Hole-y crap!

Yesterday morning there was a huge, gaping hole in the wall of my i-don’t-know-what-i’m-gonna-use-it-for-yet room in my new house (see above). This AM, I hope that said hole will be finished out, ready for me to start pulling out the peeling caulk between the beveled panels on the Grand Room (that’s what I’m gonna call the largest – we’re talking 11×27 – room in my house) so that I can re-caulk and then begin to paint on Saturday.

I think I’ve chosen a color: Thistle, by Sherwin Williams (Aunt Jane – my fancy interior designer relative – has a discount card there so I’m using as much SW as I can). It’s a lovely pinky lavender, without being too much of either color, if you know what I mean. While I love the right shade of mauve, I live in fear that this room is going to end up looking like a throw-back to the 80s, which is most certainly not my intention.

My goal is to make the Grand Room – nay, my whole house – a pleasing mix of styles and eras, kind of like my wardrobe come to life. In that same vein, there are designer pieces (my Starck Ghost Chair and the Peter Max pieces I’m inheriting from my parents) as well as some recycled goodness (the amazing velvet settee I wrote about a few weeks ago, the purple custom-made parson’s table that used to belong to Jane that I use as my desk/sewing area). It will be interesting to see how it turns out, because I know the picture I have in my head right now is going to be nothing like the final product.

I am still waffling on the wallpaper I’m going to use in my bedroom. I am in LOVE with a few Shand Kydd prints, but can’t decide how decadent I want to go in my boudoir. The carpet – we found it and the amazing green patterned length that’s going in the Grand Room in Dalton – is a light blush tone that goes with everything, so I don’t have to worry about matching that.

Here is one of my main choices:

I would use this on the area of the wall above my bed, with a dark gray paint everywhere else.

Look for the other contenders later in the day. I have to go meet the locksmith now! Ta ta …

Today, I become a homeowner

Yep: three hours from now, I will be in the process of closing on my new house – the first I’ve ever bought (that’s what you get for spending 10 years of formative young adulthood living in big cities and being happily peripatetic).

I’ve been meaning to put pics of the new pad up for a while now; today seems like as good a time as any, seeing as we (my mom and dad are coming over to help me make some color decisions – more on that later) have not started doing any of the super-fun decorating work.

Here’s the house from the outside. Oh – if you want to do a drive-by, it’s the blonde brick house at the corner of 16th Street and Sharpe here in glorious East Nashville.

Pretty cute, right? And spring will only make it more so.

You can’t see it in this pic, but there’s a darling little courtyard on the right side of the house – check out a view from behind the fabulously Gothic gate in the picture below – where I hope my Master Gardener father (yes, he has certification) will create some floral magic for me come the big thaw. I also plan to pour a new foundation, possibly making it a brick dealio – I love how they look when they get covered in moss.

There’s a built-in grill on the outside of the patio (you can exit the house there via the kitchen) and an elegant fir tree and a crepe myrtle right outside the gate. Both terrific selling points for me.

Here’s a view looking toward the front part of the courtyard from the back of the house.

Expect more – much more! – from the home front over the coming weeks (months …). I’ve got some huge plans for the interior that I think you may want to follow.

WWJJD?

Rock, of course.

1020 North 16th Street

Here I come!

Looks like my move into my new Eastwood home at the corner of 11th Ave. N. and Sharpe is imminent. I close on the 26th. Right now, I have so much to do to get ready that I really don’t know where to start.

So I’m procrastinating like a mofo. Yesterday I drove to Cadiz, Kentucky, to hit some antique stores – something told me to go, I dunno why. Glad I did, as it resulted not only in a few amazing vintage pieces that will be in DSHV this weekend (more on this later – and pics!) but also in a purple velvet settee that I talked the guy down on from $450 to $270. AMAZING.

Dragon art belt

Etsy revealed the most amazing leather belt today:

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time; see the whole listing here. Too bad I don’t have an extra $180 right now, or it’d be mine fo’ sho’.

The Impossible Cool. Very cool.

I just happened upon a blog that’s a marvel of simplicity, a trait I often aspire to but, being a true maximalist, know I will never achieve.

And I’m cool with that – especially when I can go on living the vida low-key via wonderful photo sites like The Impossible Cool. This one delivers one single B&W photo a day of someone cool … much cooler than you and me, my friends.

(No offense, dear readers. I mean, maybe YOU can, but I know that personally there’s just no way I can compete with Francoise Hardy in black leather on a motorcycle.)

Here are some of my recent faves on the site:

And, of course, Coco.

Runaways movie still!

Whoever did H/MU and Wardrobe on the upcoming Runaways movie got it sooo right. Kristin Stewart looks just like Joan, and – god bless her – Dakota Fanning appears to be pulling off a totally believable Cheri Currie.

Between this shot and her showing on the cover of the new V (I got my new issue yesterday; review forthcoming over the next few days), I may be convinced to change my mind about little miss DF, who I’ve always found kind of annoying. A bit of maturity suits her.

Norma Kamali on eBay!

Where have I been? WHY did I not know that the fabulous Norma Kamali sells on eBay? I should have expected nothing less from this legendary proponent of democratic fashion. (She also sells a cheaper line for Walmart that’s quite good, though it can be hard to find – only select stores carry it – and sizes are often sold out.)

Chic? Check. Affordable? Check: the poly/Lycra jersey “diaper dress” pictured here is just $195. Check it out here.

I found this out while researching what to price the amazing shirtwaist denim dress from her OMO line – that stands for On My Own, kids – that I’m about to put up on my Etsy site, your one-stop at-home shopping for the best of Diamond Star Halo Vintage.

The un-style of Patti Smith

Did you guys see the Patti Smith doc on PBS on Wednesday? It was amazing, so beautifully shot and elegantly edited. I love that director Steven Sebring didn’t make it a proper “rock doc,” but instead saw fit to show the woman known as the Godmother of Punk in her element as a mother, daughter, widow, student, friend and fan.

And the, of course, there was her style – or, rather, her non-style. (The picture above is amazing – one of my favorites of her, ever – even though it’s not a particularly great example of the look I’m talking about.) Check out some of the images in this trailer for the doc, Dream of Life (it premiered last winter at Sundance; the PBS debut was its first wide public screening):

Patti’s longtime calling card is her penchant for wearing clothes in a masculine way. Back in the day – in PS’s case, the late 60s/early to mid 70s, when she was living in NYC with the late photographer Robert Maplethorpe and finding her way as a poet and rock provocateur – she was prone to wearing dark suit jackets over white collared shirts looped with skinny ties. Her reclamation of menswear was the antithesis of Diane Keaton’s in Annie Hall: it wasn’t precious or dopey, but tough and extremely cool.

In forty years, Patti’s style has changed very little. (Perhaps only the price tags are different: early in her career, she was probably shopping thrifts to get her look, while in one scene in the doc, she names the brand of everything she’s wearing: “Prada (pointing to her black jacket), Comme des Garcons (white shirt), Prada (black pants, cuffed just under the calf)”; in another, she accepts a bag full of Prada socks purchased for her by a bandmate.) I was so inspired by her un-fashion that I pulled the brown lace-up work boots out of my closet yesterday and wore them rolled up, with a baggy navy cotton t-shirt layered over an olive green tank and a standard-issue wool army jacket on top. It felt good. Authentic. Just like Patti.

Rodarte for Target: What I bought

I am super-impressed with the Rodarte for Target line that popped up (two days early!) at the Whitebridge Road Tarjay last Friday.

Par usual, I went and bought everything I wanted – either for me or for posterity. (I have a collection of “iconic” pieces by most of Target’s guest designers, eg. the corset dress from Proenza Schouler, a metallic woven mini dress from Anna Sui …) Here’s what I got:
I’m not sure I’ll actually WEAR this lacy leopard print dress, but I love it – and, like the sequined ribcage shift below, it’s sold out online. To me, that indicates it’s popular and – you got it – therefore collectible/valuable.

Completely digging on the silky lace cardigans: I bought two, the taupe-y neutral and the mustard (I also got the pretty cami that matches it). They feel and look really expensive. For $25, these are a total steal. Also sold out online. Booyah!

A few months ago I posted that I didn’t think the talented Mulleavy sisters’ trademark Miss Haversham-Goes-To-Space style would translate on the low-end of the price spectrum.

Looks like I’m gonna have to eat my words.