This Just In

I'm not going to lie . . . I can be a picky girl when it comes to decorating. I have very specific ideas about what looks good, and what falls outside of that category, I tend to qualify as "poor taste." But generally, rather than focusing on those things, I support and showcase the design that I do love and do find in good taste.

Sometimes, though, I wish I had the — excuse my French — balls to tell it how it is. One person I can totally rely on for this is decorator extraordinaire Brian Patrick Flynn, aka Décor Demon. BPF recently bared his soul about his biggest decorating pet peeves in a chat with Blayne Beacham of This Photographer's Life, and I can't help but exclaim "Hallelujah" in response to his openness.

Here's what really ruffles Brian's feathers:

• Sticks in a vase shoved in a corner.
• Themes in kids' rooms.
• "Art" bought at big-box retail stores.
• Swag window treatments.
• Leather rolled-arm club chairs in manspaces.

Brian does admit to supporting one look that may be on its way out: "Now, as much as I wanna be over the empty-frames-grouped-and-hung-on-a-wall-thing, I kinda still like it. In fact, I did it above my media room sofa using spraypaint in violet, plum, and bronze tones." Me, on the other hand, I'm more of a minimalist than BPF. I'd rather have an empty wall and wait until I can afford or find artwork that I love than hang empty frames in a cute arrangement, which to me only draws attention to what's missing. There, I said it!

Head over to This Photographer's Life to hear more of Brian's opinions on everything from ceiling fans to the color beige to wall decals!

Last week, I was invited to have dinner in New Orleans with Kelly Edwards, host of HGTV’s Design on a Dime and Style Network's Tacky House — thank you to the fine folks at Rust-Oleum. Cute-as-can-be Kelly has been on my radar for a few years, but I’ve never known much about her.

I was excited to hear that she moved out to LA from Chicago on a whim and basically took a job sweeping the floors of a production set, just so she could be around cool, creative people in showbiz. Soon enough, she’d moved from assistant positions behind the scenes to a full-time gig in front of the cameras. The rest, as they say, is history.

Getting back to this gist of this post . . . when she wasn’t being grilled about her celebrity lifestyle over crawfish bisque, Kelly was kind enough to share her observations about growing kitchen trends. The girl’s had tons of experience renovating homes and is chummy with scores of contractors, designers, retailers, and more, so let’s just say my ears perked up when she first mouthed the word “trend.”

Here are the top five kitchen trends Kelly’s been spotting lately:

• Function over form. With paychecks getting smaller, kitchens are following suit, and home renovators are focusing on efficiency, practicality, and the placement of appliances, rather than building expansive kitchens with miles of marble countertops, quadruple stoves, and rarely used gadgets that take up too much space. Goodbye built-in panini maker, hello microwave installed smartly under the countertop!
• Bel Air goes Ikea. Though she said he might be ashamed to admit it, one of Kelly’s good Bel Air-based designer friends (whose clients’ homes cost millions) sees that designers, himself included, are sourcing more and more furnishings at low-budget shops like Ikea and thrift stores and flea markets. With Ikea kitchen cabinetry that has a high-design look to street-find furniture that can be reupholstered or painted, designers aren’t going straight to the showrooms anymore.
• Eco — still. Though Kelly admits the design savvy have been on to the “trend” for years, she says eco design really still is big in the decorating world — and getting bigger. The reason? Though cork tiles and Energy Star refrigerators have been sought after for the better part of the last decade, now that the demand is there, the prices are finally going down. So now, eco design is a trend we really all can afford.
• Getting high. While kitchens tend to be getting narrower, Kelly says they’re also getting taller. Designers and architects are bringing a feeling of openness to galley kitchens by increasing the height of the room. It can be less costly to add a few more feet of drywall than to add more surface area to the floor, requiring expensive floor tiles, hardwood panels, marble, or what have you.
• Tiling away. While a tiled backsplash is practically a given in most kitchens, Kelly says the new trend is to tile not just the sliver but the entire wall of a kitchen, either an accent wall or all of the walls in the room. With what? Kelly says large, 21-inch x 36-inch tiles are becoming more and more common in new kitchens.

Do you think your home is museum-worthy? You may store your novels on an Ikea Billy or watch TV on a sofa you found on the street, but spectators might pay to see where you live . . . in 100 years. That's the case with affluent Frenchman Louis Mantin (d.1905), who stated in his will that his opulent late 19th century townhouse in central France should be left to the town of Moulins and used as a museum one century later. After essentially being abandoned since his death, the town scraped up the money to complete a painstaking restoration, cleaning roofs, floors, woodwork, paintings, and tapestries. The home just opened its doors to the public and lives on as an extraordinary time-capsule, revealing to museum-goers how people lived way back when. It also just so happens that the interiors are filled with luxurious furnishings, archaeological collections, Masonic paraphernalia, taxidermy of the day, and turn-of-the-century technology like a towel warming cabinet and a flushable toilet, all luxuries of the day.

If your own home were to be sealed up tomorrow, what furnishings and gadgets do you think 22nd century visitors would be intrigued by? A dual-flush toilet? A Snuggie?

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Word on the street last week was that Lindsay Lohan would leave rehab today to live in "a secret location" with her mother and siblings, and instead of returning to her West Hollywood home, in hopes of staying out of the public eye. Well, now I've got news that Lohan's "classified" new crib is a rental in Venice, CA. The actress will be shelling out $7,100 per month for a brand-new, 3,100-square-foot, four-bedroom, 3.5-bath, modern loft just blocks from the beach.

In addition to a roof deck with city and mountain views, the luxurious contemporary crib features a south-facing patio, a floating stairway, a large studio and office mezzanine, and mahogany, Carrera marble, concrete, forged steel, and mosaic tile finishes. The three-story house seems like a relaxing place to recover. And when the weather warms up, I'm sure she'll be pleased to be so close to the beach!

Take the full tour below and tell me what you think of Lohan's new home!

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The romance between Jude Law and Sienna Miller has been on again since late last year. Considering how quickly the two of them go through relationships, until we hear wedding bells, it's hard to know whether this one will last. But now there's one piece of news that points to "yes": the pair have just scooped up a seven-bedroom, 5.5-bath home in London's posh Highgate neighborhood.

The couple's new love nest is a double-fronted Georgian house that was built in the 1820s. It's been exquisitely refurbished and features private off-street parking, a 96-foot walled garden, two kitchens, an art studio, a roof terrace, a large patio, a playroom, a drawing room, and a gym. Jude already has several children of his own, but perhaps that playroom will come in handy for children of Sienna's, too! Only time will tell. Take the full tour below:

Purveyor of prep Lilly Pulitzer debuted a bedding line exclusively for Garnet Hill in January, and after much success in the interiors department, the brand has decided to launch an extensive line of furniture come Spring 2011. The collection will include more than 200 pieces with traditional and midcentury shapes for the bedroom, dining room, and living room. The casegoods will feature Palm Beach white finishes, crisp mahogany veneers, woven materials, and colorful lacquers — may I guess pink and green!? And better yet, Lilly's iconic, juicy prints will make their way onto upholstery from Lee Jofa. Now you can live la vie Palm Beach without stepping foot on Worth Avenue!

British wallpaper retailer Graham & Brown has your walls covered. After 64 years in the wallpaper business, the company is expanding its horizons with its first interior paint collection. Inspired by British icons, the collection is aptly named "The Colours That Made Britain Great." The range includes 30 high-quality, flat, matte finish colors in a full spectrum of shades. From a peachy beige named "Nice Cup of Tea" to a riveting rouge called "Double Decker Bus," each hue is a clever nod to British culture. Better yet, the paints were designed to complement G&B's existing collection of wallpapers, taking all the guess work out of choosing colors to match your accent wallpaper. The water-based formula is low-odor, low-VOC, and nondrip, making it easy to apply and easy on the environment, and each coat dries in only one to two hours. The paints are available to order online in 0.66 gallons for $35 or in $5 sample sizes.

Happy Friday everyone! I've checked off my holiday shopping list, decked my house, and now I'm eagerly awaiting Christmas day! I'm anxious to hear how all of you have decorated your homes for the holidays, so come join us now (through noon) for a Twitter chat and let's discuss!

To participate, just follow us @CasaSugar and be sure to use the hashtag #CasaChat so we can all keep track of the conversation. If you haven't had a chance to dress up your home for the holidays, we'll share last-minute decorating ideas and other fun tips and tricks. Hope to see you all there!

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