Check out Willow Decor

On of the great joys of writing a design blog is the chance I get to meet people who write on the same topic. My fellow bloggers are a great source of inspiration and camaraderie and though I've never met any of them in person, I feel an instant affinity for these fellow travelers. So I'm glad to welcome interior designer Gina Milne to my growing network of design blogs.

Gina writes a blog called Willow Decor, a site I mentioned in an earlier post about the work of Christopher Peacock. I had a request from a reader to track down some lighting that was featured in a Peacock publicity shot and Gina had already done the research by the time I stumbled upon Willow Decor. Bravo Gina for making me look smart!

Gina is a current resident of Boston and former resident of Munich. She's the proud owner and gradual renovator of a slate-roofed Royal Barry Wills Colonial Revival home, and her writings are seasoned with her own experiences in period renovation. The woman knows her stuff and her research is painstaking to say the least. She shares what she learns freely and with a writing style that's best described as neighborly. I recommend her blog and her opinions completely. Please give her a read when you're thinking about clean and classic design.

More marvelous marble

Here are some detail shots from my current favorite project. I rarely get to design something that I would like for myself, but this kitchen hits so many of my buttons at one time I can't help but to slobber all over it every time I visit this job site. This marble is Italian Carrera and I have never seen slabs of Carrera with this many other colors in it. I can't keep my hands to myself! The cabinetry is Medallion Cabinetry's Platinum inset in a dark-stained cherry. The Carrera counters are from Custom Marble Works in Tampa and the hardware's from Restoration Hardware, believe it or not.

Is "professional organizer" a real job?

I read Apartment Therapy every day and lately, it's been more a source of daily irritation than it has daily inspiration. That website's huge and it publishes upwards of 50 posts a day and the logistics of sorting through, editing and posting 50 posts from 30 writers every day has to be a daunting one. I get it, they work hard. However, the editorial voice of that site is getting progressively whine-y and the whole staff seems to have come down with an alarming case of what Ayn Rand called "me-too-ism." There seems to be nothing these kids won't gush over. Nothing.

Well, last week, they ran a series of articles promoting someone who bills herself a "professional organizer." Apparently, this woman makes a living by going into peoples' homes and getting them organized though something called an Organization Bootcamp. I had no idea there was such a thing. And the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me.

I don't begrudge this woman a thing. She saw a niche and she's exploiting it. Good for her. However, what kind of a society has the US become that people think they need such a profession in the first place? Have people degenerated to such a state that they need to pay someone to remind them to clean up after themselves and not be pack rats? I can already hear the rationalizations. "We're too busy nowadays!" What a load of crap. 

I'll save you some trouble and you can just send me the $100 you'd pay to attend this Organization Bootcamp.

Step one: buy one of these.

Step two: use it.

If it's important, put it in this filing cabinet. If it's not important, throw it away. Ta-daaa! You're organized. Now go make your bed and do the dishes.

Go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I just saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button last night and man oh man what a movie. It's a love letter from Brad Pitt to the great city of New Orleans for starters, and it tells a tale that had me enraptured for its full three hour duration. It's a love story, a human story, an interesting story and a fantastical parable all at once. It manages to be both poignant and touching without reverting to easy emotion or sentimentality. The film delves into the nature of life and of happiness and details the necessary trade offs and compromises all human beings make in the pursuit of their dreams. Where Benjamin Button diverges from the pack is in its insistence that although the pursuit of happiness and adventure entail sacrifices and trade offs, these compromises aren't something to be mourned. Rather, these compromises are to be celebrated because they are the adventure. All hail Brad Pitt and may he win every award out there for this brilliant movie. Bravo!

Christopher Peacock follow up

Wa-a-a-a-y back in April, I wrote an entry about the amazing world of Christopher Peacock. I ran a couple of photos of his now-famous Refectory Kitchen. Here they are again.

That article gets a lot of Google traffic and I get asked about that Refectory a lot. I received a note from a reader the other day and she asked me about the pendants that are hanging over the island. I'd always assumed that since they were hanging in a Peacock publicity shot, that those lights would have to be originals. Well, I was mistaken.

The pendants in question are from Vaughan Lighting, a label only available to the trade.

It took a bit of sleuthing, but I found the answer to the source of those pendants on a blog called Willow Decor. Willow Decor is written by a woman named Gina Milne and I owe her a debt of thanks for solving this mystery.