My Final Ideabook: Former Trends That Should Rise Again

It's no secret that I've been super, super busy this year. Lately, I've missed an awful lot of days of blogging as a result of a) my job and b) my kid. Unfortunately, being so busy means that I've had to make some kind of painful choices about work. It's nice to have the luxury of choice, but it also sucks to have to stop doing something enjoyable simply because it takes too much time.

Which is why I'm very sorry to say that I've just written my last ideabook for Houzz. I've been writing there for two years - since before the site went live - and have really enjoyed seeing the company's growth. But all good things must come to an end, and for Houzz and me, that end is today.

This is my last ideabook - written about five trends that have disappeared, but should come back:

5 Former Design Trends That Should Rise Again

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Designing Tuesday: Salvage

First, sorry about the light posting (as in, the lack of post yesterday). It's a busy week chez Pollard, as we continue to decompress from last week's birthday festivities and we prepare for the weekend coming up. We're having a party and that always makes me kind of crazy.

But I digress. Today is about salvage. On Friday, I wrote a Houzz ideabook that seemed to resonate. It was all about salvage-hunting and how much fun it can be. The description and comments are here and here's the book itself:

Weekend Fun: Hit the Salvage Spots

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Designing: Trends vs. Classics

Late last week, I did a little opining on Houzz re: the role of classics vs. trends in home design and lots of commenters weighed in. The introduction to the ideabook is here and the book itself is right here:

Trend-Resistant Classics

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Ideabook Tuesday: Heritage

Heritage is a food trend and a trend in fashion, so I'm pretty sure it's about to be a new design buzzword, too. Here's what I had to say about it on Houzz:

The September issue of W arrived in my mailbox last week and when I opened it to the letter from the editor, one single word stared me right in the face: "heritage."

The letter wrote about "heritage" as the current buzzword in fashion, where it seems to refer to anything even remotely related to the past (and considering how quickly fashion trends evolve, the past could be about five minutes ago).

I like vintage clothes as much as the next girl, but my noticing has less to do with my interest in fashion trends than with my interest in food trends, though. "Heritage" has been all the rage in food for the past few years - just ask the heritage turkeys that grace every food mag around each November.

If it's hot in the fashion world and hot in the food world, you know what's next, right? That's right: heritage design.

In food, "heritage" means more than just "old" - it has something to do with pedigree and with knowing where a food item comes from. In this case, design is more like food than fashion, with trends that last longer than one season, and where a single piece - an armoire, for instance - can long outlive a pair of even the most finely made jeans (and requires a larger investment). Heritage in design is about the history of an item or even materials, and also about the history of the people who have interacted with those items.

So watch for it. I expect we'll start to see more articles and posts about "heritage" design - starting here:

Buzzword to Watch For: "Heritage"

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Designing Tuesday: Our New Expandable Round Dining Room Table

Sorry about the lack of post yesterday!

I was busy after a long weekend full of shopping and eating. All of which I will write about, of course. But the big story around our house is that we've switched our living room and our dining room, so we now have a little loungey space off the kitchen, where the dining room used to be, and we have an unfinished space with too small a rug in the front room, where the living room used to be.

This was inspired by actually thinking about how we use our house - and moved along by the discovery of a super cool Danish expandable dining room table at Home Anthology in Catonsville. It was so new that it didn't even have a price on it and we bought it within about five minutes. It's just what I'd been looking for - for a long time. It's amazing.

It's also the inspiration for this ideabook, in which I beg for new ideas for how to work with a round table:

Dining in the Round: My New Table

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Designing: Brick

You know what's funny? When commenters on Houzz accurately guess where I went to college based on an ideabook. I'm pretty transparent.

Mighty, Mighty: Celebrating the Brick House

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Designing Tuesday: Emory Grove

My Houzz ideabook this morning is a brief house tour of Cooper's parents' place out at Emory Grove. I took a bunch of pictures over the weekend (and stole one of Sarah G's) to put it together. It's a small space, but there's a lot to look at:

Emory Grove

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Valentine's Inspired

Despite the fact that I am not really into Valentine's Day, I've been kind of all over it today. First, I wrote a Houzz ideabook all about chocolate. I followed that up with a post at the Alluminare blog about finding design inspiration in traditional Valentine's Day gifts (check out the conversation hearts-inspired interior. It's gorgeous.) And now I am following up with a post on Valentine's Day plans.

This is partly because my inbox has been filling up with emails and suggestions about what to do for the holiday. Cooper and I barely celebrate ourselves - usually I make some sort of expensive, unhealthy meal and we drink a slightly nicer bottle of wine than usual, but that's about it (except for last year, when Mike and Alicia hosted a wine tasting party that ended with a big lesson: don't play power hour with wine. And eat more.)

But that doesn't mean there's not a lot to do out there. On the 13th and 14th, B&O American Brasserie (443-692-6172) is offering a three-course prix fixe for $36 and a five-course menu for $52. The main course for both menus is a choice of mustard-crusted lamb or braised shank in red pepper reduction and dessert is sugar-coated doughnut holes, which sound amazing. The head bartender, Brendan Dorr, has also created a drink called Love Potion #42 (it includes 42 Below Vodka)...and their signature drinks are kind of awesome.

If you'd rather stay in, and you want something special without actually having to bake anything yourself (I am a sucky baker, so I would fall into this category), the PAMA liqueur cupcakes from more Cupcakes sound kind of amazing. I'm a bit of a slut for PAMA, anyway (NO, not literally) - it's a key ingredient in the La Marcail, the delicious champagne drink that Can Can Brasserie in Richmond smartly named after Cail.

The cupcakes ($66 per dozen) are made with Belgian dark chocolate and are filled with Vahlrona chocolate and PAMA mousse and frosted with PAMA-infused buttercream. Ridiculous, right?

So, with all of this to choose from, I'm still probably going to stick to my usual: spend to much money on a meal that's overly rich and extravagant, then fall asleep.

It doesn't get more romantic than that.

Ideabook Tuesday: 10 Design Trends for 2010

Because I like lists and because it's the season for them...

10 More Design Trends for 2010

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Ideabook Tuesday: All About Fun

I'm kind of a sucker for lists and predictions, so I'm in heaven right now. End of decade wrap-ups and predictions for 2010? Yes, please.

The other day, as I was browsing the internets for design ideas, I noticed a prediction that especially resonated with me: an emphasis on fun interiors. A few minutes later, I opened up Food & Wine to find an article (that's not online yet) about fun food. Next, a spread in Bazaar about fun clothes.

So it sounds like 2010's going to be a fun year. Fortunately for me, "fun" is pretty high on my list of priorities. So here's my first shot at having fun for 2010:

My Favorite Prediction for 2010: Everybody Just Wants to Have Fun

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Ideabook Tuesday: Creative Christmas Trees

I'm feeling festive.

And busy.

Creative Christmas Trees

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Ideabook Tuesday: At the Flea in Paris

The flea market in Paris is one of the more amazing places in the world. Everyone should get there at least once. But if your budget doesn't run to international travel these days, you can read Becky's ideabook on how to get the Les Puces look without the flight:

How to Get That Paris Flea Market Look

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Ideabook Tuesday: Design Trends on Houzz

I make no secret of the fact that I think trends are cool. That's why I wrote this ideabook, based on the most frequently used photos on Houzz:

15 Popular Design Trends on Houzz

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Ideabook Tuesday: Setting Up that Thanksgiving Table

I have a dream dining room table. It's made of polished, reddish wood and it's round. At its normal size, it seats about eight, but it can expand - staying round - to seat 12.

The table doesn't exist - at least, I've never seen a round table that remains round when it expands. I know it's possible, though, and about a year ago, I suggested to my sister that she design and build one for me. She had some ideas, but oddly enough, she hasn't (yet) taken a break from her schoolwork to build me a fancy table. I'm still waiting.

So in the meantime, I'm stuck like everybody else when it comes to hosting big dinners. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to make the most of whatever table space you've got available. And, in honor of Thanksgiving, that's what today's ideabook is about:

Making Room for Family: 10 Tips for Maximizing Table Space this Thanksgiving

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Ideabook Tuesday: Table-Setting

Our annual Mock Thanksgiving is this coming Saturday and I've finally given up and realized that we're not going to be able to sit around a table. It'll have to be a buffet and free-for-all - there's just no other logistical option.

Which is too bad, really, because I like a nice set table. Like this one:Or this one:Or this one:

Becky agrees - so much so that last summer, she wrote an ideabook all about table-setting:

Setting the Table

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Ideabook Tuesday: Vintage Trunks

Becky from Hatch just put the spotlight on a design move that I totally love: using vintage trunks and luggage as storage or tables. I like rooms that tell a story - an interesting story - about the people who live in them. Trunks are a great way to do that, even if some of the story is fiction.

Storage Solutions: Using Vintage Trunks and Suitcases

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Ideabook Tuesday: Interview with Alek from From the Right Bank

This week, I got to interview Alek, the blogger behind From the Right Bank to the Left Coast. She got married in Annapolis, used to live in Paris, and is now in Seattle. Given my severe francophilia, and my healthy respect for anybody who mixes straight up modern design with traditional details, I'm all over her blog.

Plus, she's got the thing I want most in the world. A patio with a long table where she serves meals outside. Check out the third and fourth photos. "Jealous" doesn't even begin to describe how I feel right now:

Houzz Interview: "From the Right Bank" Alek's Seattle Home

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Ideabook Tuesday: 10 Tips for a Small Kitchen

Editors like lists, right? Well...here's a list:

10 Tips for Making the Most of a Small Kitchen

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Ideabook Tuesday: Interview with Sue Teso of Solstice Home

Houzz has been ramping up the design blogger/Etsy designer/interior designer interviews lately - and I think it's been fantastic. I love seeing inside real people's houses. It's one thing to flip through magazines to check out how people who can afford interior design help (and daily, hourly, minutely housekeeping) live - it's another entirely to study houses inhabited by regular people with jobs and kids and busy lives.

Last week, I got to interview Sue Teso, the owner of the Etsy shop Solstice Home. Sue sells cool vintage pieces in her shop, so it's no surprise that there are some pretty interesting pieces in her home. What I like most about it, though, is that she incorporates the pieces in a way that isn't at all overwhelming. Her house doesn't scream, "vintage shop owner!" It sort of mentions it casually, instead.

It's a great space and one I'd definitely like to live in. Plus, Sue seems like such a nice lady. Not only did she send me photos of her current home, she also sent me pictures of the house she used to live in. AND her daughter (who has an Etsy shop of her own) sent me photos of the house - so I had so much to choose from.

The photos are labeled by which home they are - the Sandwich house is where she currently lives and the Brewster house is her old home. (As an aside, Ocean Spray Brad's wife Erin is from Sandwich - that's where she went to high school with Duff from Ace of Cakes).

Check it out:

Etsy Designers at Home: Interview with Sue Teso of Solstice Home

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Ideabook Tuesday: Vanessa De Vargas of Turquoise

Vanessa De Vargas is a cool kind of new designer. She's been a traditional interior designer and furniture designer in LA for a while (Turquoise is her label) and her Venice Beachy style is pretty great. But the really cool thing about Vanessa is her e-decorating business. She works with clients everywhere, completely online, giving advice and direction. Love that.

Last week, Becky interviewed her for Houzz, and talked about her own home. The interview is here, and the photos - which are pretty great, is here:

House Interview: Vanessa De Vargas of Turquoise

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