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Favorite Things: Spring Edition!

In keeping with my sporadic blogging of late, I just wanted to pop in and share a few of my favorite things right now. This may be short, but I assure you, all five things are super sweet!

1.) This “French Country Writing Desk” from Belle Escape.

It comes in a ton of colors and even though my husband loathes it, I love it enough to make up for his disdain. (Sorry for the odd picture format, I couldn’t get it to crop evenly).

2.) This gorgeous slab I saw last week when doing some granite selection with a client.

Well, actually, it’s two slabs. See the reflection of the man for scale – they’re huge! I wish I remembered the name of the stone but all I can recall is the word “azure.”

3.) Easter Eggs/Family Crafts

We did some family egg dyeing last weekend, and I thought I was very clever when I taped off an egg and made an abstract landscape:

Then I walked around the table to check on my husband, and he TOTALLY showed me up with his PAINTING of our cat. Unbelievable. But he is talented! Do I even need to mention that instead of using a regular, pedestrian hard-boiled egg like my son and I did, he drilled a hole into his and literally blew out all of the insides?…of course I don’t.

Here are the finished eggs:

4.) Graphic patterns with bold colors.

This is a detail from a restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee called Milk and Honey (their website sports the same colors. Excellent gelato.) Right up my alley! This has been a long lasting combo, and I hope it sticks around.

5.) This video, which creatively applies the aesthetic of filmmaker Wes Anderson to the classic, Forest Gump.

Spot on, perfection.

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/92419083″>Forrest Gump by Wes Anderson</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user24786269″>Louis Paquet</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

Hope you enjoy at least some of the same things! Have a great rest of the week!

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

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Categories Accessories, Color, Crafting, Furniture, Music and Movies, Painting, Pets

West Elm Is MAJORLY Stepping It Up With Hardware Options!

1 Mar

I was perusing West Elm recently and came across this really unique and fun agate hardware. There are knobs, pulls, and handle sets, and they’re all super interesting.

I could even see applying these to an Ikea hack. Like on the ubiquitous Malm. (Oh come on, you know you have a Malm.)

I might have to get myself some of these…hope you like them, too!

They’re available from West Elm and they range from $9.99 t0 $49.

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

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Categories Accessories, Hardware

Great Gallery Walls!

28 Oct

I’ve had a lot of questions about gallery walls lately: how to start them, what goes in (or is it on?) them, and are there any “rules” when creating them. Well, if you’ve worked with me or been in one of my classes before, you probably know my stance on “rules”: I don’t really do rules. Which isn’t to say everything goes – it doesn’t – but rather, I mean that there are so many conceivable ways to create a lovely gallery wall that I can’t even possible begin to list the process or tell you what elements you absolutely need. I can, however, give you a few suggestions and point out what makes a nice grouping. Below are some examples of great gallery walls, and some notes about how to emulate these looks. Enjoy!

Contrast is Key. I like the punch of a gallery wall that is white on black, or black on white, or white on white with bursts of color within the frames. Here are some examples of gallery walls that emphasize contrast effectively.

White on Black. (via Eclair)

Color on White. (via Pinterest, source unknown)

Variation AND Repetition Go Hand in Hand. Got an interesting gold frame to incorporate? Great! Include a few additional gold touches. Have a bunch of thin frames in a single color? Great! Add more thin frames in additional colors. Get it?

Mostly black and white with small, subtle bursts of color. (via Pinterest, source unknown)

Just the right amount of gold. (via just bella blog)

Size Doesn’t Matter. Really. You have big and small pictures? Ok. Want to mix them? Fine. Want to keep them consistent? Not a problem. Let it be what you want it to be: no rules.

Big frames, small frames, tiny clipboards – all fine. (via Design Traveler)

This one has both varying object sizes AND is small in scope. (via Pinterest, source unknown)

Start With Something Specific or Functional and Let it Grow. I often start gallery walls with a single piece of art or photography or utility that is important to the end-user. You don’t have to complete it in a day or even a week. Just hang that mirror or tv or piece of art (at eye level, preferably, as it’s the most important piece) and let other pieces spawn off of it.

Begin with a mirror and let the other elements fall where they may… (via The Fashion Medley)

…or begin with a television – BRILLIANT! I’ve used this a few times myself. (also via The Fashion Medley)

What Do You Do With A Stair Wall? GALLERY WALL! Enough said.

Simple, cool. (via Pinterest, source unknown)

Love this. (via Elle Decor via Pinterest)

Oh, you’re wondering about spacing? Well, I do have a simple rule for that. If you use all the same frames, you can space them equally but the look will be less “Anthropologie” and more traditional . If you use different, differently sized frames, space them HOWEVER YOU WANT, whether it’s super organized or more crafty and uneven.

Different frames = varied spacing. (via Pinterest, source unknown)

Different frames = varied spacing. I love the leaning art on the ground here. (via Euro Style Lighting)

Different frames = same-ish spacing. (via Arkpad)

That’s a lot of gallery walls! Which is your favorite? I’m not sure I can choose!

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

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Categories Accessories, Art, Painting, Photography, Wallcoverings

Wonderful World Market Finds!

23 Oct

I love to use World Market to fill in accessories, lighting, and sometimes even small furnishings for my more budget-conscious clients. If I’m being honest here, I also like to use them for my own home. And I’m not ever one to pass up their awesome candy selection.

If you look hard enough, you’ll see that they really have the “look for less” thing down. For example, this wood bead chandelier is $199 at World Market and over $1,300 for a Regina Andrew version:

And these blue linen dining chairs, which are $398 for a set of 2 at World Market, are $100 more per chair at Wisteria:

Here are five more fun finds from World Market that’ll set you back way less than other comparable items from more expensive retailers. Many are even good for holiday gifts, if you’re organized enough to be shopping in October. I’ve thought about it…but haven’t quite pulled the trigger. Enjoy!

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

As an added bonus, they also have my FAVORITE candy: Hi-Chew!

Have a great week!

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

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Categories Accessories, Five Under $50!, Look For Less

Cranberries Galore!

9 Oct

I’ve been hearing about a neat installation/viral marketing thing that Ocean Spray, of cranberry fame, is doing today and tomorrow over at Union Station. For those of you who are not from or familiar with Washington, D.C., Union Station is our main train station, and the building is a stunning, gleaming white mixture of Classical and Beaux-Arts styles of architecture. My parents used to take me there as a kid and I still love the building. It usually looks like this (image via about.com):

Today, however, those fountains in front are filled with something other than water…

(image via Ocean Spray via Prince of Petworth)

(image via Washingtonian)

Ocean Spray has made us our very own cranberry bog!

Isn’t it beautiful? I understand it contains 2,000 pounds of little red berries, and will be open only through today – so get there FAST!

For more cranberry-ness, revisit my post from a few years back about the lovely color here.

Or you can check out this lovely chair, beautiful pendants (from my favorite, Niche Modern), or pretty pillow:

…or you can make this delicious looking cranberry martini!

Enjoy the day!

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

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Categories Accessories, Architecture, Art, Color, Events, Outdoor, Washington DC

Five Under $50: Target Finds!

14 Jul

I dashed into Target last week to grab my son a towel for swim class, and got distracted by some flashy and CHEAP home goods. If you are familiar with the Columbia Heights Target, and if you are as attracted to graphic prints and novelty coffee cups as much I am, you’ll know that it’s a true test of wills to walk off that second floor elevator, breeze past the kid’s PJs as you make your way to the baby/toddler section, and be confronted with things like this:

…for JUST $19.99!

But I didn’t buy it. I can’t buy everything I like. Did I ever tell you how much my husband disdains unnecessary decoration? He would be happy with a bed, a single sofa, a concrete slab for a dining bench and a few well-placed candles for reading at night. He and Adolf Loos would have gotten along well (that’s for all my fellow architectural historian nerds).

I browsed for a few minutes, and here are some particularly neat finds I spotted. Thought I can’t say I advocate for a house full of Target, I am a huge advocate of mixing and matching across styles, materials, and budgets. You may even remember an edgy desk I posted about the other week…also from Target.

Here are some fantastic low-end contributions that you can easily make to your decor without feeling guilty. Have fun!

1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) 5.)

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

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Categories Accessories, Five Under $50!, Furniture

Orange and Periwinkle. Together.

25 Jun

Sounds like a weird combination right? …Except that I really like it!

It started with this outdoor rug from Koko Company that features the unlikely color combo. I think the geometric print really brightens it up.

Then I thought this beach towel, a pair of these chairs, and this ceramic planter would go beautifully with the rug. Throw in some hydrangeas (and some green, of course) and you’re done!

What do you think of these colors together?

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

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Categories Accessories, Color, Outdoor

Look At These Pants (and other things that look like these pants)!

22 Jun

Long time, no blog. I know.

I’ve been running around from client to client and in the past two weeks there has been a deluge of end-of-the-school-year activities (examples: water day, field day, carnival day…these are all different things).

But now I’m back, and in the time I was gone I learned how to work a professional cotton candy machine very well. Despite the dozen or so ideas I’ve had for blogging in the past two weeks, the one that I am really most excited about is this one:

Look at these pants. I bought them last week. FROM THE GAP (can you even believe that?). I really like them and so do some of my Instagram friends. I think my husband likes them, but all he said about them when he got home from work was “Oh, wow. Those are some pants.”

So in keeping with my general theme here of interior design, here are a few home decor items that resemble my FAVORITE new pants.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

They also remind me of some of the fantastic handcrafted terra cotta tiles from Tabarka Studio, which I’ve recently used in a project for the powder room. Here’s just one of their designs, which I absolutely love:

Hope you love the graphic finds as much as I do! Have a great weekend!

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

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Categories Accessories, Art, Fashion

Recently on Pinterest…

7 Jun

It’s been a long two weeks. Between work being busy and tending to a sick kid’s mystery illness (he’s fine…no longer a mystery) I haven’t have much time to blog. One thing I have been doing though, is pinning things to Pinterest. At first I regarded it as another site to demand my time, but now I’m finding it more and more useful. I still feel the same way about Twitter though, which is to say, I find it redundant and pointless and a tedious effort. (Sorry, tweeters.)

Here are five fun things I’ve recently “pinned.” If you like them consider “following me” on Pinterest!

An unconventional, super neat mantle-scape: