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Home Away From Home: Sarah Jessica Parker's Favorite Hotel

CasaSugar — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:00:43 -0700

In a Q&A in the October issue of Metropolitan Home, Sarah Jessica Parker revealed that her favorite hotel is The George V in Paris. And I can't really fault her for the choice. The hotel, an eight-story landmark 1928 building, offers 245 guest rooms, nearly one-quarter of which are suites. The hotel is so overwhelmingly Carrie Bradshaw, and so absolutely decadent, that I wish I could hop a plane (watching Sex and the City DVDs the whole way) and book a room at The George V right now. My first point of business would be to book a massage at the hotel's spa (shown here), and then finish off the treatment with a dip in the whirlpool or a sweat in the sauna. Then, I'd take a walk and enjoy some of the local attractions, since the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, The Eiffel Tower, and other gorgeous spots are a half hour or less away by foot. The hotel itself is only steps away from the Champs-Elysées. With private terraces, a gorgeous courtyard, an impressive collection of objets d'art, and a two-Michelin-star-cuisine restaurant, it's hard to see how you could go wrong with a stay at The George V. For a complete tour, read more.

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SJP Starts SATC2, Taylor Talks His Next Career Move, and Chris Brown Says He's "Ashamed"

Molly — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:24:20 -0700

Sarah Jessica Parker is back in her Louboutins as Carrie Bradshaw! Plus, check out Taylor Lautner's dream costar and what he would love to work on next. Chris Brown tries to explain his feelings about looking back on the Rihanna incident while Soliel Moon Frye is back in her Punky Brewster gear. Check it all out on PopSugar Rush now!

Get the Look: Carrie Bradshaw's Creative Crib, the Lighting

CasaSugar — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:04:36 -0700

You're not an expert just yet on how to get the look of Carrie Bradshaw's creative crib. Here is a lesson on the leading lady's lighting.

The Lighting:
Carrie's lighting choices are functional more than anything else. She puts her lamps exactly where she needs them, and nowhere else. In her living room, C chose two wooden, mid-century floor lamps with drum shades to brighten up the living room when she's reading in Aidan's chair or writing at her desk. A dainty lamp on the entry hall console table leads her in when she comes home late, a basic bedside lamp lets her read herself to sleep, and under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen is a remnant of an old NYC rental.

Maybe you don't read Vogue or shop at Barney's, but you can still get the Carrie look if you embrace your clutter. Find a way to make your dusty stacks of periodicals look intentional. Don't just go out and buy furniture that looks like the ones you've seen here. Collect mid-century-like pieces of similar wood finishes or colors that you love, slowly over time from flea markets, and choose a few, soft colors of the same hue to paint your walls. The best way to channel Carrie is to be yourself, whether you're a person who wears bold brights or simple khaki colors.

To see my CB-esque picks, click the images below.

Source

Get the Look: Carrie Bradshaw's Creative Crib, the Accents

CasaSugar — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 09:59:12 -0700

You're not an expert just yet on how to get the look of Carrie Bradshaw's creative crib. Here is a lesson on the leading lady's accents.

The Accents:
Ms. Bradshaw is a fashion fiend, so be sure to subscribe to all the girly glossies and use them as coffee table reading. She’s a writer, so hoarding periodicals is a part of her job. Everywhere you look, high and low, there should be stacks of mags, books, and archives of the newspaper you write for. I don’t endorse smoking, but C’s a smoker so a butt-brimmed ashtray is a must. Hang shopping bags from all the high-end NYC shops (Barney’s, Bergdorf’s, Bendel’s, Jimmy Choo) on the backs of doorknobs to use as storage for all the "stuff" that amasses living in a big city. Choose a super plush mattress, and anything from Calvin Klein's bedding collection will get the look.

Adorn your bathroom sink and bathtub with beauty products (Kiehls moisturizer, Bobbi Brown brushes, your boyfriend’s Rogaine). Stock the kitchen with an assortment of stemware you wind up with after late nights out. Plaster the fridge with magnets and family photos so you feel at home. There’s no use in trying to make your jam-packed walk-in closet look neat; think of it as “organized chaos.” Mat and frame abstract sepia and black-and-white photographs, and hang them above your bed, or prop them on a console table. Be sure to have curtains made from the Marimekko fabric Carrie used.

To see my CB-esque picks, click the images below.

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Get the Look: Carrie Bradshaw's Creative Crib, the Furniture

CasaSugar — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:20:33 -0700

You're not an expert just yet on how to get the look of Carrie Bradshaw's creative crib. Here is a lesson on the leading lady's furniture.

The Furniture:
Carrie’s small apartment is packed with mismatched tables and chairs and dressed with weathered fabrics, and her walls are far from fresh. Everything in it has a flea market feel, so I suggest scouring local second-hand stores, flea markets, and ebay or craigslist. Although her furniture is a mix of different styles, mid-century definitely represents. In her living room area, the main elements are the “Aidan Chair” and the heavy round coffee table. If you’ve got a furniture designer boyfriend, maybe you can snag the chair, which Aidan made from slightly stained and ripped leather from an old Pullman car.

Otherwise, you should look for a “mission style” chair with bentwood/bow arms that’s low to the ground and has plush leather upholstery. Conway couldn’t find the table he was envisioning, one that would be ideal for the SATC ladies to sit around and chat at, so he built it himself. The table is very similar to the three-pronged ones by Vladimir Kagan, except that it has a wooden, not glass, top. Antoine Proulx also makes similar heavy, round, and low to the ground coffee tables that instill the cozy feeling Conway had in mind. Carrie also uses a mid-century credenza with sliding doors to hide her clutter and prop up framed artwork. She stores hundreds of back-issues of fashion glossies on large shelves in her foyer, which nearly reach the ceiling, and she stashes her keys on a low console table next to her front door. She also made her radiator into a bedside table by topping it with a piece of plywood.

Click the images below to see CB-esque products, and stay tuned for more details on how the get this look.

Source

Get the Look: Carrie Bradshaw's Creative Crib, the Palette

CasaSugar — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:06:46 -0700

Last week I showed you how to get the Miranda Hobbes look in your home, and FabSugar showed us how to get the Carrie Bradshaw look for Halloween. It’s only fitting now that you learn to be 100% Carrie by also getting her look in your home. I’ve always been a fan of the “lived in” look of Carrie’s apartment. Like many NYC apartments, it's small, so she has to make room for her creative clutter wherever she can find it. Although Carrie’s not a decorator (she’s a fashionista/writer), her apartment is still stylish and looks put together, even though it’s full of flea market finds. Charlotte, on the other hand, is a decorator and fought to the death with her mother-in-law, Bunny, to take charge of her décor.

To learn how to get the Carrie Bradshaw look in your home, read more

The Palette:
Definitely go for a soft color scheme, but with more of a gray hint than Miranda’s. Carrie’s walls are a soft shade of celery green washed with a lavender iridescent glaze. SATC Production Designer Jeremy Conway said, “We employed a particular color theory for each of them that helped in identifying character and personality. The idea is to be able to look at a room and say, ‘Now that’s very Carrie.’” Although there actually isn’t too much color in Carrie’s apartment, the color scheme is very ‘her’ because it serves as a base for her bold wardrobe.

Most of her furniture is wooden, and any upholstered pieces she has are leather or brown or gray-ish fabrics, and her closet is painted sort of a hyacinth gray. The lesson here is to choose soft colors that don’t fight with a colorful, patterned wardrobe, but don’t go all white because that’s just not creative. Bonus question: Can you name the paint color of Carrie's kitchen cabinets? Answer below.

Click the images below to see CB-esque products, and stay tuned for more details on how the get this look.

Source

Which Celebrity Couple's Home Would You Most Like to See?

CasaSugar — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:48:14 -0700

Source, Source, Source, and Source

Home Library: Style and Substance

CasaSugar — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:00:59 -0700

For 20 years, Elle Decor's chic issues have offered readers ideas and inspiration for their homes. I've been collecting a giant stack of dog-eared Elle Decor issues for the last 10 years, so I'm excited to announce that the best of the magazine can now be found in Style and Substance ($45) by Margaret Russell and the editors of Elle Decor. I was thrilled to receive a (personally autographed!) copy of Style and Substance in my mailbox, and couldn't wait to review the book.
To hear what I think, and to get a sneak peek at some of the chic interiors featured in the book, read more.

The book's 240 pages are an embarrassment of interior decorating riches. Featuring inside peeks of the homes of everyone from Miles Redd and Sarah Jessica Parker to Yves Saint Laurent and Monique Lhuillier, there's plenty of inspiration to be found. Hundreds of spaces are featured, and each chapter is relegated to a different room, including living rooms; libraries and home offices; dining rooms; kitchens; bedrooms and boudoirs; bathrooms; children’s rooms; and terraces, gardens, and pools. Besides gorgeous images, the book also offers smart decorating tips as well as a source book that features Elle Decor editors' favorite shopping websites and stores. Style and Substance is a wonderful resource for armchair decorators of any style. With homes that range in style from bohemian to classic, there's something for everyone here. Margaret Russell writes in the introduction that

[Elle Decor's] most beloved design characteristics? Personality, passion, joie de vivre, and flair. It's true, our most dazzling stories feature people with fearless style who don't care what others think - and those who are curious, confident, and cosmopolitan will always find a place in our pages. We believe that luxury needn’t be expensive, and there’s no reason affordable furnishings shouldn’t be chic. And when offered a choice, we’ll take a bit of patina and wear and tear over brand-spanking-new decor every time.

I think that this is a timely decorating philosophy, and while we may not all be able to afford a marble-clad master bath or a custom-designed bejeweled chandelier, we can all aspire to create a more beautiful, confident, and chic home, and with Russell's tips, now it's a lot easier to do just that.

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