so wong, it's right (finally, m21 talks about the yellow wallpaper)

after asking for advice on how to clean lucite (one of the top ways our blog is found via the google), the next most common question maison21 gets asked is, where did he get the fabulous yellow chinoiserie wallpaper he used in the bachelorette's living room? and to everyone who searched in vain through every single post, maison21 offers his sincere apologies- though he promised often, he has never revealed his source- until today.
maison21 knew he wanted to use a fabulous de gournay or gracie chinoiserie hand painted silk wall covering somewhere in the home, and the bachelorette was wild for the idea. since gracie and de gournay are exquisite, but rather pricey, maison21's original concept was to use 2 panels on one side of the living room as a focal point, and frame them as "art". they also started out orange, btw!after spending some time in the house, as maison21 likes to do at the beginning of a project, we realized that the room was dark and gloomy even in the brightest hours of the morning, so orange was out, and a liberal dose of white and yellow was the cheerful cure diagnosed by dr. m21, ID (yellow is probably our favorite color, but lots of clients are scared to use it- not our bachelorette!) he also decided that 2 panels were never going to cut it, as he needed the whole room to be circled in a cheerful yellow garden to banish the gloomy malaise and bring in the happy. the new happy concept unfortunately also posed a bit of a sad problem- our budget would never allow the number of panels of de gournay or gracie we needed to bring life to what was until our intervention, a rather dark and oppressive room.so on to the internets we went, hoping to find a budget alternative, and the gods of home decorating smiled upon our search- we struck gold in finding the wallcoverings of griffin and wong.the griffin and wong panels are about a half to a third of the cost of the other sources we were considering, and even better, no upcharge for matching a custom color, or resizing the panels! m21 was leery of ordering over the internets sight unseen, so he contacted douglas bray, g & w's north american rep and douglas sent us a finished sample in a stock yellow background- fast! painted and fed-exed to us from china within two weeks!the quality of the sample was excellent, but the background color wasn't quite right (too timid, we wanted knock-your-socks-off yellow). we then asked for a background strike-off to match benjamin moore banana yellow #2022-40, and since this didn't have to have the florals painted, we had the strike off in 3 days! pretty amazing. we selected the "shen de tang" pattern from the many styles g & w offers, and once the pattern is selected, you can then specify which panels you want to use off a line drawing. since our panels were to be framed, we didn't necessarily need continuity, so maison21 selected some panels in sequence, and some not. that way we were able to get all the juicy bits- a little lotus leaf, some cherry blossoms, cranes and songbirds, trees in pots, hanging lanterns, etc. fun...we were then further able to customize how we wanted the florals painted, full color or white and pastels. we originally intended to go white and blue, to keep things light 'n bright, but as our sunny garden room concept took hold, full color seemed to be the option that "sang" to us...during the painting process, douglas was excellent about supplying us with jpegs of the panels in process, and we were even able to add in a few more birds and butterflies where things looked a little bare, just before they shipped. how's that for custom?from start to finish, the process was amazingly quick- once we gave our deposit, we had the finished panels in about a month! and as we've said the customer service provided was excellent- the whole customization process was a breeze. even non-decorators will be comfortable working with douglas.we are really pleased with the results- truly gorgeous, especially for the price. we honestly couldn't say whether the panels are entirely hand-painted, or whether they are a combination of printed material and hand-painted finishing, but we really don't care, either- the results look good. we did have 2 panels delivered with a few branches unfinished in spots (still needed some flowers and leaves), and while g & w offered to replace them, we didn't feel the need to wait for new ones since we were cropping some of our panels & just worked around the missing bits. no big deal. even if we used them as painted, we doubt anyone would have ever noticed the missing bits. the verdict? if our budget were unlimited, would we use griffin & wong rather than de gournay? probably not- de gournay (and gracie) manufacture true works of art, and while g & w comes close, it's the difference between a couture gown and ready-to-wear. more importantly, will we use griffin and wong again in the future? heck, yeah! for the price of two or three panels of de gournay, we were able to do a whole room, so off the rack prices really helped make the project sing. added bonus, g & w's lead time is about a hundred times faster ,and the customer service couldn't have been more personal. all in all, we couldn't be happier with g & w, and we think the results speak for themselves. two thumbs up- way up!ps- if you do decide to order from griffin & wong, please do us a favor and tell 'em maison21 sent you. we don't get paid for our endorsements, but we sure wouldn't mind if they gave us a really good deal on our next order- every little bit helps in our new economy! ;-)

this weekend: ART LA 2009

if you are in los angeles this weekend, you might want to head on over to ART LA 2009 at the santa monica airport's barker hanger, (for those less cultured-like moi- that's where the barney's sale happens every year). if you cant afford to purchase a masterpiece from one of the 60 galleries showing at the fair, you can at least afford to console yourself with a stiff drink, as they've set up a version of chinatown's mountain bar inside the hanger. btw, why don't they do that for the barney's sale, too? we know we buy more unflattering and over-priced fashions while shopping with our judgment pleasantly impaired. what a great way to compensate for falling retail sales...

ART LA 2009 Jan 23-25, Barker Hangar, 3021 Airport Ave, Santa Monica, 323-937-4659


*** painting at top of post has absolutely nothing to do with the ART LA fair. studio annetta recently ran a post about a chair she coveted being auctioned at pierre bergé & associése. silly us- m21 went to check out their offerings, and now we can't stop thinking about the above andré bloc abstract composition, with an auction estimate of 8000 euros- it would look absolutely fabulous hanging on the wall of our living room here at the m21 atelier. on a completely unrelated topic, do you think a slightly used kidney would fetch 8000 euros on the open market? just curious.

crappy filler post

so waaaay back in his deep dark past, m21 worked at a place that would take pictures of tourists, superimpose their faces on actor's body or the cover of sports illustrated, and then sell the resulting photos back to them for not inexpensive prices. it was actually pretty cutting edge technology at the time (if photoshop was even around, it was rare & exotic). funny how times change, and now that same technology is available for free on your desktop.

CHANGE!!! (change of decor, that is- the m21 "state of decorating" address)

change has been on everyone's mind for some reason, right? change of climate, change of economic reality, change of government, change of how we view ourselves as a nation- deep stuff like that. all well and good, but this blog isn't about governments or nations or economies, so let's bring change home to a subject the supremely shallow maison21 can relate to: change of decor.

so we've been thinking about the changing state of decor- not specifically changing the decor of the atelier (we always think about that) but thinking about the big changes our nation is going through, and we can't help but wonder how they will impact interior design. we know they will, but how?
we got a big hint about the changes to come on the cover of the very first magazine delivered to m21 in the new year. we were on the phone with a good friend (and savvy business adviser), while absentmindedly going through the day's mail, when we squealed (sounding like a 12 year old girl, no doubt): "oh my god- there's a BEER BOTTLE on the cover of house beautiful!". think about it, have you ever seen an open beer bottle on the cover of a decorating magazine? the content of the magazine inside was pretty much the same as usual, but the cover? that's new...

maison21 and his marketing guru friend proceeded to have a lively discussion of the significance of that bottle, and we agreed we are probably going to be seeing a lot more down to earth decor in the coming months (and years). not as many aspirational new york townhomes, with 100% custom decor and bazillion dollar antiques, but rather more inspirational spreads- like the home featured on the cover of house beautiful- interiors that the rest of us can imagine living in, beer bottles and all. sure there will still be custom gorgeousness- the magazines want to inspire, right? but we predict the pricey custom decor will be mixed in with pieces already owned, along with vintage, and DIY, and some true discount pieces as well (think our beloved target). we also think the discount pieces will be start to be given the same editorial emphasis as the 'spensive scalamandre fabric on the curtains- the mags are going to want to hit every level of the market they can. we predict lots and lots more "champagne taste on a beer budget" stories in every magazine, even the high end ones. whaddya wanna bet we'll see budget DIY decor tips in elle decor? maybe some target or ikea finds in AD? that's our prediction anyway, and we like to think we're ahead of the curve on the trend- it's what maison21 has been doing all along, after all .

the new decor reality- before and after, as envisioned by maison21 - a mixture of custom, mass market, recycled and vintage, at every price point (yes, we hear your groans- we're milking the bachelorette's living room yet again. we'll try to "change" that in the future, ok?)

we also agreed that there will be a greater emphasis on the reuse and recycle aspect of decor- resources on our planet are shrinking, not growing, so it just makes sense to be green in this easy way. sometimes you need a custom sofa due to size or design constraints, but more often than not, there is something already out there that can be re-purposed with a little new fabric, and another tree needn't be felled to make the frame. the reuse and recycle philosophy also fits in with our new economic reality- used furniture is often cheaper and of better quality then new, so why wouldn't you want to use it? everybody is watching their budgets these days- even the truly wealthy- so this kind of green, budget-saving decor just makes sense for our new times. maison21 also loves the idea of reuse, because it means not only using items of quality that cost less, but using items that are often unique and one of a kind- like snowflakes, it's almost impossible for any two recycled interiors to look alike!

our own one-hundred percent recycled living room- everything was once owned by somebody else, right down to the thrift store art turned into a DIY project by m21 (ok, we exaggerated a bit- we had the lampshade custom made, but the tree in the photo was rescued from the curb- does that make up for it?).

another decorating change that occurred to m21, is that perhaps style will no longer be dictated from the top on down, but instead transform to a more individualized process, where everyone can have their own unique vision and style catered to, and m21 thinks in part, the blogs are fueling this change. like vintage? visit maison21. like french country? go to cote de texas. anglophile? off to the house of beauty and culture for you! as with with the greater economy as a whole, this change is going to create some casualties, and we've already seen some unfortunate losses in the shelter mag industry, as publishers and advertisers figure out how to reach their increasingly fragmented audiences. while we hope no more magazines close, we can can pretty much guarantee they will (if oprah can't make a go of it, what chance do magazines published by mere mortals have?). we are certainly saddened by the losses, since the rise of the internets and the blogs are probably part of the reason for the demise of the decorating magazines; at least hopefully we bloggers will continue to inspire and entertain, and fill any the voids left by the shrinking publishing industry, and we sincerely hope that as magazines expand online, bloggers will help to be a part of the solution to the problem. we think the blogs and the magazines could make great, mutually beneficial content together! on a side note, maison21 thinks the magazines should also think about raising their subscription prices to cover more of their costs- m21 will gladly pay cover price for a monthly dose of pretty delivered to his door! call us old fashioned, we like to hold and flip through a new magazine- makes us feel good.

the last issue of o at home- a magazine with it's emphasis on budget, and DIY tips, we thought would be a good fit for the new economy. we were wrong (shows you what our predictions are worth). shame, we grew to like it quite a bit. (and oprah,? please stop trying to bill us for our subscription- the magazine is no more, ok? it's not like you really need our 5 bucks, anyway)

this change will undoubtedly also wreak some havoc on interior designers too. does maison21 think his profession is going the way of the dodo? no, actually kinda the opposite- people have become more sophisticated in their tastes, and they want their homes to be as sophisticated as the hotels they stay in and the restaurants they eat at, and since not everyone has the time or the talent to do it themselves, we'll still be in demand. however, designers who don't adapt to the new times and find a way to connect with changing tastes and audiences, are going to be in trouble- just like the many magazines that have closed. some people will always want to hire michael smith to come in and drop his signature style, but others will want somebody like maison21 to come in to refine their style, and make their lives a little more glamorous then before, but without wrecking either the planet or their wallets in the process. we would have done it for you too, michelle, if you had only asked us. maybe you'll call if you need someone to freshen up camp david, k?

what do y'all think will happen to the state of decorating? do you think that m21 is right, and decor will become more down to earth? or do you think the opposite, that it will become more of a fantasy and an escape from troubled times? more democratic, or more exclusive? are decorators dinosaurs? or much needed co-creators? m21 would love to hear your thoughts in your comments to this post. we'd also love to see our fellow bloggers possibly weigh in with posts on their own blogs- let's talk about change (of decor), while change is the air!

period collection sale!

period collection here in los angeles is having a sale with some pretty big discounts- 40% off furniture and 50% off lighting and accessories. mention maison21, and get an additional 5% off!