Home & Garden Blog

While hospitality and housewarming is usually thought of in terms of guests, the tradition of having actual rooms designated as guest rooms has gone by the wayside, and rightly so.  With the advent of speedy transportation, planes, trains and automobiles, the tradition of inviting friends and family to stay for a week or so because you never get a chance to see them the rest of the year has become non-existent.  Except, of course, by the people who truly know how to live.  Families that have held onto the tradition of guest rooms (either by necessity or default, meaning kids moved out of the house and now they have an extra room) are legendary.  The parties become less of one night bing-bang bashes and more of an extended, relaxing siesta.  The house designed by architect Ellen Cassilly and her husband Frank Konhaus, featured in the New York Times Home & Garden section, finds the perfect mix of natural tranquility and guest room hospitality.

How can you design a guest room?  Well first, you have to have the space to designate a guest room in the first place.  A dining room converted to a bedroom space has great potential, I think, because it is usually on the first or second floor of the house and a bit more removed from the regular family’s quarters, so they feel like there is a little more privacy/intimacy.  Also, they are close to the kitchen for the morning.  In terms of outfitting a guest room, you want it to be simple and uncluttered.  I suggest investing in some nice Ikea bedroom furniture, a chest of drawers, and a chair.  Curtains and rugs really do wonders to pull the place together.

Suggestions from Ikea.com:

MALM Bed Frame: $199.00 for prices like these, who needs guests?

This product is sturdy, elegant, and beautifully crafted, also adjustable depending on the height of the mattress.

BOMULL pair of curtains with tie backs: $19.99.

10 percent of the MALM bed?!?  How can you pass up these beauties!

Find at Smarter.com:  Shop for more bed frames and curtains.

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Who doesn’t love the steamy sagas of James Bond?  The thrill, the style, the misogyny, the mystery, it’s all possibly to die for…another day.  Ha!  Joke, I enjoyed that.  What I also enjoy are the fashionable apartments and hotels that Mr. Bond frequents.  While often tricked out with microphones, femme fatales, or waiters and maids on a suicide mission.  But in all seriousness, the interior is always stylish and delectable.  Here are some of my favorites:

1. The World is not Enough (1999)

Gold filigree, lavish textiles, Versailles blue, sheer curtains:  this is sumptuous style at its peak.  To emulate this style, first thing you need to look at is the walls.  You want to consider accent colors, like yellow or blue, that are regal and slightly muted and darkened in their color.  But not too dark, we’re not looking to recreate Gothic Victorianism.  It’s all about finding a luminous match for gold, which is the number one trickiest home decor color to use well.  Gold promotes elegance and reeks of status, but guests (and yourself) will immediately ask “is this really necessary?  The rest of the house is so post-modern, and then you get to the living room with the gold filigree around the door, gold-winged angel hunched over the ashtray, and gold tassels on the heavy blue curtains?  Who are these people and when did I go through the timewarp?”  Gold is beautiful in the most unlikely of places:  bed comforters, hands down, look beautiful in gold.  I love EgyptianPeddler.com’s 7-piece Bed-in-a-Bag Diamond Gold Comforter Set ($99.99).  Complete with a comforter, 2 pillow shams, 2 square cushions, 1 neck pillow and 1 pleat, this deal is featured at Smarter.com’s comparison shopping at the remarkable deal price of only $99!  Available in king, queen, or full, this is a bed set fit for a goddess, and is not too gaudy or rash in its coloring.  It’s very warm, but not too bright, and is made of some if the finest materials.

2. Quantum of Solace, Bedroom Scene (2008)

Freshest on my mind at least, the most recent Bond movie has remarkable architecture and scenery as well.  The opera scene still sends shivers down my spine.  But don’t forget about the leading (and second-tier) women of the film, who are just as remarkable as their predecessors.  Recently I attempted to cut my hair like the redhead in this photo, I think it turned out rather well (more reason to look to Bond for style advice in every lifestyle choice!).  What I want to point out about this photo is the beautifully crafted dark wood in the room:  the modernist bed frame, the window screens, the lamps and wall paneling.  While dark wall painting is rarely a good thing unless you’re setting up a photography darkroom, dark wood on the walls is absolutely beautiful, natural and elegant.  I am absolutely turned on by the bed frame:  check out the sultry equivalent created by William and Sonoma, called the Wood Bed Frame, Cal King, Cocoa Stain.  Boasting handcrafted solid hardwood and maple veneer, this high-backed bed is absolutely divine.  For $795, it is slightly pricey, but totally worth the investment.

Find at Smarter.com:  Shop for more comforters and bed frames.