Manolo for the Home

When I think of gardens, the first image that springs to mind is clusters of colorful flowers, bright greenery, stone pathways, and possibly a fountain or two. The greenspace that exists fully formed in my thoughts is meant to be enjoyed actively…it’s the domain of walkers and sniffers and pollinators and diggers. Take a slice out of your nearest arboretum or botanical garden, and you get the idea.

But there are other gardens out there meant to be savored in different ways. My college, for instance, had a small garden created specifically for the blind to enjoy. I’d close my eyes and walk through it, smelling the various fragrances that wafted my way and feeling the leaves and flowers of plants chosen for their tactile pleasantness.

Another sort of garden, the moon garden, is meant to be enjoyed at night, usually from the comfort of a bench or porch swing. White and light-colored blossoms glow in the moonlight, and the sounds of nature seem amplified when darkness is all around you.

(more…)

I was all set to write about moon gardens, but it’s already just shy of 11 p.m. and I have to get up at 5:30 a.m. so there goes that idea. A post about moon gardens is forthcoming, and to stimulate your appetite, here’s a description: “Designed to be enjoyed from dusk until the coming of the darkness, these gardens serve as a perfect complement to silvery moonlight, mild summer nights, and the spirit of rejuvenation.” Uh…okay, maybe not. Basically, moon gardens contain a mix of flowers and plants that look badass at night.

Until I muster up the energy to compose a missive about ‘em–look for it on Friday morning–please enjoy some pictures of freaky chairs…like this meat chair, for instance:

(more…)

If putting two little birdies or one tree on your wall sounds too tame, there are other decals out there that are a lot less ordinary. Blik sells a rather largish collection of re-stickable and not re-stickable wall decor that’s about as out there as you could want. The room above is hellsa grownup when viewed in the context of their other decals!

How about angry robots…bloody cartoon psychos…trippy cities…or crazy critters?

(more…)

There’s a certain category of things for the home that I like to call BK, or “before kids.” Tasteful nudes are one thing — I grew up in a very cultural knowledgeable family with plenty of boobs and wangs on the walls. Still, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t red in the face when my grandfather used the word pubis while sagely pointed out artistic elements in paintings! I interned with a woman whose entire house was a repository for vintage XXX pinups…I always rather wondered what her 13-year-old son thought of them.

I imagine that most people who have things like collections of erotica and Madonna’s Sex book and love dice probably put them away when their kiddies get old enough to read and start asking questions like “What does whore mean?” Or they just don’t reproduce, which is cool, too. Viva Le choix!

The cups, mugs, and tableware Trixie Delicious creates run the gamut from too coole to relatively tame to OMG QUICK PUT IT AWAY BEFORE MY GRANDMA GETS HERE. Unless, that is, your grandma happens to be my grandma, because my gram has quite the dirty mind. There’s something about the dichotomy that tickles me…the first thing you see is this flowery auntiesque-looking plate, then your brain notices it has the word arse splashed playfully across it.

These are some of the tamer specimens. Racier, NSFWish plates can be seen under the jump!

(more…)

Please don’t confuse this with the five things I can’t live without. It’s totally, totally different! For one thing, I already have some of the things listed below. It’s just that my particular versions aren’t quite as nice. And some of the things are totally impractical, pointless, and even silly!

It is the height of ridiculousness and something I could probably make myself, if necessary. We’ve talked about ceramic cats in the past, but this one is just a tad different. What’s stopping me from snapping it right up is the price tag. The Rosenau Castle cat (part of Nymphenburg’s Big Five porcelain trophy series) costs a cool $929. Ouch.

(more…)

I’d like to say that from now on, all my bedding will come to me from DwellStudio. Except I can’t say that, because I don’t have $265 to spend on a duvet cover, and I simply can’t justify spending $80 on a single pillow sham. Yes, that’s one (count it, one) sham, which is just one ‘e’ away from being a crying shame.

But aren’t the linens shown above just divine? I might be persuaded to spend more time reading in bed and less time in front of The Beard’s computer watching Battlestar Galactica if I had a full set…or maybe just one of the duvet covers. All right, so on blah days like today I don’t exactly need a lot of persuading. The kicker is that I have to get up, out of my warm cozy bed, and actually do things if I want to afford the kind of linens specifically designed to keep one in bed!

It’s a pear…with a butthole. At least that’s what it looks like to my eyes, which have seen scads of cartoon cats with little star-like pencil sharpeners under their cartoon tails. While I’m sure that Maija Isola and Kristina Isola put a lot of thought into this colorful fruit back in 1969, all I can see is a pear with a butthole.

This is what buttpear looks like on the wall in your super mod living room in what I’m sure is your fabulous New York City apartment that’s located in a building that was once a factory.

What I do like here is the concept, conceived of by Marimekko for CB2. In case you didn’t know, it’s Crate & Barrel’s new hip venture meant to appeal to young hip folks like me and you. First you buy a set of metal hanging bars and hardware, then you buy interchangeable fabric prints like this one, which I adore. They’re relatively inexpensive as wall decor goes, and they are absolutely HUGE. That means bang for your buck!

But, yeah…a pear with a butthole.

I’m lucky in that I can sit here at my desk and stare out of my window into my extremely green backyard. The plus is that I can see flowers and shrubs and trees and a baby rhubarb and broccoli seedlings. The minus is that I can also see the dandelions. Now, personally, I like dandelions…on other people’s properties, that is. They’re pretty, but give them an inch of your lawn and they’re going to take over the whole thing. Grrrrrr!

Not everyone is so lucky, however, which means that city rats and apartment dwellers have to improvise when it comes to getting a nature fix. There’s not always time to get to the botanical garden or hike the nearest mountain range, but there’s almost always time for a little retail therapy.

Multi-colored metal says fall to me, but it may say something different to you. But at a foot and a half square and two inches deep, I have to wonder how heavy these leaves are.

Custom framed golden leaf prints by S. Hadley…whoever that is…represent a lighter option.

Is it weird that I can’t figure out whether these are plates or plain old circles? I love putting plates on the wall, even though plenty of them are a pain in the tuckas to hang.

But wait…am I being too literal? Too literally leafy? Personally, I like this:

I feel like what I’m going to talk about today is more than a little related to yesterday’s post at Manolo for the Brides. Single ladies, MSN said, should eat their ice cream and have a cat while they still can. Now I found out, compliments of CNN, that married lads better learn to like skulking about in basements and garages.

For Brian, it’s not just about holding onto the ratty futon and the “Fletch” movie poster from his bachelor days. It’s about having a “mantuary,” or “man cave” — a space just for him where he can watch sports uninterrupted or play Xbox games with his buddies.

I’m kidding about the skulking. The Beard and I have our separate offices, and that’s good! I prefer complete silence when writing because I’m so easily distracted. He likes listening to music non-stop. When we shared an office back in the day this caused more than a few tiffs.

(more…)

When I was younger, I’d hear things like “a quarter of a million dollars” and marvel at how much money that must be. Oh, how times have changed! Most of the real estate in my own neighborhood goes for at least twice that, and plenty of the houses just blocks away from my own last sold for far more than a million!

If I had a million bucks, I’d invest the crap out of it in low-risk investments that would sit untouched until it came time for me to retire. I do plan to save up a cool mil, but writing isn’t exactly a profession that nets you sick windfalls unless you’re a J.K. Rowling or a Stephen King. I’m working on it, all right?

So what does one million dollars buy you these days? Forbes had a great slideshow on its web site illustrating what you can get for that sum around the U.S. The pic above is what you can buy in San Fransisco: a 3-bedroom pad with views of the Bay.

(more…)