Madeline Stuart is a designer from Los Angeles who’s work has been celebrated in magazines such as Elle Décor, House & Garden, House Beautiful, and In Style, and has been included in House Beautiful’s list of top 100 interior design firms since 1997. Looking at her portfolio, I can see why. The classic furniture, luscious fabrics and rich colours are incredible. (I am SO in love with the velour chairs in the 8th photo.)

My new house has a kitchen that is pretty cute but could use a HUGE facelift (if finances permit). Here’s a photo of it (not the best but this is the only one I have right now).

There are alot of things in here that could go, like that island table thing in the center. I think that was built for the sole purpose to house the dishwasher. The window (you can see a little corner of it) is missing a pane of glass and a screen so it should be replaced, and with a smaller one so I can wrap the cabinets all the way around (it’s really low). There’s also a door to the yard after the island that doesn’t need to be there. Plus, I want to open it to the living room. That being said, this post is another self-serving post. I have ALOT of kitchenware, but I am really excited at the prospect of no upper cabinets, and having rows of open shelving instead. I am not sure how feasible that is since this isn’t a very big kitchen but it’s a thought. So I dug through my photos and found some kitchens with open shelving, which has made my desire to eliminate the upper cabinets that much worse.

Domino	e-Architekt
PointClickHome	Salon Interior
House & Garden	Colin Streater
Lavish Locations	Deslon or Sherman Architects
Homes & Gardens	Homes & Gardens
Bohl Architects	Living Etc.

Toronto photographer James Tse’s portfolio is very familiar to me because he’s shot some of my favourite spreads in Canadian House and Home magazine. The lighting is so stunning in his photos, I want to be in them sitting on some of those gorgeous chairs. Perhaps I should have called this post “chair porn”.

As you may have heard me mention on previous posts or on Flickr, I am moving in a couple weeks and as a result my head is swimming with ideas on what to do with my new house. One of my dilemmas is what to paint each room. I’m hoping to afford to do a kitchen renovation which would include, if feasible, knocking out a wall and opening the kitchen to the living room. This will have an affect on much of what happens on the main floor, but I figure I better start going over all sorts of ideas in my head now so I can see what sticks with me. The photo below, and the others of Betsey Johnson’s apartment, are my main inspiration. I ADORE pink and I love that she used it all over her apartment. Her zebra print curtains had me spending several tries on eBay looking for similar fabric to have curtains made.

I’m thinking a really dark brown for my bedroom, a teal/aqua for the second bedroom (which is so small it will be my dressing room), and definitively pink somewhere. The rest I have no idea. As a result, this post is self-serving. These are photos of rooms with wall colours that I really like. (I have a couple others that I’ve seen in magazines lately that have stuck with me, but I packed my scanner cable so I can’t scan them to include here.)

Domino	Domino
Living Etc.	Living Etc.
Kelly Wearstler	Tom Scheerer
Cindy Ray	John Barman
Roland Bello	Marie Claire Maison
Marie Claire Maison	Marie Claire Maison