Mi Casa es Happy Chic

A friend of mine recently suggested that I enter Point Click Home's "Happy Chic" Home contest... The idea is to illustrate how you have transformed your home using the great Jonathan Adler's happy and chic style advice. The prize? How about a $2500 gift certificate to Jonathan Adler! Wow. Now that's something I'd have no trouble spending...

My apartment is all about my collections - postcards, art and fashion books, color, images... I love vintage things, but think they should be mixed with things that are clean and fresh - just like a fashion look! I also love the color red and have used it to design my rooms for as long as I could remember...

Okay, so I'm no Victoria Smith, (maybe I should have called her to do the photographs?) but I did think I put forth some great pictures of my little apartment. Welcome to my place!

So this is my hallway, looking toward the front door. I have my collection of vintage Paris postcards framed in Ikea's Clips frames, and arranged all together like a big art piece. I pretty much took this picture just to show that off - it's in my little hallway and most people just go right by it, but I love it!

This is the little kitchen...or as the French say, "une cuisine Americaine" because apparently no other culture in the world does open-plan kitchens. The poster is a print of a Wayne Thiebaud cake painting from the first anniversary of the SFMOMA. I actually had Wayne Thiebaud sign it when he was my professor in college.

The "main seating area" consists of a sofa and a vintage trunk as a coffee table. The gallery wall holds all kinds of images I love - things I've photographed or drawn, original art from street artists I bought in Venice and Florence, vintage postcards, and a large print of my grandmother's two wire-haired terriers, Rowdy & Junie, from the 1930s. 

Here's a glimpse of my desktop - where I usually have a mess of creativity going on. I've had this poster from the "Annie" musical since I was a little girl, and the album cover is one of my favorites from my Dad's vinyl collection. I use white Barbara Eigen vases to hold all my tools, and a big apothecary jar to hold my buttons. This shot of my bookshelf is one of my favorites too. It shows some of my fashion library, as well as other little odds and ends. I love the Jenny Holzer Truism , as well as old pictures of my family, and of course, my Grandmother's typewriter.

As they say on MTV's Cribs, "this is where the magic happens..." Okay, so maybe the mosquito net is overkill for SF, but I had an old apartment that had so many little fliers each night that when I moved in here I had to indulge. Frankly, I love the way it looks too. The pillows are new from Pottery Barn, while the red chair and quilt are all West Elm. The brown bear is my bear from childhood, while the golden bear is my great aunt's and it's about 100 years old. I'm glad he has a nice place to spend his days.

Think your apartment has what it takes to be the happiest, chicest home in America? You have until next Thursday, August 21st,  to send your entry...details can be found on Point Click Home.

Comments

[Karen]

You have a gorgeous apartment. What's the secret? Mine is a total mess. I work from home, and it seems like no matter what I do, within a couple days of a hardcore straightening out, things always deteriorate into cluttery-ness. Yargh!