You may not enjoy the scent of cow manure or the sound of a rooster's crow at the break of dawn, but you can still bring a little farm life into your home without counting Babe as one of your dependents. Velocity has introduced
Simrin Farmyard Placemats ($36) into its collection of fashionable table linens, and I think they're just the thing to give us all a taste of the old days, short of rearing animals ourselves. The placemats are made from 100 percent cotton, and can be easily machine washed and dried.
It's hard not to love
DwellStudio, especially considering all of designer
Christiane Lemieux's talent and design expertise. I've long been a fan of the textile company's bedding designs, but unfortunately I'm not in the market for new bed linens. So, I'm delighted to see that DwellStudio has made its foray into la salle de bain.
For many of us, what comes to mind when we think of summery décor is beach themes — shells, nautical elements, fish — the kind of
Summer style that's been done before a million times, and not well. But your home needn't be a souvenir of your last vacation to Pensacola; there are sea-life accents out there that didn't actually wash up on the shore. I just came across the
Global Table Urchin Votives ($12-$22), and was really won over by their life-like shapes and delicate, white, bone china.
While the
Furni Oki Log Pillow ($38) is appealing in a cartoonishly cute way, it's a little too adorable for my casa. Is it a good fit for yours?
The
Mmckenna BettyLou Cordless Lamp ($275) is a cordless rechargeable lamp that sits on a wine glass and shines for over seven hours, until it needs to be recharged on its base. If you're a wino, this is probably right up your alley. But then again, you might be tempted to use the included glass to serve yourself some Sauvignon Blanc .
Whether you desire to hide family heirlooms from burglars, your unmentionables from your cleaning lady, or you just need to quickly get messy knick-knacks out of the way, a storage box in disguise is key. The
Modern-Twist PJ Pocket Pillow ($60, reduced from $105) will do just that, revealing your stash of lady mags or gold bullion with a twist of its simple pillow-like façade. Choose from a blue or yellow squirrel pattern, or green or orange elephants.
If my job is any indication, I'm not exactly a numbers person. But,
paint-by-numbers? That's another story.
The
Carved Wood Animal Bookends by Roost ($150) are, in my opinion, equal parts cool, cute, and creepy. Whatever you think, if you park your books against one of these hand-carved shesham wood bookends, it'll definitely be a conversation starter.
Remember the
Starfish Table? And the
Booklamp? I've written about Autoban by De La Espada before, and the furnishing line, the result of collaboration between design firms Autoban and De La Espada, remains at the top of my "If I Ever Win the Lottery List."
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