Perfect Beach Cottage!

I work on a lot of very expensive homes at work but they have nothing on this cute little beach cottage in the Hamptons owned by Lezlie Klotz. It was featured in the July 2008 issue of House Beautiful magazine and I fell in love with it the minute I saw it since it's exactly how I would want my beach house to look and feel. It's simply perfect!

"A yellow-cab-colored surfboard makes a curiously good match for an antique painted chest that belonged to Klotz's grandmother. Portrait of Show Business, Klotz's childhood pony, by Edith Diehl."

"Jonathan Adler needlepoint pillows pop on a sofa and a striped club chair, both designed by Steven Gambrel. The Italian caned chair was Leslie Klotz's grandmother's, and the curtains are by her late mother, interior designer Patricia Hopkins Klotz. The Lucite coffee table, bench, and side table holding the glass ball lamp are antiques show finds. The blue lamp is by Christopher Spitzmiller."

"Seahorses from an garden antiques store are the wow factor in the dining room of a Hamptons cottage. Louis XVI–style dining chairs are covered in a jaunty shade of chartreuse leather, and backed in a coral and white print. The table is from Liza Sherman Antiques."

There is nothing I love more than art in a kitchen!

"In redoing the kitchen, Klotz "imagined I could actually cook. Then I tried to create a kitchen that an actual cook would want to cook in. And believe it or not, now I do cook. It was like my own personal Field of Dreams." Hanging lights from Rejuvenation."

In a guest room, the red painted headboards perfectly match the red toile lamp.

"In the sitting area adjacent to a guest room, wide-planked wainscoting in white and a deep navy wall create a graphic sense of spaciousness."

This bedroom is my favorite and would be the most perfect place to rest after a long day at the beach! "Klotz found the quilt at a Brimfield summer antiques show and the accent pillow in Venice. Lamp by Christopher Spitzmiller. Wall color is Spring Mint and trim is Light Touch, both by Benjamin Moore."

"An old birch bench holds books in a lavender guest bedroom."

Big bold stripes were created in a bathroom with Benjamin Moore Apple Green and Decorator's White paint.

I love how the seahorse became a running motif both inside and outside the house!

Photos by Laura Resen

End of Summer Lovin'

Unlike most Americans, I will be laboring over the long Labor Day holiday weekend. I have a lot of irons in the fire so I need do some work and get myself organized. I'm a little bummed but I knew that forgoing vacations this summer might be necessary and if all goes well, I will be able to take some fabulous ones next year! What's funny is that it feels like just yesterday that I posted some photos from the first Hamptons Cottages and Gardens magazine of the season and now summer is almost over! Times flies! So as a last hurrah, I'm posted photos from Hamptons Havens: The Best of Hamptons Cottages and Gardens published in 2005. The book contains a great mix of traditional and modern homes to die for as usual. Hope you enjoy your holiday weekend whatever you are doing...or not doing!

Inside Out

Even though so many New York based national shelter magazines are folding, it seems that there are amazing regional ones that are thriving. One of my new favorites is Florida Inside Out. I was flipping through the old January/February 2008 issue and came across so many beautiful images that I had to share. I especially loved the article about what Miami antiques dealers collect. Enjoy!

The top image and this one above are from Kaisa and Doug Levine's historic 1929 Miami Beach home. The coffee table and console are from Williams Sonoma home. The art is by Karel Appel.

A 1970's pottery lamp and studio pottery sit atop a George Nelson wooden cabinet in Miami Antiques deal Carlos Casteller's home. His shop in Miami is called Art and Antiques but doesn't seem to have a website yet.

I love this juxtaposition of objects in Miami shop owner Michael Contessa. The 1970's sofa is by Milo Baughman and the Raindrop wall sculpture is by Curtis Jere. I think I might have to plan a trip to Miami just to check out his antiques!

A collection of German and French drawings from the 1920's to 50's hangs above a rare Dominique France chair from circa 1928 in the Miami home of Antiques dealer Regina Nuessle.

In the Miami home of Chicago based owners Marlene and David Green, a black wall displays a pair of stylized mirrors with gold leaf frames from Details at Home while the bed below was custom designed by Martial.

Fashionable Home

I really never thought about what the home of Carine Roitfeld would like but now that I think about it, I don't know if I would have pictured it being this clean and modern. Carine is the uber sexy Editor and Chief of French Vogue who always wears extraordinary heels and whose hair always seems to be falling in her face. Her home is featured in New Paris Interiors from Taschen and on Fashion Week Daily. I do love the French mouldings and classical details but I'm not sure what that big piece of furniture is doing in the middle of the hallway in the last photo. If anyone has a guess, please let me know.

Something Old, Something New

The Bachelor Pad was also my inspiration for my third story for Kansas City Home Design magazine. If you want the inside scoop on all the fabulous stores I've shopped in search of the perfect furniture and accessories to complete my design, take a peak online at the July/August 2008 issue. Thanks again to everyone in KC for their warm hospitality and friendship!

The Bachelor Pad Design Progression

There has a bit more progress at The Bachelor Pad recently! Woo hoo! The bedroom rug was laid by some very lovely men from The Padded Wagon Friday. My friend thought that perhaps we could do it ourselves with maybe a little help from her boyfriend but I'm so glad I paid professionals to do it! They actually moved the bed completely out of the way and did a much better job than we ever would have in a much shorter amount of time...and without hurting themselves! It looks so beautiful too! The bachelor says the bedroom is his favorite part of the project so far and it does look pretty good, if I do say so myself. The chairs by the window make it more of a space where you might want sit in and read than just a room with a bed where you sleep. The whole place is becoming much for comfortable and inviting...and a bit grown up! Which was the whole point of the redesign in the first place!

My favorite area so far is the entry. It's such a change from the previous ginormous bookcase of clutter that previously lived in the space, see below! I hung the new mirror and the great art I bought at Christopher Filley Antiques in Kansas City on Friday as well. First, remind me never to attempt to lift and hang a mirror that weighs more than I do above my head. I hung it too low at first and had to move it and thought I was going to break my arm! This is what happens when you are trying to save money and do everything yourself. I told you that interior design wasn't as glamorous as you thought! Especially, when you are on your hands and knees with a tiny little paint brush touching up the baseboards! But that's a story for another day! I'm still looking for some little benches or maybe a trunk for underneath the console to hide the outlet but for now it's fine without them.

I also really love the artwork and am so happy that I was finally able to hang it! There are seven framed images from a book of the sculptures of Versailles and two beautiful etchings that have the most gorgeous blue French mats I have ever seen. I especially love how the blue pops against the brown walls. I'm hoping to bring in a bit more blue to the living/office/dining side of the room and plan to hang the framed maps of Cape Cod on the dining wall.

The bachelor also let me buy a console for the television wall and a new desk chair so we are definitely on a roll. I am also about to call Housing Works to take the last of the old furniture away...unless someone would like some blue ladder back chairs with rush seats. They are actually nice but not the right style for this new grown up sophisticated apartment. Now if the bachelor would just grow up, we'd be all set!

Left Bank

Charlotte Moss has a new luxury home fragrance for Agraria entitled Left Bank. According to her site, it "embodies the mystery, romance, and sophistication of the city’s Left Bank. Introduced with fresh top notes of crisp lemongrass and crushed pink peppercorn blossoms, the mid notes of frankincense and patchouli surround you as cashmere wood warms the background."The candle comes in a pretty glass jar with cute little pagoda inspired lid. I may have to stop by the Townhouse for a whiff. À tout à l'heure!

San Francisco Bound

Getting my daughter ready to move to college in San Francisco has been fun but it's also been a full time job for the past two months (one of the may reasons my posting has been so lacking ) . Shopping, shopping and more shopping for bedding, clothes, and lots of useless crap she doesn't really need! Did you have a TV and DVD player in your dorm? How about a pink laptop? I know I didn't. Worrying about every little detail and setting up all of the essentials for her new life on her own has been exhausting.

We are finally leaving on Wednesday and we have crammed some of her new belongings into four, very large, packing boxes which had to be pre-shipped, since we are flying, to the hotel where my husband and I are staying ( Thanks UPS) .



She has "severely limited" her collection of clothing to three, large, grotesquely overstuffed suitcases which threaten to explode at any minute. She has enough clothing to outfit the entire dorm and then some.

Thankfully we are flying on Southwest so we don't have to pay extra for her gargantuan luggage! Thank you Southwest - this means a lot to me.


We had to rent a min-van so we can schlep all of her junk from the airport to the hotel and then form the hotel to the dorm. I still have no idea how we are going to get her giant 68 pound boxes up to her room but then again that's my husbands problem! I didn't want to be "those parents" who let their spoiled kid bring way too much stuff, but I think I lost that battle about a month ago.

It is so exciting to see her having so much fun getting ready for school. I only hope she enjoys attending classes half as much. Living in a big city like San Francisco is going to be a big change for her but I think she will take to it. If not - sorry - but tough luck because I am not moving all of this stuff back home!

Home Sweet Home!

I was googling images on line last week and stumbled upon the most interesting photos of the first home of M. Bibelot and her husband on her Flickr site. From what I could gather, it's somewhere near San Francisco since they can see part of the Golden Gate Bridge and was built in 1952. It was also furnished with some fabulous mid-century sale finds from DWR. But it's not only what they have but how they put it together. I think it also helps that they take good photos! I've only posted a few of the "after" photos but there are a bunch of great "before" photos so you can see the progression. I also love how it looks like they move things around often and really love their new place. Home sweet home indeed!