Mums the Word

One of our favorite signs that Fall is approaching is the emergence of bright and cheery yellow chrysamthemums on front porches across town. We love the burst of color, and it makes us think that cooler days are ahead!

We love a pair of mums in planters on either side of the front door.

Though they come in many colors, yellow is our favorite.

Biltmore House

While yellow may seem like a summer color, we absolutely love it for Fall!
The bright yellow of these flowers is a fabulous inspiration for interiors!

How fun is this Kelly Wearstler designed room? We love the exaggerated retro chairs and the art above the fireplace!
Kelly Wearstler





Yellow is always a kitchen favorite! If you are bold, how about painting the cabinets like this? Looks stunning when paired with black and white accents!

Apartment Therapy, via Black, White, and Yellow





This headboard is beautiful. The modern elements in the room and punchy yellow fabric keep it from feeling too French and stuffy.
From the Right Bank

If you are daring enough to put black walls in your bedroom, pair with a tufted yellow headboard and red accents!
Living Etc- Desire to Inspire



Yellow is such a warm and welcoming color in an entryway. We love the high ceilings and black-and-white checkered floor!

Thad Hayes

This sunny spot is the perfect place for curling up with a good book!
Better Homes & Gardens



Yellow walls can be tricky in a bedroom. You don't want them so bright that they give you a headache when you wake up. But when done right, as they are here, they are so warm and inviting. We love the lantern chandelier as well, and the crispness of the white bedding paired with the yellow walls.

Robert Passal

Kelly Wearstler's tile work at the Viceroy. One day we will check it out in person...

Kelly Wearstler Viceroy


And some more Viceroy... This room is one of our favorites, with the yellow and white trellis wallpaper and chinoiserie bed.

Kelly Wearstler Viceroy



Jonathan Adler does a fabulous job (as always) pairing cheery yellow with kelly green and white! We love everything about this room, from the mirrored end tables to the pineapple lamp with rick-rack trim, to the roman shades with matching trim. No detail overlooked!

Jonathan Adler



This room is so serene and soothing, yet not boring in the least.

Flickr- Patricia Gray Interiors



While we dislike accent walls, we loved this framed wallpaper creating a backdrop behind the white sofa and floors. Check out Maison21 for a similar project!

Flickr- Patricia Gray


We love the mixture of modern elements with the earthy coffee table in this room. The zigzag rug (Madeline W?) is fab, as is the art!

Photo courtesy of Elements of Style

Yellow and gray is a gorgeous color combination! You wouldn't think a cool tone and a warm tone would work so well together, but they really balance each other out nicely.

EKB Interiors- Patricia Gray



If your taste is more traditional, this room is for you! The furniture colors are rather muted and pleasant, but we love the punch of bright yellow on the ceiling panels! We will admit we aren't sure about that brick behind the bookcases though...

Decor Pad


We think walking into this room is like a big bear hug. The yellow is perfectly warm and cozy. Perfect with red and white accents!

Country Living


Country Living keeps getting better and better! Love the walls and the quilt, as well as the built-in cabinets.

Country Living


This Coastal Living room is just beautiful! Yellow and white looks great in nearly any room, especially when it has so much natural light.

Coastal Living

One of our favorite bathrooms, we love the tent awning feel of the stripes and the ceiling!

Coastal Living



Amanda Nisbet does it again with this cheery breakfast room! Love the banquette seating and the lucite chairs with the heavy round pedastal table.

Amanda Nisbet- Southern Accents

Melissa Rufty is not afraid of color, and we love her for that! Yellow, turquoise, red, and green- perfect!

Melissa Rufty

Love the yellow and white ikat chair- yes, ikat is all over the place, but we still love it!

Melissa Rufty

What inspires you for Fall?

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Happy Memorial Day

We'll be back in full swing tomorrow. Enjoy your long weekend!

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Cozying Up to Plaid

I can't say that I have a scintilla of plaid in my apartment (unless you count my J Crew tartan wool pants!), but seeing these pictures are making me long for something plaid to cozy up to. Doesn't it seem so naturally inviting and warm? I tend to be a little closed-minded when it comes to plaid and associate it with a little boy's room or a rustic cabin, but the pictures below show us that there are many many different types of plaid up  your consideration.

Elegant Plaid

Equestrian/organic plaid.

Retro-plaid is an unexpected touch here.

Breezy plaid.

European plaid.

Farmhouse kitchen plaid.

Chic plaid.

Mad Men plaid. Etsy

Lumberjack plaid, with a very fitting lincoln logs centerpiece (Random trivia- I learned watching Cash Cab last night that Lincoln logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright's son. You learn something new every day!).

Dinnertime plaid. Dillards.

Relaxed, modern plaid. Trunk = yes.

Cottage chic plaid.

Metropolitan plaid.

Modern streamlined plaid.

Updated preppy plaid. WS Home.

Curl up with a book plaid. WS Home.

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MoS Decorates for Christmas

I finally got around to decorating my apartment for Christmas last night- luckily it doesn't take much to get my small apartment into the Christmas spirit! Considering we featured this Miles Redd picture umpteen times on the blog, I decided to go for the glamorous wreath over the mirror look also. So I put on my Pandora internet radio Christmas station and got busy.

First, the wreath. I tend to buy the plain wreaths without any pinecones or other doodads. Not only are they less expensive, but I think they create a cleaner look. With the ribbon, I decided to shy away from the normal red, gold, or plaid ribbon and used a wide multicolor striped grosgrain. I am from Florida, after all! In college I made and sold purses and tote bags, and six years later, I still find myself with an inordinate amount of grosgrain ribbon leftover from my business. I put it on packages, I use it in Christmas decorations, but the rolls never seem to end!

Here's something I am SO proud to display- my ikat stockings made by hand by none other than my talented co-blogger MoS Charlotte! She gave two of them to me for my birthday a few weeks ago and I have been dying to put them up ever since.

I also added some garland to the top of the fireplace. I love that I have a wood-burning fireplace, but am less enamored with the fact that it has no mantle! Thus the garland creates that sort of a mantle look. Here's the finished product.

I was also inspired to add a little garland to my banister. Again, I have loads of this pink polka dot grosgrain ribbon, so figured I might as well make use of it!

And finally, I've already gotten a few Christmas cards from friends who are significantly more organized than I am, and used a bit of ribbon to create a makeshift card holder on a small, narrow portion of wall between the kitchen and dining area. Basically I cut a strip of ribbon, put a bow on the top, and attached it to the wall. The cards are held onto the ribbon with paperclips. Of course you can buy card displays, but I can think of more exciting things to spend $20+ on! All these decorations can really add up.

What's missing? Yup, a tree! I have not quite decided if I'm going to go get a small live tree, or use a fun gold decorative tree that I bought last year at Gracious Home in NYC. It will be a snap decision this week...stay tuned!

Are you finished decorating for Christmas? Any favorite hints or tricks for decorating?

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Trimming the Tree

One of our favorite holiday traditions is decorating the Christmas tree!  We always get a live tree- typically a frasier fir, because they smell so wonderful and have so many branches to hold all our ornaments!  We have never done a themed tree, but the trees below are so well-thought and pleasing to the eye that we are almost tempted.   

RUSTIC TREES

While we would never typically describe our style as rustic, there is something so elegant about rustic holiday decorations.  Maybe this harkens back to our affinity for organic elements in a room, but we love the simple styles and natural colors of the room below.  And how clever to place the tree in a big woven basket?!

Cottage Living

Rustic ornaments for your tree!

Ornaments from Pottery Barn and Wisteria

A quilted tree skirt with reindeer appliques

Wisteria Tree Skirt

Wouldn't these round baskets be perfect for holding a tree?  We don't see many trees that still have the root-ball in tact (except for the Griswold's tree on Christmas Vacation) but if you can find one to replant later, this basket is perfect for potting your tree.  Such a nice alternative to the traditional tree stand!

Pottery Barn Baskets

You can't get much more rustic than burlap!  We love the texture and color of burlap in a room. 

Ballard Burlap Stockings

Wouldn't this rattan reindeer make such a pretty centerpiece?  Just add some greenery, some red nandina berries, and maybe a couple of candles!

Pier 1 Rattan Reindeer

ASIAN- INSPIRED TREES

If you are going for a more glamorous look with your tree, ornaments that nod to the Far East are just beautiful.  The decorations we found run the gamut price-wise, from L'Objet at Neimans to Pearl River Mart. 

Southern Living

We love the vibrant colors and elegant styles of these ornaments!

Asian-inspired ornaments from Gumps

This red velvet tree skirt with brocade detailing and tassles is not chinoiserie per se, but we think it would blend beautifully with a chinoiserie room.

Neiman Marcus Red Brocade Tree Skirt with Tassles

Aren't these colorful little tassled ornaments so much fun?  And they are super inexpensive, so you can use lots of them!

Pearl River Zong Zi Ornaments

Peacocks are our favorites!  We'd love to see a few of these throughout a tree!

Pearl River Peacocks

RED TREES

Red just goes perfectly with Christmas.  Doing a monochromatic color scheme definitely takes a little planning and a special touch so that it doesn't scream "office lobby tree."  But as long as you vary the size and shapes of the ornaments, it can look absolutely stunning as in the room below (and wow at the turquoise moulding!).

Southern Accents

Red ornaments are almost always our favorites.  They stand out so nicely in contrast to the green tree.

Red ornaments from Wisteria, Anthropologie, Z Gallerie, Pier 1, and Pottery Barn

If you don't want to do a traditional evergreen wreath, how about this modern red ornament wreath?!

Pier 1 Red Ornament Wreath

And for a touch of the traditional, you can't go wrong with a tartan plaid stocking. 

Williams Sonoma Home Red Tartan Stocking

CHILDREN'S TREES

When my sister and I were growing up, we each had our own little tree.  It was so fun to collect ornaments for them and decorate them ourselves- I still remember the ornaments for mine in great detail.  A norfolk island pine like the one pictured below is perfect for a children's tree, because it lasts all year long (although I can admit to killing one or two in my lifetime...), stays small, and doesn't shed.

Southern Living

For children's ornaments, the softer the better.  Children love nothing more than taking an ornament off the tree to play with it, so glass and breakables definitely are not ideal for little fingers!

Children's Ornaments from Land of Nod, Anthropologie, Pottery Barn Kids

There are lots of fun options for stockings!  We have Woof N Poof, but Pottery Barn also makes some cute ones.  The one pictured below is from the Land of Nod, a great children's website.

Land of Nod Stocking

Growing up, we had a wassail set exactly like the one shown below, for serving up "Santa's Punch."  We left it out for him every Christmas Eve, with some gingerbread cookies.  (although we have to admit that wine rather than wassail would probably make assembling all those toys a little easier...:)

Santa's Mug Set

ELEGANT METALLIC TREES

The holidays are the perfect time to decorate in silver and gold.  A tree like the one pictured below is so timeless and elegant.  Typically (when we aren't expecting a baby on Dec 18), we get two trees- a "fun" one for colorful ornaments for the family room, and another one for the "fancy" gold and silver living room ornaments.  We love how the tree below is absolutely covered in lights- the more the better!

Southern Accents

One of the great things about metallic ornaments is that you really can't tell what is expensive and what is not.  The ornaments below reflect quite the range in prices!

Metallic ornaments from Z Gallerie, Wisteria, Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, West Elm

You already know how much we love starburst mirrors- and this one is the perfect tree topper.  Finding a good tree topper can be a challenge, but this one is modern yet classic and would fit with many different styles.

Ballard Designs Venetian Star Tree Topper

From the queen of placemats Kim Seybert, these gold stockings are just adorable!

Kim Seybert at Neiman Marcus

This glittery silver ball wreath is perfect for hanging over a fireplace.

West Elm Glittery Wreath

Which is your favorite tree "look"?  These looks are all beautiful, but we have to admit that our favorite ornaments will always be those that hold some special meaning, whether a school project or a vacation souvenir. 

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