Saturday, March 31, 2012

Come stop at The Magic Shop!


The Magic Shop offers a delightful experience for all...antiques, toys, paintings, lamps, china, and Tivoli radios exemplify the wide variety of items available. Each room offers a selection of unique and beautiful merchandise for the discriminating shopper.
 This time of year especially the Magic Shop in Oldwick, NJ turns into a little spring and Easter wonderland! They open up a secret room for young and old with a rabbit hole door that leads to several vignettes created by the shop that take you to a little magical wonderland!  I took my nieces to The Magic Shop today, and of course left with two delightful stuffed bunnies! I on the other hand left with beautiful taper candles in robin's egg blue and egg designed napkins for Easter.  Although the Magic Shop does have a large selection of European toys, stuffed animals and games, it also has a lovely nursery section, house wares section and a great antique room that boasts artwork, sofas, dining furniture etc.! The Magic Shop is operated for the benefit of Bonnie Brae School, in Liberty Corner, NJ, a non-profit, accredited residential treatment and education center for the youth at risk. For more information, visit www.bonnie-brae.org.

 This lovely shop is only 45 minutes outside of NYC, straight down RT. 78 west to the Oldwick exit. While in Oldwick grab lunch at the delicious Tewksbury Inn, and enjoy the beautiful countryside.
A historic house turned little shop is absolutely charming.

If you want to catch the rabbit hole get here by the 14th of April!!

Sweet entry foyer filled with Steiff animals fill the shelves!

Lovely artwork in the housewares section.

I will just take the table setting to go!!

The Antique section is my favorite. The rugs,  sofas, tables, lighting, and art all fabulous!

One of two Easter sections, with chocolates, books, candles, and stuffed animals.


Enter the Bunny Hole, either by door or by small built in slide!

Mrs. Rabbit cooking in the magic bunny hole room!

Maybe Peter's garden..

My patient nieces allowing me to snap away while they play!

Chicken coop!

Picnic in the hollow!

Little cows in the barn!



Friday, March 30, 2012

Albert Hadley 1921- 2012

It is with much sadness to find out about Mr. Albert Hadley's passing this morning in his hometown of Nashville. As you have seen by my blog  I used one of his favorite quotes as my muse!! We have lost a great designer, who's style and character greatly shaped the world of design as we know it today!
I will post the great article from the NY times, as a dedication to Albert Hadley! Please read and remember, and if you don"t know who he is this will give you insight to his greatness!


Once upon a time, and for a very long time indeed, Albert Hadley was the king of American decorating -- and his business partner, Mrs. Henry Parish 2nd, otherwise known as Sister, was the queen. For many people, Mr. Hadley, a shy Tennessean with huge, owlish glasses, still wears the crown. He continues to work at Albert Hadley Inc., the firm he founded in 1999 after he closed the doors of Parish-Hadley, the 33-year-old firm he ran with Mrs. Parish until her death in 1994. And he continues to be the designer for the rich and famous.
“Practicing a kind of decorating that prized subtlety over statement and gloss over glitz,” Julie Iovine of The New York Times wrote the week Parish-Hadley shut down, “Mr. Hadley, 79, has brought a knowing sophistication and a hint of modernism to his interiors without ever making his clients — among them Brooke Astor, Happy Rockefeller, Henry and Louise Grunwald, Al and Tipper Gore (in the Naval Observatory, the official vice presidential residence) and Oscar and Annette de la Renta — look like old-school snobs.”
Mr. Hadley’s first job with Mrs. Parish in the early 1960s was the White House breakfast room of Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy. “I really only did the curtains,” he told Ms. Iovine in 1999.
Albert Livingston Hadley Jr. was born in Nashville in 1921 and graduated from Peabody College there. After serving in World War II as a payroll clerk, he came to New York City in 1947 to study and teach at the Parsons School of Design. He worked first at Macmillan, another blue-chip decorating firm, and joined with Mrs. Parish in 1962, his spare modernist taste a counterpoint to her more English style. Their firm created beautiful interiors for the country’s elite and also became a training ground for the best in the interior design profession — part boot camp, part Ivy League university, with alumni like Bunny Williams, David Easton, Thomas Jayne, Mariette Himes Gomez and Mario Buatta, who went on to become design stars in their own right.
In 2005, on the occasion of Mr. Hadley’s 85th birthday, Mitchell Owens of The Times spoke with one of Mr. Hadley’s current clients, Diana Quasha, for whom he was designing the interior of a condominium in the Bloomberg tower at Lexington Avenue and 58th Street. “He's still the hippest thing out there," Ms. Quasha said. “I don't want it to be modern, and I don't want it to be traditional. I want it to look interesting. Who else would I ask?”  Written by Chester Higgins Jr.

HADLEY.jpg 
The Two Icons of design Hadley and Sister Parish!


One of his amazing sketches!!!




Farewell Mr. Hadley your design legacy will live on forever!

House Of Hackney


According to House of Hackney, they take the concept of the British home wares and design and have turned it on its head! “Infusing the traditional products with playful and irreverent prints and images that seem too appeal to the new generation!
House of Hackney is on a quest to take beige out of interiors!! They were sick of the bland minimalism and disposable furnishings and wanted to provide a great change!
They have been referred to as Colefax and Fowler on “ACID”!  You will see why when you do a double take at their wallpaper, bed linens and furniture that are characterized by prints steeped in tradition but yet are bold and non–conformist!
I also find that their fabric and products are not outrageously expensive, they have truly kept the consumer in mind when pricing their items! They also provide bespoke commission if you have a specific use of size needed.
Lastly, they are also environmentally conscious and try to offset their carbon footprint by supporting the Woodland Trust in creating new native woodlands to absorb the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and crating new habitat to help wildlife adapt to climate change!
I love this fun quirky company!! I can see how it may definitely appeal to the younger generation who wants to grab on to traditionalism, yet add a cutting edge to it!
I can’t wait to use one of these fun fabrics in a future project!! Check out House of Hackney.
Dalston Rose

Have to love there advertisement!!

Queen Bee

Furniture available as well!

Wild Card

Mix of this great leopard print throughout!

Hackney Empire, I think I see this adorable cat in the paper!

Used in different color ways to make and impact!

Flights of Fancy

What a fun guest room this fabric and paper would make!!

They even do china, for a proper tea!

Lamps and lamp shades available!


Bolster pillows , which have made quite a come back!

They sell bedding as well, love the bee print on this one!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

A Fish out of Water!

I love fish ponds!  I remember as a child being mesmerized by goldfish in a park pond, losing track of time as I watched them move about glistening in the summer sun. Now that I am much...much older I also love fish in decor! With the weather getting warmer and summer on the horizon, I feel inspired by water and fish motif.  There are wonderful custom wall covering companies who have beautiful fish paper such as De Gournay, and Fromental. The paper is so beautiful that it can go almost anywhere. I am toying with the idea of putting it in my latest project ( powder room) or having a faded mural rendered to give the same effect. I fell in love with a certain pattern from a past House beautiful magazine article in which the designer used a Fromental paper in a dining room, needless to say I still have that copy! So even if you are not lucky when it comes to keeping a pond or even a goldfish bowl flourishing, these fish need no water and may be enjoyed for several years to come!!

Brimfield Antique Fair  fine!

My work in progress..have to decide paper or mural!
Just Morocco fish scale

Under water feel that looks dreamy.

DeGournay Paper in a small powder room, the little added detail makes the space!

Again DeGournay used in kitchen by a famous Millionaire Decorator!!

The House Beautiful room that I love!!!!

Fromental again in a different color hue!

Fromental in lounge area, adds interest to space. 

Lotus and Carp asian silk screen.

Wallpaper Direct

Adorable ceramic fish!

Vintage dolphin side table.

Carp bar stool and a cruise ship, how great!!!


Jonathan Adler using fish pillow in hollywood style regency decor!!

Jonathan Adler

Jonathan Adler placemat!

Fantastic door knocker!