CasaSugar

Love It or Hate It? Flavor Paper Sharp Descent Wallpaper

CasaSugar — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:30:05 -0800

New Orleans-based wallpaper company Flavor Paper is giving its collection a bit of an edge with its new Sharp Descent ($150) paper. The design is an I Spy-esque arrangement of blunt, deadly objects - nearly everything you can't bring on an airplane. While the wallpaper would be perfect for Dexter's apartment, I can't say I'd hang it in my own home. What about you? Would your sense of humor allow this? Could you find a place for it in your home?

Indianapolis and New Orleans Museums Duke It Out Over the Super Bowl

CasaSugar — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:00:48 -0800

Last week, art blogger Tyler Green tried to arrange a Super Bowl art loan bet between the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art via Twitter. The museum directors stepped up pretty quickly and wagered to loan their competitors a beloved art work for a three-month period, if their city's respective football team lost the Super Bowl. After some very competitive back and forth banter via Twitter and emails concerning which pieces would be loaned, the two arrived at a deal: if the Saints win (Geaux Saints!), the IMA will loan The Fifth Plague of Egypt (1800, left) by Joseph Turner to the NOMA for three months, and if the Colts win, NOMA will loan Ideal View of Tivoli (1644, right) by Claude Lorrain to IMA. Who knew landscape paintings could be so cutthroat?

Artist of the Day: Amanda Stone Talley

CasaSugar — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:00:47 -0800

Earlier this week, New Orleans-based artist Amanda Stone Talley was kind enough to give us a tour of her glamorous carriage house in NOLA's Garden District. You may have spotted some of her work in the tour, but I wanted to dedicate a whole post to her artwork because, well, it's amazing.

Amanda grew up in Baton Rouge, LA, studied studio painting during undergrad at Mary Baldwin College, and then received her MFA in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design. She's called New Orleans home for the last 10 years, eight of which she worked with interior designer Gerrie Bremermann. Her work has been scooped up by several clients of Bremermann's; the synergy between Talley's work and Bremermann's sophisticated French antique aesthetic is truly powerful.

Hear more about her work and see a few of my favorite pieces when you read more.

As you can see, Amanda's style is contemporary and abstract. She seems to find inspiration everywhere she goes, from the perfect palettes of local architecture to the work of fellow artists to the hot pink hue of a pool raft used on a Summer getaway. A city as lively and colorful as New Orleans can be hard to capture, but the movement and color of her energetic paintings translate the city's vibrancy - and her own bubbly personality - to a "t." In this video of Amanda doing underpainting, you'll see how intuitive and organic her lines and forms are; there's nothing forced, and it's all very in the moment. Her color choices are each more brilliant than the next, too. From far away, it seems maybe she's used only a pair of colors, but up close you see layers upon layers of color, which really gives her paintings depth. I'll have to get my hands on one the next time I make a trip to New Orleans!

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House Tour: Amanda Stone Talley's New Orleans Carriage House

CasaSugar — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:00:13 -0800

I've been following New Orleans-based artist Amanda Stone Talley's blog, The Big Easy Life, for a few months now, and after getting a glimpse of her new home, I knew I had to see more of it! Amanda was kind enough to share some images, as well as to chat with me about her decorating resources.

Amanda moved into her carriage house, which sits on the property of a fancy Greek Revival home in New Orleans's Garden District, only a month ago and it already looks like a spread from Elle Decor. It's conveniently located just a block and a half away from her studio. She brought most of her furnishings from her previous digs, but she was also lucky enough to be left a few fabulous pieces when she moved into the carriage house. And the girl's got a slew of talented friends in the decorating world, so her home is spotted with accessories from some of her pals. Beyond that, Amanda has hung some of her own pieces of artwork throughout, which are downright cool abstract pieces full of color and energy. Needless to say, you're in for a treat.

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Guess What Celeb Is Behind This House?

CasaSugar — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:05:54 -0800

This house, designed by Morphosis Architects, is one of many designs that are being built in New Orleans. Can you tell me which architecture-loving celeb is behind the house?

Cool Idea: New Orleans Water Meter Doormat

CasaSugar — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:00:42 -0800

Anyone who's ever lived in New Orleans recognizes the starry, art-deco design of the city's water meter lids. Designed by Edwin Ford in the early 1920s, the crescent moon and stars became so sought after that people actually used to pilfer them, so much so that for a time the city tried to replace them with plain ones to try to stop the theft. Nevertheless, the 85-year-old design has become an iconic symbol of the city - along with the fleur-de-lys, of course. So, one clever local turned the groovy vintage meter cover into a Decorative Door Mat ($32). The high-quality, durable mat is as useful as it is nostalgic and charming, and you don't have to steal from the city to own it. Clearly, it's not for everyone, but it's a great gift for anyone who knows a thing or two about NOLA. Hint, hint.

10 Haunted Houses in New Orleans

CasaSugar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:00:46 -0700

Are you ready to see more haunted houses? If my slideshow on California haunted houses wasn't spooky enough, I've just got the thing. New Orleans is perhaps America's most haunted city, so it's no surprise the place is full of ghosts and floating entities. Come take a look.

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Hazelnut's Bryan Batt Opens Up to House Beautiful

CasaSugar — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:00:54 -0700

If you're a design enthusiast and a New Orleans fanatic like me, you know Bryan Batt as a co-owner (with his partner Tom Cianfichi) of one of NOLA's finest décor boutiques, Hazelnut. I featured the boutique back in February of '08, and now Batt is set to ink his own home décor book. If you're just mad for Mad Men, you know him as Sterling-Cooper's in-the-closet, recently fired art director Salvatore Romano.

This month, House Beautiful is getting to know him, too. The shelter glossy has the lowdown on Batt's bedroom behavior, from his no-TV rule to his underbed storage, and of course, his bedroom décor resources.

I'm always interested to see where people get their design inspiration. So it was fun to hear about the jumping off point for his bedroom design:

The painting is the whole point of the room. It's by a friend of mine. Suzie Allain, who's a local artist and designer here in New Orleans. She showed some things at Hazelnut, my store here, and I fell in love with this series of bamboo stalks. She did this for me custom and then the room evolved around it.

See more excerpts from the issue.

House Tour: Black White Yellow's Cheerful New Orleans Apartment

CasaSugar — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:00:43 -0700

While reading the design blog Black White Yellow, I was really impressed by the author's cheerful and stylish home, so I asked if she'd be willing to give us a photographic tour of her home. She lives in New Orleans, where she works as an architect, so it's no surprise that she has a keen eye for design. But what's truly inspiring about her happy, chic home is that she's created it on small budget. "My goal was to create a space on a shoestring budget that screams happy," she says. "It is a work in progress, of course, but I am happy with how much I have gotten done so far." Not surprisingly, the base of her coveted crib is black and white, with a lot of playful yellow accents and patterned textiles. Ready for the tour?

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Sandra Bullock and Jesse James Buy a Historic New Orleans Victorian

CasaSugar — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:00:25 -0700

From Angelina and Brad Pitt to Nicolas Cage, New Orleans is becoming a popular place for celebs to settle, the latest transfers being Sandra Bullock and Jesse James. The pair quietly snatched up a historic Victorian home in New Orleans's Garden District for $2.25 million back in June. The 6,615-square-foot, five-bedroom, 4.5-bath home, known as the Koch-Mays house, was built sometime between 1860 and 1870. It retains many original Victorian design details, including ornately carved marble mantels, carved columns, large plaster medallions, shadow molding, and beautiful ornamental cast ironwork on its exterior. It's no surprise Bullock looked for historical details when doing her real estate shopping: the French Southern bistro she owns and designed in Austin, Bess Bistro, is in a historic building with tin ceilings and hand-painted floors. And although Austin won't be a far trip for the couple, they're guaranteed to find a good Creole shrimp meal in NOLA. See interior photos when you read more.

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Source: Flickr User alykat