Fine Print: Erin Gates’ Elements of Style Book

Erin Gates sent me an advance copy of her new, very first design book, Elements of Style: Designing A Home & A Life. I’ve been browsing through it for the last couple of weeks, thoroughly enjoying the photos of the rooms she decorated for herself and clients, studying her style charts, and catching up on her life. The tone is easy, breezy, much like her blog, with plenty of personal tidbits interwoven through her design adventures and accomplishments.

Erin’s come a long way since I first met her, on assignment for Boston Globe Magazine in early 2009 after she sent me scouting shots of  the place she and Andrew rented in J.P. It landed her on the cover, and it’s still one of my favorite stories, not just because Erin and her house looked amazing (thanks Eric Roth for the excellent photos), but because Erin was full of enthusiasm and money saving tips.

Her blog and business have exploded and her design skills honed, while her excellent attitude and work ethic prevail. Congratulations Erin Gates!

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Elements of Style: Designing a Home & a Life by Erin Gates
Available October 7, 2014 (Simon & Schuster) $22.14

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Photo by Michael Partenio

Erin’s used this buffet over and again. She bought it for $75 at an estate sale and painted the inside turquoise (you can see that iteration in Erin’s place in Jamaica Plain, which I wrote about for Boston Globe Magazine, March 2009.) She went orange for the South End. Now it’s lined with malachite wallpaper.

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Photo by Michael J. Lee

This is my favorite room. I’ve long been a sucker for a library dining room with Saarinen table and a fireplace. The sheepskin rugs nestle perfectly into those acrylic chairs from IKEA. The client stuffed the fireplace with little logs, which add some rustic texture; plus the circles are an excellent contrast to the stripes on the rug.

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Photo by Michael Partenio

A sunroom with violet ikat cushions on barley twist chairs and Buddha on custom made brass base.

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Photo by Michael J. Lee

Love this cerulean blue wall behind the banquette upholstered in the ever popular Chiang Mai print by Schumacher. Those Cherner chairs work well with the fabric’s twisting design and earthy colors.

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Erin provides some charts with formulas for achieving different styles.

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Erin’s favorite paint colors. You’ll have to buy the book to get the exact names. Ok, I’ll give you one: Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue.

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Photo by Michael Partenio

I love how despite the graphic black & white rug and bedding, Erin’s guest room is totally feminine. Pale pink walls (Benjamin Moore Blanched Coral), a starburst mirror, and mirrored side tables will do that. Swiss dots + a boho throw + Nordic rug + Hollywood Regency glam. And somehow it all works.

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Photo by Michael J. Lee

This bedroom is interesting too, with its tufted headboard, chocolate brown linens, Asian-themed toile wallpaper and fretwork bookshelves, plus a leopard print bench.

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Photo by Sean Litchfield

Nursery with a black accent wall went viral on Pinterest.

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Photo by Michael J. Lee

Oh, this Madeline Weinrib rug again, this time in brown. It seems to work everywhere! (Tip: IKEA makes a black & white version.) I generally don’t like tan stone (only contractors do!) but Erin makes it work in this space where they’re stuck with it.

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 Photo by Sarah Winchester

Erin’s parents Connecticut home. I wrote all about her mom’s garden for Boston Globe Magazine, April 2013.

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Photo by Michael J. Lee

Erin and Andrew Gates with the doggies.

 

Foodie Friday: Flour, Too by Joanne Chang

Pastry chef and Flour Bakery owner Joanne Chang just debuted her second cookbook, Flour, Too (a followup to Flour: A Baker’s Collection of Spectacular Recipes). This time around Chang includes recipes for the cafe’s most popular sweets and savories. I went to the book launch party at Flour’s newest outpost (in my neighborhood!) and sampled all the goodies. Here are my Instagram photos. Now I need to try out the recipes in my own kitchen. I’m hosting a 6th grade graduation brunch for 25 this Sunday, so it’s perfect timing. The problem will be which to choose.

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Shop Joanne Chang’s Flour Bakery cookbooks >

Flour Bakery + Cafe Cookbooks By Joanne Chang

Fine Print: Irving Harper Works in Paper

Irving Harper: Works in Paper (Skira Rizzoli, $45) is a monograph that showcases the designer’s never exhibited fantastical paper sculptures. Harper, who is 95-years-old, worked in George Nelson’s studio for 17 years in the 1950s and 1960s. It was he who designed the Marshmallow sofa and the Ball clock, as well as the Herman Miller logo. He began constructing his uniquties in his Westchester County home back in 1963, “to relieve stress.” He stopped about 10 years ago, because he ran out of space to display them; ore than three hundred works fill his house and barn.

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The pieces, which include people, animals, and abstracts, are made “mostly out of paperboard, but also balsa wood, beads, straws, toothpicks, pinecones, telephone wire, twigs, dolls’ limbs and glass eyeballs, Mylar sheets, Styrofoam lumps, and pieces of the ceramic clocks.

Irving Haper paper sculpture

 Construction paper, ping pong balls, on wood base

Irving Haper paper sculpture

Painted construction paper, found wooden spindles, on wood base

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Irving Haper paper sculpture

Painted corrugated cardboard, painted ping pong balls, twigs

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Construction paper, mat board, hat pins, glass doll eyes

Irving Harper paper sculpture figures

Paperboard, toothpicks, clock parts, pearls, plastic eyes

 


Fine Print: 25 Best Design Books of 2012

The constant stream of books into my home may be the best perk of being a blogger. While I’ve been aiming to pare down my possessions, I still revel in the glossy pages of beautifully photographed rooms. It helps that I have a rather grand set of built in bookshelves in my living room, which looks best when full. Then of course there’s the console table behind the sofa that needs a stack, and the coffee table (a Heywood-Wakefield with a top that turns, inherited from my husband’s grandparents). A couple of these don’t squarely fall in the design category, and I don’t actually own every one, but I did browse and love them all.

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STEVEN GAMBREL DESIGN BOOK RIZZOLI 2012

Steven Gambrel Time & Space, Abrams 2012

PLAYFUL HOME KIDS ROOMS ANDREW WEAVING

Playful Home, Rizzoli 2012

KELLY WEARSTLER BOOK RHAPSODY RIZZOLI 2012

Kelly Wearstler Rhapsody, Rizzoli 2012

DIANE KEATON HOUSE DESIGN BOOK

Diane Keaton House, Rizzoli 2012

CLASSICAL CHINESE FURNITURE COFFEE TABLE BOOK

 Classical Chinese Furniture, Vendome Press 2012

BROOKLYN MAKERS CRAFTERS HIPSTERS

Brooklyn Makers, Princeton Architectural Press 2012

SUSANNA SALK DECORATING BOOK 2012

Susanna Salk Be Your Own Decorator, Rizzoli 2012

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Jennifer Post Pure Space, Rizzoli 2012

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Cupcakes and Cashmere, Abrams 2012

HOME NOVOGRATZ COFFEE TABLE BOOK

Home by Novogratz, Artisan 2012

YOUNG HOUSE LOVE BLOG BOOK

Young House Love, Artisan 2012

AMANDA NISBET DAZZLING DESIGN RIZZOLI

Amanda Nisbet Dazzling Design, Stewart, Tabori & Chang 2012

THE ART BOOK NEW EDITION PHAIDON 2012

The Art Book, Phaidon 2012

THIS OLD HOUSE BEST OF BOOK

This Old House The Best Homes, Abrams 2012

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Alvar Aalto Houses, Princeton Architectural Press 2012

THOM FILICIA AMERICAN BEAUTY BOOK

Thom Filicia American Beauty, Clarkson Potter 2012

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Roman and Williams Things We Made, Rizzoli 2012

AM ATELIER INTERIORS DESIGN BOOK

Interiors | Atelier AM, Rizzoli 2012

THE ICONIC INTERIOR

The Iconic Interior, Abrams 2012

200 SMALL APARTMENT IDEAS BOOK

200 Small Apartment Ideas, Firefly Books 2012

ANN GETTY DECORATING STYLE BOOK

Ann Getty Interior Style, Rizzoli 2012

LARS BOLANDER INTERIOR DESIGNER SWEDEN BOOK

 Lars Bolander Interior Design and Inspiration, TeNeues 2012

ERIC COHLER INTERIOR DESIGN COFFEE TABLE BOOK

Eric Cohler Cohler on Design, The Monacelli Press 2012

DARRYL CARTER WASHINGTON DC DECORATOR

Darryl Carter The Collected Home, Clarkson Potter 2012

FRENCH FLAIR MODERN VINTAGE DESIGN BOOK FLAMMARION

French Flair Modern Vintage Interiors, Flammarion 2012

Fine Print: Kelly Wearstler Rhapsody

Beverly Hills-based interior designer (fashion designer, “Top Design” judge, trendsetter, cool chick) Kelly Wearstler has a new book—Kelly Wearstler: Rhapsody (Rizzoli New York, 2012). The glossy, glamour-filled book, her fourth, will be released next Tuesday, October 23rd.  It profiles Wearstler’s latest residential designs (previously unpublished) and her sumptuous new hotels, as well as her creative process. I have a copy already and I’m thoroughly enjoying the photographs, though I wish there was more information to accompany them.

Kelly Wearstler: Rhapsody
Rizzoli New York, 2012

Flash sale site One King’s Lane is offering the boook for pre-order today for only $38  instead of $55, starting at 11 am ET. (If you need an invite email me.) The second Kelly Wearstler “Tastemaker Tag Sale” also goes live at the same time this morning. The sale will feature home accessories from Wearstler’s archive.

Kelly Wearstler “Tastemaker Tag Sale” launches today.

R H A P S O D Y

Inspiration trays: A library of all the elements in a given room. Each piece is loose and free-gloating to accommodate changes during the course of a project. 

Artful hand-painted wall covering in a guest bedroom.

“I wanted to create something very free-form and alluring in this space. The organic sweep of the staircase juxtaposed against the graphic features of the grand stair vestibule manifests a kind of sexual tension.”

Wearstler aimed to mirror the movement of the rug pattern with the black and white photography hung on the wall, in a varying frame and matte sizes. Fuchsia alligator chairs are the focal point. 

A punk-inspired girl’s bathroom. 

A  boy’s bathroom in black and white stone.

Bold hand-painted silk wall covering in a private receiving room. 

Art deco-inspired ski carpet and espresso-brown 1960s Italian leather chairs. 

“If there is one thing I know, it is that the color of a room has a profound impact on the mood and energy of its inhabitants.”