy- thanks in large part to the unorthodox spine-in shelving. Can you imagine how claustrophobic this room would be if the books were right-way-out? Can you imagine trying to enjoy a passage of delicate prose with Tolstoy, Milton and some crime drama breathing down your neck? (Hypothetically, of course...)

Photograph by David Duncan Livingston, Scanned by Shock the Bourgeois

This concept isn't anything new for me. Just last week Sara of The Steampunk Home shared my own spine-in shelving experiment on her blog (thanks to Sara and her readers for such a great discussion!). 

You can see the full original post here.

My original reverse-shelving trial was staged in our old Wallingford apartment, and since then several things have changed. We've moved to a smaller apartment in Berkeley, we now have an entire wall of our living room devoted to our library, and we have more books. If our collection was colorful and distracting before, it's a cacophonous disaster now. I'm thinking that I'm going to take a page out of Mr. Huntzinger's book: round two is in order. 

Thoughts?

Ikea Style

There's something about Ikea that makes me want to fill myself with Swedish meatballs and fill my trunk with flatpack furniture. I'm not really one for primary colors, so it thrills me that the Ikea aesthetic seems to have matured over the years, embracing subtlety and traditional shapes. Look at all the goodies in the new catalogue!

The Närhet glasses for dessert wines, champagne, whites, & reds are a toast to sophistication.

The Gislev rug is a lot of graphic bang for only 20 bucks.

I can envision either of the new greige-stained Hemnes glass-door cabinets in my bedroom. 

Maybe to showcase a shoe collection?

I wonder if a clever crafter could customize the Florö slipcovered bedframe- perhaps with upholstery studs or ribbon trim?

The new catalogue also boasts some beautiful styling. As if I wasn't tempted enough by the low prices, they have to make everything look so magazine-fantastic.

This is exactly how a nightstand should look!

This is my favorite spread of all. The styling is so of-the-moment, and I love the over-shelf gallery. 

And look: curiosities!

Anyone else crushing on the new catalogue?

Summing Up My Style

Ally at From the Right Bank is holding another round of "What's Your Style in One Picture." I decided I was up for the challenge this time around. 

Image Courtesy of Domino Magazine

I spent an evening searching through my image archives (and doing a bit of soul searching as well), and I kept coming back to this library. Books will always be a focal point of my design aesthetic, and I dream of showcasing mine in a soaring bookcase like this one. Isn't this the perfect reading room? A tufted leather sofa to recline on, the crisp daylight to illuminate each new page, the expansive white palette to fill with imaginings. I love the classic bones of this salon, and the cheeky details- the stately bust, the diminutive topiary, the sly bar set-up, the rat in the glass case! My style precisely.

Too much fun- thanks Ally!

An Unstudied Air

Mr. Collins has a line in Pride & Prejudice that always makes me smirk.

Says he, "though I sometimes amuse myself with suggesting and arranging such little elegant compliments as may be adapted to ordinary occasions, I always wish to give them as unstudied an air as possible."

Not that I want to expose us to ridicule, but don't we aesthetes do the same? I subscribe to that brand of just-so-perfectly-imperfect styling that demands the most deliberate tweaking. I adore a meticulous mess- like this jumble of books and artifacts, harmoniously united in faded jade and gray and beige. A happy accident, to be sure!

Image Courtesy of Domino Magazine

The same is true of those chic ensembles calculated to inspire envy, of which we flippantly declare, "oh, this old thing- I just threw it on!" I aim for edited excess. Almost (but not quite) matching celadon greens, too many (but just enough) beads and baubles. Effortless, I assure you!

My fashion fancies: the Pearly Girl Dress, Guinevere of Glam-elot Necklace, & Oh Pear Bracelet (all from ModCloth), Pearl Pave Posts (from Anthropologie), Peony Espadrilles (from J. Crew), and the Kimchi Blue Lady Satchel (from Urban Outfitters).

Style may be an artifice... but we all have our follies!

Dare to Dream: A Room to Furnish with Books

This weekend Third Place Books was having a 20% off sale, which I used as an excuse to spend 100% more than I budgeted on some new design tomes for my collection (c'mon, they were on sale!). Matilda and I nestled in with a pile of literature and purred at all the pretty pictures- that's what I call a holiday.

Our favorite? A design book about books in design. A biblio-file for a bibliophile? 

Whatever it is, here it is:

Books Do Furnish A Room by Leslie Geddes-Brown showcases the integration of books into homes. Grand libraries, teetering stacks of text, bizarre modern-art bookcases, books shoved wherever they'd fit. Like or dislike, each image was a guilty pleasure: such fun to put together an imagining of the reader based on their collection and the manner of its display!

And my favorite image? 

The library in the county home of Stephen Sills & James Huniford in Bedford, New York.

I always think of myself as preferring a dusky nook for reading, but this crisp white page of a room makes a convincing argument to the contrary. Where might one find a skeletal lobster for her cabinet of curiosities? Also, my library will never be complete without that magical ladder (even though my bookcases are only 6' tall). Someday, a real library- ah, dare to dream.

Craig's List Christmas Wish List

One day after browsing through the bleak job postings in the Bay Area, I decided to cheer myself up with a quick dip into furniture for sale. Though nobody in California wants to employ me, they do want to sell me some excellent stuff.

First up, this gem- a Shiny Red Pharmacy Cabinet.  

No price, which signals that I should back away slowly, but my goodness, how lovely.

It reminds me of these cabinets from Mothology (and these from Restoration Hardware), which are definitely on my "someday, maybe" list.  

The Craig's List find has a much more appealing shape, but I'm not sold on the sporty finish- I prefer the raw and weathered look shown here. 

Certainly would make for a sassy liquor cabinet!

The seller of this antique Cast Iron Industrial Shelving was apparently entertaining reasonable offers- but not mine! Oh, misery! 

I hope he got his $395 asking price- what a deal.

Rotten luck that this one got away, as it would have been a great alternative to the unspeakably expensive Decker Bookshelf at Anthropologie.

The wheels make for practical kitchen storage, and it has a masculine edge and historical aura that would earn Adam's approval.

And lastly, this Wardian Plant Conservatory. Oh, my. I have a place for this in my heart, and also in a sunny corner of my Berkeley bedroom. I already have an elegant little plant mister and an orchid. Give me this, a sarcastic butler, and a British accent to match and I'm living in a Henry James novel. Yes please. Now let's have tea and feign aristocratic ennui. Yes please.

Only $250, quite a bit better than the retail price.

Sooooo... if anyone is really stumped about what to get me for Christmas this year, allow me to recommend a Craig's List gift certificate (also known as "cash").