Blog Love >> Tartelette

Loving the food blog Tartelette, by a French expat living in Charleston.  Yummy recipes and the photography and styling are pure eye candy.

Chocolate Hazelnut cake recipe here.

For No Good Reason

Old books, old trophies, and maps.  Love it.

Image from Roberta Grove on etsy.

Via Parcel Post

Summer Lovin >> Aubin & Willis

Loving the styling and photography for Aubin & Willis's summer lookbook.

Also, I love their logo/typography/packaging details! ...

Images from Aubin & Willis website, 

collage of A&W products from Black Eiffel.

Styling Brilliance >> The Appeal of the Unmade Bed

Generally, bedrooms are photographed with a crisply made bed, complete with layers of matching pillows, sheets, blankets, etc.  But sometimes, it's the unmade beds that look the most appealing, especially when the whole bed is crisp white.  

There's a wonderful suggestion of lazy, indulgent mornings...

...especially effective with morning light streaming through the windows.

first four images via MaraisUSA

Styling Brilliance >> Desks

Good looking furniture, fabrics, and lighting are certainly essential, but the importance of accessories, art, plants, etc., cannot be underestimated.  Styling is soo important in making a room look both lived in (rather than just a bunch of furniture gathered together) and giving it personality.

These three desks are taken to the next level by their wonderful styling.  Styling takes a functional piece and allows it to add to the overall look and feel of a room.  What if all of these desks just had a blotter and some pens?  Their visual power would be much less effective.

In all three, note the use of books, plants (fresh flowers, architectural branch arrangements, etc), lighting (the top piece uses two lamps to great effect-- not an obvious idea though), art, and actual desk necessities (writing utensils, paper goods, and organizational things) made to look appealing. 

The arrangement of such items is also key-- the books are both stacked and upright, objects are grouped together, art is both hung and propped, pieces are layered in front of and behind each other...

At top, Michael Bastian's apartment (the whole thing is great.) (Also, no coincidence that someone in fashion would have a well-styled apartment, styling uses many of the same principles in fashion and interiors.  See more about his fashion looks here.)

Second, unkonwn.

Third, David Hicks.

Interiors >> Art Over Bookshelves

Two things I love: bookshelves and art.

bookshelves + art hung over them = fabulous

For some people, this may be a bit much, but for me, it is like a result of this ideal world where you have so many books and so much art that they simply have to overlap because you don't have enough room for all your treasures.

William Waldron -- what a sophisticated bedroom.  I love the look of the architectural print hung over bookshelves.

By Nate Turner.  I also love this room in general (not that I don't love all of these in general, but anyway...)-- love that it is a tiny dining room but packed with character and looks cozy (love bookshelves, and well, art for that matter in dining rooms), love the crispness of the black and white-- the trim on the chairs and table skirt, the frames, etc.  This dining room looks like the kind of dining room you'd definitely use all the time-- for meals but also for working on projects, planning trips, etc.

Not sure who exactly this is by... all I put in the file name is "Donovan"?

And finally, Miles Redd's living room, which I also love for so many reasons, but here, just a small tableau showing one of his many great styling ideas.

At top by Jan Showers.