I've Moved!

Dear ones,

Please check out my new blog at http://roomlust.wordpress.com/.

Hope to see you!

Spring color inspiration: Benjamin Moore in CB2

Walls are painted Yellow Finch by Benjamin Moore. Image from CB2.

Now I don't know how y'all spend your Sunday afternoons, but one of my favorite activities is hanging in the Ben Moore aisle at Ace Hardware, quietly pilfering swatch cards.

When I get home, I cut the swatches into little squares, glue them to heavy cardstock and make notes on each (e.g., "great color for kitchen cabinet interiors" or "nice beige—or too Band-Aid?") and file them away until the day when I, too, can paint my own space. I'm renting, you see. Renting.

Design inspiration can come from anywhere, though, not just the paint aisle. And one of my favorite resources for punchy, modern paint colors is the CB2 catalog, which shows up in my mailbox a few times per annum, just like magic.

Really, Apartment Therapy?

So disappointed by this.

Here's what I wrote in the comments forum:

"I'm disappointed with the photo choice for this post. I read Apartment Therapy to learn more about design and see what smart, creative people do with their living spaces. The photo above is distracting, alienating and insulting. Apartment Therapy isn't a beer company -- why is it using images of sexualized women to draw attention to its posts?

The bed should be the object -- not the woman. In the future, I hope Apartment Therapy will be more conscientious about the photos it chooses to accompany content."

What do you think? I'd be interested to know. Whether or not you share my views, I encourage you to add a comment to AT's original post.

C'mere, pumpkin.

Orange is a color we have strong feelings about.

Maybe you love it. Maybe you hate it. Maybe you're on the fence.

Maybe you love it on other people, or on other people's houses.

After all, some people can pull it off.

Orange is exuberant. It's got nothing to prove.

But orange can be subtle, too. Orange is a status symbol, stacked smugly on a shelf.

Orange paint is one way to get your fix. Designers have their favorites.

Benjamin Moore has pumpkins of all stripes.

And if you can't commit to four walls, try one.

Or paint the inside (or outside) of your bookshelves.

Or there might be some orange upholstery in your future. Orange velvet, in the right space, is dreamy.

Orange toile is decidedly un-toile.

And your Seasonal Affective Disorder is no match for an orange-and-pink palette.

Orange artwork does the trick, too.

Or a throw or quilt.

And remember: those orange boxes don't need to be French.

Quelle horreur!

Behold, the sheared rabbit ottoman.


So sad. And yet, so beautiful!

No, no. Sad.



I just hope that rabbit meat was put to good use, like in lapin a la cocotte.

Available here.

Do it your own damn self.

As much as I love me some Cole & Son or Tres Tintas Barcelona wallpaper, I realize that not everyone (uh, including me) can blow $150 per roll for a beguiling backdrop of knobby trees or a Cy Twombly-esque tangle of black wire chairs.

That's why I was particularly struck by Sean Scherer's Catskills, N.Y. farmhouse, which was featured a couple weeks ago in the New York Times.


DIY wallpaper is nothing new, of course, but Scherer, a painter and curiosity shop owner, lends it a certain mastery. For this avian-inspired vignette, above, he papered the walls with pages from a "Birds of New York" folio. The birdcage sculpture is by Brazilian artist Vik Muniz.

In the farmhouse guest bedroom, above, Scherer created a backdrop using blank sheets from an old ledger. The side tables are Art Deco; the botanical print is Czech.


The walls and ceiling of the master bathroom are papered with Soviet propaganda posters and newspaper pages, bought in Moscow in 1989. The painting over the bathtub, inspired by Kasimir Malevich, is by Scherer.


When it comes to wallpaper on the cheap, newsprint is a good place to start. And you'll be doing the industry a favor, since kidnappers and ransom-note writers are the only people buying newspapers these days. Above, a bedroom by Ligne Roset.

If you're using your old Merriam-Webster's as a doorstop, why not tear it up and slap it on the wall? DIY magazine has a nice tutorial on how to pull it off.


Lucky ladies visiting the powder room of the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, above, are treated to Jenny Holzer's photocopy wallpaper.


You can't really go wrong with maps, either. Above, a guest bathroom at the acutely-hip Ace Hotel in Portland, Oregon.


A South Hampton bedroom designed by Steven Gambrel.


Karen Breen-Bondie kitted out her son's bedroom, above, with a map mural from Environmental Graphics. The bed, duvet cover, and desk chair are from Ikea.

A home featured in the Denver Post.

Interstate wallpaper at the World's Largest Truckstop in Walcott, Iowa. I have driven by this institution many times.


If you just can't be bothered and don't mind sacrificing some DIY cred, there's always Ralph Lauren's Great Harbor wallpaper, above.


Vintage Campbell's soup ads might be just the thing in the kitchen.



Old letters and diary entries do the trick, too. The more scandalous, the better!


Photo credits: Sean Scherer's farmhouse, Tony Cenicola, the New York Times; newspaper room, Ligne Roset; dictionary wallpaper, DIY magazine; Jenny Holzer wallpaper, Kevin Cooley, the New York Times; Ace Hotel, Apartment Therapy; Steven Gambrel bedroom, from his website; world map bedroom, Karen Breen-Bodie; Ralph Lauren wallpaper, Coastal Living; Denver Post and truckstop wallpaper, Apartment Therapy; Campbell's soup ads, Etsy; letter wallpaper, zedomax.com.