alabama eye candy

We've been redecorating the store the past few days and have been a bit too overwhelmed to post the updates. For the time being, we thought we'd share a refreshingly Southern Spring photo, compliments Ms. Dabbs Anderson. Most of the azaleas in Tuscaloosa are past their prime by now, but this is how we'll always remember them.Also, the sale is still going on, with many gift items added this week. Stop in soon if you're looking for a wedding gift - they're going fast!

inspiration from the park

Right about now, New York is probably getting the storms we weathered in Alabama this past weekend. And while showers typically rule in April in Manhattan, there are always a few lucky days of spring-like tolerable weather. This picture of the Plaza Hotel was taken on one of those days (exactly two years ago today) during a visit to the city. The greens against the natural stone and steel tones with the little pops of pink and red inspired one of the flower deliveries we sent out today. We used one of our last few stone containers with lots of young, vibrant green hydrangea and a couple of stargazer lilies - very fresh and pretty with a bit of an industrial edge. There's nothing quite like Central Park in Spring to bud inspiration...except, of course, Tuscaloosa in Spring.

adler for seven

Jonathan Adler is one of the top name-brand interior designers in the biz. His hilarious musings, penchant for color and playful themes bring smiles to our ever-natural-toned world. Want to see the proof? Just ask Barbie. He designed her Malibu home. Adler's throw pillows hit cult status a few seasons ago and continue to be one of the hottest accessories in contemporary interior decorating. Word on the street is that he's designing a line of denim for Seven Jeans. We're anxious and curious to see how his pop-arty inspirations will translate into designer denim. Without a doubt there will be at least one look on our wish list.

The image above is a dressing room Adler designed. We swiped it from his Web site.

it's electric

One more post on fabulous floral hues. The roses above are called Star 2000 and they are the most intensely color-saturated roses we've ever seen. They are making quite an impression on our weekly deliveries – yesterday's administrative professionals raved at the sight of them in their arrangements!

We used them for a fall engagement party last year and are loving them for spring and summer. We bet that if we paired them with the perfect shade of citron green and a few other reds, they would be refreshing in holiday arrangements, too. An impressive rose for all seasons!

milva rose and antique blue

This past weekend, one of the four events we juggled was an intimate cocktail party at a lovely historic home in Tuscaloosa. Though the home's interiors have an air of fresh glamor, we decided to take it to the next level of modernity with tablescapes and arrangements inspired by renowned floral designer Jeff Leatham. We used a simple color palette of salmony orangish pink and muted blue-green sea tones, then layered in lots of glass, water and floating candles. It was gorgeous and the roses smelled amazing.

We carried this color palette into some of our weekend deliveries (pictured above) and look forward to more experimentation with these summery hues in the forthcoming months.

belgravia

Here is a sneak peek into Carrie and Big's apartment in the new Sex and the City movie, and look who's staring center stage – Lee Jofa's Belgravia fabric (pictured on the dining room chairs in the foreground). How beautifully do the natural tones in the fabric pick up the bold colors in the background? We have memos of the fabric at the store and think it looks smashing upholstered on dining room chairs. Here's another look from an ad campaign Lee Jofa ran about a year ago.

The pattern is actually inspired by historic English country home design (which we are quite partial to when it comes to a tradtional design) and is licensed under the Royal Oak Foundation. We'll save our praises about the benefits of joining the Foundation for another post, but feel free to check out more info via Alice Marshall PR (NY's esteemed boutique travel/spa/design firm) here.

Interested to see more on the interiors from SATC2? Check out Habitually Chic.

sale

We're having a grand sale at the store with most of the furniture marked down 50%. Need we say more?

clearly

Inspired by Phillippe Stark, the fresh, contemporary Ghost Chair design adds clean style to any space. We recently used a set of four in a breakfast nook and are awaiting custom shagreen seat cushions, which will add another dimension of modern glamor to the chairs. Some retailers sell them for over $400 each, but Matt Clinton Designs has them for $275. They're going fast, so if you're interested, give us a call ASAP.

We gleaned the image above from M. Design Interiors out of L.A.

dorm room decor 101

As families and friend make plans to visit campus this weekend for the big A-Day game, we are reminded of a few weekends ago, when swarms of soon-to-be freshmen girls came to town for the University of Alabama Panhellenic Weekend. Panhellenic Weekend is an opportunity for the girls and their parents to get to get acquainted with all of the sororities and campus life. Over 1,000 girls showed up (!) and the MCD team, along with a few other local vendors were invited to meet and greet with the girls and showcase how we can work together. (Our tablescape is pictured above.)

Matt Clinton Designs offers flower delivery on Bid Day (one of the busiest days of the year for us) and – believe it or not – dorm room decoration. Some people raise their eyebrows at the thought of custom bedding and window treatments for dorm rooms, but it helps bring a sense of home to the dorm-life and is very sensible in some cases. For example, it can be tough to find a dust skirt with a 31" drop! Additionally, we have all of the measurements for the dorm rooms on hand, which helps to take a little stress off of the parents. We already have a few appointments set for the summer and will be sure to post some before and after images in the fall.

early to bed

We're hoping our restful weekend will prove to be the best preparation for a busy week! A handful of big events and some very important meetings are sure to keep us on our toes these next few days. Juggling several projects is nothing new to the MCD team, as each football weekend in the fall is a whirlwind of similar scale. We've learned that the best way to balance the chaos is by treating our minds, bodies and spirits with 6-8 hours of sleep each night. Although we're strong believers in making our beds with custom bedding, our top pick for a ready-made quick fix is the soft, comfortable beauty of Pom Pom at Home Collection bedding. Pictured above (and available through our store) are pillow shams from Pom Pom's Mathilde collection. Always partial to a neutral color palette, we love the look of the gray and white, especially in the soft morning light.

longing for long island

Lunch isn't something we take lightly at Matt Clinton Designs. Neither is food, for that matter! Pictured above is the famed roadside lobster roll shack, Lobster Roll Southside, in Amagansett, NY. From a design standpoint, the retro-Americana look ties in well with the subtle nautical themes our clients and customers gravitate to when the weather heats up.

Back to the food...for those not privy to the New England lobster roll, it's lobster meat, a little mayo and a few other ingredients mixed together (sort of like chicken salad) served on a hot dog bun (or a fancier roll). If you ever get your hands on some fresh lobster meat – which can be quite a feat in Tuscaloosa – we recommend trying this recipe straight from the restaurant. We've also used fresh crab meat or Gulf shrimp. It's not quite the same, but serve it al fresco with some iced tea or a cold beer and it's sure to evoke lunch hour on the East End, or any coastal getaway. Bon appetit et bon weekend!

softly spring

This image (compliments of Dabbs Anderson, our artiste friend) is from a few weeks ago. That's Dabbs carrying a lovely arrangement we used at Kozy's restaurant for our friend Caroline's birthday. It was mid-March and the Japanese Magnolias had just burst into bloom at Caroline's house. We foraged those from her yard and along with a few other stems and some pretty greenery, we made a lovely table scape for dinner.

spring cleaning

After Christmas, we put all of our recycled magazine (and grain sack, and tire) products on sale. We still have a handful of the merchandise left, including these boxes. A new survey shows that the top reason for “spring cleaning” is to rid of clutter. There's some stuff you just can't part with, though. So instead of throwing out the clutter, we recommend sticking it in a cute box for storage. We've got these in assorted sizes and the price is right (ranging from $18-30).

polka dots

Arranging flowers for a funeral or memorial is always a bit somber. Today, we worked our craft for the memorial of dear friend's mother, Penny McAllister. Like mother, like daughter(s) - the McAllister women are always upbeat and enthusiastic. We hope the flowers reflected Penny's spunk and creativity and we are keeping our thoughts with the family.

On a sunnier note, we met with our representatives from Thibaut this morning. They showed us some of the most fun new wall paper and fabric designs for summer. One looks like it might be a perfect fit for the home office we started working on yesterday. It's so new, there aren't even images of it up on the Thibaut Web site, yet. We also saw Thibaut's new sister line, Anna French and are smitten! Wall coverings with flair and gorgeous fabrics with lots of color. We've included fun metallic paper above called Spot. We think Penny might have been a fan.

scallop

A full morning of billing, clean-up, fabric orders, inventory, etc.

Our afternoon was brightened when Suzie, one of our best friends/clients, popped in to get some ideas for her home office. We poured over some black and white prints and pulled some accessories from around the shop. Shown above is a print from the Studio Bon collection called Scallop – one of the top contenders for her window treatments. We're thinking about painting the walls a buttery yellow and pulling in some charcoal and coral tones. As Matt would say, “Yummy!”

good friday

The image above (and many others on our blog) are compliments of our artist in residence, Ms. Dabbs Anderson. More on Dabbs later...

We received an early morning delivery of flowers for a few arrangements we're sending out for Easter. After processing the lilies and roses, we locked up and headed over to Christ Episcopal Church downtown for the Good Friday service, then lunch at one of our favorite spots, Hooligan's (mmmmm mint tea, gyros, and fries – oh my). We knocked out the Easter arrangements, delivered them and called it a day around 4 p.m. A friend was in town from NY for the weekend, so we spent the late afternoon on her loggia with wine from Spirits (right now we're hooked on Independent Cellars Chardonnay) and cheese (Belle Chevre with Hewett's Farm Honey). What a way to jump start outdoor entertaining! Happy Easter Weekend!

biz lunch

We met with the team behind Game Day Tents at Cypress Inn to brainstorm on some ideas for the fall and wedding season. To our delight, we learned that they are expanding their event rental inventory and have tents, seating, staging, bar tables, industrial fans (for the summer soirées), space heaters (for those few chilly evenings in Alabama), and much much more. They also shared that they are working with Cypress Inn on a tented outdoor entertainment space that you can rent for parties and weddings (it will be located on the left side of the image above, next to the restaurant). There are lots more details to come, but it's an awesome resource for a few weddings and events we have on the horizon.

*As a side note, we love to work with local vendors , because more times than not, they have a level of personable sensitivity that you just don't get from big chains – especially when it comes to rental companies!