Trend: A Touch of Green

Its mid January in Minnesota and EVERYTHING is brown!  I need a little green to get me through the winter.  Here are some of the things I am loving to bring the outdoors inside in a trend savy way:

I love these options from West Elm!  They especially the bottom image from designer Shane Powers - a great modern way to add green without taking up much space.  Instant art installation!!

These images are from an Etsy shop called SucculentDESIGNS where Patti, an Arizona grower will send you a kit with everything you need for you to put together your own glass ball terrarium, centerpiece or even sell you the individual succulents so you can create your own.  I have to say, this is one of my new favorite shops on Etsy!  She has great product and it's very well priced.

The thing I really love about the glass terrarium planters is the endless posibillities!  You can really take any glass container (think up-cycling!), add some plants, soil, moss and a quick google search for inspiration... The sky is the limit!

The New Design File

Remember your messy file of magazine clippings of all the spaces you love?  If you love design you know what I am talking about.  That manilla folder, or 3 ring binder or ziplock bag full of clippings from Architectural Digest and Dwell magazine that you never look at becuase it is spilling over with slips of paper... You always swear your going to organize it, paste them into a book so you can flip through them at your leisure and then design the house of your dreams.  Well now you can have that well organized file at your figertips electronically with Houzz.

Houzz is a image hoarder's dream of residential design images uploaded by the designers themselves.  Part design tool, part marketing tool the site allows you to flip through 1000's of images and save the ones you like to idea books saved to your profile.  You can make notes about what you like about a particular design and critique what you don't.  They even have swinging tags that give you product information for some of the things you see in the images.

Image of Houzz's homepage

Now if you really want to get fancy and create an inspiration board, I have found no better way than Pinterest, here you can "pin" or save images to a pin board of virtually anything on the internet!  You can create a board by room - pinning furniture, paint colors, inspiration, and decor items.  If you combine the two you could have the ultimate image gathering machine.  The sky is the limit!

Whats on Trend: Woven and Natural

Image from New York Design Center

I was on the New York Design Centers' website today and was struck by this image.  All of the natural woods, the warm tones, woven and hand hewn elements creating a pretty modern space.  

Knit Pouf $89.95 - CB2

Large Traditional Wooden Bowl $39.99 - West Elm

Although we've been seeing this trend of the handmade coming for quite some time, it has truly hit the mass market with stores like CB2 and West Elm carrying items that fit this trend.  This gives the consumer an affordable way to add that primitive, woven or hand-hewn touch to their space.

Cozy winter's night

From:  Elements of Style

This photo makes me want to drink hot cocoa and open presents while the snow falls outside!

Advice for the New Year...

http://www.aestheticinterlude.com/ai_blog_images/1109/Mies-van-de-Rohe_1109.gif

How refreshing, thanks Mies!

TOMS does Sunglasses

People can't seem to get enough of socially conscience TOMS shoe company.  They seem to have exploded overnight, you can't walk down the street without seeing a pair of their super casual, super comfortable loafers.  Now they are expanding their offering to eyewear so fashionistas everywhere can sport a hot look while supporting a great cause. 

These sunglasses aren't reinventing the wheel, actually they are taking the wheel and calling it TOMS, but they have added a beautiful design twist with the colorblock detail that represents their One for One foundation.  When you purchase a pair of the iconic sunglasses you are giving "sight" to one person, whether it's medical care, glasses or eye saving surgery.  Now that is a purchase I can get behind!

I covet...

Images taken from dwr.com

I love the Stacked Shelving System from Muuto.  It's fun and completely re-arangeable.  Purchased as separates, you can make it the shape and size you want.  My place would look so great with this in it!