Amidst prepping for a fabulous wedding this weekend, we pulled together a preliminary proposal for a client looking to refresh a masculine living room. We stumbled across this image from the January 2008 issue of Southern Accents (may you rest in peace) and were inspired to include details of weathered leather, whiskey tones, and woolly plaid to evoke a warm, traditional feel. Of course, we'd also suggest to keep the AC on and the ice chest well-stocked, since we are at the threshold of summer in Alabama.
Vogue.com launched a new column that we think we're really going to dig. It's called APT with LSD. LSD??? Yep, that's Vogue's uber-socialite contributing editor, Lauren Santo Domingo. She's ducking in some of Vogue's favorite people's homes and apartments. Above is a view from model Coco Rocha's pad in Gramercy, which just happens to be one of our favorite NY neighborhoods.
NY Mag's Home Design issue is out (well, it's been out for over a week, but being in Alabama we are just now getting around to blogging about it...) and our favorite piece was Wendy Goodman's peek into Gloria Vanderbilt's pad. An eccentric angle on traditional glamor, her Fifth Avenue dwellings are saturated with boldness, out-of-the-box details and design elements evolved from Vanderbilt's colored past. After seeing this fascinating view of Vanderbilt, we can't wait to get our hands on Goodman's new book, The World of Gloria Vanderbilt.
This week is one of the busiest weeks of the year at Matt Clinton Designs: Sorority Rush. On top of orchestrating parties for a few houses throughout the week and preparing for Bid Day flower deliveries (and a wedding this weekend), we have boxes of fun new merchandise trickling in from market.
One of our new favorite additions to the store is the NEST candle line (fan them on FB). From Moss and Mint to Moroccan Amber, the fragrances are fabulously fresh and a much welcomed addition to the shop. NEST is also launching a diffuser line this fall and we'll have them in stock in about a month. Diffusers are great for dorm rooms (no candles allowed!) - almost as great as a Trina Turk clad dorm room.
While we're on the subject of Rush and dorm rooms, we must plug our Bid Day flower delivery. Orders are pouring in. If you haven't called us yet, pick up the phone ASAP!
We're huge fans of Rita Konig and her Inside Out column on The Moment blog (where we swiped the image above). On Tuesday, she posted about something we're quite fond of: filling and organizing bookshelves. When Matt Clinton Designs' interiors team is on a decorating project, no shelf is left untouched. Whether we bring in a few accessories from the owner's attic (or the shop!) or rearrange by size and/or color, fluffing up the shelves is an instant way to add a decorator's touch. We recently rearranged our bookshelves here at the shop with chromatic groupings, and we must admit, it looks pretty sharp.
This past weekend we ventured to Hotlanta for America's Mart Home Market. We kicked the weekend off at Lee Kleinhelter's chic boutique, Pieces, for a party honoring our favorite colorful designer, Jonathan Adler. As wonderful as it was to meet and greet with Mr. Happy Chic, the most fun part of the evening was the impromptu photo booth (complete with mustache and granny glasses props!) by Naugle photography (our favorite/funniest shot from the evening is pictured above). We attended a confab with Mr. Adler on Friday at market and our favorite piece of advice he shared was this: “Every room needs a dash of hippie and a dollop of socialite.”
We kept Mr. Adler's words of wisdom in mind through Friday and Saturday as we scoured endless floors and mazes of home décor. We picked up a few gems, including our favorite candle line, NEST, a fabulous new furniture line and wonderful fine art source. Perhaps our top find was in Currey and Company's showroom – in addition to the fantastic lamps we bought, they had an exquisitely catered cocktail hour. It was so good, we came back to visit Saturday (many thanks to Joy and the Currey team!). It inspired us to plan an open house when we receive the lamps (and other market finds) with an exquisitely catered cocktail hour...any exquisite caterers out there who would like to show off their skills at Matt Clinton Designs' open house in early fall??
Speaking of food and wine, we checked out Miller Union on Friday night. It's one of Atlanta's acclaimed new restaurants, and if fine farm to table food is your thing, we highly recommend it. It was delicious!
We have lots of decorating projects moving and shaking right now and are thrilled with our newest client, a homeowner in Birmingham. We visited her yesterday and though she already has exquisite furnishings, we helped fluff-up her space, toss what she didn't need and place her furniture in a way that would impress anyone who walks through the door. The day was quite productive (finished product above), and we parted ways with a plan to take her living spaces to the next level with a few more essential touches.
Oftentimes, we find that houses have many of the elements to make a homeowner proud, but they are cluttered with useless accessories, and/or not placed to achieve the most potential and balance that the home is capable of offering. Additionally, our expertise in recognizing the few décor components that make a house a home take the stress (and needless spending!) off a client's agenda. MCD offers one of the lowest decorator fees in town ($65/hour) and our talent is tops. Give us a call if you're thinking of revitalizing your home this summer.
Sometimes we miss coed life at The University. Fortunately, we get to stay in touch with our alma mater throughout the school year, working on parties for various University, sorority and fraternity functions. Now that summer is here, campus is a little quieter (and traffic is much lighter!), but not for long. A new crop of kids (err...young adults) are gearing up for summer orientation visits and starting their next chapter in Tuscaloosa. As we've mentioned, we outfit some fun and fantastic dorm rooms each year, and oftentimes students can keep most of their fabrics and accessories for years to come.
Yesterday, we met with a lovely lady from Schumacher fabrics who shared some of her favorite bright prints. Many of our top picks hailed from fashion designer Trina Turk's collection. It's an upper-end indoor/outdoor line (worth every penny!) that will hold its pizazz through just about anything during a four-year jaunt on campus – even an impromptu toga party with John Belushi and Otis Day and the Knights.
The NY Mag Home Design Issue arrived yesterday (actually, it was issued in NY last week, but being in Alabama, we only received it yesterday...). A series of apartments were profiled as the Neo Classics of New York. Now, we usually yearn for the fresh comfort of English design (and absolutely love Rita Konig and her Greenwich Village abode shown in the feature), but every single facet of Hervé Pierre's Neo Versailles design took our breath away. We'll never be the same after seeing the brilliance of the Balmain Glove and will always hold these words of wisdom: “To live as if you were in Paris, you need Evian, confiture, foie gras, and Céte d’Or chocolate”
In the spirit of our fond love for Lucite-inspired pieces, we also cooed over the translucent Chiavari chairs and the acrylic-top Drafting table featured in The Brat of Classicism.
All in all, four thumbs up from the MCD team – we'll be holding on to this issue for inspiration for years to come.
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.
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.
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.
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.
