does it have the chops?

maison21 is on the fence on this one- he loves the idea of a budget version of a lalane sheep bench for those of us who somehow didn't manage to score one at the yves saint laurent auction, but he's a bit put off by the velveteen face and legs- a little too stuffed toy-ish to be taken seriously. metal, wood or even resin painted to look like bronze might be preferable, he thinks. then again, maybe he's being too picky, as the stuffed animal loving kid inside him kinda wants one anyway...

gentle ewe bench, $525.00, from the source perrier collection

*** m21 apologizes- somehow, between posting this last night, and this morning, when he went to buy one (after being tipped off SP was going out of business- thanks vicki!) source perrier has sold out of the bench! m21 is going to leave the posting up, and if anyone sees this offered elsewhere, would you please let us know?

for the birds...

m21 has a pair of mockingbirds nesting somewhere in his yard- we haven't found the nest yet, but their industriousness and protectiveness is an amazing sight- they will attack anything that enters our yard (except thankfully not mona and m21- not yet, anyway). today we saw one of the pair chase a squirrel away down a telephone wire, actually grabbing a beakful of squirrel fur in the process!

we'd love to get our zealous parents this chic and stylish birdhouse to nest in style- though it seems like a whole lotta house for one lonely couple (and possibly a chick), as they obviously don't like to share!

gramercy park birdhouse, $214.50 (browse the rest of the site at your own risk- we did, and now our eyes hurt. a lot).

love is love.

and in this case, love is also free- get yours here. (thanks for the tip, leah!)

drifting along...

maison21 loves the random things he finds in his seemingly endless searches of the internets (how did we shop before the world was online? and yes, we are certainly old enough to remember doing everything by foot power- like in our flinstone's mobile). recently, while looking for mirror options for over a client's mantle verrry late one night, we stumbled across a great site featuring handcrafted driftwood designs: www.alldriftwoodfurniture.com. too rustic/beachy for our current project, but we are pretty crazy for the pieces (especially the mirrors), and everything seemed relatively well-priced to us, so we've bookmarked the site for future use. you might want to as well, if you like what you see!

who knew?

slightly more sophisticated than the dorm room decor maison21 normally associates with urban outfitters:

seriously love this turned wood "salt pillar" stool, $228.00

martz inspired lamp, $48.00

if we could possibly work a couple of these into our own decor, we would- chic and sophisticated 30" rattan pouf, $88.00.

william haines classiques

m21 is busy working on a presentation today, so we'll leave you with some classique images of william haines designs- all currently in production, and available at williamhaines.com. be sure to visit the "history" page of the website for some true hollywood glamour. ps- the atelier needs an elbow chair desperately- donations kindly accepted...

s'alright, nate.

we can take off the tag now- our nate berkus/home shopping network pillow is completely acceptable. nothing spectacular, and slightly more machine made in appearance than we hoped, but perfectly cute over all. we'll keep it.

does this mean gramma m21 is going to have to buy the throw too? don't worry though- we promise not to get hooked. THIS is not in our future:

m21 loves runaways

maison21 has thing for runaways.

no, he doesn't mean he stalks the greyhound terminal, looking for young kids fresh off the bus from kansas (the only thing m21 likes to pimp out is pretty furniture). nor is he talkin' about the classic 1970's girl group "the runaways" (though he IS into them too, of course- one of the first bands to prove chicks could rock as hard as the boys).

what m21 is talkin' about is his love for "runaway furniture"- that is pieces styled to look like they might skitter away if you make a sudden move towards them. "shhhhh- don't scare the chair".

here's some of our favorite "runaways":

love these stylized, vaguely insectoid dining chairs from los angles design team aqua vitae. truly unusual, and we loooove that...

aqua vitae's wing chair looks like it could runaway, too- though it also looks like it might fall over while trying. ;-)


speaking of wing chairs, here's one of our favorites, a mid-century classic by carlo mollino- looks poised mid-leap, doesn't it?


a stylized spider table from the fabulous downtown's custom furniture line, here in los angeles.

randomly found this stylized hoof-footed table on the internet a while back and saved it for it's cool rustic/ethnic vibe.

ross lovegrove's "go" chair is aptly named- it looks like it goes fast!

phillipe starck's ww stool- runaway from space.

merit oppenheim's traccia table, runaway chic since 1939.

oly's ajax lounge chair. love.

folding stool with tray by dransfield & ross

a pair of lion's foot tables which graced the atelier at one time, similar to those by jacques garcia for baker.

this chair by terry bostwick is slightly sinister, but still gorgeous. (via design milk)

last, the one item from this post, we'd NEVER want inside the atelier (though we still think it's pretty cool)- a gigantic spider sculpture/table from suzanne r lifestyle boutique in miami (via 1stdibs). maison21 is NOT a fan of spiders, so this number is a little too realistic for our tastes- we'd have nightmares about it coming alive at night and wrapping us up for dinner...

what do we think? runaways, yes or no? and if yes, do you have a favorite m21 forgot? link to it in the comments, and maybe we'll do a second post!

in closing, here's our favorite non-furniture runaways, performing their classic "cherry bomb" live in japan, circa 1977. you didn't think we could mention one of the rockingest girl groups of all time at the beginning of this post, without giving you a taste, did you? hello daddy, hello mom. i'm your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!

busy.

haven't had much time to post this week, as maison21 has been busy doing some freelance work for his incredibly talented former employer. though our formal working relationship ceased years ago, we still do good work together, so he'll occasionally commission m21 to do some sketches of custom furnishings. the drawings help our former boss to visualize his concepts for the pieces, and between the two pairs of our eyes, we can tweak things so they turn out kinda pretty! bonus- the client gets a nice visual of what their custom 17 foot sofa will look like when built, rather than merely describing it as an updated mid-century classic biomorphic sofa on a cerused oak "floating" base.

we can't share what we are currently working on with you, as the concepts haven't even been presented to the client yet; plus this is 100% our former employer's project, not our own, so it's is his baby to publicize or not, as he sees fit. nor do we wish to besmirch his good name by linking it with our own questionable nom du decor- associated with someone who actually bought a pillow from the home shopping network? quelle horreur! ;-)

however, we can show you images of the last project maison21 helped out on for this same client, as it has already been published- 4 different times! in W, interior design magazine, angeleno magazine and the LA times. we'd love to think think it was because of the stunning interiors we helped to shape, but in reality, it probably had more to do with the client's AMAZING art collection- warhol, hirst, judd, chamberlain, bourgeois, gober, rauschenberg, twombly- the list goes on and on... such a privilege to work on such a glamorous project!

all photos by benny chan/fotoworks, published in interior design magazine, august, 2006.

look what the cat dragged in (our finds from the weekend)

everyone was all abuzz last saturday about the domino tag sale in NYC, so m21 thought he'd share with you his finds from the weekend too- just to prove that you don't need to go somewhere fancy like a magazine editor's tag sale to find the good stuff- our two finds are from a yard sale (the screen) and a flea market (the table).
we've never seen a chinoiserie screen in beige lacquer before, so we were thrilled to find this one, especially with the cool large carved lotus motif- quite chic we think. if we go for darker tone walls in our living room, this light colored screen will look lovely (we're thinking a teal- just thinking right now, mind you). the table could be in better condition, but who cares? it's an original dorothy draper espana collection piece from the 1940's, and we got it for a song (not to rub it in or anything). lamp and chair are some old pieces we had hanging around in le garage, brought in to flesh out our vignette a bit.

richard likes our draper table too, though he was disappointed it was already in less then perfect condition- he prefers to be in charge of the destruction himself! oh well, he'll just have to be satisfied with shredding the last remaining bits of our sofa fabric- when we reupholster, we're gonna use chain mail! it's a trade off- you can either have pretty things in pristine condition, or you can have pets, and live with the damage inflicted. we'll take the pets, and a bit of a disarray, thank you! furniture is replaceable, the love is not...

kill. me. now. (m21 crosses over, and likes what he finds)

wool & acrylic throw, $79.95- love the b&w updated flamestitch design

b & w cotton throw rug- $159.95 for an 8 x 10! that's a whole lotta rug for the price...

b & w crewelwork pillow- $19.00. total bargain!

3 pretty and inexpensive home decor items, right? so why the kill me now in the title? because of where they came from- we're afraid we've crossed over the line from a middle-aged man, into elderly shut-in grandma. you see, all three of these items are by nate berkus for the home shopping network. yes, you heard us right- home shopping network.

soon, gramma m21 will be calling in to HSN at 2 in the morning:

hi nate, we just love you here in oskaloosa, arkansas!

that black and white throw is just the snuggliest! i loved it so much, i ordered 3, so the grandkids won't fight over them when they come to visit. are you going to be on oprah again soon? i just LOVE when you are on her show- my two favorite people in one place!

bye, now and god bless!

kill. me. now. but they're kinda pretty, right? please say yes- gramma ordered a pillow.

happy mother's day

happy mother's day, mom.
i love you and wish you were here so i could tell you in person- but you already know that.
baby m21 & his mom, on his first birthday. if mom was still around, she'd kill me for using this photo, with her less than chic outfit, and undone hair- but hey, we lived in hawaii, and i'm sure it was hot and humid on my bday. did they even have air conditioning back then? was it flintstones style air, with a dinosaur on a treadmill and a block of ice?

happy mother's day to all moms, everywhere- where would any of us be without you?

spotted!

"spotted" at vicky's yardsale- this "so bad it's good" needlepoint cheetah pillow. utterly charming, reminiscent of good outsider art (and also completely original- you won't find this at every tchotchke shop on the block). good eye, vicky!
and of course, this post is dedicated to one of my long-time blog commenters, who m21 knows only as T.O.C.H.A., or the original cheetah-hating anonymous. so are you in the cheetah camp yet? (and yes, cheetah "camp" is a bit of a bad pun- sorry).

pretty inspirational...

athletes warm up before competing, artists sketch before committing paint to canvas- so what does a decorator do to get in the decorating mood? well, this decorator for one, looks at tons of decorating books and magazines, and well as the wealth of photos available on our beloved decorating blogs. not necessarily THIS decorating blog though- you know we are far, far too wordy, and the picture to paragraph ratio is disappointingly low here at maison21... ;-)

the other day before heading off to a client meeting, we pulled down a random stack of decorating magazines to get us in the mood to talk decoratin'. not necessarily to find images to show our client- they are hiring us to fulfill their vision of living a more beautiful life, not hiring a decorator to replicate a look in a magazine. nor would m21 ever want to copy a room from a publication. get ideas and inspiration, yes; imitate, no.

anyway, while we were thumbing through our old magazines, we came across this image from a june 2006 house beautiful (possibly the very issue where the magazine transformed itself from drab to fab), and we thought this vignette of a room designed by kathryn scott, perfectly embodied the look we hope to achieve in our client's home- simple, but not minimal, organic with a hint of rustic, yet never going near country kitsch (shudder)- too tailored for that. rest assured that our design will end up looking NOTHING like the photo (we're going way too vintage meets modern for that- then there's our non-magazine sized budget, too), yet we sincerely hope to capture the "feeling" of the room, but not the style.

holding the "mood" in our head, we went into our client meeting confident and warmed up design-wise. lets hope our project turns out half as pretty as our inspiration photo!

see why we were inspired by this classically pretty vignette? just lovely:

photography by ellen mcdermott.

i think i'll keep her (the junque whisperer™ strikes again)

picked this beauty up while running between meetings (didn't have time to stop, really, as we were running late as usual, but when our junque whisperer™ calls, m21 listens). webbing and springs are almost shot, but we think they'll hold out for a bit still, so she's a keeper (for now).

of course, now little mr. lucite obelisk-legged table doesn't work with the new addition, so we'll need to find him a new home (we already had our eye on something else, so his days were numbered anyway). see how decorating projects snowball? but that's cool- change is good!

elle decor/legends of la cienega design walk

go.