lounge around

i've really liked the direction restoration hardware has been going over the last year or so, so i was more than pleased to hear that the 2010 collection of restoration hardware garden was on its way. since i generally find rh baby & child to be uninspired (with the exception of the plush collection you might remember from the honey gift files), i was happy that this garden collection proved much more exciting.

i really, really love several of the furniture collections - they epitomize a certain type of timeless grace and class that makes me really happy. they're so nicely designed - like real, beautiful furniture - which i think so much outdoor furniture forgets to be.

the provence collection, above and below, made of all-weather wicker is a more current take on a traditional french country look, with a rustic elegance that i appreciate for something as perennial as an outdoor living space. i love the way the weathered grey wicker looks with the reclaimed teak tables in the collection - such a fresh, inspired touch. doesn't it just look like an enchanted garden?

i also like the hampshire collection, below. i love the way it shares so much DNA with traditional outdoor furniture of yore, but is unmistakably elegant and polished in a way that so much old wicker furniture is not. part of it is the weathered grey finish, but the sweeping shape of the pieces and the large scale suggests a certain modernity as well.

if you like the wicker look, but these are too traditional, the antigua, the del mar and the la jolla are more modern takes.

with its chippendale roots but overall contemporary look, i'm mildly obsessed with the kingston collection. traditional by some standards and more modern by others, i think it's a really nice, balanced look. love teak, don't you?


um, may i please live here?

similar to the kingston, but with rounded details, is the leagrave collection, another winner.


i adore the leagrave chaise. it's just so perfect. i want to sit on it with a magazine and sunglasses and an iced coffee and just be fab.

in a curvier, more ornate teak style, i love the lutyens bench, which conjures images of beautiful gardens and an utterly elegant outdoor experience.

but it's really the sleeker, more modern collections that make my heart sing. they feel like what you'd find at devastatingly amazing mid-century homes like this one. and i want to go to there.

i give you the belvedere collection...

but the collection that just slays me is the st. barts. in all its mid-century glory, i think it's just perfection. and the stone fire table? yes please.

looking at this collection reminds me of admiring someone who is beyond a normal level of glamour and intrigue. (sigh).

and then there are the daybeds. loving this trend in outdoor living, a truly resort-inspired addition to the category. my favorites are the ones which provide shade, since that's always a priority to me. the spartan is transporting in its style - it's insta-vacation, as far as i'm concerned. although i'd like if there were some other pieces in the collection, besides the daybed itself.

there's also the antibes, above, perfect because it provides propping up as well, and the del mar (below). to me, these both need some sprucing. love the bones, but that's all there is.

which brings me to the textiles. i think they did a great job with their collection of all-weather pillows, towels and totes (love that they included totes, though i wasn't knocked out by them). interesting prints, strong and varied color schemes and an all-around synergy, i think, between the textiles and the furniture collections.

i love the mix-and-matchability of it all -the towels and pillows are grouped by pattern - medallion, awning stripe and solid and woodcut, stripe and solid.

in a slightly separate category but still coordinating, there's the regent collection, which i love for its beautifully washed-out colors.

i also really like a couple of their outdoor rugs, namely the tapestry border rug and the valencia striped rug, both shown below.

i think you can probably tell i'm a fan. i find the whole effort to be very stylish, and totally uncynical, if that makes sense. the choices in material, design and color are strong and definite and unafraid to be too this or that.

i love that they offer so many different styles -- way more than most sources, and i only showed you a handful, so definitely check them all out. i really love the idea of the outside of a home as an extension of living space in the months where weather permits, so it's nice to see a true array of options to choose from, not just a few variations on the standard-issue deck furniture we all know so well.

big fan. BIG.

what do you think?

photos from www.restorationhardware.com

double-decker glam

we finally have a sweet spot in our new home! i am perfectly pleased with exactly one corner of the apartment, and it's no surprise that it involves a bar cart, one of my favorite types of furniture. it actually has nothing to do with the liquor, and more to do with the sort of retro perfection of the thing. i had been wanting one for a while, and ended up spotting this one on clearance at homegoods for $25. it had a couple small cosmetic flaws, but with one side facing the wall, it's no problem.

i love how there are often two levels to bar carts and how they tend to hold an interesting array of items, creating an ever-changing vignette. as well as they function holding actual liquor and bar accessories, they have an array of other uses that just delight in almost any space.

above is the one in my parents' house that i have always loved - it was in my mom's house when she was growing up and she continues to put it to good use, changing it seasonally and as new trinkets rotate through.

here are some pictures i've collected of other bar carts that inspire the same feelings in me.

this one was featured in veranda and is perfection:

here's a closer look at that one - it's the hanover bar cart from restoration hardware and is sold out - not surprising. it's all that a bar cart should be. the scale and materials are just pitch-perfect.

here's another great one from restoration hardware which is not sold out yet, the duncan bar cart:

here's one featured in lonny magazine from long-lost love domino's editor deborah needleman:

this is from thom felicia:

and this is the gorgeously detailed cosmopolitan bar cart in polished nickel from william sonoma home:

isn't it amazing?

if you've been clicking around, you're learning what i did when i started coveting one - that this kind of glam doesn't come cheap. the restoration hardware ones hover between $550 and $700, depending on sales, and the william sonoma home one is $1400. many of the others you can find are antiques, and either happily nestled in someone's home or for sale in antique stores for a pretty penny.

the most affordable ones i've seen are made of wood and are painfully big-box store looking, even press-board like -- to me, a searing betrayal of the cosmopolitan mod-ness of the whole look, like this one, available at home depot.

no. just no. i feel like if you're going to go with something wood, go with a whole different thing. forget the cart idea, and just go with a big, rustic bar, like the markham console bar from pottery barn which i've always loved:

and even this cart, which has the right idea with metal and glass, just gets it wrong. it's proportions are off, the frosted glass looks like office furniture, and the big black wheels are utilitarian and just so, so wrong.
you can see why i jumped at the idea of one at $25.

for a different take on it, i like this butler tray and stand from west elm. it's a great, lower-cost way of getting the look of a bar cart.

for now, for $25, i'll face the broken piece to the wall. but i'll stay on the lookout for more in this furniture genre which can be used with amazing style in any number of rooms - dining room, living room, bedroom, bathroom, hallway...you get the idea.

all non-original photos from linked sites