Swoon Interiors

interiors that make your heart skip a beat.

Statement Piece

As I was looking through Instagram photos the other day … amid all of the kid and vacation pictures, up came this cute lampshade!
I love it … who’s is it? I thought. When I looked further I saw that my beautiful niece Mallory had posted the picture.

I quickly commented on it … “Mallory! Did you make this?”

Indeed she did! She wrote me back …
The lamp is from Target and was about $10. I used a fine point sharpie and
got used quotes from movies, celebrities, & songs! Just wrote the quotes in
cursive around in a circle and worked my way down, very easy and took about
45 min! I made it for my new house at school because we needed some cute &
cheap decorations!

How great is that? Talk about Design on a Dime!  Mallory is going to be a junior at Mizzou and I just love that she came up with this great way to turn a plain lamp into such a statement piece … literally!

I think you could adapt this in so many ways … favorite poems, meaningful songs, lullabies or nursery rhymes for a child’s room. You can really personalize it any way you want.
Thanks to Mallory for letting me share her brilliant idea! (And thank you too for such blog-worthy photos … these are great!)

Lovely for Less: Home Decorators

Do you get Home Decorators catalog in the mail?  If you look really closely, you’ll see that they have quite a few … shall we say … replicas (sounds nicer than knockoffs)… of some pretty high end pieces you may have seen elsewhere. And some of them are pretty spectacular.  See for yourself …

Sundance 1934 Dining Chair $245

Home Decorators Garden Chair $89

Layla Grace’s Somerset Bay Essex Chest $3,461  
Home Decorator’s Left Bank Chest $259 
Circa Lighting Stacked Ball Glass Table Lamp $1,190

Home Decorators Lafayette Table Lamp $249

Madeline Weinrib’s Mandala Rug Beige and Blue (many, many thousands of dollars) 
Home Decorator’s Rosa Area Rug Ivory and Navy $279 for a 5’x8″ 
Neiman Marcus Arched Mirror $750
Home Decorators Amiel Arched Mirror $239
Restoration Hardware’s Brickmaker’s Coffee Table $1,360  
Home Decorator’s Holbrook Coffee Table $329  
Circa Lighting Desmond Table Lamp $483
Home Decorators Adonis Table Lamp $129
Aidan Gray Cushion Le Jardin from Layla Grace $225
Home Decorators Louvre Square Cushion $24

Aiden Gray French Pillow from Layla Grace $105

Home Decorators Belle Jardiniere Pillow $34

 See …  In some cases, I think I even like the Home Decorators version better.  It’s a great lesson in decorating and something I think we all do in fashion as well.  We see an $800 dollar lamp or a $2000 dress that we love in a magazine. No, of course we’re not going to buy it … but we can be inspired by it to look for something with similar lines, colors, patterns, etc. that is a little more friendly to the pocketbook. 

What are some of your favorite “Lovely for Less” pieces?

This is where I want to be this weekend …

Well … considering that it might get into the 80’s here this weekend, I will gladly choose to be outside. But if this were like any other rainy April weekend, I would love nothing more than to retreat to this room with a good book, a stack of magazines, my favorite pjs, my laptop and not much else.

It’s aptly named The Hideaway, and it is designed by the super-talented Lauren Leiss of Pure Style Home for the Washington DC Design House.
Everything about this room makes me swoon.
Take these chairs … called The Mad Hatter chairs, they are from Lauren’s new furniture line.  I have been dreaming of a little space like this in front of my large living room window and have always thought it would be great to have a patterned fabric on the backs of the chairs that could be seen from the outside.
The drapery fabric is also from her new line.  Not only do I love the print, but also the name. Hapikat.
(Happy + ikat =Happikat … get it?_
And how about that reading lamp? To. Die. For.
(I am officially on a new mission to find another one just like it.)
Not to mention the quirky yet somehow perfect assemblage of art on the walls.  I am desperately working on something like this for my own home and I will tell you that it is not easy!
Have I ever mentioned how much I love the color green? Well, I do, and I think this room shows how to incorporate the perfect dose of it.  (Another killer lamp.)
I also think a great way of bringing life to a space is with flora and fauna. In this case, she has managed to inject just a wink of humor with those green birds and these llama lamps hanging above the window seat. (The llamas are smiling.)
Speaking of the window seat …
How badly do you want to take a nap there?
And the stacks of old books! I know I’ve mentioned how much I love old books.
I am also a big fan of woven wood blinds like the ones she used here. We have them in our family room and I think they are a great and easy way to add another natural element to a room.
I am also a total sucker for a whole mess of mismatched pillows and this combo is just my cup of tea.
If you want to learn more about Lauren and her resources for designing this room, be sure to check out her blog here.
In the meantime, have a great weekend.  Is a nap on your to-do list?
(Nope. Mine either.)