Last weekend, I spent the morning cleaning our little apartment. I found myself dream decorating as I crawled under the bed to reach the dust bunnies and up onto the step-stool to clean windows. It’s amazing how inspiring it can be to change your viewpoint in a room! Perhaps it was the arrival of our cocktail table – all of a sudden I was visually figuring out what it was I wanted to do in order to make our place feel like home sweet home.
I’ve had my eye on Kyle Bunting rugs for a while now. It all came together for me when I realized that the pattern in our vintage wine rack and the tufting in our Chesterfield sofa mimicked the pattern in the Rewind rug. Cool, right?

See that empty spot on the wall above our dining table? I’d like to see the Eagan multi-panel mirror hanging over it. The look reminds me of our DIY black mirrored wall in the old apartment, only less permanent. This is a rental apartment after all!

If I can’t have ceiling beams -you know how I adore them!- I might as well have night-stands that are inspired by them! I think that the Beam side tables by Environment Furniture are the perfect foil to our mid-century modern inspired bed. Now all I need to do is find a pair of black murano glass lamps from the 1950’s to sit upon those side tables… winkwink

So far, I am pretty happy with the ideas I have come up with. As you can see, I like to layer different eras and styles so that it doesn’t look dated or like I bought it all at one shop. What do you think? Do you have ideas that you think I should consider for the space? Thanks! xx

No Comments » Posted by ABCD on Mar 11th 2010 / City Apartment and Dream Decorating and Interior Design as Inspiration and Uncategorized

ATTN NYC! DIFFA’s Cocktails By Design will take place on Thursday, March 18th at 6pm. You can still purchase tickets to indulge in a feast for the eyes, body and heart. By attending this cocktail party, you’ll be one of the lucky first few people to oohhh and ahhh over the most dynamic tablescapes of 2010. Not to mention, you’ll have the opportunity to mix and mingle with the designers who created these gorgeous displays!


I can’t even begin to explain how flattered I am that the New York Design Center asked me to get involved! I’ll be at the NYDC “Connected” table on Friday the 19th after 3pm. They’re giving me a laptop and asked that I “live tweet” and share my blog with the visitors that pass by. How cool is that?

3 Comments » Posted by ABCD on Mar 10th 2010 / Design and Dream Decorating and Entertaining and Interior Design as Inspiration and Uncategorized and What's on?

A few weeks ago I entered to win two tickets to the AD Home Design Show by leaving a comment on Debbie Wiener’s blog. To my delight, I WON!
Not only did she send me two tickets to attend the show, but Debbie also sent along two extra tickets for me to giveaway on ABCD Design! Each ticket admits one person, plus a guest and includes admission to the Architectural Digest Home Design Show, DIFFA’s Dining By Design at Pier 94 and the Go Green Expo at Pier 92. That’s incredibly generous, don’t you agree?

You’ve got until Friday at noon to leave a comment on this blog post. Two winners will be randomly selected. Good luck!

14 Comments » Posted by ABCD on Mar 10th 2010 / Design and Uncategorized and What's on?

Good morning ABCD blog reading friends! Spring has sprung in New York City and it is time to do a little blog housekeeping. Guess what? I’d love your feedback. You see, I recently learned that ABCD Design isn’t as pretty in a google reader as it could be. I hear that the images with my handwriting text are often cut off and not completely viewable in the reader.
I contacted my html guru Ryan (16 Ninjas) and we’ve tweaked the blog a bit. We’ve been working together on a few other projects too ~ more to come on that later! I have never gotten into the whole reader thing, so I have no idea what what it is you see when it gets delivered to you. (No ipod, no reader… I know, I know! It’s time to jump into the the 2000’s, right?) All I know is that the actual url www.abcddesign.com is a whole lot prettier than the reader version. It is your turn to chime in. Please tell me if we’ve resolved the image issue, okay?


{Images today are from the Joes NYC website, and from the flickr photostreams belonging to Effed in Park Slope and Philipp Klinger.}

No Comments » Posted by ABCD on Mar 9th 2010 / Design and Uncategorized

Jen strikes me as more of a bold, graphic pattern kind of person. She works in fashion design and is always impeccably dressed. When we were discussing her personal stationery she expressed interest in the vintage French swashes and swirls that have made appearances in my previous designs. I figured I would give her a sampling of both graphic pattern and vintage French ~ we’ll let her decide which suits their personal style.



Do you recall the vintage postcard I got for Christmas from Mr. D’s Auntie? That inspiration led to this design:

3 Comments » Posted by ABCD on Mar 8th 2010 / ABCD Designs Bespoke Stationery and Monogram and Uncategorized and work in progress