innocent!

whaddya mean what did i do? i'm just sitting here on the stairs, staring at the ceiling, minding my own business.


what fireplace would you be referring to? oh, the one you normally keep blocked off by your grandmother's chinoiserie screen? that one? don't know anything about it...


but- hypothetically speaking, of course- if YOU forgot to put the screen back after YOUR fire, and someone (not me, mind you) maybe investigated inside a little bit during the middle of the night, and then even later, perhaps waged an epic battle with a moth all over the living room and entry hall; well then, it wouldn't really be their fault now, would it?


you have only yourself to blame, m21. but me? i'm innocent. swear.

oxoxo-

richard.

less is more in m21's white xmas holiday decor...

several readers emailed m21 after his recent "same old, same old" xmas tree post, asking about how we decorate the rest of the atelier to compliment our fakedy-fake tree, and our answer is, when it comes to holiday decor, our personal preference is "less is more" (ironic, right? as maison21, with his predilection for shiny things, sort of considers himself a "more is more" kind guy)- but since we do tend to have an abundance of tchotchkes already hanging out in the atelier, it makes sense to keep our holiday decor clean and simple. really, really, simple. in fact we use only three ingredients: white, silver and light.

a fake white wreath scored from domestications last year for 7 bucks is our only exterior decor. our white tree is visible from our front window, so we don't need anything else- plus, our neighbors have more then compensated for our restraint with their exuberance. don't want to compete!

welcome to maison21's fabulously fake xmas!

inside, as you already know, our faux-licious xmas tree is white, with white lights, and a zillion different shades of silver, white and clear ornaments (for those who asked, exact tree is discontinued, but similar styles are still available- read the back story here ). so our tree doesn't look lonely as the only bit of christmas decor, we like to fill bowls with silver balls to bring some holiday sparkle to the rest of the house, adding a little cheer to every room. pretty much our only other nod to xmas is our beloved white poinsettias (we'd probably go overboard with them if we had our druthers, but being a responsible cat parent means we have to settle for just one, on our 5 foot high mantle where richard can't get to it). last, since xmas is about family and tradition, we also bring out a pair of mom's kosta boda snowball candles to sit on our coffee table- they were part of our holidays growing up for as long as we remember so we like the continuity they bring to our holiday celebration (we added the lucite box they are displayed in, just to zhoozh 'em up a bit. mama maison21 was stylish, but not lucite stylish). last, we complete the scene with a roaring fire, and boom- m21 is done with holiday decoratin' and ready to entertain! simple, and we hope, chic:

the black candles (on the silvered ceramic pillars) aren't very xmas-y, but they help tie in the vintage italian black glass bowl and b&w german planter which reside on the mantle year round, along with the vintage 1970 light sculpture (prettier in person- has more of an over all glow). m21 changes all the vignettes in the atelier frequently- except the mantle for some reason- it stays as-is, year-in & year-out (minus the poinsettia and ornaments of course).

now just because we prefer our own holiday decor to be "less is more", doesn't mean we don't appreciate it when others go all out! we'll be seeing lots of blogger homes on the internets this holiday season, but we'd like to give our lovely friends and readers without blogs an opportunity to share their hard work and creativity too! so send m21 a photo of your own decked out holiday decor- if we get enough photos, we'll devote a post to readers' homes sometime before christmas- email your pix here!

little toys for big boys...

as m21 was waiting in line at barnes and noble to purchase that latest in the twilight series*, we spied these great architectural landmark lego building sets- we almost bought the hancock tower model right then and there, because it is most definitely is our favorite skyscaper ever. maison21 thinks @$19.99, they'd make great stocking stuffers for the architectural buff in your life. m21 even thinks that the "landmarks" would look great grouped as a display on a desk or shelf in an audlt office or study (to really display nicely though, you'd have to jerry rig bases to stagger their heights, as they are all roughly the same 6-7" size). the falling water and the guggenheim models are larger and more intricate (and much more expensive), but something about the smaller scale really appealed to us- the larger models just seem a tad geeky to display, kind of like displaying a model of the millennium falcon in your bedroom as an adult- not so cute.

*speaking of geeky, j/k on the twilight purchase- we read trashy novels all the time, but that particular flavor du garbage holds no appeal. if we want to read about vampires, we'll stick to sookie stackhouse novels, thank you very much.

when m21 returned home to google the series, he was led to the website of artist adam reed tucker who created the series for lego, and there, m21 found what he really wants for xmas- lego models of his favorite buildings but as tall as a grown man! awesome! and, yes, we'd really display one in our home (as sculpture). i guess you can 't take the geeky little boy out of the middle-aged decorator after all...

same old, same old (but it makes us happy)

every year on the weekend after thankgiving, maison21 has the same old feelings of anticipation and dread. anticipation because our faker than fake 'tree of a thousand balls' makes us happy, and dread, because hanging a thousand balls feels like hanging a hundred thousand...

still, it's not the holidays without a tree (even a fakedy-fake one, as m21 loves), so nothing to do but dive in! the resulting process takes several days- rearranging furniture, hanging ornaments, getting bored with hanging ornaments, taking a break and watching some bad tv, then repeating all steps until tree and room look like sumpthin'- but in the end, once the tree of a thousand balls is up n' pretty, m21 is always happy he took the time, because it really feels like the holidays now! all we need now is lots and lots of presents wrapped in silver paper tied with white ribbon to complete the scene! (better get busy with that, m21!)

(thank goodness we've been storing the chippendale dining chairs for a client, since there was no room for any of our own chairs with the tree!)

what does YOUR tree look like? m21 would love to see! do you like fakedy-fake like maison21? or are you a traditionalist? email a us a picture,and maybe we'll do a post of reader's trees!

a really black friday

m21's black friday purchase:'course, it's turned into stupid impulse buy saturday, as in m21's late night haste to purchase at home depot, he didn't get his primer tinted. duh. trying to paint a dark color over a white primer is insanity. we're going to go to the paint store down the street where we buy all our benjamin moore and pratt & lambert paints, and start over with a proper a proper tinted primer- just as we'd do with a client, when planning, not impulse, is the name of the game.

what dark color are we painting, you ask? darkest possible! bottom of the swatch, jet black. yup. black. m21 is painting what he euphemistically calls his powder room, a water closet off his laundry room. it's teeny-tiny (literally, a toilet and that's it) but we have a dramatic little lucite chandelier, and a dorothy draper-esque mirror in there already, so shiny black walls will look good (we hope). m21 is a bit concerned because the walls while not rough, have some hand plastering texture, and if it were a client, he might hesitate- but it ours, and it's tiny, so we are willing to experiment. it's only paint, after all.

of course, we're putting the primer waaaaaaaaay before the horse- the walls are in dreadful shape, so we have all sorts of prep work to do first. watch this space for results, but don't expect anything soon- we hope to have it finished in time for a black christmas!