COTE DE TEXAS: Jun 18, 2007

My Designs: French Lamp Shades

1 comment

If you look closely at this lampshade you might make out that printed on it is an antique map of Paris. Antique maps are the rage these days, along with coral and shells and birds and foo dogs. Most of the available maps are not antique, but are copies of antique maps, especially ones of Paris and Rome. These maps are showing up everywhere these days, even on wrapping paper.
My Paris lampshades came from Watkins Culver, an antique shop in Houston on Bissonnet specializing in French and Italian pieces. Babs Watkins is the owner and she is one of Houston's premier interior designers whose work is featured in Veranda and Southern Accents. She sells these lampshades in several different sizes. I've been unable to resist a few. Here is a smaller version of the table lampshade size. N'est-il pas beau ?

For the Birds

No comments


At Indulge, in Houston, I bought these beautiful faux bois candlesticks featuring birds perched on the limbs. I lusted for them for a few months and finally couldn't resist any longer. They're at home on my dining table now, for a while at least. Have you noticed the trend this year is birds? They are everywhere: on designer file folders, on fabrics, on notecards, on prints with cheesy frames. It reminds me of coral. Yes, they've exploited coral to death. And I hate that because I do love it so. As you can see:



The funniest and truest article ever written about the over use of le trendy coral is by David Feld, a columnist for D Home Magazine (Dallas, Texas). Here's a small taste to whet your appetite:


Enough Already
Coral is a prime example of when decorating trends go bad.


In one form or another, real or fake, coral is replicating itself in every house in America. There's the real stuff, which has ossified in its naturally beautiful state of white, pink, or blackish red. Then there are the plaster fakes, which have been turned into sconces, and the cast-bronze copies, which have transmogrified into vases. The Alberto Pinto-designed china we see everywhere was interesting for about three minutes. There's not a textile house in the country that isn't producing a coral wallpaper print (why stop at red when 22 designer colors will do?), even Pottery Barn's coral sequin-embroidered pillows are flying out of the pages of its everyman catalogs.
Read the rest of the article here.

So, birds, fly around really fast. Your death knell is ringing already. Such a shame!