It’s late January in New York City and to buyers, editors, and wholesalers that means Gift Show. It’s one of the largest accessory and home design fairs in the country and where I’ll be spending my weekend. I’ve been receiving promotional emails all week from manufacturers trying to lure us to their booths with sneak peeks of their wares for 2009. And it’s working.
More to report when I return home next week.
On this morning’s Today Show, our very own Margaret Russell was invited to share her insider perspective on the Obama’s White House decoration. The appointed designer, Michael S. Smith, is a dear friend of Margaret’s–so she knows just what’s up his sleeve.
Watch this clip for a glimpse into Smith’s own home, his go-to sources, the plans for the girls’ rooms, and how he’ll prep the interiors with only a five-hour window between presidents.
For more from Michael S. Smith, click here to see his most recent work in ELLE DECOR.
My vintage dresser was originally our media console—partly because it was charming in our living room and secondly, it was a bit too dirty to be holding clothes. But when our 46″ TV came into the picture, our 42″ inch dresser had to return to its original duties. Now how to handle peeling wood veneer and the odd soot stains. . . .Yes, hardware store drawer liners would’ve been the easy route—but you know, that’s just not my style. Wallpapering on the other hand, the chicest and most difficult approach, was the choice I went with. We had tons leftover from our bedroom accent wall and it would be a nicer decorative tie-in than any liner I could buy.
The dresser as the temporary media center. The plan was to hinge the front drawers forward for the DVD player and stash our movies and remotes in the drawers below–not this mess stashed between the legs.
To get the dresser ready for the bedroom, I dug up our wallpaper paste, measured the drawers, cut the sheets to size, and began. Since the paper was just going to lie in drawers, I figured I didn’t need prime the drawers—wrong assumption. Always prime.
The original seam roller was long gone so I grabbed some Chinese spices from the rack and smoothed out the bubbles that way.
While I was wallpapering, I threw the bedroom desk drawer into the scheme.
At the time, I thought I was crazy putting myself through this decorative labor but each time I open my drawers, I smile. Having a pop of color and a burst of pattern emerge from a seemingly white piece is a priceless element of surprise. It speaks to the bold accent wall across the room, but in a subtle way. The little things can make a room.
I was shopping with my best friend, Elana, in Banana Republic the other day and b-lined for what I thought was a gorgeous dress. She looked at me and started laughing, Anne, that looks like a roll of wallpaper. She was right–but that’s exactly what I loved about it. I often look at the graphic florals and soft geometrics of home textiles and papers and think, I want that in a size four! I guess you have to be a home nerd to understand but for those of you that are…you’ll love this display by York Wallcoverings.
It’s a sneak peak of the display heading to Heimtextil, the international trade fair for home and contract textiles taking place from January 14-17th in Frankfurt, Germany. Each dress (silhouettes ripped from current pages of Vogue and InStyle) is crafted from designer wallpaper, and hand-stitched with all the detail devoted to haute couture. It took as many as 700 pieces of wallpaper make up one dress. I would definitely wear the black and white floral, wallpaper pattern or not.