The Great Indoors

Ever since the backyard demo, which, sorry, apparently I can't stop talking about, I've been mildly obsessed with plants and gardens.  The lust I normally reserve for interior design porn has temporarily been redirected and I now find myself looking longingly at well manicured lawns and big fat texas gardens.  Because I swear on all things holy that this will not become a landscaping blog and I want to give you what you're here for I've got a roundup of plants indoors.  Yes, I want them inside now too.  Basically, I want to do all my interior decor shopping at the Natural Gardener.

These are my favorite plants in today's roundup.  If anyone knows what the hell they are, pretty pleeze speak up.

Plant party on the right there is coming in at a close second. It sorta kinda looks like the world's largest rubber plant, but I'm pretty sure it's something else.  Any ideas?  This is the part where I admit that I don't really know anything about plants except that I really really like them.  Oh wait, I do know a lot about succulents, which are strangely absent from today's roundup.

I went back and forth on whether or not to post this one, after all, that wee plant is a bit sad.  However, he really stands out in this room and I thought that was what was most important.  Non?

This tree is awesome but what's with the potted plants in checkerboard formation outside?

Ok, so these last 2 shots are of retail locations, but I thought they were pretty snazzy (love that plant above!) so they're onboard.

Delicious!

Space Age

I bet everything is clean in outer space. You can't really leave crumbs all over the counter, unless you enjoy watching space crumbs fly through the air, swirling about and forming their own little crumb galaxies and nebulae. Now that I think about it, it's probably gravity's fault that I have dirty floors. Maybe I should berate gravity and make her come clean up her mess -- You get over here, Missy, and sweep this up right now! Or I suppose I could just move to space. That would probably be easier than getting an invisible force to tidy my house.

Sadly, I don't think I'll get to move to space this year. It looks pretty far away, and I can't even fly across the country without waiting in lines and removing my shoes and getting delayed and laying over in every city between here and my destination. So what's a girl who wants to live in space now! stat! supposed to do?

OWI

I think I should just pretend that I live in space. That's me, taking a shower in my new pod. Look how clean and crumb free we are! Aren't you jealous?

Shoot Factory

Now I know that showering in a wiffle ball is not to everyone's taste, so I'm just going to go ahead and present you with an extra terrestrial roundup of down to earth proportions. I'm nothing if not accommodating.

OWI

Cote Maison

Shoot Factory

Ngoc Minh Ngo

Elle Decor

Karl Anderson

Ngoc Minh Ngo

Marie Claire Maison

Richard Powers

See? It's so easy to space out. Bust open your white paint cans, dust off your Saarinen and Panton chairs, and start spaceing it up. Personally, I think step one in my new spaceification scheme involves painting the Hunny's fugly speakers shiny gold. The Hunny is a truly peaceable creature, but if I enact said plan, he will probably knock me to the moon -- Bang! Zoom!

Mission Accomplished.

HDR Gone Wild

Dear realtors and designers, HDR is not your friend. I know you think that High Dynamic Range imaging is totally awesome! and the answer to all your exposure problems! But it's not. You are abusing it, and your pictures still look crappy, but now they look fake and crappy. Like they got facelifts way before their time. Hey, I know it's hard to take a decent picture when it's really really bright over here but really really dark over there, but if you don't want your homes to look like they got spraytans and fake boobs and wear spanx even while showering, then STOP IT.

This house is not real, so don't feel bad if your home doesn't measure up.

If there are no areas of black in your picture, it looks flat and janky. Trust me, we don't need to see the detail in every single leaf of ivy over there in the corner. Just let it fade to black.

Photographs are beautiful because they reveal and conceal through light and shadow. Dudes, you gotta remember to employ a little mystery here. Otherwise your pictures look like airbrushed 40 year old strippers.

If you don't know what High Dynamic Range photography is, you can read about it here. And then you can forget all about it unless you are going for an artsy look. And even then, don't say I didn't warn you.