Hollywood Regency Style Defined

Most people don't know this, but the persons most responsible for the Hollywood Regency architectural style were John Woolf (died in 1980) and Robert Woof (died in 2001 at the age of 81).

The definition of Hollywood Regency, according to the New York Times, is as follows:

"synthesized 19th-century French, Greek Revival and Modernist touches into a heady mixture that has since been christened Hollywood Regency, which foreshadowed aspects of postmodernism"

Here is a great link on Flicker which has tons of pictures on Hollywood Regency architecture:

Hollywood Regency Architecture Images

Vanity Fair March 2009 issue has a great article on John Woolf by Matt Tyrnauer. It's a great read, as John Woolf is not only a super-talented architect, he also had a very unusual , unorthodox life as well.

Here's a quick excerpt:

"The Woolfs' own unorthodox living arrangements, known to friends as the "Woolf pack,'' grew out of efforts in the 1970's to give legal standing to gay relationships. John and Robert had grown apart romantically but continued to live together. In the early 1960's, Robert met Gene Oney, who moved in with both men. In 1971, after John Woolf learned he had Parkinson's disease, he adopted both Robert and Gene, who changed their names to Woolf. Later in the decade, Gene and Robert also grew apart, and Robert brought home a new man, William Capp. After John Woolf died in 1980, Robert, Gene and William moved to a large estate designed by Addison Mizner in Montecito, which Robert devoted himself to restoring in his later years.

The three men lived together until Robert's death."

Wow! Why can't we all get along like that?

Check out the NY Times obituary on Robert Woolf and then pick up the Vanity Fair issue if you are interested in reading about it further. It's a great read!

So Chic, So Cool-The Mercer Collection from Safavieh

We just go back from the Las Vegas Furniture show last week. These shows are usually really fun. It's a chance see new things and old friends.

There are a few vendors that we really like this year. We'll be writing about them in the next few days....

The first vendor you might want to check out is the new Mercer Collection from Safavieh. Known for their rugs, Safavieh has expanded rapidly into furniture the last few years. They are doing a pretty good job with it. Here are a few that we really like (and if you are into the Hollywood Regency look, we think you'll love this collection).

If you need help with this line, drop us a line...

Fabulous Stationary

People don't mail anything anymore, do they? But don't you just love getting a hand-written note once in a while instead of email? A real invitation instead of an evite?

Here's this adorable stationary company that makes wonderful, modern stationary. They are not too expensive; and they are so chic, so cool. It's a great line to use for invitations and personal note cards...We particularly love the personal calling cards--they're like business cards, only more glamorous...

Fabulous Stationary.com

Win this Pillow! February Give-Away

We never hear anything from our readers. What's up with that? We know from our web analytics that we have hundreds of you coming to our site a day, but the only comments we ever get is from people who are looking for free links. Now, there ain't nothing wrong with asking, but what we really want for comments are fun, interesting, thought-provoking, life-changing, or just plain silly comments, get it? We really don't want free porn, fake Gucci bags, cash advance from Nigeria..anything like that. Really.

So to motivate you a little, we are giving this pillow to one lucky person in the month of February. The only catch is, in order to enter the contest, you have to leave a comment by answering the question of the month in the comment section of this post.

The question of the month is:

"What are you doing to make your home a better place in this tough economic time?"

Down Pillow 22 X 22 Value $250



We will pick a winner on March 1st.

Thanks in advance for participating!

Sad News-Shabby Chic in Chapter 11

Things have been tough all over, especially in the home furnishing industry.

A few days ago Shabby Chic filed Chapter 11 bankrupcy protection. See the complete posting here...

Shabby Chic was a pioneer in its time twenty years ago. Making slip-covered furniture into a style that is widely-copied, it made girly decorating into a huge trend that is still going strong even today.

Let's hope that the company will come out of this ok.

Photo of Shabby Chic's first store:

November 2009-UPDATE

Shabby Chic has re-invented itself. Read more about it from the NY Times.

Modern Wallpaper from Astek

We've been seeing a lot of Astek lately. From "Top Design" to "Elle Decor", we see their products featured everywhere. No wonder, as the company makes some wonderful wallpapers with a wide range of styles. We particularly like their modern collection. It totally rocks!

Pricing is reasonable too (about $50-60/roll). You can buy them directly at the Astek web site.

Here are some that we thought are really cool:

Luxury Bedding from Legacy Linens

We love beautiful bedding. To us, it's the first thing we look at when we enter a bedroom. It's also one of those things totally worth splurging on. After all, was it a true statistic somewhere that we spend 2/3 of our lives in bed?

We found this bedding line from Legacy Linens that we just love. It's luxury bedding that you can actually sleep on, you know. We can't stand frou-frou bedding that looks great but totally impractical. To us, luxury linens must look good but most importantly, it must be comfortable to sleep in.

Here are some samples of Legacy Luxury Bedding. We don't have it listed on our web site (it's way too complicated to sell bedding on line as there SO many pieces in a bedding ensemble). If you need product or pricing information, please drop us a line.

As pretty as there are, they look even better in person!