(pssst! Don’t miss the other best ofs! Best of Entryways, Best of Chandeliers, Best of Bedrooms, Best of Clawfoot Tubs, Best of Cats and Best of Dogs!)

Image above: Lara Collins’ Fredericksburg, Texas house is also home to two beagles, several milk goats and a cow fromsneak peek: lara collins

Image above: Stripes in Annette Joseph’s summer home in the Cinque Terre from sneak peek: annette joseph

Image above: Bright yellow in the Angela Hardison’s Arizona bedroom from sneak peek: angela hardison

CLICK HERE for more stripes!

(more…)

Image above: The chandelier as a sculpture in this three-room Berkeley, California, bungalow from sneak peek: diva of linea carta.

Image above: A modern chandelier hangs over a window seat in a home just outside London, from sneak peek: gemma ahern.

Image above: From sneak peek: maya marzolf of le grenier

Image above: A small crystal chandelier adds sparkle to the cool, gray room of “Behind the Bar” editors and Horne owners, Ryan and Alissa Walker.

Image above: This little kitchen alcove gets some chandelier glitz, from sneak peek: melanie coddington.

CLICK HERE for 20 more beautiful chandeliers!

(more…)

Happy March! Living in New York this winter has felt a bit like being caught inside a snow globe held by some angry child who just won’t stop shaking the darn thing. But now it’s March, and I’m feeling spring breathing down winter’s neck. I’m ready to eat outside, ride bikes and be surrounded by flowers. I was introduced to the work of British floral designer Constance Spry this winter by Amy Merrick — my go-to girl for all things floral (and the other Amy Elizabeth living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn). I immediately proposed that she do a Constance Spry-inspired project and I’d write the history part. I think Amy literally jumped up and down when I asked her, and she did such an amazing job explaining how to recreate Constance’s work that I think even I might be able to tackle it! — Amy A.

Image above: Spry’s London flower shop in 1947 from The Surprising Life of Constance Spry

I hadn’t heard of Constance Spry until Amy mentioned her, but apparently she’s a favorite of all floral girls. Constance was a British floral designer in the 1920s, and she arguably did more to change florals that anyone since. She rejected the stiff, wired arrangements that were popular at the time in favor of loose, fluid arrangements in solid blocks of color. She used materials that were usually discarded, like grasses and berries. She embraced vegetables in arrangements and preferred non-traditional containers. She would frequently raid her clients’ cupboards, pulling out serving pieces to use as unorthodox (for the time) vases.

Image above: Constance Spry arrangement from the Design Museum

While Constance’s arrangements may not sound unconventional today, they were certainly show-stopping at the time. Literally. In the ’30s, Constance created a scarlet-roses-and-red-kale-leaf window display for a Bond Street perfumery that attracted crowds so enormous, the police had to be called to help with the traffic flow. In addition to creating floral displays for many other London businesses, such as the Elizabeth Arden salon and the dining rooms at Hatchet’s Restaurant, she had wealthy and important private clients. She created the flowers for Wallis Simson’s wedding to the Duke of Windsor and even designed flowers for the processional route for Elizabeth II’s coronation.

Image above: A Constance arrangement recreated by Amy Merrick

CLICK HERE for more Constance Spry + Amy’s amazing DIY floral project!
(more…)

Click here for more Design*Sponge “Best Of”s (dining rooms, entryways, bedrooms, wallpaper, playrooms, bikes, chandeliers, white living rooms and more).

A Couple Modern Map Favs

• World map from Julie at Famille Summerbelle
• Maps from These are Things

Image above: Jesse and Whitney Chamberlin hung this roller map in the dining room of their Atlanta home.

Image above: Kathleen Boonen and Jan Donhardt found this old map at a market in Ibiza.

Image above: Map in Jen Mankins’ Brooklyn home

Image above: This map of the USSR was found in a junk store in Knoxville, TN. Now it hangs in the Hayden-Harnett Brooklyn home.

CLICK HERE for more maps in homes!

(more…)

Image above: We recently remodeled this space. Peter tore the walls out and replaced them with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves (there is a second one not shown, to the left of the one in the photo, that creates the entryway to the space). We had a lot of objects and books that were scattered all over, giving our place a cluttered feel. Turning these walls into bookshelves gathered all of these smaller objects up in a central place that is easy to access, focused and beautiful to look at. Peter made the dinning table and stools from old-growth, reclaimed Redwood that originally was used in water towers around the city. The tabletop is white laminate. Peter also made the planter on the table from the same wood. The hanging light is from Ikea. PAINT: Our entire space is painted with Benjamin Moore Atrium White. We think it’s the perfect white. It has just a touch of red in it, which gives it a fresh, modern warmth.

Image above: Hanging lamp is by Linnea Gits made from hammered, flattened nails.

(more…)

The staple of college dorm rooms and office desks everywhere, the Anglepoise lamp was invented in the 1930s by an English automotive engineer who specialized in the design of vehicle suspension systems. George Carwardine owned a factory in Bath where he invented a spring that could be moved easily in every direction but remained fixed once placed in a position. George didn’t set out to invent a lamp; he just liked tinkering around with springs. He patented his new spring design then looked for an application.

When searching for an application, George looked no further than his own factory and realized how useful it would be for the workman in his factory to be able to position a light so that it could illuminate a particular component. He designed a heavy base to stabilize the lamp and then a shade that would concentrate the beam.

Image above: 1953 Anglepoise lamp advertisement

George licensed the design to Herbert Terry & Sons, a manufacturer based in Redditch who supplied springs to his factory. Charles Terry, the eldest son, was interested in expanding the business beyond springs, and the lamp seemed like the perfect solution. Initially, George wanted to call the lamp Equipoise, but the name was rejected by the Patent Office on the grounds that it was an existing word (equipoise means an equal distribution of weight), so the pair settled on Anglepoise. The original Anglepoise lamp was marketed for industrial use.

Read on after the jump for more about the Anglepoise lamp + sources…

(more…)