Styling: Thanksgiving Tablescape

We were asked to design a tablescape for a client's ten-person Thanksgiving dinner. To keep costs down, we used as much of her own wares as possible, which was relatively easy because she had some great stuff to work with!

We decided early on to deviate from traditional Thanksgiving themes involving gourds and dried corn (although there's nothing wrong with a crazy, wart-y gourd every once in a while!) Instead, we took inspiration from the colors in the patterned porcelain dinnerware, pulled out a rich autumn palette of deep gold, red and yellow for the flowers and added a little sophistication and texture with teal linen napkins and cut glass Waterford vases.

On the client's black tablecloth, we arranged her grandmother's stunning Limoge china and her mother-in-law's silverware (beautifully engraved with an initial). We wrapped new napkins from Crate and Barrel with gold cords from Tinsel Trading Company and buttons from M & J Trimming for inexpensive, handmade bespoke napkin rings.

We filled her own collection of vases with a selection of fresh flowers from a sidewalk flower vendor and arranged her silver candlesticks among the vases to contrast with the gold accents on the dishes and napkin rings.

We love projects like this. We were extremely pleased with the result and, with all the winter holidays right around the corner, we hope to do more such projects in the future. See more images at FRISSON.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are some delicious apple roll thingies that Killy made with leftover dough from mini apple pies. Have a great Thanksgiving!

In the kitchen: Chevron Apple Pie

This weekend, I finally made good on my promise to cook and/or bake with apples. While I love a good slice of Americana, I couldn't help but wonder if there was a way to make the top look a little less traditional, so I got all "interior designer" on it and updated it with a classic chevron pattern. Looks like wood flooring in a Parisian apartment; tastes like PIE!

We polished that sucker off in 1.5 days flat.

Project: Depravity

Photo courtesy Dark Soup Films

Last week, we attended the premiere of Depravity, a short film for which Oliver worked on the title sequence. Oliver met writer/director Ross Evison, founder of Dark Soup Films while freelancing at Empire Design, a film marketing and design agency with offices in New York and London. Ross will be submitting the piece to the various film festivals, so look out for it!

Check out the teaser:

Depravity Teaser from Ross Evison on Vimeo.

The screening took place in the fourth floor, 44-seat screening room at Soho House New York. It was an intimate setting and the energy was all positive for Ross and those involved.

Photo courtesy Soho House

Poking around inside this impeccably designed boutique hotel was fun. Located in the Meatpacking District, the private member's club boasts a library, reading room, game room, dining room and bars and event spaces in addition to twenty four distinct and gorgeous bedrooms. Check out the website for all kinds of eye candy. I'll be checking the mailbox daily for my invite to the rooftop pool come summertime...

Photo courtesy Soho House

Adventure: Apple Picking + Leaf Peeping

We escaped from the city for a weekend of apple picking, leaf-peeping, wine tasting and pumpkin carving.

We've been trying to go apple picking since moving to New York from San Francisco in 2005 but things kept getting in the way (school, work, wedding, laziness, no access to a car...) but in in Fall 2009, we turned over a new leaf, if you will. We spent the weekend in New Jersey and Upstate New York with Oliver's brother and his girlfriend.

Getting out of town rejuvinates creativity, and we beefed up our color inspiration files with all the new leaf photos!

Now, let's see how many different dishes we can make with all these apples!