Color Crush: Indigo

West Elm has a color crush on one of my favorite colors: Indigo. Why is it we can never have enough of this color, deeply satisfying. There are rugs, cushions, curtains and upholstered furniture, enough to have a blue period. Funny yesterday I was listening to some fascinating blues...Muddy Waters Cold Weather Blues, I was having a crush on the other Blues.


The items are from across the top:

1. Bursa Rug
2. Everett Upholstered Loveseat
3. Watercolor Brushstrokes
4.Everett Upholstered Chair
5. Braided Cable Pillow Cover
6. Linen Cotton Blend Duvet and Shams
7. Boro Stripe Printed Jute Rug
8. Essex Upholstered Bench
9. Braided Cable Throw.

Blue and White

Source: huamao.tumblr.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Source: westelm.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Source: huamao.tumblr.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Reclaimed Wood

Over the Christmas vacation I was staying with family in the Carolinas, it was warm and lovely and beautiful country. The home was lined with reclaimed wood: the walls, the kitchen, built in cupboards and consoles, all yanked from an old tobacco barn. It gave texture and warmth to the house so each place, each corner was cosy. Truly a one-off house. 

To have a home of reclaimed wood is a dream for most of us. I have a dream of building an eco-house too, solar powered, reclaimed wood, insulated... but I digress. The essential element of a house or furniture of reclaimed wood is its texture, the wood will be solid, dark, weathered and rich. 

While most of us are not going to build our own homes, there are some very attractive pieces of furniture from our favorites that are either made with reclaimed wood or are using wood exposed, the grain, the color, the texture left to sing, only using wax or oil to preserve it. A change from the painted look.

From West Elm

From Eat Sleep Live

From Anthropologie

10 pendants for Dark Nights

Tonight we have to turn the clocks forward an hour. It will mean the night will come earlier, by 5 pm it will be dark, by the end of next month it will be dark by 4:30 pm, so that by Christmas 3:30 in the afternoon it will be dark. Not my favorite time but we use artificial light so much more in the winter months and it is with our pendants we can fill the space with light.

Make the pendant a piece of sculpture, an illuminating sculpture. Here are 10 of my favorites: classics, minimal, industrial, decorative, opulent:



1. Folded linen from Pinch

2. A drum shade in linen from Crate and Barrel

3. Glass industrial pendents from West Elm

4. A glass globe from West Elm

5. A Copper space ship from Conran Shop 

6. Hand lacquered steel and brass pendent from Conran Shop

7. Plumen lamps, no need for shades.

8. Moon like pendants from Design Within Reach

9. Pillar candle chandelier form Restoration Hardware

10. Mayfair Chandelier from Ralph Lauren

All of these give a beautiful quality of light in the evenings. Any of these will make the dark nights warm and welcoming.