only mad dogs...

and decorators?

the fiery forecast for the 4th of july weekend in palm springs- where mona and maison21 will try to avoid spontaneously combusting into human and canine torches by spending as much time in the pool as possible. mona, surprisingly, is quite the swimmer. well, maybe not the best swimmer in all actuality- but she sure loves to jump and out of the pool- over and over and over again! with each brief dunk followed by a loudly barking victory lap run 'round the perimeter of the pool, and then a few vigorous shakes, before jumping back into the water to do it all over again. repeat to infinity- she will literally do this until she drops.

richard, being neither fond of swimming or of car rides, will sit out this holiday in the more temperate environs of the maison21 atelier. smart kitty!


happy fourth, everybody!

t.h. robsjohn-gibbings classiques live on...

did we know that the classical greece furniture designs of t.h. robsjohn-gibbings are still in production? maison21 didn't, until he read the latest issue of the world of interiors and spotted a full page ad for saridis s. a.- the original manufacturer of gibbings' timeless reinterpretations of the furniture of classical antiquity.

the saridis website is fairly primitive, and no information is available on their site as to where one can purchase the furniture, but it's nice to know that some of the most enduring furniture pieces of all time are still available...

cheap 'n chic?

maison21 will be spending part of his sunday afternoon going to pier1 imports, of all places. why you ask? well, m21 was recently at one of his clients' homes and they received a pier1 sale flyer in the mail, in which we proceeded to spot these great tables, at $49.98 & $59.98 respectively:



not bad, right? and that those prices, they sure look cute enough that feel we have to go check them out in person- if the finished product is even close to the cuteness of the pictures, we're going to snap a couple up- have no idea where or how they will be used, but we'll figure that out later.

when we googled "pier1" to find out where in the heck they have stores (either east hollywood or the western edge of culver city. at 5.5 miles away, they are each well outside of the 2.5 mile comfort zone in which we prefer to spend 98% of our time- but oh well- we'll make the sacrifice and brave l.a. traffic in search of cheap n' chic). we also saw these kinda cute little pagoda-esque etageres at $99.00, so we'll be checking them out too.



we'll let everyone know if these finds pan out, and we hope y'all are having a cheap 'n chic sunday as well....

post update: saw the etagére in person- way cute for the price- i didn't buy 'cuz i want two in red, and the pier1 i went to only had black, so now i'm on a hunt. blue tables were fab as well- picked up two. they were sold out of the red.

city pretty (l.a. vintage & antique resource)

maison21 has written several posts about where to find vintage and antique goodies out in palm springs, but he feels he's somewhat neglected his home town- so here's a place maison21 goes to find bargains on cool stuff right here in los angeles: the wertz brothers antique mall (santa monica to be exact - same thing really, just nicer weather).

like most antique malls, wertz bros is filled with booths stocked by individual vendors, meaning the merchandise runs the gamut from scary grandma country kitchen kitsch to chic 19th & 20th century delights and curiosities. the prices are similarly varied- from "are we in manhattan?" high to ridiculously " this can't be right" low. amongst the highlights maison21 spotted on his last visit were:

a pair of monumental ram's head wall mounted planters, one of the items offered for a ridiculously low price. maison21 wishes he had somewhere to use them- he would have snatched them up in a heartbeat.

a lovely, large carved wood sunburst (one of the loftier priced items)- maison21 would remove the clock and add a mirror, like he did to the former clock in his bedroom.


maison21 loves his objets in pairs, like these chic brass obelisks,
and these carved marble tusks.

lantern lovers take note- this big ol' lantern might be the biggest bargain in the joint at $150- probably isn't very vintage, but looks good enough for us (especially with the judicious use of some black lacquer spray paint on the "patina" bits).


maison21 is kicking himself for not picking up this well-priced pair of 1970's chapman brass white ceramic ram's head lamps.
the same vendor had this chic michael taylor coffee table,

as well as this chic 70's mazzega glass chandelier, which maison21 DID snatch up, and is now hanging in a client's hall vestibule, soon to be surrounded by cavern's "blackbird" wallpaper.

this pair of blanc de chine quan yin busts would be the chicest bookends.

lots of vendors had under-the-sea goodness, both real,

and fake.

last image- and you either get maison21 on this one, or you think he's nutz- we loved, this crazily over-scale felix agostini-meets-zsa zsa gabor wall sconce. once again, we had no conceivable use for it, so we had to leave it behind, but m21 sure loved it's chic, yet near grotesque, one-of-a-kind goodness.

so y'all get on out to the wertz brothers antique mall, y'hear?

1607 Lincoln Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA
(310) 452-1800
Mon - Sat: 10 to 6 • Sun: 12 - 6
All major credit cards accepted
Complimentary Valet Parking

project preview (pretty über alles)

things are starting to look rather fabulous at one of m21's current design projects- we've just turned the corner from dust and mayhem, to "hey, it's starting to look kinda pretty around here"!

after a long search, viewing seemingly every single wall sconce ever made (and finding none of them quite right), we just scored four of these chic and unusual vintage brass and crystal bird-form sconces at auction (and if you've ever sourced vintage wall sconces, you know finding a chic set of 4 is no small task):
we think they are going to be STUNNING (as in couldn't be more perfect), mounted on the below chinoiserie wall panels. no, the panels AREN'T the delicious de gournay, rather a new source for hand-painted silk wall coverings we've recently discovered (which of course maison21 promises to share with you in a future post- just want to get them in hand first, for some prettier pictures). below is a jpeg of one the actual panels we commissioned- sent to us for pattern approval from the workroom. the color isn't exactly true, but we already signed off on a background color strike-off a few weeks back, so we aren't worried. the actual color is a true banana yellow- a brighter, clearer, and even more cheery color than below jpeg- m21 loves hisself some bold color, and thankfully, so do his clients! we don't do beige here at maison21! nope- not us! (but if we were to make an exception to our no beige rule, we promise to make it really pretty- after all, the m21 motto is "pretty über alles").
have a pretty weekend- don't know if we'll get to any posts or not- things are a little busy 'round the m21 atelier!

ps- we'll be announcing the winner of the "free pretty" sweepstakes the beginning of the week, so if you haven't entered, get on it! you only have until midnight tonight!

remember (as if m21 hasn't overused the word "pretty" enough in this post)- pretty über alles!