Elle Décor Does Denver

How excited was I when I received my December 2009 issue of Elle Décor and saw that Denver was featured in it’s monthly travel guide!?  You have no idea.

illustration: elle décor

Writer Amanda Faison opens the piece with a nod to one of Denver’s more famous residents, Jack Kerouac:

“A gray shroud fell over the city.  The mountains, the magnificent Rockies that you can see to the west from any part of town were ‘papier-mâché’”

photo credit: © Blaine Harrington III/Alamy

Faison raves about David Adjaye’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) and refers to it as a “smoked glass jewel-box on the edge of downtown”.

photographer: © Dean Kaufman


She of course also mentions Denver’s dedication to public art, although I’m not sure the “dancing aliens” at the Performing Arts Complex, the giant 40-ft tall blue bear that peers into the über-modern conference center, or the blue mustang of the apocalypse outside DIA should be recognized, but that’s just my opinion.

photo: doubtingthomas.blogspot.com

photographer: Rodney Tanaka

photo:misfitcameras.com

Of course you can’t talk about Denver’s architecture and public art scene without mentioning Daniel Liebeskind’s Frederic C. Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum.  The building has no, that’s right — ZERO, 90-degree angles in the 146,000 sq ft space.  Every time I visit the museum I feel for the builders on the project.

Photographer: Steve Crecelius for Visit Denver

Faison closes out the article by saying:

“And at its core, Denver is both Western and modern. The intersection of these two ideals—and the distant mountains—infuse it with an optimism that permeates every facet of life. ‘We can build the world afresh,’ the MCA’s Lerner says. ‘That’s the spirit of Denver.’”

I was beyond excited to see that Faison mentioned some of my favorite Denver spots which include:

The Curtis Hotel, which boasts very cheeky interiors that appeal to your more playful and irreverent side.  Definitely pop by The Corner Office bar —the drinks and bar apps are delish!

image courtesy of root down


Root Down, a former service-station, now serves eclectic organic fare.  The chef adheres to a “field to fork” mentality, which results in very creative natural, local and organic dishes.  The food is impressive, but don’t pass up the totally original cocktail list; The Pepper Blossom is divine! { St. Germain elderflower liqueur, Prarie organic vodka, muddled fresh basil, lemon, jalapeno and agave nectar. Fragrant and light with a little kick at the end}

Composition is located in Belmar, which is a little out of the way, but it boasts the most complete offering of my beloved Russell + Hazel products — definitely a dangerous place for the paper-obsessed.

photographer: Tiffany Rose

Hermès in Cherry Creek — um…duh!  Have you read my blog before?

{Inspiration: The Hermès Website} {You Can Learn A Lot From Your Clients' Closets} {How Do You Define Luxury?} {Fall Has Arrived!} {From the Runway to... Your Sofa?}

photo: lee alex decor

• Lee Alex Decor is by far my favorite vintage furniture shop in the city.  It boasts a wide array of well-priced mid-century pieces and has a great selection of vintage barware, costume jewelry and cufflinks.  And the lamps!  Oh my god, they have the best lamps.  I need to go to Lamps Anonymous because of Theo {the owner}.  Be sure to chat up Sherry when you go in — she has stories that would make Howard Stern blush.  For reals.

image: denver post

Faison, however, failed to mention one of my favorite Denver restaurants — Table 6.  The ever-changing menu of seasonal flavors never disappoints, and neither does the wine list.  Be sure to ask nattily-dressed owner and sommelier Aaron Foreman to recommend a bottle from the eclectic and reasonably priced wine list.  No one does duck like Table 6 — take my word for it.

If you are thinking about making a visit to the Mile  High City or are currently a resident, read the full Elle Décor article here: Elle Décor Goes to Denver

get yourself organized!

Does this pile of tear sheets look all to familiar to you?  I am haunted by my pile and feel like Sisyphus trying to push his rock up the hill -- every time I think I'm about to see the bottom of the basket, more sheets suddenly appear.

I'm a collector by nature -- Tom Rath, author of  Strengths Finder 2.0 puts collecting into the "Input" theme, which he defines as:

"You are inquisitive.  You collect things.  You might collect information -- words, facts, books, and quotations -- or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls {eek!} or sepia photographs.  Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you.  And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting.  The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity...Why are these worth storing?  At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful?...So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away.  It's interesting.  It keeps your mind fresh.  And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable."

As such, I am always on the lookout for newer and better ways to organize my collection of articles and tear sheets.  Leave it to the amazing peeps over at See Jane Work to read my mind and blog about just that!

get yourself a system

In the post titled "Organizing Books and Publications," the See Jane Work crew gives you a four-step process to bring you that much closer to organized nirvana.  Or at least the bottom of your tear sheet basket.

The four steps are:

1. Edit your collection


2. Create a place for your collection


3. Sort material by subject matter


4. Know your organizing style

Read the rest of the article here.  Best part? You can order all the boxes, binders, etc right from See Jane Work's website!  Genius!

On another note -- I highly recommend you check out Strengths Finder 2.0 -- when you purchase the book, you are given a code to take the online strengthsfinder assessment that will highlight your top strengths as well as give you tons of strategies for applying your strengths!

need an inspirational place to work? look no further!

To say that my current home office is currently uninspiring would be a drastic understatement.  How can I create inspired interiors for others when my own workspace is so...well.... lacking.  It has all the great bones for becoming a great office but right now it's kinda dark, which does nothing for this girl who lives for bright color and pattern.

So I hit my magazine tears and favorite image collections on the 'net to find some inspiration, and did I ever!  I know which way I am going to take my  office design, but I thought I'd share some of my favorite photos with you. It should come as no surprise that many of my inspiration photos came from French shelter magazines -- Parisians really know how to do a lot with a limited amount of space!

{Click the thumbnails for a larger photo}

First published in: Livingetc, July 2009

First published in: Livingetc, March 2009

First published in: Livingetc, October 2008

Photography: Ted Yarwood Room design: Box Design & Build

Photography: Virginia Macdonald Room design: Ph.D. Design

Photography: Ted Yarwood

From The Inspired Room

From The Inspired Room

Design: Mary McGee

Design: Jan Showers

Design: Ruthie Sommers, House Beautiful, September 2005

Elle Décoration - France

Metropolitan Home, September 2009

Designer: Andrew Beers Featured in: Our Favorite Happy Chic Homes

Photographer: Simon Upton Designer: Amy Fine Collins Featured in: SO CHIC: Glamorous Live, Stylish Spaces ELLE DECOR

Photographer: Evan Joseph Designer: Clare Donohue Featured in: Daring Downsize

Photographer: Brandon Barre Designer: Candice Olson Featured in: Candice Olson’s Divine Design: All Clear July 2008

photo: côté maison

Out of Africa: Home of Tonio + Anna Trzebinski

As many of my regular readers know, I am moderately obsessed with all things French.  To call me a Francophile would be putting it mildly.  What many of you don’t realize is that I am also somewhat of an “Africaphile.”  I had the pleasure of going on safari in Tanzania all the way back in 1996.  People who have travelled to Africa will agree that for some people, Africa has a way of getting under your skin, and it certainly got under mine.  Maybe it’s the romance associated with the well known characters of Isaak Dinesen’s book “Out of Africa” like Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton, or tales of the Great White Hunter from Ernest Hemingway, or the ruggedly hostile landscape that also plays host to incredible natural beauty

When I first started studying interior design and collecting design books, one of the spaces that really caught my eye was the Kenyan home of Tonio Trzebinski in a book called “Safari Style.” Trzebinski was an artist who grew up in Kenya and whose mother Errol Trzebinski wrote biographies about Denys Finch Hatton and Beryl Markham (the first female licensed commercial pilot in Africa).

The Trzebinski home is a perfectly blend of the rugged and romantic nature of Africa with modern design.

The site in Langata is surrounded on three sides by a nature reserve and is only a 25-minute drive from Nairobi.  Tonio and his wife Anna envisioned a natural retreat where their children were free to roam and explore, much like they did during their childhood.

The home is a two-level building built of concrete breeze blocks clad in weatherboard that was left unpainted so the home would blend into the surrounding bush.

The cedar veranda off the bedrooms faces a forest of olive, fig and acacia trees.  While relaxing in the sun you often would look upon grazing giraffes and 250+ bird species that nested among the dense foliage.

The Trzebinskis wanted to continue the feel of the African bush and the romance of the safari indoors and many of the material choices reflect this desire.  Tonio Trzebinski was a modern artist, so the interiors are also infused with modernist and urban elements.  Trzebinski’s modern abstract paintings in earth tones blended seamlessly with rugged timber furnishings, modern stainless steel columns and fine fabrics.  All these elements combine to create an inviting blend of the natural and luxurious.

Tonio Trzebinski used his skills as an artist, sculptor and craftsman to great effect in the design of his home.  The tables, chairs, light fixtures, sofas, lamps, and blinds were all made on the premises to his exact specifications.  The works of art on display were in constant rotation as he sold many of his pieces to friends and visitors.

The stairway (above) leads to the upstairs bedrooms is a striking architectural element.  The railings and support beams were crafted from driftwood collected when Trzebinski was surfing in the Indian Ocean.

The open-plan living area incorporated a library, lounge, dining and dancing areas and could easily accommodate 30+ revelers.  I can only imagine the parties held in this room, especially as parties would often turn into several-day-affairs as many of the guests would travel long distances for the fêtes.

The guest bedroom is another example of how to meld the rugged and romantic Safari-feel with bold modern touches.

Unfortunately, this story does not have a happy ending.  Tonio Trzebinski was murdered in 2001 just outside the gates to his alleged mistress’ home.  The sensational murder led London’s Fleet Street to make comparisons to the 1941 slaying of Lord Erroll, immortalized by James Fox’s novel “White Mischief,” which was also made into a movie directed by Michael Radford in 1988.

Tonio Trzebinski in His Studio

Trzebinski was a part of a hedonistic group of writers and artists whose antics were reminiscent of the “Happy Valley” set.  Along with Happy Valley, “White Mischief” had become fixed in Fleet Street as the generic term for white misbehavior out of bounds in Africa

Fox described “Happy Valley” in an article in the March 2002 issue of Vanity Fair Magazine:

Friends from England brought home tales of glorious entertainment in an exhilarating landscape surrounded by titled guests and many, many servants. In New York and London a legend grew up [in the 1920s] of a set of socialites in the Aberdares whose existence was a permanent feast of dissipation and sensuous pleasure. Happy Valley was the byword for this way of life. Rumours circulated about endless orgies, of wife swapping, drinking, and stripping, often embellished in the heat of gossip. The Wanjohi river was said to run with cocktails and there was that joke, quickly worn to death by its own success: are you married or do you live in Kenya?

I could go on and on about the mysterious death of Lord Erroll and the murder of Tonio Trzebinski, but I will leave it up to your intellectual curiosity if you wish to learn more.  The Vanity Fair article by James Fox can be found here.

Picking Up Where Domino Left Off....

Domino, March 2008

I am still mourning the loss of my beloved Domino Magazine (and I am sure many others are still shedding tears over the pages torn out of the inspirational publication) but it is time to move forward and hopefully carry on the mission that Domino set out to accomplish from the very beginning:

We started with a real idea—that style is for everyone—and tried to carry it out with stories that provide inspiration and empower you to act on it. (From DominoMag.com)

Now it is up to design bloggers to create content that inspires readers and gives them the tools to create spaces that they can be proud of and that give them joy.

Domino published their manifesto in the premiere issue of the magazine.  The manifesto is as follows:

• Home Should Make You Happy!

• We swear by the 3 R's: repaint, repaper, reupholster

• Steal ideas from other people's houses

• Even the insides of the closets & cabinets can be beautiful

• It's ok to NOT BE finished

• TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS—ALWAYS!

• A chandelier is as timeless as a black dress

• Renters need not be second class citizens

• Sometimes your mistakes become your greatest inspirations

• DON'T BE AFRAID TO MIX STYLES (Louis XIV and Eero Saarinen should hang out more often)

• When traveling, skip the snapshot and buy something unique for the coffee table

• HAVE FUN!

I, for one, am up for the challenge.

Keep checking back for posts featuring aspirational designs with tips on how you can achieve the look for less (which is something I am sure all of us are thinking about these days), party planning tips and tricks, etiquette advice, and more.

À bientôt!