Daytripper

This is going to be a short one, because I know you're all out at the lake eating hot dogs and shooting off fireworks in honor of our country's independence... what's that, you say? You're not feeling terribly patriotic these days? Can't say I blame you, but that doesn't mean you can skip this, the pinnacle of summer and all of its glorious bounties -- like swimming and hot dogs and fire, people. Fire. Think about it. So what can I show to inspire you to light one up? No, a sparkler, you silly! I think this room designed by the too often mentioned by me but still crazy awesome Kelly Wearstler ought to do the trick:

Oh, I know you're a twee trifle fatigued by all of my references to La Wearstler, but don't be a hater -- LOOK AT THAT INSANE PSYCHEDELIC WALLPAPER, and the red, white and blue color scheme, and the cane print rug. AND do I spy chevron chairs??? Whew, friend, that's a lot going on there! This room is like a beautiful lady dressed in rhinestone pasties dancing the can-can to Yankee Doodle Dandy on top of a Lipizzaner stallion while brandishing 17,000 sparklers. On acid.

That's my kind of girl.

I'm bringin sexy black

This morning's post is 100% in honor of my good friend Tod (toddybear, todler, todathon, todathalon, tod-a!) who is smack dab in the middle of a renovation insane foray into the deepest darkest depths of home rebuilding.  He's just now approaching the fun cover-up-the-drywall-pick-out-the-pretty-stuff portion of his hero's journey, which is right where I LOVE to butt in.  Everyone needs a little k-dawg input, right?  Of course.  We spent a good portion of last Sunday evening pontificating on the glories of various floor finishings:  while Tod is uber-minimalist to the ma-xxx (note the lack of an excessive second 'D' in his name) and high polish concrete would look divine in his 1920's rehab, homeboy is livin large on a pier and beam foundation that simply doesn't lend itself to that sort of earth-shattering weight.  He's going with my dream surface: hardwood.  Now I just need to convince him to use my dream color:  black (midnight, darkness, ebony, inkjetness, onyxabod, blackademicawesomeness). I reminded Tod of last year's Top Design finale where - married with child(?) - matt went head to head in a bloody loft battle with Carisa.  Both designers chose to use black floors, Carisa won my heart with the use of wood:

Top left:  Matt's painted black floors.  Top right & bottom left: Carisa's luxe black hardwoods.  Bottom right: Carisa's kitchen (tod just wanted to know what color she used, I don't love it).  I did get all hot and bothered over the stained black hardwoods and decided to see what else I could find.  Tod, look closely.  Everyone else, take a shot every time I type Tod's name.

Two residences by (Erin's term) Uber Glam Goddess Kelly Wearstler.  Both with magnificent black floors.  I LOVE the zig zag installation in space #2.  If Tod (shot!!) really wants to go all gangsta, he could lay the wood on a diagonal, helping to expand the space and counter-acting the room-shrinking dark floors.

More sexified darkness:

Left: a suite at Paris's Hotel Sezz; Right: private residence by Ghislaine Vinas interior design.  (Does anyone know how to make a little spanish do-dad over that N in Vinas?  There's supposed to be one there.) I la la la love the image to the right: black, white, lime & light-friendly partitions.  Hey, who stole my dream and turned it into a room? C'mon, stop kiddin around.

TOD! TOD! TOD!

If everyone can still read after that last round of typing TOD! TOD! TOD! then go ahead and take a gander at this:

Right: Private residence shot by Paul Costello; Left: Private residence from Survivestyle5's flickr photostream.  Ok, so clearly the stripes in image one are the showstopper here, but the unadulterated hotness of those black floors simply can't be denied.

Are you convinced yet?  Teetering?

True or False:  a zebra rug is required with black wood floors?  Just wondering.  I really do love how the black floors anchor all of these spaces. (Image courtesy of Survivestyle5's flickr photostream)

However, if, like me, Tod (drink up, we're coming to a close) wants to survive the living nightmare that is spending every single day wondering who/what/where/why people are walking on his floors, he can always go with white:

Suite 7: The lute suites.  Yes, I know I know, the rock is blowing my mind too.  Let's save it for another post... perhaps a nice fantasy vacation segment, oh yes, it's going to be lovely.  For now, go get some sleep and dream about your new bodacious floors, you're going to have quite the hangover in the morning.

Hotel Me About It

I first discovered Portland, Oregon's Ace Hotel when a web design client of mine asked me to use the Ace splash page as inspiration for their site.  While the site is lovely and I was happy to accommodate my (awesome!) client, I was WAY more excited to take a peak at the grounds and play a nice round of fantasy vacation.  I wanted to pass it on to you kids today because, ever since last weeks post, I've been obsessed with ridiculously over-sized wall silhouettes:

Get a load of that cat!!!  I have to tell you, I was dead set on painting a scary windblown woman until I saw this fancy feline.  What do you think his name is and do you think he wants to come live with me?  I'm also totally crushin on the freaky hanged man in the room on the upper left.  What do you think, for the guest bedroom, perhaps as some kind of warning:  return the towels to the rod neatly folded, or else.  Yes, I think that will work.

Before moving forward, I really need to clarify something:  when I say obsessed with giant wall silhouettes, I am in no way referring to the mass produced vinyl (usually floral) wall stickers  that are swimming all over the web right now.  I don't like them, I think they are tacky and I don't want them in my house.

That said, let's check out some more of these fancy diggs:

While I often fantasize about vacationing for the hotel alone and skipping the city altogether, I do think it's important for a hotel to reference the town it's in.  I think these moose Thompson Elk (thanks Adnon) blankets are such a perfect solution; that bald eagle sends the message pretty well, too.

I really don't care about that shampoo and I'm even more disturbed by the web designers choice in font...dakota script, what's up with that?  I do however, really like that bathroom.  The black tub is sexified to the max, I'll take one, please.  The wild-things-meets-viking street art is nice too, but a little too cartoon-y for my house.  Again, loving the blanket.  I also really like how well they mixed rustic wood with a few sleek modern elements:  aces, Ace Hotel. 

While I'm hanging out with my giant cat, the Ace Hotel promises me these luxuries:

Wait, where's the room service?  I might have to leave my swanky pad?  But I was going to have dumplings in the tub!  But then again... there is a mini bar.

***

Update:  room service now available.  Bathtub food party for everyone, hooray!