Design Challenge Reminder!

Just a little note to remind everyone that tomorrow, December 31st is the final day to submit your entries for this month's Design Challenge.

We will be featuring the selected entry as a blog post on the 15th of January.

Look for Lauren up next for the January design challenge. Can't wait to see what her challenge will be!

Party at "My House!"

Well, there's a party this New Year's Eve and it's at "My House." Okay, well not really, it's at Dodd Mitchell's house. Okay, not really either. What it really is, is a brand new club in Hollywood designed by LA interior designer Dodd Mitchell and it's designed to look like his house:

“I have always enjoyed the comfort of a house party that just doesn’t exist in your typical nightclub, so with My House I set out to create an environment I would personally relish, and bring that vision to the nightlife space,” said Mitchell.

Here are some highlights from the concept book created for the project:

Always the heart of any house party, a state-of-the-art, contemporary kitchen doubles as the club’s main bar, featuring fully-functional appliances, a wood-covered, & triangular ceiling. The open floor plan from the kitchen to the formal dining room, leads through a seamless transition from indoors to outdoors ending in a fire pit burning on the exterior patio. Once outside, there is an outdoor Jacuzzi!



A sunken living room welcomes with spacious, lounge-like seating, flat-paneled televisions, & chandeliers. The living room’s well-appointed mix of custom-made furniture will be relocated later in the evening, unveiling the club’s main dance floor, where DJs will cue up the city’s hottest soundtracks.

The "master bedroom" is on the second floor and features a leather-crafted bed.


It's always nice to have an accessible bathtub when you are out clubbing.

The space plan featured in the concept book:

Touche!

Well, despite my invite (thank you to Jenn Laskey of Red Light Promotions!)I will not be attending the New Year's Eve (Housewarming) party at "My House." Instead, I will be attending a nice intimate gathering with good friends, good food, & great wine at "Morgan's House." My good friend who knows how to throw a nice party and has a very stylish kitchen herself, thanks to her company Metric Home!

Happy New Year!

My House is located at 7080 Hollywood Blvd and will be open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00PM to 2:00AM. For reservations, please call (323) 960-3300 or visit www.myhousehollywood.com.

Brooklyn Modern

I think my favorite Christmas gift this year was the book my husband bought me. Brooklyn Modern was written by Diana Lind and features essays by two local bloggers; Jonathan Butler of Brownstowner and Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge. It discusses the fairly recent transformation of Brooklyn and illustrates some of the boroughs traditional and new architecture (and in some cases the marriage of the two).

Now I don't know about you, but I tend to wander the sidewalks of my borough and admire the beautiful brownstones and modern townhouses while imagining what the interiors look like and dreaming of the day I could occupy one!

Here, take a look in my copy:

This first home is literally on the next block over from me and I've always wanted to see the interior. I guess this is my chance.

This one is across from Pratt's campus and I think may be my favorite. I love the old beams and the openness of the first floor.

I love this old desk!

Also in my hood, this is actually two buildings which were combined and one of the first examples of modern Brooklyn architecture.

I would kill for this kitchen!

At least now I have a glimpse of how some of these buildings were designed. Now I need to find a book featuring all traditional brownstones and their interiors. And for my New Year's resolution? Start saving for my own! (Yeah, good luck with that! Better make a back-up resolution.)

Where, Oh Where, Can I find an etagere?

An etagere can be a wonderful piece to add to any bathroom should you have the room for one. A client of mine just recently completed a remodel of her master bathroom (I can't wait to feature pictures on my link once the finishing touches are added!). And so here we are, looking for that one important touch - an etagere for between the two newly installed freestanding his and hers teak vanities. My client has been scouring the internet looking for a perfect modern etagere, preferable of glass and metal to tie in with the sconces and fixtures. I've seen ones at Restoration Hardware, WaterWorks, and William Sonoma Home. Despite these finds, we are still on a mission to find the perfect etagere!

A very nice collection from William Sonoma Home. This etagere is with marble shelves.

This tall etagere from Restoration Hardware is ideal, but still not quite the perfect one.

This shorter stand is from Restoration Hardware too.

Does anyone have some fantastic sources for contemporary etageres for a master bathroom that are reasonably priced, clean lined, and minimal?

Get on the Navy Train

{click to enlarge}

Flashback 2008 Trends

Since the Material Girls love fashion so much, it has become a yearly tradition for us to do a post summing up all of the trendy styles of the season- looks that go for both fashion and interior design.

Last December we did a post called Flashback 2007 Trends using celebs as our fashion icons and this year we are going to present you with the same concept, but for 2008!

A lot of 2007's trends are still going really strong- metallics, animal prints, and gray hues. These fads don't seem like they are going anywhere, anytime soon.

Here is what we perceive to have been some of the most prevalent trends throughout 2008.....

1) FLORAL PRINTS

The floral print seemed to have been taken to a whole new level this year. The long, flowy maxi-dress was a hit this summer as well as the shorter, knee length style.


Wallcoverings are back and are as stylish as ever! Displaying large, floral printed wallpaper brings the outside in and takes an ordinary and simple room from drab...to fab!

{Photo via This is Glamorous}

2) PRIMARY COLORS

I have never been one to love primary colors- they always feel a little childlike and outdated to me; however, the red carpet ladies above prove me otherwise! Their primaries have lots of zing! I don't see any old or outdated looks here.

A bedroom in this month's Elle Decor gives a fun, fresh and updated look on the traditional primary colors.

3) ART PRINTS

Oh celebs these days! Walking around thinking that they are wearing the next Monet. Gotta hand it to them for getting creative with their attire! Leighton wears an "art print" mini dress above. It shows that she is fun, daring, and not afraid to wear her "art on her sleeve"!

Lots of celebs have been wearing this fashionable "art print" on their clothes this year...however, I think one star got lost in translation....

Did Demi accidentally let little Ashton get into her paint set?

Art has been around ever since the beginning of time of course- this is no new "trend"; however, abstract artwork is in fact one of my favorite kinds and mimics the graphic and vague celeb art prints that we have seen so much of this year in fashion.

{Photo above from Domino Magazine}

4) SILVER AND GRAY

When metallics first arrived on the scene (about five years ago), gold was all the hype (and I have to credit Lauren for showing me her gold stilettos our senior year of college and introducing me to "the hottest thing in Norman, OK"...at the time) But as years have passed, while gold is still as popular as ever, silver has re-emerged as one of the leading metallics and gray has followed closely in its footsteps.

Earlier this year, Lauren and I wrote an editorial for Chic Today online magazine called "Silver versus Gold"- this was really fun for us to debate which was the better metal!

While designers and homeowners used to think of grey as being a color only Debbie Downer would paint her house, this hue has recently materialized onto the design scene as a fresh, new neutral! Use it with black and white or as a background for other bold colors such as light blue, deep orange, lilac, or even yellow. Gray usually renders itself to more of a modern space unless of course you use it in a Swedish type setting.

The room above was designed by Dallas' own Julio Quinones- (featured in Met Home)

5) X SHAPE

Charlize looks amazing in this x backed, black dress. Actually, Charlize looks amazing in anything! This movie star siren can certainly pull off this look.

Bring a little piece of "Charlize" back home with you-

The "X Bench"- available on Downtown20.net looks somewhat similar to the star's LBD. The X motif has just been everywhere this year.
{Image via Point Click Home}

6) IKAT

Ikat has emerged this year as one of the leading trendy fabrics. Even large retailers like Pottery Barn carries Ikat pillows and upholstery. We saw it everywhere- celebs, fashion, homes. It was hard to open up a magazine that didn't have something Ikat in it!

This kitchen belongs to Erika of the Urban Grace blog- after debating between lots of different fabrics, she ended up getting a Lee Jofa Ikat fabric made into cafe curtains for her kitchen window...it looks absolutely PERFECT for her kitchen. We love!

7) FEMININITY

This year there was no shortage of feminine design. One minute we saw Eva Longoria on the red carpet wearing a big bow, the next, Natalie Portman was prancing around in a gorgeous ruffled dress.

Homes seem to take their cue from fashion, so it's no surprise that we spotted this beautiful ruffled table skirt in a photo of a feminine looking entry way from Absolutely Beautiful Things blog.

Lace, ruffles, bows, pastels- anything frilly was the theme this year!

8) ROCKER CHIC

You can always count on Rihanna, the ultimate representation of "rocker chic", to sport something edgy and fashionable. Whether it's a new haircut or leather jacket, Rihanna has been making fashion waves for the entirety of 2008!

This room by Candice Olson (taken from Point Click Home) does just the same thing. Daring and unexpected, black walls, a zebra, rug, and gold accents would make this room the ultimate competition on the red carpet.

9) OMBRE

Just the other week, I tried explaining to my mother what "ombre" was...we were at Tarjay and saw an "ombre" shirt and my mom was so confused- "you mean tie-dye?"

Here's a good definition I found of Ombre for you mom and others out there who might be unsure of this fancy French term.
'From a French term for "shaded," ombre is a color effect where the color gradually changes from light to dark over the item of clothing'

Angelina surely stunned those on the red carpet when she wore this Ombre dress (above). Although the ombre was very pretty, most were just very focused on if she was pregnant or not!

Cameron Diaz with the same trendy look...

There aren't a ton of homes I have seen this year with ombre, but the trend is slowly catching on. I found this image via Coco Kelley. Here, drapes fade from white to blue and give this dining area a nice, serene look.

10) THE "BOYFRIEND" LOOK

Oh dear, this by far is my least favorite fashion trend of all! Had to save the worst for last, I suppose. I think the boyfriend jeans trend looks a bit messy and unkempt on celebs that normally look so polished! The photo of Katie above actually does not look so terrible with heels, but other photos I have seen of her and Posh make them look positively disheveld.


To ahieve the boyfriend look in your own home is not hard...it really just requires a very laid back atmosphere with neutral colors or using navy and reds. Of course, why decorate your own home in the boyfriend style when you can just use your boyfriend's!! (advice given to me by Katie Cruise, wearing Tom's jeans on the streets of NY)

And that's the top 10 trends! However, there was one more trend that we featured a few months ago on our blog, that has gotten a lot of hype and that is the Typography trend!

Statement t-shirts were everywhere on celebs this year-

I am so happy celebs wear statement t-shirts so I can know what's going on without even reading my Us Weekly!

Homes have mimicked this trend in decor- usually in art pieces, pillows, or other accessories. Nate Berkus' home seemed to have been a hit with bloggers and readers (especially the "word" art he has hung in the back corner)

In addition to letters, numbers are also used quite often.

And while another year is summarized in trends, here's to yet another...

Happy New Years everyone!