Take Heart: there are things you don't need to buy right now

As we plunge headlong from Halloween toward the Holiday Shopping Season (previously known as Christmas),  it may hearten us all to know that even though it seems that suddenly there are a lot of things we need to buy, there are also a lot of things we decidedly don't need to buy. The Stylehound was happy to find this list on Inhabitots, a kids' design site that focuses on green design.

So to start you off toward wintertime right, check out some of their great, green ideas for bringing Baby into the world in a healthful, environmentally-aware way.

Job One: Keeping Kitty Happy

Cat owners know that our most important job each day---nay, the very reason for our continued existence---is to keep Kitty happy, fed, watered, and entertained.  We are but two-footed vehicles for filling Kitty's needs. As a fellow cat-owner (read: cat hostage) the Stylehound has learned this lesson only too well. And so I was happy to see a new product put forth by The Refined Feline, one of my favorite sources for items which please Kitty, and hence keep him out of my hair for a few moments each day.

Click to read more ...

Driven Up The Walls

The Stylehound, knowing that admitting you have a problem is the first step of recovery, would like to come clean: I am obsessed with Chinoise, especially wallpaper, and I truly long for it. Probably in my front hall. But even in that small space, the really great Chinoise paper remains prohibitively expensive, so I must content myself with browsing around online.

Click to read more ...

Crimson Winner

You know that there are a ton of design contests out there, from Apartment Therapy's contest for the coolest small apartment to the annual competition put forth by the International Interior Design Association. But you may not have known to enter the contest at the University of Alabama---for designing a new tartan plaid for the school.



The winning design, by Linnzi Rich of Stevenson, Alabama (shown here) was chosen this week with over 400,000 people voting. Rich ought to know what works in fabric design, as she's majoring in clothing, textile and interior design. The plaid uses the colors of the University of Alabama---crimson and white---and has 13 lines representing the university's 13 schools.

And we bet you didn't know there is a place to record new tartans---Scotland's International Tartan Index---where the new tartan will be duly recorded.

Kips Bay Decorator Show House is Open!

Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club is once again hosting their annual Decorator Show House in New York.  This year's site is a six-story 1877 neo-classical mansion on 106 East 71st St.  in the Upper East Side.  Top interior designers show off their personal style by decorating one of the many rooms of the mansion.

On the front is a bedroom for a young girl designed by Elizabeth Pyne for McMillen Plus.  Below is the foyer and staircase designed by Rod Winterrowd.  This year's Kips Bay Decorator Show House will include interior designers such as Vincente Wolfe, Coffinier & Ku, Cullman & Kravis, and Sherrill Canet. The Decorator Show House will be open to the public until November 11, 2010.  For more information go to Kips Bay Decorator Show House.

Foyer by Rod Winterrowd