The Estate of Things

Have you noticed the resurgence of the Mexican folk art blanket? It started last year and I thought it had died down after Grace Bonney covered her headboard with it.  But alas, its still happening.

In the July issue of HB,

In Betsy Burnham’s daughter’s room (when will people stop talking about this room, not any time soon!)

Maybe the yummiest example of all in Domino (a few years ago)…

After doing a little digging I found that it is called colcha and is native to the tenango region of Hidalgo in Mexico.  It is a folk art practiced by the Otomi Indians.

My Mom and Dad are living the colcha dream in their bedroom, you can catch a glimpse of it.  Its really beautiful in person and is a powerful graphic force in any room.

Last week I found this on Ebay and considered it as a coverlet for DC’s room. I searched “mexican coverlet” and “otomi” and found some other choices too.

These blankets are also available at the beautiful Laviva Home and Jacaranda.

Upon closer inspection of the bed linens in Betsy Burnham’s daughter’s room, I find the source of the bedding to be Deborah Sharpe Linens.  For review here is the bed again,
 

I have been searching for a new sheet set for my own bed and have been considering sources like Williams Sonoma Home for a while. Before going to Deborah’s website, I couldn’t have imagined the selection of embroidery genius I was about to encounter.

Before we talk about the selection, let’s establish a pattern of usage.

Emma Jane Pilkington

We’re focusing on the embroidered linens used on each of these beds, sometimes its just the shams, or a sheet set or a duvet or the whole bed.

Kate Spade’s apartment

John Willey, House Beautiful

Domino

Canadian House & Home

Amelia Handegan

Coastal Living

So on to the amazing selection available at Deborah Sharpe with some of my picks,

On occasion I will come across things that…make me want to lick the screen. China Seas fabrics would fall in to that category.  I’ve included a few of my favorites.

Nothing could be more perfect for my $5 flea market chair than this.

Veranda

As I scroll through Quadrille’s editorial portfolio and their collections I think to myself what more could you need. Quadrille has everything. Their collections have appeared on all kinds of surfaces in so many of my favorite rooms.

Fez fabric on bed skirt, House Beautiful

room by John Willey via House Beautiful

At Home

A few weeks ago I went to a local furniture store called Plan B.  I spotted some pillows in the window and made a point to return the following day to purchase them.

The person watching the shop for the owner told me that the pillows were not for sale, they were to be sold with a settee. I was pretty frustrated but not defeated.

Flash forward–my Mom and I go back in to Plan B last week to check out the Astrid chairs they have in store for her bathroom, remember the chair in the bath post, if not you can read it here.

The pillows were still there. The owner was in. We ended up chatting with the owner for a bit about being design junkies and then he sold me the pillows…with a little convincing.

My Mom bought the Astrid chair for her bathroom and I put the pillows in my bedroom for now.

Caitlin Creer snapped a picture of my pillows at HD Buttercup in LA. Betsy used to live a bike ride away from that place, a must see for anyone into design!

Windsor Smith used a similar pattern in a different colorway in her fabulous LA home.  The pattern is part of Smith’s line, Riad.

The fabric alone retails for $63.20, I bought both of the pillows for $125.00.  I’ll definitely be visiting Plan B more in the future and I’ll be sure to take photos.

For now the pillows will call our bed home.

One of our readers recently commented and said hey what would you do for bedding in a little boys room and that got me thinking.

While I was perusing Urban Outfitters for bedding for DC’s room, I came across two spreads that I think you could design a whole room around for a toddler boy.

Enter the panel striped blanket. Both fun, masculine and sporty, I can see this blanket mixed with old furniture and new.  This one can grow with the kid, fold at the end of the bed for an accent or sit on it in the park.

Or perhaps you like the dot leaf tapestry better. I like the graphic and earthy pattern and I love the blues and greens together. This is a fun one that won’t set you back too much.

On Tuesday I posted about my mother’s porch swing and the accent pillows from Terrain that I suggested she add to the mix.

Aqua Thistle pillow, Terrain, $54

And then I was perusing Tonic Living for fabric for DC’s room and I saw this…
 

Sweet William Teal, Tonic Living, $9.95 a yard

Finally, I found the same pillow at Tonic Living for $24.95,  SCORE!

Spring is one of my favorite things that happens. Maybe some would think that its time to put the extra blankets away for the warmth of the coming seasons. But now more than ever, its so nice to open the doors and windows and eagerly let what’s left of the cool month’s breeze swirl around the body you’ve just wrapped up nice and tight in a pretty throw.

I recently hauled a street side couch up my stairs (with the help of roomate Kate of course), and we’ve been spending the low sun hours on it, sipping coffee and gossipping about Summer being right around the corner. We weren’t wrapped up in these.

I am in super love with the colors and patterns on these from the Eco Collection at in2green.com.

The Biggest Blanket’s Paradise Quilt. I love all things gray lately.

From Twine
Pretty sure I could pick something similar up at Olvera Street for a fraction, but none the less, the Twine online shop is pretty great, I hope you enjoy it.

I had a brief chat with a really neat lady named Carola Pfau at the Austin Citywide Garage Sale. Here are a few picks from her shop.

I was initially drawn in by the familiarity of that Suzani print when I began to pay attention to the feedsack products that she had created.

My favorites were these simple totes with screen-printed recipes on them. They were copied from Carola’s great great great grandmother’s recipes that were taped to the back of a cookbook from the late 1800’s. Neato. (That’s sentimentality too!!)

Toast’s Spring/Summer catalog revealed itself in my inbox this week.  I took note of these cross stitched sheets

Its at Aubrey+Lindsay’s blog, (the champs of the Ikea Rast Overhaul), where I read about Tonic Living. All this talk of fabric swatches for $1 is what drew me in. I went and I ordered.

I ordered this outdoor pillow for the little sofa on my porch, this little ditty was $9.95 on clearance and I couldn’t pass it up.  There were several other cute pillows on sale that were $10-$12 each.

And because I’d like to recover some vintage club chairs (in the next 10 years) in my living room, I ordered these samples for a buck a piece.

I am really taken by a classic ticking stripe.  The example given below is the very sophisticated and timeless loveseat at Lauren’s apartment from Good Bones, Great Pieces.  This apartment was featured in this month’s issue of Traditional Home.

Truthfully, I’m terrified of upholstering those chairs in something trendy, incurring all that expense and hating them a couple of years from now.  It’s so tempting to trick them out in some graphic print but I must resist.