Claudia Fleming, pastry chef and co-owner of North Fork Table and Inn wrote a book back in 2001 with writer Melissa Clark called “The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern” when Claudia was the pastry chef there. Claudia is a winner of the James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef Award. There are a few copies on Amazon.com, and well worth the investment if you love making your own unique desserts for entertaining. I particularly love her Chocolate Caramel Tarts with sea salt (see photo below). This book is a perfect gift for someone that loves to bake or just … Read more
By layering different textures when setting a table you can add visual interest. Here I set a deep gray wood table with charcoal gray felt placemats. Then I added horn handled flatware and glazed china with a fine gauge gray linen napkin. A little whimsy never hurts either. I love to use these faux birds (see photos below) which you can find at most any craft store. I placed a bird in a cup of peanuts leaning over a glass tumbler like he’s going to take a drink. Individual little cups at each placesetting are a nice detail- whether you … Read more
A color palette can be inspired from anything. Look around and you can find inspiration most anywhere- from nature, a unique colored glass, a package or label, or even materials found around your own home. My stone fireplace in my bedroom with a wood beam mantel inspired the color palette in my master bath. I have two old ornate ceiling tiles leaned against the stone wall on my matel that I found at the old 26th Street antiques market in NYC years ago. The panels add even more texture and the creams in the square panels break up the heavy … Read more
A fun idea for your stairs, especially if you have young children, is to add wall decal numbers to the risers of your stairs. This is much easier than painting on a stencil and they are easily removable. I usually use the company Wall Words for any decal project I do. For this one I used “Garamond” type in 2.5 inches in height and the color I chose was “Wedgewood Blue”. When I entered the custom order I just made sure to put enough spaces in between the numbers so I would be sure to have enough room to … Read more
Throughout the beach house I used Benjamin Moore’s, Blue Note, Westcott Navy, Seafoam, Ice Mist, Ocean Air, Gossamer Blue, Jamestown Blue, Rendezvous Bay and Calypso Blue. The formal dining/living/family room is painted in blue note- it’s warm and cozy and the black flat screen tv disappears against it. You almost feel like you are in a movie theatre. The casual breakfast room is painted in decorator’s white but the painter dropped about 2 drops of blue note into the white to make a beautiful blue gray. The hallways are painted in sea foam. The kitchen and … Read more
Vintage pieces are always great to pick up at flea markets or antique markets either as gifts or for the upcoming holidays. If you don’t have time to hit the markets my shop has a few pieces like napkin rings, sugar spoon sets with mother of pearl spoons etc.. These make wonderful hostess gifts too if you are invited to someone else’s home for the holidays. Felt placemats are also a nice gift. My shop carries them in this blue you see pictured above or in a dark charcoal gray. We also carry felt trivets, bags and … Read more
I hope everyone had a great holiday yesterday. This week I wanted to do blues and grays- a color palette I worked with for my own beach house. I installed gray hardwood floors, white moldings and used all shades of blues for the walls. I even had a few pieces of my pine furniture painted pale shades of blue to lighten the rooms. I’ll show you the furniture examples later this week. For today though, nature seemed to be the best inspiration for this color palette.
One of my favorite places to go for inexpensive holiday decor is Jamali Garden store on West 28th street in New York City. But they now have a lot of their things online and will ship all over the country. You can find anything from vases to garlands to moss. This 16 inch Berry Wreath is only $22, set of 6 Red Glitter Birds, $4.50 and a 6 foot Red Glitter Bay Leaf Garland, only $16. If you are in the city it’s worth a trip to the flower market to see what they have, if not … Read more
This fall many new design books are being released, but across the board it seems the reviews for Miles Redd’s new book “The Big Book of Chic” are fantastic. It’s available to pre-order on Amazon and it’s expected release date is October 23rd, 2012. Sara Ruffin Costello, reviewing for The Wall Street Journal said, “Flipping through the pages is like going to a cocktail party in heaven in which Diana Vreeland insists you try the frozen vodka shots.”.
