m21 is taking the easy way out for his first post of 2010, by copying a post from the
always interesting and informative paul anater, of
kitchen and residential design, and one of my favorite blog/people discoveries of 2009- oh & sorry about
stomping your ass in the homies thing, dude! ;-)
(said in jest, of course- paul and m21 had a great time on twitter, alternately mock competing for votes and asking people to vote for the other). anyhoo, this morning, paul went through his blog's google analytics to find his most popular posts of 2009 by number of visitors, and devoted a
post to the results. intrigued, m21 did the same, and like paul, found some of the posts were NOT what we expected to find in our top 10 most popular posts, though several we couldn't be happier about. (fun fact, our 2009 readership was up 60 percent from 2008- thanx guys!)
and, paul- how do you do it? 500 posts in one year is amazing! it took every ounce of blood, sweat and tears in our body for m21 to squeeze out 213, and we can't imagine doubling it, let alone hitting 500. our blogging hat is off to you, sir!
maison21's 10 most visited posts of 2009:
elevation sketch of the yellow chinoiserie wallpaper m21 presented to client to sell the concept of framed panels encircling the client's living room like "a garden of sunshine"...so we couldn't be happier that this is the #1 post of 2009, visited by a 3 to 1 margin over the next top contender. it's about a project m21 is tremendously proud of because: a), it's
fierce, b), it captures the personality and decor sensibilities of his client, the bachelorette, absolutely perfectly, and c), not only was the project a joy, he now counts the bachelorette (a stranger when the project started) as one of his dearest friends- he spent the first day of 2010 in her company, and can't think of a better way to kick off the new year! last, the manufacturer of the wallpaper,
griffin and wong, was a joy to work with, and maison21 is always happy to share good experiences with vendors and resources- to quote from the late, great, mary tyler moore show,
"it's nice to be nice to the nice", and the process and the results were nice, nice, nice, all the way around!
the world's freakiest tag sale...
who could have known when m21 was writing these 4 posts about the world's tackiest garage sale, what would happen just weeks later? the posts benefited from google search fallout as people were crazed for any and all mj info...
the beer bottle that rocked m21's cozy little decorator world...another post we're proud to have in the top ten, as m21 thinks the discussion is still relevant- it truly is a "champagne taste on a beer budget" moment in time, and the beer bottle on the cover of
house beautiful's january 2009 cover gave us pause, and made us think... we were also honored, when just this past week esteemed (and very popular) fellow blogger
things that inspire included the post in her "
favorite posts of 2009" round up, and that inclusion rescued a post we love from anonymity, and propelled it into the top 10, numbers-wise. thanks, holly!
m21 found this sweet n' gentle guy wondering the streets of his 'hood last new year, and spend the first weeks of 2009 trying to find him a home...
7. m21 has gone to the dogs- againm21 loves that this post got the number of hits it did, because it shows that people's hearts are firmly in the right place as this post about a stray doggie was forwarded to dog lovers far and near- we got emails from all across the US, as pet-friends rallied for this little dude. sir francis was adopted to a loving family btw, so there is a happy ending to the story! yay!
the hooks were not the hook that brought visitors to this otherwise uninteresting post, unfortunately...
such a inconsequential post about a
truly inconsequential subject, so it's embarrassing to be in the top ten most visited posts, but it did provide m21 with the most ironic,
ka-ra-zee-est comment ever: "
maison21 is a crass, envious and hysterical low class Walmart designer". yuppers, that's moi! crass (
totes), envious (
of all of you!) and but mostly,
all about the walmart! (which fyi, we don't even
have any of in los angeles. google it. s'true). but if we ever
do get a walmart in l.a., m21 will be sure to aspire to it, k?
sorry folks, this sought after number sold out soon after we posted it...m21 almost feels guilty that this post is in the top ten- almost. hopefully people brought by a google search for this discontinued pagoda bed crown will find something else to catch their fancy while here.
tibetan lamb covered industrial stools selected for a "damn you recession" never materialized project maison21 was conceptualizing last spring...
this was the kick-off off post for one of m21's "designer challenges". we think we might need to do a couple in 2010 because they are always tons o' fun. we talked about co-hosting one this past summer with
the paris apartment, but m21 seriously dropped the ball on it (
sorry paris apt- we're lame). maybe this spring we'll resurrect the game!
that's the top 10 list of reader faves (for better or worse). m21 hopes y'all are having a lazy first weekend of 2010, just like him. it's sunny and 80 degrees here in los angeles, so we are just going to relax and enjoy, by spending time with friends and family- can't think of a better way to kick off the year!
Canopy bed sculpture by François Lalanne, in the living room of Jacques Grange, from "French Style"by Suzanne Slesin & Stafford Cliff, Jacques Dirand photography, 1982
