Vibe Trays and J.Crew

So we're all up to speed, have an unbridled love for Kelly Wearstler, and her designs, which I could eat.  In a sign that we are connected through the celestial heavens, Kelly has also recently launched a blog, My Vibe My Life.  I cherish every post like the first night of Hanukkah.

She recently posted some examples of her 'vibe trays', which made me realize 'vibe trays' are a vital organ I've somehow survived without.  How?

Kelly's 'Vibe Tray' for a Manhattan dining room.

I love this.  I want to feed it to my living room with a spoon.  We're using it as our template for all living room choices.  I've printed it out, so Aaron knows I am serious.

There's other inspiration we're drawing from, and I'll post examples as I find them, and today's example will be from one of my favorite retailers, J.Crew.

The dressing room of the upper east side J.Crew women's boutique.

Schumacher's Modern Trellis - Color: Alabaster

I stumbled across that wallpaper at Schumacher, which is a 'to-the-trade' company, existing only to torture me with ideas of how to forge all the answers to this form, allowing me access to purchase anything, and at a discount.  You have to be in the trade (a professional interior designer) to be able to buy 'to-the-trade'.  Regular folk can acquire 'to-the'trade' pieces by (1) hiring a professional or (2) being the niece of a professional.  Hello Aunt Wendy, xoxo.

There's that light again!

I want a chaise lounge in our living room, this one is delicious.

Charcoal walls, and more of those sputnik lamps I love but can't find (arrg).

The men's boutique is just as fabulous (a word I try not to use whenever I'm trying to convince Aaron we need to buy something for the apartment).

Lesson: you can paint ceilings black.

Awesome mural of seemingly inexpensive art.

I love everything about this.

All of the photo credits (shy of the Kelly Wearstler vital-organ vibe tray) are from previous issues of Lonny Magazine.

The Hallway

Ah the hallway.  Like an opening paragraph it needs to allude to the sizzle that is to come.  This is what our current sizzle looks like:

Front door and invisible highly functional mail sorting center.

Alice and Whitedoorland.

Summary, clear lack of sizzle and functionality.  We're working with some high ceilings, hardwood, and non-standard sized doors (read: difficult to replace).  A lot of potential, soon to be realized:

Imaginary sizzle!

The hallway leads into the living room, and I wanted everything in the hallway / living room to be painted the same color gray, which is looking like it will be Nimbus, by Benjamin Moore.

The console table is Crate and Barrel, which works so well, especially with the black mirror and charcoal door.  I'm aware a console table with no storage is not the most functional call for us apartment dwellers, and I'm trying to get past that salient detail.

The leather cube under the console table will likely have a twin, and will be used for helping put shoes on.  They can also be relocated to the living room for parties.

The light is in question -- there no outlet on that wall, it is on the opposite wall (maddening).  So, a light would require an electrician, or me jumping over an extension cord (no).  I do like the idea of having a light there, and an outlet to plug in phone chargers.  All these wires are making me reconsider my awesome goes perfectly there console, sadness.

The mirror is from Ikea.  And, get this, it is on sale.  It's amazing to me Ikea even has sales.  Anywhoo, $50 Stave mirror, you are the least risky decision I've made so far, and I heart you.  It was supposed to be a floor mirror, but since we have these super ceilings we have the room to mount it.  Clapping.

Peter piper picked an expensive rug which isn't happening.

The rug is from The Rug Company.  I need to un-bookmark this site, with its glorious rugs, and curious lack of prices.

Though, if I did want to justify a four figure rug, I would do so by saying that there is almost no other furniture in the hallway, and it is its own room, and needs to be treated as such, or it will become jealous of the other rooms.

The angle of the picture above has the front door on the left.  The double doors are the hallway closet, and the door on the right is to the world's most expensive storage locker, soon to be the den-office-mancave.

The white trim on the doors will just be painted on, it won't be actual molding, which I think looks weird in modern apartments, but I'm open to being wrong.

There are three recessed lights above the hallway.  Wouldn't it be cooler if there were three small deco glass chandeliers? Or (ooo, ooo) what about these sputnik pendant lamps that live in the Kate Spade store in Chelsea:

Photo Credit: Lonny Magazine

You're thinking "yes Anne, that would obviously be cooler".  Too bad I have no idea where to buy these.  Off to go look!

Discovering Lonny Magazine and Ron Marvin

There are few things I find more relaxing than cruising the interwebs of design blogs.  I have my regulars, some of which are listed to the right, and I have the monthly joys of Lonny Magazine.  Lonny is an online off-shoot of Domino Magazine, which died a sudden recession induced death two years ago.  I can't remember how I found it, but it was very early on -- the first issue.  I'd never read an online magazine before, which turned out to be 80% as enjoyable as a real magazine, buoyed by the fact that you could click on most products featured and be teleported to their retailers.  I'm a big online window-shopper, so this was heaven.

Last year, cruising the first issue, I fell in love with this 'bachelor pad' designed by Ron Marvin.

Premiere Issue of Lonny Magazine!

Ron Marvin (wears swanky glasses in real life)

It didn't take me long to recognize the kitchen and bathroom, which were also my kitchen and bathroom.  Hrrm, could it be this apartment was also in my apartment building? Yes, yes it was! I emailed Ron, begging for a tour.  He hooked me up with Rick (owner) and I dragged Aaron up several floors for the private showing.

This was what we saw:

I live for that light.

Yummy accessorizing.

Multi-talented Ron painted the picture above the couch.

The buffet is Ralph Lauren - will forever be out of our price range.

Love the grasscloth in the second bedroom.  Chair and desk are Williams Sonoma Home.

Lesson learned: Dark bedrooms.

The dresser is Ralph Laruen, and I want to live in it.

Not wallpaper! Paint.  Seemingly inexpensive but actually expensive photo from Flair.

The apartment stole our hearts in seventeen different ways, not to mention owner Rick was the apartment translated into human form; welcoming and tailored.  I pocketed Ron Marvin's contact details, vowing to get back in touch with him when we had our own apartment to design.  And hello Brooklyn, now we do.  Stay tuned for more posts on Ron and his endless talent.

Kelly Wearstler Inspired Living Room

When I was researching honeymoon destinations I came across the Viceroy Anguilla.  This hotel is stunning, and I became a little obsessed with it, and the designer, Kelly Wearstler, also stunning.

Kelly Wearstler, set against her many incredible patterns.

Another Viceroy she designed is the Viceroy Santa Monica.  She did a plate installation there that I've fallen in love with, pictured below.  This installation has since been expanded on, you can see the latest here.

The Viceroy Santa Monica

I grew up with a very traditional plate installation in our living room.  I never thought of hanging plates as something that could be done in a modern setting, so inspiring! Inspiring enough to explore a different take on the living room.

I love this concept.  The colors are rich, the furniture is tailored.  We own the chair, and it goes so well here.  I left it out of the last concept because it was the wrong style / color, but I adore the chair, I'm so excited we could use it.  I have quite a few gift cards to Bloomingdales post-wedding, so we could nab the plates with those.  The couch and tables are Williams Sonoma Home, we also have a ton of gift cards there, and a 20% off card for my next purchase -- doable!

The only reservation I have is that is that this design is too traditional, and won't jive well with the kitchen, which is super modern.  I'll have to test out this design with the angle facing the kitchen, which I'll post after I've designed it.  So hoping this works!

The Living Room

Our living room is the least disaster'ish room in the apartment -- we've actually entertained here, twice, in its current state.  It feels spacious, with its large windows, high ceilings, and comical lack of furniture.  It also feels like one coat of paint ago it could have housed the printing presses for Jehovah's witnesses.  The goal is to tone down the warehouse and crank up the swank.  This is where we're starting:

It is so pleasing to me that the kitchen is done, and awesome.  It is also pleasing that our table and chairs are pulling that I'm Modern And Invisible trick.  The confusing realization that there is no furniture in this room is not the result of my pushing anything out of the way to take this picture, but instead an accurate reflection of our having no furniture.  Hopefully, this is short lived.

Ahh, what could be.  The gray was an obvious choice, the kitchen backsplash is gray and extending it makes the kitchen feel more like built in furniture.  The table and chairs are from Design Within Reach, they're the Cherner Collection.  I have zero intention of buying anything from DWR until I have scoured the ends of the earth for knock-offs.  I already found the chairs, still searching for the table.  Speaking of knock-offs, lets add the Saarinen womb chair, the Eames stool, and the Noguchi coffee table to the list of copies I'll be hunting down.  I've never owned 'modern classics' and these are some of my favorites.

I bet you're thinking about the rug.  Thinking: Anne, is that too crazy? Or is it perfect? I don't know -- I haven't spent enough time with this picture, but so far I'm kind of loving it.  My dad came over tonight to help consult on this rather daunting decor project, and we fought for an hour (our style) and in the last 10 min. he came up with the genius idea.  I was struggling with this room lacking style, feeling gray, missing that certain something that Uncle Morris would have effortlessly added -- like a giant golden statue.  Dad suggested that instead of trying to punch up the paint color or the furniture, I should just go for a bold rug, colorful pillows, and bright modern art.

Choosing art is a paralyzing exercise for me, I don't know why.  Pillows, less so.  A bold rug, I had never considered this before.  This could work.  I played with Stark rugs for a while, trying gray rugs with bold patterns, but it wasn't enough.  Then I dared to check out The Rug Company, which is one of those stores that doesn't have prices (sneaky).  I plopped this pink and orange one down, expecting to delete it immediately, but it kind of worked.  I looked at it for a while, tried a lot of other rugs, but kept coming back here.

I should caveat that Aaron hasn't seen this concept yet, so don't get too attached, we could be looking at an immediate veto.  I also don't know how much that rug costs, which could be another concept vetoing situation.  Still, I think we're close!

The Bedroom

Our current bedroom didn't translate as well as we had hoped from our previous set up in the alcove studio in Manhattan.

We had painted the bedroom / living room 'quiet moments' by Benjamin Moore.  It was serene.  Even though the bedroom (alcove, really) was barely bigger than the bed, the place felt open thanks to a light of natural light, the help of some Pottery Barn plug-ins lamps, and plants that withstood not being water for several months (sorry plants).

When we moved, we ended up with a much bleaker picture.

The rug is sitting in our storage locker, and might reemerge.  We did bring the zebra pillow, but it looks extra weird with nothing else in the room.  We also brought the lamps, but now that we have those built in sconces (which are crazy high, and off-center) we don't use them.  The result isn't the best scene; it feels cold and cavernous.  I also think the bed looks dirty against those white walls.

Time to fast forward to the concept.

Love.  I got a little flack in our last apartment: our friends felt it looked a little too feminine.  In this place I'm completely on board with that tailored masculine look.  We already have those antlers, which I'm obsessed with.  They were a late addition to the last apartment and didn't make it into the above picture.  A special thank you to my dad for helping me paint them white.

So there is a lot that we need to round up in order to turn one picture into the other -- starting first with finding that perfect shade of blue.  Beyond that, there are the dressers (more space than night stands; coming from a studio I'm always a proponent of more storage), the lamps, the art, the rug, the bench.  All in all, not SO bad, and the best part -- design concept is husband approved!