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!”