Tonight, Jaithan and I are all feathers and peacocks as we ring in the new year at an intimate dinner for six here in our New York City apartment. We created the table for this month's Lonny magazine, including all of the turbans, top hats and party horns. Huge thanks to Michelle Adams and Patrick Cline at Lonny. Happy 2013, everyone!
Let's just say I'm having a Shanghai moment. I'm mad for the city at night, its neon beauty a kind of pop art wonder in itself.
Meanwhile, in a city far, far away, here's our interpretation.
When it comes to decorating for the holidays, I like to try new things, mix it up, make something. That's why I love tabletop trees. I can change the look and feel of small tree from top to bottom without spending a lot of money. Last year's trees filled the house with fragrance, a fitting choice for A Country Living Christmas. This year, we're back in the city, so we decided to change things up with a glittering, gold tinsel tree and origami-inspired ornaments we made ourselves.
At Pearl River in Soho, we found festive origami papers in red, turqouise and green, then mixed them with gold to make stars, lanterns and pleated medallions. Traditional origaimi doesn't rely on glue or tape, but let's say I needed a little help.
We filled in with inexpensive candle and ball ornaments from Michael's to create a subtle, Chinoiserie feel without being overwhelming.
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At the Antiques Garage down in Chelsea, I even found a 1950s velvet tree-topper reminiscent of the Pearl Tower in Shanghai. I think I paid about eight bucks for it.
To wrap our gifts this year, we used Asian-inspired papers from Pearl River, mixed with solids from Michael's. We made most of the embellishments ourselves, together with satin ribbon in coordinating colors. By the way, if you want to know how to tie the perfect bow that unravels like a dream, check out this video. It's an oldie but a goodie.
Here's Liberace the Elf, hanging out under the tree.
I found him at the Antiques Garage, too, along with these three brass reindeer. Looks like they're having a Shanghai moment of their own.
From our families to yours, happy holidays, everyone!
If there's one thing I learned living in our quiet patch of country, it's that a house is so much more than rafters and beams, windows and doors, wallpaper and paint. We go to such great lengths, you and I, inspring ourselves and others to decorate our homes more beautifully that sometimes, we forget to stop and share them, graciously and openly, with the friends and family we love. The holidays are stressful enough, people say. Expensive, too. Why bother entertaining when you can just go out? Let someone else do the work. In my experience, the very best memories, the ones I replay in my mind time and again, tell to friends for years to come, are made at home.
Millerton was a Thanksgiving house. Those old wooden beams and crooked walls. That sizzling, spitting fire in the dining room and the smell of embers over my grandmother Dottie's brown-sugar buttermilk pie. In the two years Jaithan and I lived in that quirky farmhouse in the woods, blogging furiously because it was new, I set more Thanskgiving tables than I ever had before. Of course, the one we did for Lonny's anniversary issue, with gilded pumpkins and Imari porcelain, I loved the most. For our own Thanksgiving that year, I re-created the table just as it was, down to the last detail. And while the fire sputtered and hissed, our guests carrying on with one story after the other, I would tell one of my own one day.
If Millerton was Indian corn and herilooms gourds, Norfolk was all fraser fir. Now this was a Christmas house. White and grand with modlings and mantles, a wrap-around porch for wood. I loved that house even more than the first, especially now, when Jaithan and I would decorate not one, but five delightfully little trees, each trimmed to complement our decor. It seemed like every evening in December, when the snow fell in pristine flakes and lingered for a while, friends would drop by the house for drinks by the fire and a sampling of my holiday baked brie. Are you home, they'd ask? Can I stop by? No sooner had I hung up the phone than I'd plunder the buter's pantry, mixing and matching new and old servingware for impromptu cocktail parties for 20. Sometimes, all I'd have on hand were pigs in a blanket, but served on a vintage brass tray with egg-and-dart detailing ($2 at the Goodwill) and polished to a shine, pigs in a blanket looked like Jean-Georges could have cooked them himself. In the country, and in this house for the holidays, my most cherished memories of decorating and entertaining—indeed of living well—were born. Welcome.
If you haven't seen the new issue of Better Homes and Gardens, I have a fun, little story on how to throw a festive holiday fete with plenty of party flourishes to impress even your most finicky guests.
It's everything you need to throw a stylish holiday cocktail party with quick and easy crafts you can make yourself. My favorite? Festive stars made from drinking straws. I used them to embellish a punch bowl, but they'll shine just as brightly on a tree.
If you're long on style but short on time (anyone?), skip the hot hors d'oeuvres in favor of room-temperature foods. My go-to menu: herbed popcorn, spiced nuts, wontons, crudités and a cheese sampler that's simple and chic.
Happy Hostessing, everyone!
I love styling Thanksgiving tables, especially in colors that delight and surprise my guests. For an event at my friend Phoebe Howard’s store in Charlotte, I updated traditional brown transferware plates with bright pink runners made from inexpensive fabric from Jo-Ann’s. For our first Thanksgiving table at our old farmhouse in upstate New York, I paired a purple tartan blanket from the Goodwill with antique lusterware plates I found at a flea market. A year later, I used Imari porcleain plates on a geometric linen from Quadrille and even dyed antique monogrammed napkins to match! Like most of my work, this year’s table for Design*Sponge mixes high and low, new and old in a vibrant color palette, combining traditional golds with a brilliant blue inspired by an antique rug-turned-table-covering I picked up at Brimfield.
For a fresh, more modern take on a traditional harvest centerpiece, I filled a woven cornucopia with fall fruits, chestnuts and gilded leaves. I scored the hammered brass chargers at the Southampton Hospital Thrift Shop last summer ($20 for 10!), while the Paris Porcelain china I found at an estate liquidator in Brimfield. As soon as I saw that matte peach band, accented with rust and gold, I couldn't wait for Thanksgiving!
For the place cards, I took old bookbinding paper with a pretty marbleized pattern from Argosy Books, cut out two pieces to size, glued them back to back, and then adhered a smaller place card from Caspari. Chestnuts with tiny slits cut with a razor blade hold the cards perfectly in place. Just make sure the chestnuts are nice and flat on the bottom, so they stand up straight.
The stemware is hand-blown from the 20s with gilded edges in near-perfect condition. I paid $60 for a set of 24 at the same thrift shop in Southampton where I found the chargers. The carafe is from the 70s with a great, modern shape and a stylish cork stopper. I found it at the Goodwill for a buck.
The candlesticks are by Andrea Sadek, probably from the 80s, while the sawtooth salt cellars are Irish crystal from the 30s.
The napkins are made from my friend Steve McKenzie's beautiful new line of fabrics in his signature orange colorway, while the flatware is a mix of gold bamboo and bone with a gorgeous, old scrimshaw monogram.
The buffet, too, mixes new and old serving pieces from disparate time periods atop a rug-turn-table-covering from Brimfield.
Thanksigiving is my favorite holiday of the year, and now that my table is set, I'm ready to entertain in style!
Enjoy the holiday everyone, and thank you, as always, for your readership, your loyalty and, above all, your friendship. Happy Thanksgiving!
Flowers add life to a room! Whether you choose a single blossom or a more complex arrangement, flowers add their own kind of architecture, character and color. If you love flowers as much as I do, click over to flower magazine, where in this month's issue, I weigh in on some of my favorite vessels and varieties for summer.
In the print version (find yours here!), I even had the privilege of lending a few words to a rustic arrangement of billowy blue hydrangeas.
Check out the homepage today at Quadrille, one of my go-to destinations for super chic fabric!
That's our old house up in Millerton, New York, featuring prints from Quadrille and custom lampshades from Susan Schneider of Shandell's. Do you remeber this stylish lamp she made for us from an old apothecary jar? The images are from our friend Celerie's book Black & White. If you missed our first post on her book with all of the photographs from our house, click here. Have a great weekend, everyone!
I'm thrilled to share with you my exciting, new collaboration with the colorful crew at Benjamin Moore! It's called Color Life, an interactive magazine for the iPad and Android that invites you to experience color like never before.
Check out this short video to see the magic in action.
For the latest issue, I decided to refresh and reinvent our entrance foyer in Connecticut with a dazzling dose of color.
As you can see, it's spacious with plenty of charming architectural details, but I wanted to bring out its character with color.
To view all of the big, beautiful after shots, simply visit the the iTunes store or click here to download. From paint palettes to features on top designers, Color Life is a fantastic way to get inspired and explore the dazzling world of color from Benjamin Moore. Huge thanks to John Smallwood, Carol Bokuniewicz, and everyone at Benjamin Moore for inviting us to share in such innovative technology. Now what are you waiting for, everyone? To download the latest issue of Color Life, visit the iTunes store or click here.
Most of the pieces in my Tastemaker Tag Sale over at One King's Lane have sold already, but several super chic items remain! Think rare candlesticks, stylish lamps and vintage lithographs in gold leaf frames. Check it out here before everything is going, going...gone!
Mark your calendars, everyone! My first Tastemaker Tag Sale starts this Monday, May 21st at 11am EST. After years of traveling the country, buying only the most beautiful vintage tabletop, lighting, art and accessories I love the most, I've finally decided to share it—and I mean all of it—with you! That's over 250 dazzling treasures never before seen on Etsy or any trunk show in the past, and all of them are priced to sell! Spring cleaning never looked so chic. That's Monday, May 21st at 11am EST. You don't want to miss it!
