Our Apartment: HGTV "Little Spots, Big Ideas" April 2013

Welp, come on in y'all! 

The grand tour of our Manhattan mansion encompasses a sprawling 400 square feet, so we had to get creative: furniture is strategically scaled, a bar cart doubles as an end table, a dead wall is transformed into a functional counter top, a flea market find is repurposed as a nightstand, and somehow we squeezed in a home office. I hope you enjoy our apartment tour and find inspiration in our small living ideas, even if you have a little more space:)

Furniture (All my own designs, yay!): Quinn Sofa, Society Social | Draper Bunching Tables, Society Social | Sedgewick Bar Cart, Society Social | Dinner Party Folding Table, Society Social Archives 

Accessories: Orangerie Rose Pillows, Society Social | Hustle Pillow, Michelle Dwight at Society Social | Cutout Design Lamp, LampsPlus.com | Ginger Jar & Brass Pig, Vintage | Lacquered Tray & Box, Gracious Home | Rug, Custom Overdye | Anemone Vase,  Anthropologie

Gallery Wall: "Matisse, Picasso, Circus Animals on 33rd," Art.com | "Deeply Madly in Love," Made By Girl | Asian Needlepoint, Gilded Mirror, Monet's "Woman with Parasol," Vintage | Letter "A," C.Wonder

Double Duty Bar Cart/End Table

Furniture: Sedgewick Bar Cart, Society Social | Quinn Sofa, Society Social

Accessories: Cutout Design Lamp, LampsPlus.com | Anemone Vase,  Anthropologie | Carved Bouquet Vase, Anthropologie | Gold Tray, Pier 1 | Bar Tools/Gold-rimmed Glassware/Turtle Lamp/Ice Bucket, Vintage

Makeshift Countertop aka Former Dead Wall

Wallpaper: Red Chairs, Thibaut

Furniture: Acrylic Bar Stools, Amazon.com

Accessories: Lacquered Initial Box, C.Wonder | Chevron Frame, Anthropologie, Gold and White Vase/Ginger Jar/Books/Asian Art, Vintage

A Mini Home Office Area

Custom Duchess Desk Chair, Society Social | X Desk, World Market | Pineapple Lamp, Vintage | Billy Bookcase, Ikea 

Freed-Up Floorspace Bedside

"Nightstand," Vintage, Spray painted gold | Bead Vase, Frances Palmer Pottery | "This is Forever," SS Print Shop | Modern Clip Lamp, Land of Nod 

| Ingraham Clock, Vintage | Gold Fleur Pillows, Caitlin Wilson | Bedding 

Wallpaper: "Gold Leaf Peonies," Tempaper

To read all about our "big ideas" pick up the issue on newsstands now or read it online here. Photography courtesy of HGTV by the super talented David A. Land.

Thank you again for all the lovely notes and for sharing your excitement with us. It's everything:) And once more, thank you to the entire team at HGTV for this "never would I have dreamt" opportunity. We are still pinching ourselves! If you have any questions or simply want to say hello, I would LOVE to hear what you think! contact@shopsocietysocial.com

Our Apartment in HGTV Magazine

I'm totally freaking out. The article looks amazing but I can't help but to be riddled with feelings of insecurity. Will people like our place? What if they don't? Will they have expected more out of me? Is it good enough? Am I good enough? Does that shirt make me look fat? Can I redecorate now?!

If you didn't already think of me as a little crazy- welcome, nice to finally meet you. Trying to chill out and enjoy what was truthfully a dream come true, thank you so much Team HGTV:) The April Issue hits newsstands on March 12th.  Go out and get ya one!! Meanwhile here are some in process and before pics below. xo!

(yes, that is my mother. no matter how old you are, sometimes you just need your momma to tone your crazy down:)

Weekend Picture Book

Alan and I stayed in on (the snowy!) Friday night and spent the entire evening with this new wallpaper! Of course home improvement is best done, in my opinion, with a little champagne & gin in vintage glassware of course. I am so excited to show y'all before and afters soon!

Sunday Brunch in the City

The "Belgian Bastard" at Resto: Pilsner, Vodka, Tomato, Celery Bitters, Celery Salt, Beef Jerky. Ordered with Eggs Benedict atop Bacon Liege Waffles. (!)

The "Bacon Bloody Mary" at Cask: Bacon Infused Vodka (!), House-made Bloody Mary, Bacon Garnish (!) Ordered with The Hangover Sandwich. 

This morning I woke up missing Alan, missing NYC, and missing our Sunday brunch dates. I love my work (it doesn't even feel like work!) but the amount of time it takes me away from home isn't my most favorite thing. Maybe one day I'll make it (!) and a more ideal situation will present itself? For now, let's talk about how it's apparently the cool thing to put meat into Bloody Marys. Bottoms up, I say! Do you have a brunch cocktail favorite?

If you like, follow more of my NYC adventures, here! And if you're thirsty, a few of my favorite cocktails, here ;)

Bedroom Thoughts

Our living room is a little cracked out on color (think ROYGBIV) so we made a strong effort to tone it down in the bedroom. Those pillows have since moved to the living room and the only real pop of color is these drapes. In my mission to add interest without too much rainbow bright, I fell in love with the look of muted floral wallpaper.

Our little Manhattan rental does not permit wallpaper, or paint for that matter, so I was giddy when I found "Gold Leaf Peonies" from Tempaper. Alan's reaction was a very minor, "Oh. My God. Really?" I took that as a yes :) He is a saint. Have you ever applied temporary wallpaper? We would greatly appreciate any tips!

NYC Apartment Update!

Last October Alan and I made a big push to decorate our semi-put together apartment. Here's a recap of  Day 1 and Day 2 in case you missed it! I know it's been almost a year since we've moved in, but I travel a lot so shamefully it's always the last thing on the list. Excuses aside, here's a little snapshot of our little "speed decorate" sesh, the half of it anyways. Our place looked like this for days!

Among the items we did get to check off- finally having our nude colored rug custom over-dyed to navy bah-luuuue (a $200 antique Turkish Kilim Ebay score which was appraised at around 6k! #victory), the obligatory Rast hack (both per Naomi's brills suggestion!), and a few smaller touches like a spunky pillow and custom foot stool which after decades of neglect, I stole from mom's house :) and had recovered in a beautiful pink silk get up by Kravet. You say foot stool + silk = impractical, I say, Why Not?!

We also now have a collection of over 10 antique ginger jars thanks to my thrifting adventures and Etsy!

We didn't quite finish so my next big focus is rounding out our gallery wall. I'm head over heals smitten with the look of these eclectic round-ups.

I'm frequently searching around on 20x200, Art.com, and Etsy and have a few more items in mind to go with these, but would love to hear your suggestions. Have you designed your own gallery wall? What did you do to make it unique? Do you have a favorite artist or shop I need to check out? Share! Share!

Speed Decorate NYC, Day 2

"It's not about the label, it's about the look." What I said to Alan when he made fun of me for buying this Kathy Ireland lamp.

"Um, that's a lot of pink." What Alan said to me when I put this Matisse print in our "shopping cart."

"But there are boats in it and blue and green. You like blue and green. How about you get to pick the next one regardless of what I think?" Don Quixote, c. 1955 by Pablo Picasso. (insert sigh of relief... for both of us)

"Can I be the zebra because I'm mixed? Well, that makes me the elephant. Are you saying I'm fat? Fine, I guess will be the elephant, but can we pretend it's like Madagascar? I love that movie."

"Sorry. I have to do this. At least there are two that you really really like." 

"Are we done? Yep, done." 

Thanks to art.com, allposters.com, madebygirl.com, and lampsplus.com for getting our marriage through art and lamp shopping relatively painlessly. Did you miss Day 1? Click here! More soon!

My NYC Apartment by Design Manifest

There's a long story behind why this never happened. It all started in November 2011 and includes a lying, cheating slumlord, a lying, cheating doctor, a mental breakdown, thousands of dollars (think about 5 digits. vom.) unexpectedly lost in custom made furniture, moving costs, and medical bills. I hope karma has kicked both their asses by now. In the aftermath of the incident, we couldn't afford to decorate for a very long time, or even buy new furniture at that, thus none of the above ever came to fruition. I think it broke both our hearts, both as in Naomi and I, because it was so fun working together. The good news is I'm finally back and ready to play. Thanks to the talented (and sweet!) Naomi I have quite the game plan, which originally stemmed off the words boho and eclectic. We discovered this after the initial plans were done so it's going to change a bit, but Orangerie stays, I will never be able to throwout the Duchess!

Speed Decorate NYC, Day 1

I have about two weeks to get my NYC apartment presentable for company. Join me as I speed decorate like a maniac. This is what happened on Day 1...

Chinese hardware. Yes, I will join the legions of Rast hackers. I was smitten with Overlays but since I have three Rasts to makeover, versus one or two, I thought it would get a little visually cray. Alan made the ultimate decision when he proclaimed, "I like the fishes."

It took me a few minutes to decide what type of bulb I wanted for the new sputnik.  I've never owned a star type light bulb before so I decided to head into uncharted territory because decorating should be adventurous, right?

Ginger jars remind me of my mom. She loves Chinese antiques and they're scattered all over my childhood home in the form of chairs, garden stools, art, and these of course. I remember when we went to "Ming Village" on a trip to Singapore, we returned with suitcases full of incredible reproductions from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. I'll be collecting Double Happiness from now on ;)

Every proper tufted ottoman calls for a tray. This little cutie will hold everything from remote controls to small bud-filled vases, and my brimming glasses of wine!

I originally owned the Madison Mixer, but she lives at my girl Tam's in Soho now, and upon re-ordering I found stock to be really low. I don't want to take any of the new intros from potential customers either so I settled for my Sedgewick, the actual first prototype to go through production! I've always planned on keeping the firsts so this will be perfect. I plan on stealing a Madison tray eventually to make the switch. What do you think so far? Tomorrow I'll be sharing the project Naomi and I started last winter!! Finally!

NYC Apartment Update

Can you believe we're still talking about this a year later? I wish I could say I was done but (insert 1 million excuses) I am not. After gawking and obsessing over a bajil images like this...

this...

this...and we can't forget the image that started it all here...

...I finally found one of my own that is gorgeous and ("and" being the operative word) affordable. I've looked for months but that X, 000+ price tag was not even in the same universe as my real life budget. The sputniks that were affordable (barely) were too modern and not enough mid-century. The vintage ones I found were in horrific shape. Then I found Tom.

The dear retiree who builds chandeliers because he simply enjoys it, which makes my little find that much more special! Tom and I have had the most amiable correspondence via phone and email and I highly suggest you visit his shop. In fact, if you're in the market, you must. Tom loves what he does and you will be able to tell :) This little sputnik baby will be hanging over our bed very soon! 

NYC Apartment Update

I've had this photo saved in my archives for a while now so you can imagine the sheer joy when I found a vintage 1950s sputnik chandelier on an Ebay auction starting at 9.99 when they usually cost thousands.

Then you can also imagine my utter devastation when I forgot about it on my watch list due to this past weekend's celebrations and open up my browser to this screenshot. It sold for a mere $152.  I lost sleep over it. Alan called me stupid for losing sleep over lighting. Do I have a kindred spirit out there?!

On a brighter note, I wanted this gorgeous green over-dyed rug but at $4000 it was about as likely as pigs flying. It does get brighter...

Then I found this hand-knotted, wool, antique Turkish rug, 8 x 10 for less than most people spend on food monthly. Who needs to eat when you have a fabulous rug, right? Kidding! Per Naomi's advice, I think we're going to have it picked up to be over-dyed by a company here in the city. It's more cost effective, believe it or not, and they offer a bajil shades!

Want to see more? You can see a sneak peek of my new (!) custom drapes here and my Duchesses here. More to come!

Love a Good Contrast Welt

Isn't a blank canvas exhilarating and intimidating at the same time? There are so many possibilities when it comes to decorating an empty space and the commitment of a sofa gives me the shakes! I FINALLY decided after a bajil fabric swatches. Her name is QUINN and she is quite the contrast.  Do you have commitment phobia too?

{Lonny| Nick Olsen}

Portraiture

I love seeing these modern and renaissance style portraits mixed up into one massive photo collage, even the frames are mixed and matched. Did you catch the plush texture mixing as well? Shag and velvet. Juxtaposition in design often brings out the best quality in differing elements. Naomi and I are playing around with natural and glam for the NYC digs!  Do you have a favorite design combo?

{Don Freeman for the Wall Street Journal}

I asked for a person for Chrismas.

You should have seen Alan's face when I asked for a person for Christmas!

Her name is Naomi Stein, the creative mastermind behind Design Manifest.

She lives here and as you can see gets me on that whole other level.

I knew we were destined when she designed this space around my Society Social Duchesses. I loved it so much that it was impossible for me not to ask her to decorate NYC! We've made the fancy chair our muse, and I'd love to invite you along to share in our creative process!

Have you worked with an interior designer before? Do tell. I need pics!

I'm so excited, I can barely stand it!