Category Archives: INTERIORS + DECOR

LAVATORY ENVY

Written by J. R. DEFINE. Posted on January 25 | 12. Filed under AMERICANA, INTERIORS + DECOR. 1 Comment.

Brass, Carrara marble, subway tiles (the old-looking ones), warm woods, industrial lighting… Jeff and Jason’s home-away-from-Brooklyn was featured on DesignSponge yesterday, and I must say—these dudes did their bathroom right. I am quite envious. Reminds me of one of my favorite places, not just for the libations but for their authentically industrial design: Schiller’s Liquor Bar. For comparison’s sake, here is Jeff & Jason’s bathroom, more photos plus Schiller’s after the jump.

MODERN FARMHOUSE

Written by J. R. DEFINE. Posted on December 07 | 11. Filed under INTERIORS + DECOR. 1 Comment.

Have you seen this Austin home tour on Apartment Therapy? It’s a good one, featuring the home of Roger and Chris Stout-Hazard of Design Hazards which features a few of my favorite things including Americana, industrial, and farmhouse… we have the same buffalo-plaid style curtains in our living room (ours are from Pottery Barn kids, they’re blackout… great source for curtains btw), and I was happy to see their pulls because we just got 5 (of the 12 I ordered) brass Aubrey pulls from Restoration Hardware that they conveniently ran out of as soon as I was ready to order—fricking dumb. We’re pairing them with the Duluth bin pull for the drawers, which I plan to have a lot of since we’ve got about 25 of the Duluth pulls to account for not enough of the Aubreys.

VIA Chris & Rogers DIY + Modern Farmhouse House Tour | Apartment Therapy .

YOU CAN RESTORE MY HARDWARE ANY DAY.

Written by J. R. DEFINE. Posted on August 29 | 11. Filed under INTERIORS + DECOR. No comments.

Umm-hmm. Double entendres, anyone? The super gigantic fall Restoration Hardware catalog/magazine-like-publication is packed with the most new products I’ve seen from them, ever. Talking new sofas, chairs, lighting, a larger range of paint colors. Damn. I dog-eared so many pages, our RH card definitely won’t be able to fulfill many of my wishes, but dang this is good. Here are some of my favorites.

LOW TUFTED SOFA

TOLEDO STOOLS / F YES

MOTORCITY WHISKEY LEATHER CHAIR / VINTAGE EYE CHARTS

BRUNO LEATHER CHAIRS

REGENCY SOFA / C. 1930 INDUSTRIAL PULLEY SCONCE

HOPPER BUCKET CHAIRS

TOLEDO STOOLS

The 1930s Toledo Stool is definitely a part of our kitchen remodel’s design plan. But choosing between black and army green just might kill me.

HAND RIVETED & WOVEN FIREHOSE BENCH

Written by J. R. DEFINE. Posted on June 22 | 11. Filed under INTERIORS + DECOR. 2 Comments.

Isn’t this a cool idea? Looks like the perfect spot to sit and read a book outside… plus it can get wet. I just don’t like looking at those floor brackets so keeping it in the grass seems to solve the issue.

PURCHASE VIA Hand Riveted and Woven Firehose Bench made from by GoodTimeJunkin.

F-YES ROMAN + WILLIAMS.

Written by J. R. DEFINE. Posted on April 29 | 11. Filed under ART + DESIGN, INTERIORS + DECOR. Tagged Hotel. No comments.

IF AT ANY POINT IN TIME STEVEN AND I BUY THE HOME OF OUR DREAMS, I’D LIKE TO HOPE WE’D BE ABLE TO HIRE ROMAN + WILLIAMS TO OVERSEE THE DESIGN AND PLANNING.

Our home is sort-of a LO-FI tribute to Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer, the formidable duo behind R+A—they provide the inspiration and solidify my love for old things, rich with patina, with a certain edge and masculinity, as well as the feeling of atypical comfort. I recently saw a video on THE CONSTANTS KEPT that is at once chilling, beautiful, tansfixing and satiable. I’ve never been to an Ace Hotel in person. I’ve never been to the Standard. The feelings they’ve created in their spaces are so powerful that I’ve only felt them through pictures, and still they’re overwhelmingly beautiful.

It’s old, but the video below was done by the fellas at The Scout—I love the connection made between their aim to create dreamlike spaces and the feeling I get when remembering the first dance with my husband at our wedding to In Dreams by Roy Orbison. Their spaces and that nostalgia go main dans la main*. Watch the video in fullscreen. Then watch my version, which serves as a small tribute to the pair I most admire.

Roman & Williams from The Scout on Vimeo.

I hope tomorrow to post our version. I’m going to do the footage later tonight after happy hour, so it’ll be real good.

Remodelista has the most resources from Roman + Williams’s archive, obvs. I could post like 27 more but this may be getting out of hand.

Here is our dinosaur that I perch on my coffee cup. He’s on some badass steel tables in our living room. Very Roman + Williams those tables, look past my shoes.

Here are some of the things I love that we can’t afford, but would complement the style. PS, that Saarinen-style-tulip table on the right has a pretty awful top, I’d cover that with a bunch of magazines and shit. Steven can attest to my innate ability to stack shit on tables.

*hand in hand. Want more French phrases or does that seem elitist/stupid? I’m neither. Just a francophile.

I’m sure most photos are Copyrights of R+A, if you want to know the source just copy the image address.

HICKOREE’S HARD GOODS.

Written by J. R. DEFINE. Posted on April 14 | 11. Filed under AMERICANA, INTERIORS + DECOR, SHOPPING. No comments.

…that’s what she said. Yeah, that one didn’t work. Seems like I’m always battling whether or not it’s appropriate to pull that off at given opportunities. That’s irrelevant. Hopping around from one blog to another today I found the shop HICKOREE’S HARD GOODS—they’ve got the best selection of well-priced quality American goods varying from bags, wallets and hankies to notepads, seed packets and slinkies. I’m especially a sucker for the $25 and under section. And I just like the Hill Plain House below, it seems like the two should be better connected but whatever.

16” CANVAS MASON BAG WITH LEATHER BOTTOM NO. 312 $79

20” ALL CANVAS UTILITY BAG NO. 315 $37

Hill Plain House by Wolveridge Architects VIA Desire to Inspire

SHOPPING IN GERMAN

Written by J. R. DEFINE. Posted on April 01 | 11. Filed under INTERIORS + DECOR, SHOPPING. Tagged BARNEYS. 1 Comment.

SHOPING IN GERMAN IS PRECARIOUS when you don’t speak German. On honeymoon, I tried my darndest to speek Greek but it’s likely everyone you encounter speaks English, but I think they appreciate the effort because all the Greeks we met seemed to LOVE us. Not in a we-see-Euros-radiating-from-your-soul kind of way, either. Like, they genuinely loved us. While we were in Paris I meant to only speak the little French I know, but English words come to mind much quicker when you want to say things like “No, please don’t put bananas in my crepe.” As always, I’m off topic. Yesterday Julie at Remodelista wrote about vintage gym equipment as decor and sparked a fervent search for a vintage leather bench/daybed, just like the one I’d loved working at the Barneys COOP Houston. It was a striking bench like the one pictured below, and it sat it the front corner of the store where the womens’ shoes were. Awful, horrid people would come sit on our lovely bench and KEY it to death, scratching the leather as if they were a borderline masochist not yet ready to pull a blade across their own skin. This—ladies and gents—broke my heart. So I’d baby the bench and rub Kai into its’ wounds, and that would generally remove the surface marks.

MEETING JONATHAN ADLER.

Written by J. R. DEFINE. Posted on November 19 | 10. Filed under INTERIORS + DECOR, SHOPPING. 3 Comments.

Last night Joy and I had the pleasure of going to the dual-book realease party at Kuhl-Linscomb for Jonathan Adler’s two new books: Jonathan Adler on Happy Chic Color and Jonathan Adler on Happy Chich Accessorizing. Now let me explain how this post could have almost been titled PUKING ON JONATHAN ADLER.

We had such a fun time, Joy got the accessories book and a Tocca candle, and I got the color book and Davines Love Shampoo & Conditioner. While we were standing in line, waiting to meet Jonathan, I started to feel faint. I was wearing a wool sweater, blanket scarf, jeans and boots, and I could feel myself overheating. Then I got sweaty. Now I need to puke. There are probably only five people in front of us at this point, so I wanted to wait it out because I was THISCLOSE to meeting the design superstar. Three people in front of me. I’m about to die. I’m afraid I’ll puke all over Jonathan Adler. I tell Joy how I’m feeling so she takes my book and I make a mad dash for the ladies room. I puke two times, wash my hands, pat my face with a cold paper towel, and head back to the room where I left her to see that Joy is NEXTINLINE. I didn’t miss a thing. So I cut back into place and we got our books signed. DANG, that was close.

JONATHAN ADLER SIGNING MY BOOK; TO JESSICA HEART JADLER

I asked Jonathan if he had any pull in keeping the Houston Co-Op alive, he had no idea it was closing and said Simon probably didn’t either—that all he did was make things pretty. I thought that was cute. He was very pleasant to chat with. Joy and I enjoyed ourselves.

FEATURED ABOVE: Dolls Pillbox, $28
Barbie® ♥ Jonathan Adler Doll | Barbie Collector, $24
Jonathan Adler Puppy Uppers Jar, $165
Jonathan Adler Kitty Krack Jar, $120
Jonathan Adler Sagittarius Zodiac Pillow, $98
Jonathan Adler Holiday Home, $38
Jonathan Adler Pill Carafe, $48
Jonathan Adler Ceramic Squirrel Ring Box, $120
Jonathan Adler (Starbucks)RED Gift Card - Great Stocking Stuffers -…
Robert Abbey Jonathan Adler Parker Pendant in Polished Nickel - S663 |…
Jonathan Adler Rug Sale

J.D. FISK

Written by J. R. DEFINE. Posted on October 08 | 10. Filed under INTERIORS + DECOR. No comments.

J.D. FISK is a new mens’ store in NYC that just made my day—I’ve been looking for a headboard and wall-mounted nightstand for our guest bedroom to no avail until now—see 3rd photo. This DIY is happening soon. EASY.

Classic Menswear with a Dash of Bourbon at J.D. Fisk : Now Open : Racked NY.

DASHING.

Written by J. R. DEFINE. Posted on October 07 | 10. Filed under INTERIORS + DECOR, LADIES, SHOPPING. No comments.

I have to confess that I love the freaking Kardashian girls. So much so, in fact, that when I woke up Sunday morning to an infomercial on their new skincare line PerfectSkin, it only took about 10 minutes before I decided to buy the damn stuff. I was easily swayed by Kim going on about how great the products smell, which is a big, big deal for me. Khloe said it rid her acne prone skin, Kourtney said it’s great for her oily complexion and Kim’s sensitive, dry skin—I have combo face so this was exhilarating. It’s a club deal, where once you sign up they automatically restock you every 2 months with a new arsenal for the same low price of $39.90—which is less than half the cost of my NV Perricone Face Finishing Moisturizer which runs out in 2 months. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Anyhow. Racked reported on the location of their new SoHo store yesterday and with it, a Co-op right above it that’s currently on the market—this is the kind of place I’d love to come home to, but with much better furniture. Love those dang shelves, the kitchen’s island and that creative use of space under the stairs!