Category: Featured Blogs

COCOCOZY

COCOCOZY is more than an excellent daily design blog. It’s certainly worth reading in its own right for functional and stylish design material, but what really caught my eye about COCOCOZY is the Shop.

COCOCOZY is more than an excellent daily design blog.  It’s certainly worth reading in its own right for functional and stylish design material, but what really caught my eye about COCOCOZY is the Shop.

The COCOCOZY shop offers textiles, from pillows to throws to table linens, gifts, vintage accessories, and other unique items.  I especially like the textiles.  The patterns are fun, quirky, and fresh with a simple graphic concept.  Items like the pillows and table linens make great gifts; they are quick finds without being mainstream.

COCOCOZY Throw
Gate Pillow in Hunter Green
Linen Table Napkin

COCOCOZY featured a blog post a while back about the entire process of making a pillow, from the progression of the idea to the final product.  This behind the scenes look at how a product is developed is just fascinating.  Starting with a sketch, the blog follows the steps involved in bringing a design into being.

First, a sketch of a flower design.
Graphics designer turns the sketch into a repeating pattern.
Deciding which patterns to use for the final products.
An artisan screen prints the pattern onto fabric.
Finished fabric, ready for sewing.
The finished product!

The photos only tell half the story.  Visit COCOCOZY to view the full progression and read all of the details about how these beautiful pillows came to be.  You can also find COCOCOZY on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Material Girls

One of my favorite interior design blogs truly has something for everyone.

One of my favorite interior design blogs truly has something for everyone.  Material Girls was founded by Emily Johnston Larkin of Dallas, Texas.  With a team of contributors from across the country, readers can focus on trends near and far with a healthy dose of pop culture thrown in for good measure.

Material Girls also features tips on the best places to shop as well as great deals specific to certain cities. Dallas, Houston, Chicago, LA, and New York are all beautifully represented by contributors from various backgrounds, experiences, and design styles.  In fact, Material Girls is like five fabulous blogs all rolled into one.  With press and mentions by literally dozens and dozens of magazines and websites such as House Beautiful, Elle Decor, Apartment Therapy, La Dolce Vita, and countless others, Material Girls has a long-standing and well-deserved reputation as a great source of design inspiration.  From textiles and furniture to hidden courtyards and stunning artwork, everything relevant to interior design from coast to coast has a place at Material Girls.

 

Bunny’s Buzz

In 1988, after more than two decades of design experience with Parish Hadley Associates, Bunny Williams opened her own interior design company: Bunny Williams Incorporated.

In 1988, after more than two decades of design experience with Parish Hadley Associates, Bunny Williams opened her own interior design company:  Bunny Williams Incorporated.  Her design style reflects her training in a classic, refined style.  Known for perfectly balanced textures, patterns, and colors, Bunny’s designs look so appealing and effortless.  Her focus and attention to detail show in all of her projects, from the living room to the garden.  In fact, she co-owns a New York garden furniture and ornament shop called Treillage with antique dealer John Rosselli.  Bunny also has her own line of home furnishings and accessories at Beeline Home.

Bunny and her design team work around the US and abroad.  Her success is a tribute to the timeless appeal of her design style and, thanks to her blog Bunny’s Buzz, accessible and enjoyable by all.  Loaded with visually charming photo collages featuring products, rooms, magazine spreads, and more, Bunny’s Buzz highlights many of the best things the world of interior design today.  At the right side of the blog’s page are links to other blogs worth visiting so you will never find yourself with a shortage of amazing design inspiration!

The Lonny Blog and Magazine

Lonny Magazine, an online magazine and blog, is a fantastic resource and inspiration.

Lonny Magazine, an online magazine and blog, is a fantastic resource and inspiration.  While the magazine is “published” online bimonthly (soon to be monthly!), the blog is updated more often with design and lifestyle trends and finds.  Between the two formats, you can always find something intriguing!

Launched in 2009 by designer Michelle Adams and photographer Patrick Cline, Lonny focuses on interesting interiors, bloggers, and current design trends.  They strive to make incredible design accessible to their readers while introducing their favorite products and companies.  The online format allows Lonny certain freedoms a print magazine can’t offer, such as the ability to click on an image to learn more about that project.  Some articles even feature videos!  User-friendly, visually interesting, and easy to share via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, Lonny is as pleasurable to flip through as a traditional print magazine.

Hover over a product in the magazine to learn more.
March/April 2012 Cover

The Lonny Blog features a team of several bloggers, each with their own contributing style.  Focusing on everything from books to trends to art, colorful blog posts compliment the regular magazine content and give readers plenty of reasons to visit between issues.

From a photography post
Focus on feathery decor
Living room by Jarlath Mellett
Accessories from Waterworks

Lonny Magazine is also on Facebook and Twitter so you can stay updated on all their new issues and posts!

La Dolce Vita

The success of La Dolce Vita stems from Paloma’s “passion for the sweet life.”

In 2007, during a summer break from her former career as a high school Spanish teacher, Paloma Contreras of Houston, TX, founded her style blog La Dolce Vita.  Since that time, she has attracted a worldwide readership and been featured in publications such as the New York Times, New York Magazine, Washington Post, Better Homes and Gardens, and many others.

The success of La Dolce Vita stems from Paloma’s “passion for the sweet life.”  Blog posts focus on interior design, fashion, travel, and people, and are beautifully complimented with photographs.  An impressive group of contributors, each with their own talents, interests, and perspectives, also provide material for La Dolce Vita.  Along with guest bloggers and contributions from designers, Paloma and her team have created a blog that appeals to a variety of styles and tastes.

New England Home Design Blog

As a designer living and working in New England, a resource like New England Home Design Blog is an invaluable tool.

As a designer living and working in New England, a resource like New England Home Design Blog is an invaluable tool.  Featuring categories such as Notes from the Field and Sneak Peeks, this is one blog worth following.  New England Home highlights designers, homes, trends, and events specific to New England’s unique lifestyle traditions.  Each post contains links to companies, photographers, designers, architects, and artists so that browsing your way through the articles leads from one inspiration to the next.  Before you know it, you’ve wiled away the entire afternoon exploring all the wonderful things New England Home’s blog has to offer.

Here are some of the things you’ll find when you visit this incredible blog:

Fireplace by stone mason Lew French
A table setting by Eddie Ross
Photo courtesy of Les Indiennes
I loved this cover! Well done!

For even more inspiration or to be notified of new postings, be sure to visit New England Home on Facebook.

 

Sweet Paul

I love the Sweet Paul Blog because it is literally stuffed with incredible ideas for things beyond the obvious elements of interior design.

Interior design encompasses more than just walls, floors, and furniture.  It’s about turning the place you live into a home that reflects your priorities and interests in life.  I love the Sweet Paul Blog because it is literally stuffed with incredible ideas for things beyond the obvious elements of interior design.

Originally from Oslo, Paul Lowe is a food and prop stylist who now lives in New York.  His blog contains many gorgeous and inspirational photos of recipes and crafts, plus information on workshops and articles in the Sweet Paul magazine.  What better way to really personalize your home than to use it as the stage for tempting your family and guests with delicious foods or using your own creativity to decorate a table or make the perfect conversation piece?

Here’s a sample of the many splendid ideas found in Sweet Paul’s blog.

Habitually Chic

Heather Clawson’s blog Habitually Chic is a visual treasure trove of glamor, style, and design.

Heather Clawson

The worlds of fashion, art, style, and interior design intersect, overlap, and influence each other in a multitude of ways.  Finding a resource that incorporates all of these elements is always exciting.  In that vein, Heather Clawson’s blog Habitually Chic is a visual treasure trove of glamor, style, and design.  She uses the blog to chronicle her “musings on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, books, events, and everything else habitually chic!”

From incredible artists and stunning exhibits to celebrity photo shoots of Demi Moore or Robert Pattinson, from gorgeous examples of chic advertising to courtyard doors in Paris, Habitually Chic showcases every conceivable facet of life as related to interior design.  When combined with Clawson’s thoughts and opinions, the wealth of photos becomes one inspiration or idea after another.

 

Images from Habitually Chic

Charles Edwards Blog

Lighting fixtures from Charles Edwards Limited certainly deserve their status as elegant and versatile design pieces, so it’s no wonder the Charles Edwards Blog is such an incredible resource.

In 1993, Charles Edwards Limited Antiques was born.  Founded as an antique reproduction company, their designs are inspired by 19th- and 20th-century English and French lanterns.  Lighting fixtures from Charles Edwards Limited certainly deserve their status as elegant and versatile design pieces, so it’s no wonder the Charles Edwards Blog is such an incredible resource. 

The blog features amazing pictures of rooms with Charles Edwards lighting fixtures in a variety of styles and finishes.  New posts are added weekly, showcasing fixtures in luxury settings such as the historic Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington D.C. and the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Hyde Park
Brass Pavilion Lantern, Hay-Adams Hotel, D.C.

One great aspect of the Charles Edwards Blog is the range of styles and locations.  From a Pennsylvania farmhouse to MTV’s “Teen Cribs,” the photos provide lush visual inspiration for anyone’s tastes.

19th Century farmhouse in New Hope, Pennslyvania

Charles Edward collection at the London Design Festival

I encourage you to try the different blog views at the top of the Charles Edwards Blog home page.  You’ll stumble on something new each time!

 

 

 

 

the style files

Based in the Netherlands, Danielle de Lange is author of a great blog called The Style Files.

Based in the Netherlands, Danielle de Lange is author of a great blog called The Style Files.  She shares design finds from around the globe on a daily basis.  Her style comes from a European viewpoint and is what she describes as “basic and modern with clean lines.”

The Style Files bring you “observations and ideas related to design, interiors, art and other life enhancing subjects.”  These subjects are beautifully displayed throughout the blog with plenty of links to connect readers to her sources.  Photos of stunning interiors are interspersed with images of accessories and home accents.  The total effect is an extremely visual compilation of wonderful design ideas.