A fantastic surprise home makeover for a soldier returned from Afghanistan!

What caught my eye in this home makeover was the casual, "collected-over-time" look. What I loved way that newly wed Meg Stein surprised her Army sergeant husband with this home makeover when he returned from Afghanistan! How sweet is that?

I love the cozy but clean design of this dining room.  Wood chandelier - $50 at a garage sale...vintage Duncan Phyfe table - great deal on eBay.

It's all about white kitchens for me.

Meg already had the flat file coffee table, so she designed the room around it.  I really like the file as a coffee table.  It's unexpected, and what a great way to store mags!!

What do you think of this charmer?

via HGTV Mag June/July 2012 issue

Calling all vintage and natural design lovers - you'll love Enjoy Co.'s interiors

If you love that cabinet of curiosities, industrial, or vintage design and decorating sense, then you'll love  Monique Keegan of Enjoy Co.'s interiors.

Any collector/crafter/artist, etc. would appreciate a cabinet like this!

You may remember some of these photos from Country Living's coverage of Keegan's own home.

What do you think of the shiny table and chairs paired with the mostly dark woods of the rest of the space?

If you're lucky enough to live near or in Granville, OH, you can visit the Enjoy Co. store, as seen in the above 3 pictures.

Some Enjoy Co. treasures were used in the German Village Walking Tour.  I had never heard of German Village, but it looks pretty cool...has anyone visited before?


Go to Enjoy Co. to see/read more.

An East Village apartment by the Novogratz - A home with a vintage and scholarly air...

I'm sure most of you by now have heard of the designer husband and wife duo the Novogratz after the widespread popularity of their Rizzoli book, "Downtown Chic". Well, Rue Mag was awesome enough to feature one of their latest projects, a friend's small three bedroom, 1 bath apartment in the East Village. It has a sort of vintage, masculine vibe, and I also feel like the space has an academic feel to it.

Not only did they find the perfect rug, they found the perfect *rugs!  Layered vintage oriental rugs give the entire space an "old study" feel.

I'm seriously crushing over those gilt bamboo chairs

The Novogratz used paint to accent certain architectural details

Wall mounted, open shelves like these are a great way to make the most of limited space.

Gotta love french doors for the bedroom

What do you think of this East Village apartment?

All images via Rue Magazine

*disclosure: this post is in partnership with theperfectrug.com

Meet me in Austin! Time is running out to sign up for Design Camp! (And a great Austin bungalow)

I am counting the days until Oct. 24th, when I will be attending the kickoff to Design Camp in the very cool Austin, TX.

 What is Design Camp you may ask?

 Design Camp is a two-day seminar hosted by Celebrity Interior Designers Lori Dennis and Kelli Ellis, with special guests segments led by local and national industry experts in niche fields. The course is tailored for design professionals and design aficionados. Each day runs from 9AM-6PM and is broken down into 8 segments per day.

Drinks, Snacks, Lunch, and Cocktail parties included. By the end of Camp, attendees will have the confidence and ability to run successful modern-day design careers, execute magazine ready interior projects, take careers to an entirely new level, network and collaborate with local suppliers and colleagues.

 Design Camp is your destination for practical, applicable, real-life design insight you don’t get from traditional institutions. In two fun-filled days you will discover more at Design Camp, while saving time and money.

 I AM SO EXCITED!

Check out the agenda...

KICK OFF COCKTAIL PARTY

Wednesday

6pm – 8pm

Meet and Greet Cocktail Mixer

---

Day One: Design Today

Thursday

8:00 – 8:45	Registration
9:00 – 9:45	Interior Design: Past and Present
10:00 – 10:45	Inspiration Boards
11:00 – 11:45	Upholstery
12:00 – 12:45	Finishes and Trends
1:00 – 2:00	Complimentary Lunch
2:00 – 2:45	Kitchen Design
3:00 – 3:45	Bath Design
4:00 – 4:45	Green Interior Design
5:00 – 5:45	Staging – Stage your Career ---> very excited for this segment
6:00 – 8:00	Networking Cocktail Party --> and this ;)

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Day Two: Design Business

Friday

8:00 – 8:45	Contracts – Successful Strategies for negotiations with contractors, vendors and clients.
9:00 – 9:45	Blueprint for Success: What your Contractor needs you to know!
10:00 – 10:45	Design Blogging – What you need to know!
11:00 – 11:45	Getting a Project and a Book Published (and Sold!) --> another one I'm looking forward to...
12:00 – 1:00	Complimentary Lunch
1:00 – 1:45	Marketing and Branding
2:00 – 2:45	Social Media --> Iooking forward to learning some new tips on this one!
3:00 – 3:45	How to become a Design Star, Spokesperson and Television Personality
4:00 – 4:45	Awards and Closing

I see Design Camp as the second chance to get the interior design education I never got - and in 2 days! October 24th is fast approaching, and I would really like to meet you there! Visit the Design Camp site to learn more and register!

 Austin also has some great shops should you be in need of a little retail therapy. I am particularly looking forward to visiting Howl.  Howl is an amazing antique store with a mix of items from all over the world, curiosities, and glam.

Here are some photos from a cool, eclectic Austin bungalow:

 the gray walls make this sunroom soo serene!

 Love the big armchairs on each end of the table...

the lights are fab too...

images via Apartment Therapy

A house in gorgeous warm whites filled with vintage treasures

I've had this house tour for a while and have been anxious to share it with you. This is the home of Marcia Nelson, who you could probably guess from her marvelous collections not only collects antiques, but owns an antique shop.

I LOVE vintage suitcases




Great desk

"Marcia Nelson's 1868 house is a repository of collections, neutral in palette but not in passion."


I adore white pottery as well.

What do you think?

images and quotes via Design, Decor...

Hello from Barcelona!

Hi everyone! I´m having an amazing time on my 9 week European tour so far. We´ve been to Galicia, the Picos de Europe in Astoria, Santiago de Compestela, San Sebastian, Bilbao, and now we are in Barcelona (All in Spain). Tomorrow night we are leaving to travel Italy for two weeks. I promise I´ll try and upload photos at one point! But luckily for now the awesome Coco from Cococozy had written an awesome guest post!

COCOCOZY'S FIVE FLEA MARKET TRENDS!

Hi Decorology devotees. I'm Coco from COCOCOZY here on guest duty. I want to thank Ashley for having me guest blog while she is on her fabulous journey abroad. I live in Los Angeles (in the Hollywood Hills) to be exact, am not a professional designer but after over two years of blogging about interior design 3-6 times a week, I might be what would be considered a "designaholic" (Can you do that? Just add "aholic" to any word to indicate someone is obsessed with something? Hmmm...please let me know...)

Anyhoooooo...onto my post...here goes.



Was at the Rosebowl Flea Market in Pasadena, CA a few weekends back. Hadn't been to this flea market in about 10 years. It was time. My plan was to get up at 6:00a on Sunday, be at the market by 7:00a, get all of the design scoop with my Cococozy camera and find some great items all by 9a. By 10a, the plan was that I would be home to take dog for a walk (I never take dog for a walk so don't know how this got into the planned schedule but it was) and perhaps be at a breakfast with some friends in Los Angeles by 11:30a. Well...I made it to the flea market by 9:45a...so much for keeping to schedule.

The Rose Bowl Flea Market was packed. Throngs of people trying to find the most interesting items possible. So much to see...so many interesting finds...

With thousands and thousands of items on display, one might think it would be hard to make sense of things...but if you can believe it, in all of that, I did notice a few recurring trends.

TREND 1 - ORANGE



Love these orange wire nesting tables. They were my favorite of the day! I could so see them in my house. Too bad they were at the beginning of our journey through the flea market so I never got back to them.

Orange...whether originally orange or painted orange...orange has been an "it" color for the last few years in decor...and it is certainly a hit color at the flea market.




For no reason at all, I also coveted this orange metal coffee pot from a vendor from Sweden. He wanted $30 for it...I wanted to pay $10. He said "30", I said "10"...he said "Okay $30" and I said "I can pay "10"...and it went on and on. Clearly the deal never worked out!

TREND 2 - COLORED GLASS PENDANT LIGHTS



Lots of these amber, blue or green colored pendant lights. They were reasonably priced. Couldn't seem to get out of the vendors whether they were newly made or recycled pieces. I think they are newly made though to look like 70's kitsch. I had an eye on the small amber one on the left. Thought it would look good in a hallway (not my hallway...but some hallway). The vendor wanted $75...I would have paid $35. Again, no deal.

TREND 3 - CRANES




Lots of bronze crane statues. Don't know what this was about but I saw at least 4 vendors selling tall bronze statues of these birds. One vendor said he got them from the furniture sale of a Las Vegas hotel that was closing. These particular ones were going for $125 each.

TREND 4 - VINTAGE LANTERNS



Saw a million and half vintage Dietz lanterns (kerosene lanterns and railroad lanterns). Cleaned up they could be great at an outdoor living space or if really shined up, even inside in a bay window. I wanted to pay $4...the lady wanted to sell three of them for $20 (they were marked $28 each). No deal there either. Hmmmm....note to self...need to work on negotiating skills.

TREND 5 - VINYL 1950's DINING CHAIRS




We ran into so many metal and vinyl chairs. They looked like they were ripped right out of the 1950's and placed at the flea market in 2010.



I particularly liked the light yellow set of chairs. I can't remember how much these were...but since my price point was at about $10, I knew I wouldn't be able to afford.

Well that is it from my day of trend sight seeing at the Rose Bowl Flea Market. I definitely regret not getting the orange nesting tables...but other than that, I am happy with how the day went. I left pretty much empty handed with only a dish and four glasses that altogether cost me a total of $18. I enjoyed the day...browsing, dickering and flea market trendspotting.

Ashley, hope you have a great rest of your vacation. Decorology readers please stop by COCOCOZY for more fun design finds!

Thanks Coco, and thanks so much to everyone for stopping by even though my posting has been so spuradic!

A crisp, elegant house

I really like the arrangement of art on this wall. The wall color is different too.




Check out the mobile fixture above the table

What do you think of the couch in the dining room?



via KML Designs