wallpaper designs

This weekend, to help cheer up the cold winter, my friends Sharon, Kendra and I decided to have a mama/kid sleepover! We figured it would be like taking a trip together but without having to leave town.
So, one afternoon, we all piled into Kendra's house uptown (her husband was on a work trip). As we arrived armed with travel cribs, backpacks and rowdy kiddos, she joked, "This is either going to be the best idea we've ever had or a total disaster."
After playing and exploring the neighborhood, that evening we made pizzas. Kendra's awesome tip: Buy fresh dough from your local pizza place! Smart, right? It was easy, cheap and tasted great.
The kids each made mini pizzas with sauce and cheese...
And we made some for the mamas, including one with cheese and grilled red onions. Delicious.
(Eeks! Those cheeks!)
But the highlight was the Nintendo Wii dancing game that Sharon brought. Have you played it? You try to do the same moves as the dancers on screen, and the game somehow tracks you to see how well you do.
Nailed it.
Here are the kiddos rocking out. They did it for HOURS while the mamas talked and ate cookies in the kitchen (and sometimes peeked in).
The next morning we had bagels and bacon. It was so much fun; I can't believe we had never thought of it before! We could really relax and hang out without having to rush home for naps and bedtimes. The only catch is that we got approximately zero hours of sleep that night:) But it was worth it.

Would you do this? Do you already have grown-up sleepovers? Or travel with friends? I'm so into it!

Tomorrow I am off to the Apple store to replace my old iMac with, of course, a new iMac. I thought it would be fun to see some chic work spaces with this stylish and iconic computer. We start with the chicest office of them all belonging to J.Crew's Jenna Lyons. Note how many of these spaces have Chinoiserie - Chinese Chippendale chairs, pagoda lamps, gourd lamps, Chinese screens - Apple and Chinoiserie are a great combination. Accessorize with fresh flowers, a Baies candle, and a sheepskin draped over your desk chair.

To me the iMac is the most beautiful computer in the world, inside and out.

Everyone seemed to love the pink and gray post yesterday and especially this entryway by Tom Scheerer. It features grisaille wallpaper in shades of gray, a Wiliam IV pier table, and a pair of coral slipper chairs by Billy Baldwin.

My favorite touch is the pair of sconces with lampshades covered in the grisaille paper and lined in coral pink. I am generally not a big fan of patterned lampshades, but these are very much an exception. I do love lining lampshades in pink silk - the pink makes the whole room glow.

An even easier way to get that flattering soft pink glow - pink lightbulbs. BTW, they are considered specialty bulbs and not covered by the phase-out of incandescents. My favorite are the 50/100/150 Slyvania that I order by the box here. I use them in every lamp in my house.


I have added a new Pinterest board on Pink and Gray here and you can follow me on Pinterest here.

From time to time, I love to post on emerging trends I perceive in interior design. These are not the hot trends written up in shelter mags, but looks I start to see repeated in rooms that I feel work especially well with Chinoiserie. Last year I did "Trending" posts on -

*Pineapples
*Malachite
*Purple
*The Big Chinoiserie Lamp
*Antelope
*The White Elephant
*Brushstroke
*Mudcloth
*The Return of the Skirted Table
*Combining Pink and Orange
*Black Windows

My first emerging trend for 2014 is combining pink and gray. I believe that gray is here to stay as an elegant, versatile, and sophisticated neutral. People will be looking for new ways to use gray and I absolutely adore this combination. Here is some inspiration -

Gray with hot pink -












Gray with coral pink -






Gray with pale pink -