A few years ago I toured some local model homes and spied a beautiful media cabinet in a townhome with inset grasscloth panels – yum!  Since then I’ve been a fan of pieces of furniture that incorporate fabric or organic texture into the design, be it linen or grasscloth or burlap, and even animal skin.

I’m inspired by anyone who can pull off a great DIY version too, check out this dresser covered in grasscloth and nailhead trim! Find the this detailed tutorial at Elsee blog – she transformed a simple Hemnes dresser into a chic changing table, wow!

I see a lot of high end furniture with fabric texture out in the marketplace and my mind is always clicking into the “bet you could DIY for less” mode. I absolutely love this Bretton Console from Jayson Home by at $950 it’s pricey. To create the look for less, combine this $69 Parsons console with burlap and upholstery tacks and you could end up with a fabulous knock off.

… or apply a similar (but more detailed) treatment to a $299 Birkeland dresser from IKEA to achieve the look of the $2,400 Magdalena dresser from Horchow. Patience required!

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A good friend of ours is remodeling an older home with divided light wood windows and she was asking about how to paint them since they’re in need of touch up, and what window treatments I’d suggest since they looked a little plain in her eyes.  One of the options I suggested was to paint the mullions and interior grid a color other than white and consider skipping the window treatments since privacy isn’t an issue. 

All of the divided light windows in our own home have those white metal strips layered in between two panes so for me it’s not an option to paint them and I’m stuck with white – not that there’s anything wrong with that  :) – but here’s a peek at a few ideas I’m sending her way: 

El Mueble

Emily Followill

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I’ve had black and white interiors on my mind for months now, every time I see one it jumps out at me, not for lack of color obviously but for the way the well thought out black and white space is both classic and modern all at once and with little or no color to assist.  Like the classic black and white film or photograph, I find these spaces so sophisticated, elegant and divine!  It’s the high contrast that I’m so drawn to – how the whites deepen the blacks, and the blacks brighten the whites. 

I’m fascinated how much personality exists in these multilayered spaces both casual and formal.  Here are some of my most favorites to inspire, punctuated by a few fun objects for your home.

Style at Home

Eddie Ross

Raya vase; Bone dominoes

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A long time ago I fell in love with a tufted sofa.  Not just any tufted sofa, a petite rounded back ‘works so perfectly in my house’ kind of tufted sofa. I even wrote about my tufted sofa dream almost two years ago.  {Cue the ‘a dream is a wish your heart makes’ melody…}

So I have this wall in between two sets of French doors in the living room where a lot of traffic passes by so the only thing that really works there is a buffet, which I had there for a year, but what I really always wanted for that spot was a beautiful tufted sofa. 

I’m have a big fat crush on them, especially when they’re paired with modern fabrics.  Here’s a few images from my inspiration files – so sophisticated and dreamy.

Bella Mancini Designs

Massucco Warner Miller

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