Shutters Hotel on the Beach

If you plan to visit Los Angeles and want to spend the night enveloped in esteemed interior designer Michael Smith luxury, Shutters Hotel on the Beach will fit the bill. Recently, Mr. Smith spearheaded a total redesign of the charming Cape Cod styled hotel, and it shows: Smith's touches are everywhere, from the checked and striped fabrics, to the luxurious bathroom fixtures to the beachfront restaurant - it's Michael, all the way. Shutters is located in Santa Monica and as it says, it's smack on the beach. The hotel takes its name from the multitude of shutters that cover the rooms' windows. If you go, be sure to visit the hotel's store. Among available items you can buy is the bedspread, made from a beautiful John Robshaw fabric! Enjoy!

Does it get anymore Michael Smith than this? A checked chair in every room. Notice the fashionable Oriental garden seat and wood floors.

The rooms feature two flat screen tvs, one in the bedroom, the other in the bathroom. I could be very happy in this bedroom.

Smith is famous for four poster beds and he doesn't disappoint here. Cute guy is available from room service.

Close up of Tibetan rug. It's available for sale in the hotel store.

The striped fabric headboard appears to me to be Rogers and Goffigon Cyclades.

Close up of the John Robshaw fabric bedspread available for sale in the hotel store.

Gorgeous Smith bathroom with spa tub. Notice the window from the tub to the bedroom.

Smith redesigned the hotel spa with rain shower fixtures.

Beach front restaurant with typical Smith stripes, wicker, and wood.

Smith uses casual white denim slipcovers on the wicker dining room chairs.

The redesigned lobby.

Charlotte Moss' Winter House

Charlotte Moss' Aspen home which is the subject of her latest book, Winter House, recently sold for $8,500.000. Interestingly, the house was purchased by a Dallas couple, Carl and Peggy Sewell whose own beautiful home has been featured more than once in Southern Accents. The real estate listing for Winter House states the asking price was at a major price reduction and the house was being sold unfurnished. It is a six bedroom house with a large basement that appears to be a self contained "house within a house" as it has its own kitchen, living room, and bedrooms far away from the main level.

There is a great virtual tour that you can take, here. Not only that, but you can save the virtual tour to a zip file which converts the tour to still photographs, which then can be studied in great detail if you so desire. Much of the virtual tour shows views of bedrooms and the basement that were not shown in Winter House. If you are a fan of Charlotte's and the book Winter House, I would advise you to take a look at the virtual tour as soon as possible, because I can't imagine the site will contain this listing much longer since the house has sold.

Here, you can find an interview Charlotte did about happier times spent in Winter House. It does appear, though, that there will be future happy times for Charlotte. The Aspen Times, while reporting the sale of Winter House by Charlotte Moss and her husband, Barry Friedberg, also reports that a few weeks prior to the sale, a Barry Friedberg of New York, bought a Red Mountain ranch for a tidy $16,250,000. Below, are a few stills taken from the real estate listing for Winter House:

The Windsor Smith Home Collection

Windsor Smith, a young interior designer from California, is hot, hot, hot right now. Today, she expands her dominance as she officially launches her own furniture line, the eponymous Windsor Smith Home Collection. This launching is just the beginning for Windsor as more pieces will be added in a timely manner. Additionally, Kravet will be rolling out Windsor's own fabric designs in 2008. It doesn't get an hotter than this in the design business. Windsor's furniture collection is fun and youthful, yet it takes a cue from classic designs. She credits her love of color from growing up colorlessly in Kansas and describes her furniture as "a new spin on elegant classics."

In this except from Elle Decor magazine, Windsor talks of her inspirations: "I like to create libraries where men with names like Howard, Bing and Spencer sat in cashmere sweaters and contemplated the 13th hole on the Bel-air golf course. I am drawn to a simple but elegant time when the women were so legendary that surnames weren't necessary.... Slim, Babe, Coco...", Smith says as she twists a sterling pen on the palest aqua velvet ribbon that once belonged to the Duchess of Windsor.

The fabric options for her furniture include linens in fun colors like lavender. Domino readers will be familiar with many of the pieces in the collection as they were shown in her own Californian home featured in the August issue. Below are a few of my favorite pieces from the new collection. Note: while I find the pieces very accessible for a vibrant, busy house with lots of children and dogs, be sure to include a major breadwinner in this picture. These pieces do not come cheap!

The Brittany Secretary, $12,000.

Chloe Sofa, while shown in this vibrant pink, the website says it is not available in this fabric. Strange.



Slipcovered wing chair with monogram.


Morrocan inspired ottoman.
Gwen curved arm sofa.
Medici arm chair.

Directoire chair shown in leather.

In Windsor's own home, you can see the Directoire chair, two benches from her line, and the large Brittany secretary.

Another picture from Windsor's house, shows the large double sided slipcovered sofas from her collection. In front is the Moroccan upholstered ottoman.

In a client's beach house, Windsor uses her slipcovered sofa. I love the detail pleating on the edge.


In the kitchen, a gorgeous aqua floor.

Casual living room with gorgeous hand painted wallpaper pieces. Windsor uses the same hand painted wallpaper in her own dining room. Note the painted wood floor, perfect for a beach house.

Dressier living room, with light pink sofas, square, tufted pillows and large, silver mirror.This room shows the collection's curved arm sofa and Medici chair.

Another beach house view, with clever use of striped fabric on ottoman. The pink color pops on the green stripes.

Can You Spell Chandelier?

While on the internet on one of my favorite sites, Houston Real Estate, I came across this lovely home for sale. It's in the Memorial area, one of the toniest neighborhoods in Houston, and as you can see, it's quite a huge house. It's for sale for close to 9 million, just in case you're interested in buying it. But, like they say, money can't buy you taste. I got the biggest case of giggles looking at the pictures of the interior, and I just had to share them with you. Enjoy!


So far, so good. It looks interesting, wood bordered limestone floor, Niermann Weeks sconces, french settee, not quite sure about the hall table, but ok. Personally, I wouldn't have put a skin like this on my stairs, but, that's what makes horse racing.


Master bedroom: Not bad. This kind of cove lighting drives me crazy and I don't really care for the large dark whatever-it-is kneeling in front of the mirror, but, all in all, it's nice. Except, wait, why do they have two duvets on the bed? Uh oh, shades of things to come??? Beware!


Living Room: Ok, we have two back to back sofas, good idea for a large room. But, does each sofa have to have a humongous chandelier over it? I'm not sure that even one of these behemoth's centered in the room would have been good. But two of these are two too much.


Another view of living room. Mucho animal skins. Here the chandeliers don't look so overwhelming. Maybe it's because the second one looks like a reflection of the first one? The Two Theme is really evident here. Two sets of two matching chairs. On the far left, you can see two matching settees side by side.

Two for dinner? This designer really likes the "two" theme. In the dining room, we have two matching tables, each with matching bowl, and of course, two matching chandeliers! I'm beginning to wonder if there was a 2 for 1 sale at the local lighting company? Oh and look, we have two matching Oriental horsemen on the mantle!!! I'm kind of sorry there aren't two fireplaces!

The Kitchen: Surely, gentle reader, you didn't think there would be ONE pendant light here, did you? No, I don't mean to disappoint, but there are, of course, TWO lights, yet again. And two dishwashers. At least we're consistent here.

TheGarden Room: Are there two chandeliers in the garden room, too? Yes, of course! It gets really dark in garden rooms, you know, so there has to be lots of lighting. One for the sofa, and one for the two matching side by side chaise lounges. Actually, behind the plant on the left, I'm pretty sure that's a matching sofa with a matching lamp. Of course.

And finally, the family room. Oh no, oh no!!!!! What happened to the Two for Two Theme? Well, it IS a large sectional and everyone needs their own light, I guess. And carrying the Three Theme further, note that the ottoman actually IS three sided, so that makes more sense. And if you look closely, it appears there are Three Sets of Three Decorative pillows on the sectional. Ok, I understand now, I think?

I'm wondering, do all the chandeliers stay with the house when it sells, or are the owners going to take them all with them? Hmmmmmm. I'll keep you posted!

There's No Place Like Home

Well, like the old saying goes: there's no place like home. After three wonderful weeks at the beach, we came home today to huge stacks of unopened mail, plants that desperately need to be cut back, a dog with a swollen eye (ouch!), hydrangeas dead from heat stroke, messy clutter left from leaving in a hurry three long weeks ago, a teenaged daughter who announced that she didn't really miss her old mom and dad (sniff), and still, we're glad to be home. I've been missing my stuff: my candles, my books, my antiques, my sheets, my sconces, my style!



I did have a few surprises waiting for me. Gorgeous wallpaper samples from Farrow and Ball. I'm thinking about wallpapering my bedroom in pink damask. What do you think?

The only problem is the pink in the Farrow and Ball sample is much more orange than in the picture. (Hi Sammi Jo, looking busy there!) So, I may have to start my search over again with something more like this:



And also waiting at home for me was this gorgeous huge cigar box full, I mean stuffed full of fabric samples from Raoul Textiles. Eat your heart out, designers! I am SO excited about this package. I have never before seen such gorgeous packaging from a fabric company. This beats Rose Tarlow's sample box by a mile. I was forced to order the Raoul samples because no one displays the fabrics in Houston. But, truly, the samples they sent are huge, so they are worth it. Here's the cigar box:

And while I was at the beach, I placed a few orders with Amazon. So, there were wonderful books waiting for me. Like this: Florence Broadhurst.

But, I'm afraid I won't get it finished in time to discuss it with the blogger's Book of the Month Club. Maybe next time. Also waiting at home was this book, recommended by Bibliostyle. It looks great:

But the crowning glory was this, recommended by Domino's guest designers' this month: The old Vogue's Book of Houses, Gardens and People. It cost a small fortune, but from the looks of it, it may be worth it. Gorgeous Horst photos of people like the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the Pucci Family, and other long ago socialites. Since the book is tres over priced, I'm willing to let anyone who wants to borrow it to do so. Just let me know and we'll trade addresses. Seriously. It's my gift to bloggers! I am going to try to scan some photos from it later. It looks like this book is a serious example, yet again, of how classic design does not date or go out of style.


Pictures from the chapter on the Pucci Family.


Chapter about Cy Twombly.