On my love of blue.

Atlanta Showhouse

It's no secret that I've been having an ongoing love affair with blue the past year or so -- in fact, my family room is practically a homage to the color. Perhaps it's attributable to living in Houston, where the heat and strong light make cool blues particularly refreshing and attractive: no need to worry about a room feeling too cold, after all! Or perhaps it's that I love the richness that can come with some of the more jewel-tone variations of blue: turquoises, teals and rich cobalts are all very appealing to me (and very of the moment). Or because blue and white is a classic and, like a good navy suit, will really never date. Or maybe, like love more generally, my love of blue is arbitrary and ultimately inexplicable.

Since I'm always on the look out for great and inspiring rooms to share with y'all -- and it's been quite a while since I featured a round-up of my favorite blue rooms -- I thought I'd see us through the weekend with some of my new blue favorites. I'm afraid I'm fresh out of my usual design blather this week, so for once I'll spare you my own opinion on these rooms and allow you to enjoy the eye candy free of distractions.

T. Keller Donovan

Waterleaf Interiors

Christina Murphy

Sara Gilbane Interiors

Tobi Fairley

Kim Coleman

Phoebe Howard

Phoebe Howard

Phoebe Howard

Lonny Magazine

Kelley Interior Design

Michael Partenio

Kendall Wilkinson

I'll be back next week with a very exciting progress report on some home design projects. Until then, have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Mood Board Monday

I'm kicking off this week with another Mood Board Monday courtesy of Sarah at Pewter+Sage. This round, Sarah has asked her readers to create mood boards inspired by one of three summery bedding sets. Now bedding is a great jumping off point for pulling together a bedroom and the three options Sarah proposed were all wonderful examples of that. I chose the Bohemian Medallion duvet from Urban Outfitters (featured above). I love the yellow and charcoal gray color palette and the intricate pattern, which has a lovely, exotic quality that I wanted to further incorporate into my bedroom.

With that as inspiration, I decided to create a warm, summery bedroom that reflected the duvet's more traditional print as well as its thoroughly modern color palette. But I also wanted to imbue the space with a subtle coastal vibe -- if for no better reason that it's summer and we all have vacation on the brain, but also as a challenge to create a coastal interior that does not rely on blue!

The key to creating a colorful coastal interior that does not rely on watery blues and greens is to bring in a good dose of natural textures (grasscloth, rattan, bamboo, seagrass, etc.) balanced by breezy whites. A few wonderful examples from my favorite designers include:

Robin Bell

John Willey

Phoebe Howard

Amanda Nisbet

Keeping these elements in mind, let's see how I'd go about incorporating this colorful medallion bedding into a bold (yet still soothing) coastal bedroom:

I'd start by painting the room in White Tie from Farrow & Ball, which they describe as "the white of old, pre-brightened, starched cotton" -- and I think that's a brilliant description. It's vintage-y and warm with just a touch of yellow. On the floor, I'd bring in a simple and modern gray and cream rug with a geometric print to ground the room. Curtains in a gray diamond print echo the rug's print without exactly matching it. The yellow slipper chair has a decidedly more feminine twist with its curvy spade print and elegant, spare shape. I'd echo this more feminine shape with a stunning, gray Rococo bed in a modern charcoal gray. The shape also reminds me of a shell, which I'd reference more overtly with a pair of Adler's modern shell lamps (and I love their gray shade). To balance the colorful duvet and shams, I'd stick with white sheets, which will bring in a strong dose of soothing white to the room.

To create more visual space (and keep the focus on that incredible bed), I'd bring in lucite nesting tables for side tables. This modern touch also works as a great foil to the ornate bed and intricate medallion pattern of the bedlinens, while emphasizing the on-trend gray and yellow color palette. To incorporate that textural element so essential for coastal interiors, I'd add a rattan and bamboo woven pendant (whose clean, modern shape is yet another nod to the other modern touches in the room), a grasscloth dresser (with tons of great storage to keep clutter at bay) and a jute pouf (which can perform triple duty as a side table, ottoman or extra seating). Finally, I'd bring in a few pretty and romantic accessories like the antique mercury glass vases (perfectly sized to hold one or two summer blooms) and a pretty lotus candleholder.

Source List:

Clockwise from top left: 1. Bohemian Medallion Duvet from Urban Outfitters. 2. Leran Pendant (24") from IKEA. 3. Shell Lamp from Jonathan Adler. 4. Antique Mercury Wine Bottles from Mothology. 5.Peekaboo Clear Nesting Tables from CB2. 6. 3-piece lotus candleholder from CB2. 7. Coralie Bed from Anthropologie. 8. Surya Fallon Collection FAL01 Gray Rug from Rug USA. 9. Maize Spade cotton fabric and Bark Diamond cotton fabric from Serena & Lily. 10. Avignon Chair from Serena & Lily. 11. Bungalow5 Frances Six-Drawer Dresser in White from Clayton Gray Home. 12. Jute Cube from West Elm. 13. Paint (Shown as background): White Tie from Farrow&Ball.

Be sure to check out all the other great mood boards HERE.

Style Essential: Stripes

Mary McDonald

As most of you know, I'm a huge fan of using pattern in interior spaces and one of my favorite patterns to use are simple stripes. Sure, bold zig zags or suzanis are wonderful, but stripes are timeless, and a wonderful partner to florals, polka dots, ikats -- and yes, zig zags and suzanis, too. In addition to their ability to seamlessly work with almost any other pattern and in any decor style, stripes have that almost magical ability to create illusions of space (either vertical or horizontal) and architectural interest in even the plainest and boxiest of room.

What follows are a half dozen simple tricks and ideas for working stripes into your own home:

1. Use horizontal stripes to widen narrow rooms. While I try to avoid horizontal stripes in fashion, horizontal stripes on your walls are a wonderful way to make a narrow room like wider. Try this in a hallway, mudroom or in an awkward shot-gun style bedroom.

Melissa Warner

Amanda Nisbet

2. Use stripes of varying widths and colors for a fun, fresh accent wall. Three to five colors and widths seem to be the sweet spot for this project as too many colors/widths make it difficult to see any pattern and can create too much visual noise.

Mary McDonald

Frank Roop

Mary McDonald

3. Use vertical stripes to elongate a room visually. As with vertical stripes in fashion, vertical stripes on your walls emphasizes height rather than width. Use wherever you want to highlight high ceilings (or beautiful crown moldings) or to create the illusion of higher ceilings in low-slung rooms. If you want a more playful room, try wider stripes, which lend a more circus- or cabana-like feel to a space. If you'd rather go for a subtler, more sophisticated vibe, try narrower stripes.

Ashley Whittaker

John Oetgen

Robin Bell

Ruthie Sommers

4. Carry the vertical stripes up the ceiling to create a tented room. A bolder statement to be sure, but this is a wonderful way to highlight slanted ceilings. By taking the stripes up and over the ceiling, you can also create a cozy, cocoon-like effect (even in rooms with higher ceilings). This look is particularly successful in powder rooms, children's rooms and dens, where the playful vibe is most at home.

Jeffers Design Group

Phoebe Howard

Leslie Klotz

5. Striped, flatweave rugs add a touch of casual elegance to any space. I really love a flatweave cotton rug in the summertime (or, if you're like me and live in a warmer climate, yearound). There's just something so casual and fresh about them. This look is ideal in beach houses, cottages and coastal interiors, but it is also a wonderful way to make just about any space feel a bit more casual and dressed down. If you like the look of exposed floors, painted stripes like those in the breakfast nook by Tobi Fairley in the last photo below are a wonderful option as well.

Marshall Watson

Waterleaf Interiors

Kim Coleman

Steven Gambrel

Annie Selke

Tobi Fairley

6. Use bold stripes on upholstered pieces to make a big statement. While the general wisdom is to keep larger pieces of furniture pattern-free, stripes on smaller upholstered pieces like accent chairs, benches and settees are a wonderful way to bring in a good dose of pattern that can be easily mixed in with other fabrics on pillows, draperies or rugs.

Sally Steponkus

T. Keller Donovan

John Oetgen

Tom Stringer

Elizabeth Dinkel

Steven Gambrel

Style Essential: Grasscloth

Ashley Whittaker

With my newfound obsession with wallpaper now in full swing, I can't help but turn my attention to all the beautiful grasscloths available on the market today. Grasscloth is a great option if you're trying bring warmth, texture and/or character to your home. And, unlike many prints and patterns, it's a timeless choice that will work with you as trends and your tastes inevitably change. The gold standard for grasscloths today is Phillip Jeffries, but Schumacher and Thibaut also offer some lovely options as well.

Marshall Watson

If you're looking to keep things neutral, but still want to bring in some subtle pattern and texture, natural grass cloth is an easy choice. Larger, more thickly woven grasscloths lend an exotic, tropical touch to a space and tend to read as more casual and eclectic.

Elle Decor

Many of the interiors featured in this post might best be described as global eclectic or coastal -- but that doesn't mean that grasscloth can't work in streamlined, modern interiors. In fact, finer, more delicately woven grasscloths are a beautiful way to bring some subtle warmth and texture to a room without the heavy texture and overt naturalness of less refined grasscloths.

Angie Hranowsky

I love the juxtaposition here of very contemporary, boxy furniture with the suzani blanket and grasscloth paper. I'm a big fan of keeping the big ticket furniture items very clean and modern and adding warmth, color and interest with accessories, rugs and wallcoverings. This also has the benefit of being a fairly inexpensive fix should you want to shake things up a bit -- simply by swapping out the bedding and rug, you could achieve an entirely different look.

Waterleaf Interiors

Grasscloth is a natural choice for coastal interiors and is a wonderful counterpoint to cooler blue accents. The paper also pairs beautifully with bamboo and other woven blinds (which I'm a big fan of and have had them in both my old house and my new house).

John Willey Interior Design

The texture here is more like linen than grasscloth, but I love the interest and subtle pattern it brings to this vignette. It's also such an earthy contrast to the lime interiors of the shelves.

Canadian House & Home

I'm actually a big fan when grasscloth is hung with obvious seams, as it brings additional pattern and interest to your walls. In this bedroom, I absolutely love how the faux bois rug playfully picks up on the sophisticated, natural element introduced by the pearly grasscloth. Both are playfully referential, rather than literal.

If you're looking to stay neutral, but want a little bit more drama, why not use a rich mocha or chocolate grasscloth? The end result is incredibly rich.

Jeffrey Bilhuber

The grasscloth used in this bathroom is actually vinyl, making it much more practical for wet spaces than traditional grasses.

Eric Kohler

The rich chocolate brown Phillip Jeffries' grasscloth on the walls is made even richer by the blue linen on the ceiling (Phillip Jeffries Sapporo Linen wallpaper in Blue).

Ruthie Sommers

The milk chocolate colored grass cloth is the perfect counterpoint to the corals, mints and creams in the rest of the space. And I absolutely love the wall-to-wall animal print rug, which adds a nice element of youth and wit to the room (as do the lucite tables) -- it's bold, but in those neutral browns and against the chocolate walls, it reads much quieter.

Sherrill Canet

I love the idea of using grasscloth on a ceiling, which can really make a feature of high ceilings or interesting angles. Here, the dark color helps cozy up the high ceilings, and ties in the dark furnishings with the white walls.

Palmer Weiss

I've gone on and on about this dining room before, but had to share it again here. I particularly love how Palmer painted the ceiling a rich cafe au lait, which provides a more subtle contrast between the ceiling and walls.

If you're looking to make more of a statement though, why not go for a colored grasscloth? While you can paint most grasscloths yourself, these days they also come ready made in a wide array of colors. An obvious choice, I think, would be a rich green:

Christina Murphy

I love this nook, especially the bold black settee with its black and white upholstery. The artwork, matted in white and framed in glossy black frames, help tie the furniture to the walls, creating coherence and harmony.

Amanda Nisbet

Chartreuse is an unexpectedly chic color in a cottage bedroom. The all-white furnishings and linens keep it feeling overly trendy while the two fern pillows ground the bed and tie it back to the walls. [If I have learned anything from reading all this design is that, if you want a cohesive look, it's essential to repeat patterns, textures and colors at least once in a space.]

Hillary Thomas

Seriously brilliant with those hot pink drapes. I also like how the green walls don't precisely match the green sofa -- it's this slightly off kilter color story that makes the room look less formal, less "decorated" (and far more livable!).

Rich teals and blues can be just as dramatic, and read as more sophisticated:

Elizabeth Dinkel

I love the blue-green shade of this grasscloth, which is picked up so perfectly in the velvet benches and cushions. And do I even need to mention the coronets or the gorgeous pendant lights above the two beds? ::sigh::

Suzanne Kasler

I gasped when I saw this dining room in the June issue of Traditional Home. It's just so, so beautiful. The subtle color strirations in the blue-gray grasscloth echo the shimmering waters of the lake the house sits on. The silvery-gold ceiling adds even more drama and elegance. Also, how brilliant is the mixing of the loop chairs with the Louis XV chairs?

Phoebe Howard

The queen of "keep it pretty" has, once again, done exactly that. Incidentially, I believe that is my dream bed: a spare, architectural canopy paired with a lovely upholstered headboard and footboard.

Meg Braff

I absolutely adore wainscotting, but it is true that it can often look rather formal. The addition of the grasscloth above the moldings, however, is a great way to bring some informality to the space as the deep blue grasscloth looks almost as though the walls were upholstered in denim.

Jamie Drake

Note how the grasscloth here is laid on the vertical rather than the more typical horizontal. These subtle vertical lines add height to a low ceiling and echo the bolder vertical stripes on the sofa.

For a more unexpected and thoroughly modern statement, why not try out purple or pink?

Jamie Drake

A beautiful example of how to really do up a guest bedroom properly. I'm a firm believer in experimenting in these seldom-used rooms. It's a wonderful opportunity to go all out with color, pattern, glamour -- whatever your heart desires. As for me, this room has given me a bad case of purple fever.

{source unknown -- email me if you know!}

I love the bold pink and lime color scheme in this room -- it's so Palm Beach! And also a refreshing change from all the blues and sands that are so typical of coastal interiors (though goodness knows I love my blues!).

And, just like any other wallcovering, grasscloth can be printed with a wide array of patterns, from geometric stripes and fretwork, to ornate damasks and florals.

Marshall Watson

Love this pretty aqua plaid from Schumacher. The aqua and chocolate brown palette is carried on throughout the rest of the room. I'm particularly fond of that two-toned rug.

Canadian House & Home

Pretty florals in a tone-on-tone pearl are a lovely, girly take on grasscloth. Note how the sofa too is a subtle tone-on-tone pattern, though this time in a more masculine geometric. This subtle tension between the walls and the upholstery create an interesting backdrop for the vivid pops of lime and hot pink.

Sally Steponkus

This Moroccan grasscloth print (in blue!) from Phillip Jeffries has been on my "wish list" for our new home for months now. While I'd love to use it to paper the back wall of our breakfast nook, I know that practicalities dictate I find somewhere else to put it far, far away from the dinner table. And so, until I can think of a more sensible place to use it, I'll have to content myself with fawning over this lovely entryway.

HGTV's Design Star

This guest room, that the contestants decorated for Tiffani-Amber Theissen has got to one of my favorite HGTV rooms ever. The damask print on the grasscloth is gorgeous, and I love how they tempered its bold statement by keeping it on just one wall. My only critique would be to replace the seagrass rug with something else (maybe a bold navy stripe?) as it feels too matchy-matchy with the grasscloth for my taste.

So what about you? Are you as into grasscloth as I am? Have you tried it out in your own home yet or in a design project?