Dreaming of a house in France? Perhaps a coach house rich with history? Throw in an overstuffed, cosy, slightly shabby interior that just screams kids and dogs and long lunches and local wine and perhaps this house in Normandy may just be the stuff of your fantasies. Nothing is precious but everything is loved. I can just imagine summer escapes to such a house. Dream on.

OK it’s time for our last installment from that guide to good taste in the 70s How to Decorate Without a Decorator, A Realistic Guide to Interior Design by Mary Gilliatt, Thames and Hudson, London, 1977. Mary seems to not have survived the test of time with a few of these. Hey! That’s what these posts are all about – inspiration and the occasional “OMG what were they thinking of?!!” Enjoy!

WINKS – weekend links. Here we list what has come in during the week, things we’ve found and things we think you’ll want to see. If you’d like to see your blog or website featured email us and if we think it fits with our readers we’ll link you. So what’s in this week?

• Congrats to Jordan Cappella on his inclusion in the new book PREFAB NOW. His great interiors for the OMD prefab house are featured. Looks like a great book Jordan! Lucky you!



Sweet N Shabby Roses
• Marcia of Precious Style has just celebrated her blog’s first birthday and to celebrate is hosting the Cutest Cupcake Contest. You’ll find all the details here. Sounds like great fun.



• BrieAnn also emailed to let us in on another exciting competition. “I wanted to send you information about a Design contest held by Country Living & the DIY Network as I think it would be of interest to your readers! Sawmill Village, the premier, ski-in, ski-out community located within West Virginia’s nationally-recognized Snowshoe Mountain Resort and mountainous landscape of Country Living Magazine’s 2009 Home of the Year, is giving designers the opportunity of a lifetime to showcase their creations! For the first time ever, interior design mavens across the nation are invited to submit a video testimonial to You Tube to win the opportunity to design a room within Country Living’s 2009 Sawmill Village Home of the Year!” You can find out more by going to Country Living/DIY Network YouTube page. OK design divas this is too good an opportunity to pass up. Can’t wait to see the results.



• New blog alert! Edi’sFiles is only a few months old and already it’s full of fabulous rooms, furniture, fashion and art. Thanks for introducing your blog Bela!
• An email from Gary lead me to a Linda Solovic’s etsy shop. Her shop announcement sums it up. “The beautiful spring weather we are having has inspired me to create some collages using bird and flower themes. I have made these collages into prints available for sale. These prints will perk up any room and help shake off those winter doldrums.” So cute!!



• Jane and Hollie of Love It A Lot are having a Pyrex Spectacular at their etsy shop White Elephant Vintage. They’ve spent the past couple of months scavenging for every complete vintage Pyrex Mixing and Cinderella bowl set they could get their hands on. Sorry I’m a little late with this one but there are still some fab sets left and the rest of their stock is as always so cute.



• A press release landed in our inbox from PuroLino. The images had me salivating. I love beautiful linens and their website had me dreaming about quality sheets and napkins, towels and tablecloths. Can’t read a word of Italian but their blog has ethereal images of snowy linen. I can smell the soap and feel the sunshine.
• Kim’s lamenting over her cheap laminate floors and this email came in to make her hate her floors even more. “DuChateau’s antique replica hardwood flooring is designed to replicate historical floors found in Europe. The long-length and wide-planked boards are distressed, aged and treated with brushing, color stressing, and thermal treatment procedures. The flooring is further antiqued through hand-rubbed oil, stains and wax from original methods to reflect the romance, warmth and character of 17th century floors.” Thank you to Erica for making Kim drool over new “old” flooring. Trouble is she’d probably want to slap white paint over these beauties.



• And this in from Kristine. “I thought I’d let you know about California Faucets’ Virtual Faucet Creator, a brand new online tool allows you to “design your own” faucet. It’s really unique for the industry and lots of fun to play with in that you can actually design over 2 million custom faucet combinations. I think you’ll find it a great way to get inspired.”



• And finally another new blog. Decor Fellow. Inspiration, design and a little bit of whimsy. Decor Fellow is an Interior Designer, Product Developer, Furniture Designer & All-Around Good Fellow (his profile and I’m sure it’s true). It’s great to see a guy in the design blogosphere and especially one with such a good eye and insider knowledge. Welcome DF.

Nickey-Kehoe are Todd Nickey & Amy Kehoe. Another great design firm in the Domino 10, I love their edgy grunge/boho vibe. The well used and classic mix with high end details to give a too cool indie rocker style. Plenty to “borrow” from their portfolio.

Love the quirkiness of photographer Beth Evans’ portfolio. Things are not always as they seem and bold art statements are made. Beautiful still life portfolio and her travel photos are rich and real and never precious. The camera is not supposed to lie and in Beth Evans’ hands it definitely doesn’t.