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Splashes of RED!

29 Mar

This week I was looking at two previous projects I’ve worked on that feature bold, graphic, red elements at the forefront of the design. In sharing the photographs with some friends and my students I got quite a few “Oooh”s and “Ahhh”s for these two projects, which both showcase the color red but in two dramatically different ways.

The first is a bathroom that was completed back at the end of last year. It features an exquisite Farrow and Ball wallpaper that, when paired with gold finishes and a graphic black and white aesthetic, makes for a super dramatic and moody space. Here are some instagram shots I took when visiting the site yesterday. I love this room. LOVE IT. (You can click to see the image in a larger format).

Splashes of Red!

The other instance of red is in much smaller quantities, and it comes from a dining room. This was a project that I just consulted on and specified furniture for, so the image is a board and not a finished-photo. The client had a great blank slate to work with: an eclectic, colorful space with a fun rustic table, and she wanted ideas for interesting chairs. My idea was to curate a collection of several different chairs in the current palette (aqua/turquoise with a splash of red) to maximize the eclecticism and highlight the fun of the space. I’ve just always liked this board, and wanted to share it:

Splashes of Red!

 

Important functionality tip: if you ever do this (mismatching chairs) just be sure that the seat height is relatively consistent. I wouldn’t recommend deviating more than an inch from one to the other.

Hope you enjoy these splashy projects! I’m off to stuff plastic easter eggs for a while…

 

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

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Five Under $50: Perfect Placemats!

2 May

I used to feel the same way about placemats as I still sort of do about panty hose.

Which is to say, I felt like they were for some people…but not for me.

Then I had a child. And I wanted to keep my dining room table in tact as much as possible (which I can’t say I was particularly successful at, but that’s another story). 

So now I use placemats.

Typically, they’re neutral Chilewich ones like these, because I find them pleasantly modern and easy to clean up. However, some more colorful and decidedly refined textures and fabrics have recently caught my eye. Here are five perfect placemats, each of which is under $50 (as they rightly should be,  because you will spill on them!).

1.) Avril Loreti Paintchip Placemat from Leif Modern, $18, four colors available (image via LeifShop); 2.) Rustic Placemat in linen from Jayson Home, $24 (image via JaysonHome); 3.) Octagon Placemat from Crate and Barrel, $10 (image via Crate and Barrel); 4.) Dwell Studio Color & Count Placemats, $11 (image via DwellStudio); 5.) Duo Carbon Linen Placemat for Two from CB2, $16 (image via CB2)

Which is your favorite? I love the reasonably priced two-person mat from CB2 and adore the Dwell tear-off coloring placemats for my son. Speaking of which, look out for another placemat post geared towards children alter this week! Until then, have a great day!

 

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

Gorgeous Dining Tables for Your Valentine’s Day Dinner!

14 Feb

Today is Valentine’s Day! Though I wish you a very happy one, I’ll be sparing you from more pink things. Chocolate though, that’s a different story…

Here are three gorgeous dining tables that I’d be quite pleased to eat a romantic dinner on. Bonus points for each having a very durable top – the only rings you’ll be seeing are on your fingers. Enjoy!

 

The Paloma Dining Table from Crate and Barrel would be a lovely spot to pull up a chair and nosh. Very rustic, but also quite modern.

Paloma Table from Crate and Barrel, $1,999 (image via Crate and Barrel)

 

The Patched Butcher Block Table from Wisteria is a quaint round that would seat two nicely. Perfect for sharing a cupcake.

Patched Butcher Block Table from Wisteria, $899 (image via Wisteria)

 

For those of you who are fancy and more traditional, the Bovary Dining Table by Oly Studio will suite you very nicely. I can’t imagine a nicer surface to eat expensive chocolate on.

Bovary Dining Table by Oly Studio, price on request (image via Oly Studio)

 

Wherever your dinner is tonight, or whomever it’s with, I hope it’s a lovey one!

 

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

Beautiful Breakfast Nooks, and a Winner!

4 Jan

Nothing starts your day right like a good breakfast in a beautiful setting. We can’t all wake up and eat gorgeous fruits and pastries on a balcony somewhere in Southern Italy, but we can try to emulate our favorite elements of some inspiring dining spaces. Here are a few of my favorites, each featuring black and white as the crux of the color scheme.

A quirky, almost-monotone look that incorporates the much loved "letter" look! Get your own wall letter from Etsy Seller OldNewAgain, and score your own fawn in the form of a pillow from Areaware! ...and that gorgeous lamp? Almost a perfect match with Arteriors' Hagen Pendant! (L image via http://abbysroad.wordpress.com, R image via Etsy)

 

The breakfast nook of Sacha Dunn and Edmund Levine from Country Living. Love the teal-ish cabinet? Paint your own, and see how to here.  (image via Country Living)

 

A chic black and white chevron! Start your own similar space with these plates from Missoni and bowls from Crate and Barrel! (design by Mary McDonald via Veranda)

 

On a completely different note, the WINNER from the magazine giveaway is #5 – Ashley Dior! Congratulations! I’ll be contacting you to confirm your magazine choice and to get your address.

Have a great rest of the week, everyone!

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

 

Thanksgiving Mishaps Happen To Us All.

28 Nov

I hope you all had a good (and hopefully long) Thanksgiving weekend! Ours was slow-paced, full of good food, family time, and topped off with a sick kid who is ever so slowly recovering from a bad cough.

On the upside, leftovers, coughs, and (kind of) chilly weather led to a great Turkey and Dumplings dinner this weekend. It’s just as good as it is pretty!

Turkey & Dumplings -- made just like the chicken variety...with your Thanksgiving leftovers!

On the downside, someone (ahem…my husband) removed their steaming hot bowl of dumplings from their plate and set it directly on a paper towel on the dining room table, which caused the lovely paper towel ring you see below. Yep, it’s stuck directly to the table (which has an inexplicably weird waxy finish).

Well that's frustrating!

So that was frustrating. Thankfully, my husband is pretty good at fixing things. His tip is to heat up the table (hot towel, heating pad, hair dryer) slowly and remove the towel but by bit…it is embedded in the melty-waxy finish, so it comes out just the same way it went in. If re-polishing is necessary once the towel is removed (meaning you have a little discoloration or marring) a little elbow grease will get your table top back good as new…and all will be well with the world (or the dining room). I suppose I should be thankful that this was the worst thing that happened all weekend!

Did you have any decor horror stories over this big entertaining week? Need help fixing something? If so drop me a note — it would make a great Ask JGB question!

 

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

A Sad Day For Apples: Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011

6 Oct

“Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”

In 2000, Jobs said this in a Fortune Magazine interview.  Now, eleven years later, as technology becomes more pervasive and design becomes more accessible, it has never been more true. I expect that his legacy will live on in various states of form and function, and we are much better off for it. 

Clockwise from pillow at top: Apple Pillow by Ferm Living, $100 (image via Ferm Living); Apple Juice Glass from Crate and Barrel, $1.95 (image via Crate and Barrel); Journal iPad Cover by Kate Spade, $85 (image via Kate Spade); iPhone 4, starting at $99 (image via Apple); Apple A Day Scarf by Orla Kiely (image via Orla Kiely); Jonathan Adler Pink Apple Pillow, $110 (image via Jonathan Adler); MacBook Air, starting at $999 (image via Apple).

 

R.I.P Steve Jobs, 1955-2011.

 

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

Take A Bite Out Of Monday…

12 Sep

It’s Monday. You’re tired. You’re hungry. You’re counting the minutes until the next day (or hour) that’s closer to Friday.  What better flatware and serveware than these to accompany your cranky, Monday mood?

Top: Bite Mark Plates from the Contact Collection, by Evthokia (image via Evthokia.co.uk) Bottom: Bite Mark Silverware by Mark Reigelman (image via Mark Reigelman.com)

I love them both, and appreciate the culinary humor.  Have a great day!

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

Candy-colored, Mismatched Dining Chairs.

4 Apr

I’ve always been in love with this dining room photograph: a bunch of candy-colored dining chairs around a Saarinen round white marble pedestal table. The bold black and white stripes go a long way in taking down the “sweetness” of this room, and for me that creates the perfect balance of feminine and edgy.

Dining room by Ruthie Sommers. (image via DecorPad)

 

Last week I saw this dining room image on ReNest (Apartment Therapy’s green style blog).  It’s from a house one block from the Pacific, and mixes beach style with thrift store with French Country with a little rocker chic.  Love those pastel mismatched chairs! Stay tuned this week because ReNest will be featuring the whole house in a Green House Tour!

(image via ReNest)

 

This image, too, is growing on me:

Note 100% sold on those black end chairs (in term of color or scale) but I love the idea of this room. (image source unknown....can't read the magazine title!)

 

It’s from Brisbane designer Anna Spiro’s home. You know that someone with a chair like this is going to have fantastic seating pieces in general:

This works so well against the all-white background. (image via Apartment Therapy)

 

Great dining room inspiration all around!  Which is your favorite?

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

Domino Dining Rooms!

23 Nov

Thanksgiving Prep Time is upon us…so my time is in short supply.

Very eclectic. Love the Canada Dry crate on the left. Looks like it may be an office-by-day, but it works! (image via Domino Magazine)

With a husband working through Wednesday evening and an ankle biter at my heels while I try to clean the floors and chop some carrots, the next 36 hours are going to be long.  Luckily, I have a mom in town who is supplying some key dishes (yay!), a husband who puts in more than his domestic share after he gets home from work, and a mother-in-law who has stated multiple times that she’s ready to start working on some side dishes as soon as she gets off the plane (which I won’t even think about making her do!).  In an effort to keep the blog running but save myself some precious half-hours here and there, here’s a few Domino Magazine dining rooms from years past.  I’d be happy to sit down to a Thanksgiving meal in any one of these spaces, and lucky for you, they’re pretty design-attainable if you’re digging them as much as I am.

Enjoy! …and happy cooking…or traveling…or eating!

 

Black and White Modern Farmhouse (image via Domino Magazine)

Classic and Elegant and Slightly Punchy. I adore the Oly Studio chairs and would recognize them anywhere! (image via Domino Magazine.

Who doesn't love a good and simple yellow room? I do! (image via Domino Magazine)

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.