Decorating: Better Homes and Gardens
You know how Better Homes and Gardens releases special quarterly Decorating issues? Well I rarely purchase them because they're a little too traditional and 'perfect' for my taste and I can't deal with matchy-matchy interiors. Okay so yesterday I ended up at Barnes & Noble looking for the March LivingEtc issue and since it wasn't there I picked up the only new thing I could find that looked new -- Decorating from BH&G. Expecting to see the normal taupe, blue, chocolate and striped to death interiors, I took a seat and started flipping through it. You know, in that I'm sooo not interested in this magazine but it's better than nothing fashion. And surprise! This is the part of the story where I eat my words. A darling small space belonging to an artist decorated solely with flea market finds with lots of gold, pink, and turquoise. Pinch me. It's in the current Spring '08 issue in case you're interested and it's so perfectly imperfect - a knock-out eclectic mix.
The article is called Breaking Convention (on pages 76-83) and features the colorful space of children's book illustrator Rosie Winstead photographed by Alise O'Brien. Her Springfield, Missouri home is extremely charming and somewhat small as it's only 1,100 square-foot space. I tried to find information about Rosie on the web, as the article doesn't point to a website, but I had little success finding anything personal about Rosie with the exception of the books that she's illustrated and this bio. I was disappointed to see that the magazine didn't spotlight the article in their resource guide as I'm dying to know where she found some of her fabric. My guess is that they excluded her home in the guide because so much of it was pulled together using vintage finds so BH&G didn't have much to go on.
The second I flipped open to this article I thought of Nicole Balch from Making It Lovely because she has a similar color palette in her Chicago home. I can totally see Nicole drooling over this article.
The magazine highlights a smallish living/dining room combo, an office (that was once the dining room) and a lovely bedroom. What I like about it is that Rosie isn't a professional decorator, she just has that magic touch - she knows what she likes and she has a certain look that she sticks with so whenever she brings something home she's confident it will fit in. If you notice her work space below, the arrangement of art above her desk is just great and was collected from flea markets and from family members.
These are very rough shots of my issue only meant to whet your appetite. To see them in all their full-sized glory you'll need to pick up the issue or purchase a subscription online. I think you'll like most of the homes featured inside and there's a huge 14 page section devoted to flooring that I find extremely helpful when it comes to selecting the right surface according to room. Another nice home tour is Think Pink on pages 30-41.
(images from holly becker for decor8)