SMART LIVING

By Mary Ellen Stancill
For the design obsessed, the advent of blogs seems truly heaven sent. Rather than waiting for a monthly magazine, inspiration springs forth daily or even more frequently. After a little searching, we found several top notch sites by design junkies right here in Birmingham. Below they’ve offered info about who they are, why they blog, what they write and the sources of their inspiration.


peppermags
Haven and Home
Newlywed Diaries


peppermags
peppermags.blogspot.com (established March 2008)
By: Jacklyn Loquidis, interior designer

Focus: “I have a weekly format that I try to stick to. Monday I blog on furniture and lighting. Tuesday is an interior and a finish. Wednesdays I do architecture and an accessory. Thursday is an artist/artist interview. Friday is a DIY project. Also, every day at lunch (if I don’t have lunch plans) I do a series titled ‘Etsy Lunch Hour’ where I search Etsy for fun finds and blog about them while I eat lunch at my desk.”

Updated: Two to three times a day

Personal Style: “My personal style is definitely modern,” says Jacklyn. “I have a huge weakness for mid-century modern design and would love to be a minimalist, but I like stuff way too much. But, I do like to include an antique here and there to break up the modern and make it interesting.”

Inspiration: “I am a terrible Internet nerd and find a lot of my inspiration from design sites, blogs and random Internet searches. Some inspiration comes from reps bringing in new products and of course there are magazines and catalogs that help. I also have a few good friends that will email me things they think I would like to blog, too.”

Design influences: “Charles and Ray Eames. There is something romantic about a husband and wife team that created some of the most influential and innovative design of their time including furniture, art, film and architecture.”

Top five design blogs: apartmenttherapy.com, designspongeonline.com, ofpaperandthings.blogspot.com, swissmiss.typepad.com and engdesignboom.com/eng

Top five design magazines: Dwell, Readymade, Elle Décor, Interior Design and Domino

Haven and Home
Havenandhome.blogspot.com
(established October 2008)
By: Marianne Strong, interior decorator

Focus: “I try to stay mostly with design topics, although I blog about other subjects too ... I stick with items and subjects I love and go from there. Great finds, reasonably priced decorating ideas, shopping discoveries, parts of current projects and occasional splurges/wish lists consume the majority of what I post.”

Updated: Every weekday morning; “My day starts with reading blogs,” says Marianne. “I find if they are not updated daily and fairly early, I don’t read them as often.”

Personal Style: “My style is very eclectic. I love so many styles: traditional, modern, rustic, funky, I could go on and on. However, I always prefer several styles mixed together instead of just one on its own. [The design bug] has been with me for a long time; I can remember being very young and painting the trim in my room a color that was mixed to match a color on my tennis shoes.”

Design influences: “Nate Berkus and Celerie Kemble are two designers that I would love to do my own home. Their styles are very down to earth but at the same time spectacular. I also admire Kelly Werstler. On a more local note I love Bobby McAlpine’s work.”

Top five design blogs: pinkwallpaper.blogspot.com, elementsof styleblog.com, designspongeonline.com, thesartorialist.blogspot. com and habituallychic.blogspot.com

Top five design magazines: “Domino, House Beautiful, Traditional Home, Southern Accents and Metropolitan Home. Cottage Living was one of my top five until it folded.

The Newlywed Diaries
Newlyweddiaries.blogspot.com
(established July 2007)
By: Jennifer and Wes Bonds, assistant editor/producer for a home website, project manager for a general contractor

Focus: Jennifer: “[The subject] varies from day to day. Pretty or inspirational photos, usually of interiors or architecture, projects that we have going around the house, ideas we’d like to try, places we’ve been, and our Border collie, Maddie, makes frequent appearances as well.” Updated: Every weekday. Wes: “We’re hoping to start posting twice a day, but with each of us working full-time jobs, it’s hard to find enough material.”

Personal Style: Jennifer: “Actually, we took a ‘style DNA’ test in September and found out that I am ‘simple chic’ and Wes is ‘modern country.’ We both like things to be clean-lined and neat, but I like to mix that up with antiques, while Wes usually prefers more modern pieces. Wes definitely likes to use more color than I do, but we both really like using textures—our house has seagrass, velvet, silks and linens.”

Inspiration: Jennifer: “Literally everywhere! Most of the time, I’ll see something I love in a magazine or somewhere online and that will set a post in motion, but even the smallest thing can get me going.

“The best example of that is a post I wrote on the color Robin’s egg blue after finding a Robin’s egg in the yard. What started as a silly little post about my favorite color turned into an appearance in The Washington Post!”

Biggest design influences: Jennifer: “I really admire Darryl Carte,r who is th emaster at creating a modern interior with traditional elements. I usually find myself attracted to Southerners who like to put a fresh spin on traditional interior. Barrie Benson, Ruthie Sommers and Suzanne Rheinstein come to mind. I also like Stephen Gambrel, Anne Coyle, Kate Spade, Jen West and Peter Dunham. A new favorite is Eddie Ross.”

Top five design blogs: Jennifer: “Yikes, I read too many. The bare minimum every day includes: eddieross.typepad.com, urbangraceinteriors.typepad.com and stylecourt.blogspot.com; I also love mrsblandings.blogspot.com, mynottinghill. blogspot.com, pinkwallpaper.blogspot.com, simplyseleta.typepad.com and alifesdesign.blogspot.com (which is written by a friend)—but that’s really not even scratching the surface of my blog-reading obsession!”

Wes: thisyounghouse.com, urbangraceinteriors.typepad.com, twoellie.blogspot.com, decorno.blogspot.com, cotedetexas.blogspot.com

Top five design magazines: Jennifer: “All of the ‘shelter’ category magazines come across my desk at work, so it really depends on the issue. But I can always count on loving Southern Accents, Martha Stewart Living and Domino, and I’ve been really enjoying House Beautiful lately.” Wes: “Cottage Living (RIP), Architectural Digest ... those are probably the only two I’ve ever picked up and really liked.”
January Birmingham, Alabama

  

 
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