Home Away From Home: Marais House

I think I know where I would stay in Paris if I had the bucks for a hotel. Additionally Marais House is located...wait for it...in the Marais! For me, nothing beats this quartier for the boutiques, the rue des francs bourjeois (which houses comptoir des cotonniers, muji, and autour du monde).

Home Away From Home: Ace Hotel

I think I need to plan a trip up to Portland or Seattle so that I can check out one of the Ace Hotels for myself. Or I need to build one in LA.

Billed as 'How you want to travel- simple, stylish, and not too expensive.' Amen.

"We offer all the comfort of a business class hotel without the soul-killing blandness of a faceless chain or last year’s design school fads. The Ace is a small, intimate hotel that lets you feel like you are 'somewhere' not just 'anywhere.'"

I'd love to just spend the whole day reading in one of these beds, memorizing all the design tips I will apply to my own home...













A review from Wallpaper talks about owner and developer Alexander Calder's vision:

Seattle native Alex Calderwood may well be a 21st century Conrad Hilton in the making. It doesn't surprise us in the least that young Calderwood decided to launch Ace Hotel after recognizing there was an enormous gap in the market for boutique yet basic hotels. Having already found success with his Rudy's Barbershop chain and Sweet Mother Record label(collaborators on the forthcoming Wallpaper CD), Ace Hotel is a mega-chain waiting to happen.

See their myspace page

Home is Giving

I have lovely memories of my gramma teaching me the proper way to wrap a gift. Tight corners, minimal tape. I still love the ritual of wrapping presents. Here are some wrapping papers from Martha that I have my eye on for summer gifting ($5.99 for 2 sheets of 24"x36"):

Wallpaper Fantasy Home

I get inspired everytime I leave the house and lucky me, I get to go to paris pretty often to visit family. So on my last trip I walked past this store and it had the most interesting wallpaper. It was so retro/modern/over the top/just enough. In LA I think it would come off tacky or trying too hard, but here it's just chic.

I look forward to the day that I have what it takes to pull this off.