Happy 33rd Birthday to Oliver!

Oliver's birthday, circa 2000

Today marks Oliver's 12,045th day on this earth, and let me tell you, I am glad he's here! From the moment I met him, I knew there was something special about Oliver. Boy was I right! I've spent the last eight years learning more and more about what makes this very unique human being tick, and something tells me the learning will never stop. Oliver is a treasure trove of contradictions, illuminations, new ideas, hidden talents, creativity and curiosity. To be with him is to learn something new every minute of the day, and I look forward to a lifetime of learning by his side.

Oliver, July 1984

Oliver doesn't ask for much on his birthday. In fact, he pretty much only asks for one thing: no nagging. I think you just got a little glimpse into our relationship. So, each year on the 26th of June, I muster all of my strength to leave the poor boy alone and give him a nag-free day. Not to worry, I always make up for it on June 27th!

Apparently, the stylin' jacket above was part of a matching faux denim suit. Pretty SWEET.

So, on his 33rd birthday, he can look forward to a sunny, nag-free day that will end with a delicious baked good.

Is Small the New Big?

That's the big question posed in the July/August issue of House Beautiful. Some people just can't get excited about small (people with space), and I can understand that. But there is a home featured in the issue that everyone can get behind because it is nothing short of FABULOUS.

Interior designer David Kaihoi, his wife Monique, and their little girl, Mirabelle, share a 390 square foot apartment in the East Village. The pictures say it all, so I don't need to spend lots of time blabbing about how gorgeous the place is. I'll just say this: the apartment is a study in phenomenal taste, bold uses of color and pattern (purple walls! stenciled floors!), a willingness to take risks (black bookcase! peel-y antique wallpaper), creativity in multi-functional furniture and space-saving solutions (sofa-banquette-storage unit) and rigorous editing, all resulting in a precious jewel box for a family of three. Every single nook and cranny is enviable. I was so excited about this that I actually scanned the entire article, so enjoy the little house tour!

The entry:

You know I love purple and yellow.

Living Room:

Would you get a load of that chandelier?

Living Room transformed for dining:

A mini-bar, mini-office for bill and email writing housed in and on a lovely secretary:

Bedroom (parents and daughter sleep here, on the chicest of trundle beds):

The wife's side of the closet, insides painted bright, tulip red:

Detail of the 18th century Chinese wallpaper:

Detail shots around the house:

Clockwise, from left:

1. Craft storage inside the bookcase

2. The kitchen, with green lacquer walls remind me of a certain kitchen I know and loved

3. The husband's personal drawer....very neat...looks like Oliver's personal drawer. Mine is not for photographing

4. Inside the buffet

5. Antique doors from architectural salvage store Olde Good Things

6. The washer and dryer that resides in the husband's side of the closet (now that's romance!)

7. Storage in the bathroom

8. DIY bathroom wallpaper on doors concealing above storage

Obviously, it's unrealistic to think that the family can live like that long-term (when that little girl hits the pre-teens, you can believe she's not going to want to sleep in a trundle with her parents!) but for now, Mr. Kaihoi has carved out a little gem for himself and his family.

As it turns out, Mr. Kaihoi was an art handler for ILevel (the go-to art handling/hanging company for New Yorkers and their clients with art worth handling) before Miles Redd snapped him up and made him an interior designer. Miles Redd really knows how to snuff out the best burgeoning designers, doesn't he?

All photos courtesy House Beautiful

If It's Good Enough For Kate Spade.....

....it's good enough for me.

Ok, not entirely true, but I have been loving Kate Spade's collections and store displays these last few seasons, with her deliciously bold uses of color and pattern. But, it wasn't always this way; over the years I've had a bit of a rocky relationship with Kate Spade's wares. It began in my college dorm, when I was surrounded by all kinds of clique-y sorority girls. I did not join a sorority, but I had the misfortune of living among approximately 225 million sorority girls and fraternity boys and I found many of them....um...difficult, at least in such a large herd. (Sorry if you were in one and you are a nice person. I know you exist. In fact, if you were in a sorority/fraternity and you are reading this, you are probably my friend and you know I'm not talking about you.) At my school, during my freshman year, all the sorority girls wanted to look the same at all times, and not just because of some rush-related shenanigans, just BECAUSE. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky). Anyway, Friday and Saturday nights looked like this: tight black pants with slight flare, tight black tank top or shiny t-shirt or black lace top, perhaps a skinny belt, some very chunky, unflattering leather shoes and lots of dark lipstick.

I kid you not when I tell you this was my reality for a year:

You should seriously feel sorry for me

But, the most IMPORTANT accessory (aside from some dopey mouth-breathing frat boy) was the ubiquitous Kate Spade nylon tote:

Or some such version of this style

I did so much complaining about how these little brats did everything the same and all had the same pricey handbags, that my mom interpreted all my snarky-ness as a cry for help and, armed with one of her closest (and coolest) friends, generously went out and bought me one of those bags for my 19th birthday. After making fun for so long, I was mortified to actually BE one of those girls, so I pretty much never used the bag. Ingrate!

Fast forward to job interview time and what bag holds all my resumes and newspaper clips, hair doo-hickies and touch-up makeup, keys complete with college lanyard, gum and water? None other than that "embarrassing" Kate Spade tote, which quickly became my favorite and most professional looking bag for the next several years. Of course, I always wore it with the label facing in. I'm no show-off, after all. I actually still have the bag today, although it is looking very tired, but, that's what twelve years of use will do to a bag! I got my mom's nickel's worth out of it.

Wow, have I gone off track! The point of all this was actually to note crossover in fashion and interiors, among other design disciplines. Ms. Spade clearly has outstanding taste when it comes to fashion (shoes, bags, jewelry) but her home is also impeccable, although that shouldn't come as a surprise. A recent perusal of her website gleaned this fun new handbag, available in orange and black:

Summer Bon Shopper $175

The fabric on the bag reminded me of Ms. Spade's guest bathroom, where the same pattern appears as wallpaper in a different colorway:

The Zebras pattern is by Scalamandre and is available as wallpaper in several colorways, the original offering being Masai Red:

A little digging turned up the fact that the pattern has been a favorite of Ms. Spade's for some time now, and she's used it in her stores and as a source of inspiration for such things as cocktail napkins and stationary:

New York restauranteur Gino Circiello originally commissioned Franco Scalamandre to design a wallpaper featuring zebras being pursued by arrows for his restaurant's walls:

Gino, a New York institution, photo courtesty NY Times

Miles Redd used the wallpaper in a bathroom that was recently featured in Elle Decor:

The wallpaper appeared in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums:

Via Habitually Chic

Designer Lindsey Coral Harper used the wallpaper in her own bathroom:

via Habitually Chic

I'm thrilled to see the other colors being used more often, too:

A bathroom for a Habitually Chic reader:

Another bathroom, this one by Massucco Warner Miller

Now, I'd like to see some other rooms using this wallpaper! Anyone?

All this is to say that Ms. Spade was a trendsetter many moons ago, heavily influencing the sorority set of yesteryear, not to mention countless mere mortals, and she continues to push design forward with her respect of the past and eager consumption of what the future of design holds in all facets of the design world.

Remembering Grace

Please accept my apologies for the long lapse in posting! I've certainly missed our little soap box! This has been a busy and difficult two weeks with some ups and downs. The ups: I started a new project that required a tremendous amount of attention up front, leaving little time for opining about design. The downs: on Friday, June 4, I lost my dear grandma, Grace Emelie Elliot Killmer. That weekend, I flew to Amarillo, TX for the funeral, memorial and all-around family time. Its delving a bit further into the personal realm than I usually go, but I would like to share with you a bit about this well-loved and much-missed grande dame.

That's a very squirmy baby Killy in the arms of two very patient grandparents

Me and Grandma, Christmas 2003

Oliver and I, along with my cousin Ben, were lucky enough to visit Grandma in mid-May, and while she wasn't feeling great during our stay, she perked up and graciously put on a good, strong face for us, told us tons of fun stories and let out her sassier side every once in a while. She told us great tales about her life with five kids and a husband, a Colonel in the army during WWII and the Korean War, all the places they lived, her five-year stint as a commercial artist in an advertising firm before getting married, and so much more.

She told us all about the family photos and art on her walls. She could no longer see it all, but she knew exactly where each piece was, who did it and when, or where the photos were taken.

A fine looking family then.....

.....and now:

My Grandpa, an engineer, did quite a few paintings and collages after he retired from the army, got his PhD, became the director of the business administration department at Amarillo College and took art classes for personal enrichment. His productivity makes me feel like a lazy slug! Some examples of his work and fun photos around the house:

Painting by Don Killmer

Painting by Don Killmer

Painting by Don Killmer

Painting by Don Killmer

Collage by Don Killmer

Grandpa brought these back from Japan

Next to the painting below are photos of my Grandpa. He's no schlub in the looks department, either!

Painting by Don Killmer

Grandma was born on Oct. 6, 1912 in St. Louis, MO and had a (increasingly rare) regional dialect with distinct pronunciations of certain words, but also a cadence of speech we don't often hear today. Plus, she charmingly started almost every sentence with, "Well, honey...." Who doesn't love that? She was a vision of southern genteel society, a breed of people we could certainly use more of these days. She was astonishingly progressive for her time; an open-minded, warm-hearted completely non-judgemental individual. As everyone pointed out at her funeral and memorial, there is no better name for a woman of such grace. I cannot tell you how many times I heard from her friends that was truly a lady, and that she was. Her slacks were always pressed, her dresses well-fitted and she had a beret and a pair of shoes to coordinate with every outfit. She was the living, breathing definition of regal. Actually, both of my grandmothers were quite regal and stately. I have big shoes to fill!

Grandma looking sharp while touring around my middle school:

The family taking a walk down memory lane, outside of my grandparents' old house, before she moved to a retirement home about ten years ago. Five fantastic siblings and their fabulous spouses:

Grandma would have been 98 in October, so she lived a long, full and extremely happy life. I will miss her terribly, but I'm consoled by the knowledge that she is no longer feeling tired, weak or in pain. And it delights me to think she might be reuniting with the love of her life, Colonel Donald F. Killmer.

Her grace, courteousness, kindness, generosity and vivid personality will be with me everyday, as I try to emulate the woman she was.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

Today was a big day in our neighborhood: the much-anticipated Frederick Douglass Circle was unveiled!

For a year and three months, we have been living near the 110th Street/Cathedral Parkway (B/C) subway stop in Manhattan. On our way to and from the train we pass the traffic circle, the center of which has been in construction for SIX YEARS. The project commemorates abolitionist and all-around civil rights activist Frederick Douglass. Don't think the irony that the completion of this project took longer than the Civil War slipped past the NY Times.

The project, which began in 2004, was severely delayed, thanks to some underground infrastructure needs (old trolley tracks that needed removal; re-routing of pipes and electric, etc) and, no doubt, a bundle of bureaucratic red-tape, New York City-style. My favorite neighborhood blog, Harlem Bespoke, has been tracking progress, and posted the original plans, as presented six years ago. Residents and businesses had grown a bit perturbed as they waited for the eyesore to bloom into a mini park at the northwest entrance of THE park.

Here's what we've been looking at all this time:

Photo courtesy Harlem Condo Life

Mr. Douglass, cloaked in secrecy:

Image courtesy NY Times

Nice aerial taken from the Towers on the Park apartment complex

Image courtesy NY Times

So, you can imagine our excitement when we stepped off the train this evening to find a bustling new neighborhood hub:

Note the statue of Freddie D, uncovered and ready to represent (click on the image to make it larger):

I love that the residents of the neighborhood wasted no time making the little park their own. People coming from work, bikers, skateboarders and families stopped over to take a look. I can't wait to see it at night, when the fountain is on and lit up. Come visit us!

Quote in the title was stated by Frederick Douglass.