Tangerine tango, anyone?

Have you heard the Pantone Color of the Year is Tangerine Tango? I have always appreciated a splash of orange. Do you like a little, a lot or none at all? Check out this set on Polyvore then take a peek at a few of my orange crushes ...

• Xtreme Sports Inspired

• Farmhouse Chic

• Small Space, Big Hit

Mad for Mid-Century Modern

Do you love Mad Men style decorating? I am really starting to appreciate the clean lines and cool vintage vibe. I recently wrote a series of posts featuring this Mid-Century Modern design aesthetic. Check them out on the Alluminare design blog.

• Can Mid Century Modern design be youthful?

• Inviting Mid Century Modern to dinner.

• A Mid Century Modern Inspired Living Room


Where do you like to shop for Mid Century Modern?

How to choose fashions for your home

Playful Paisley Pillow from Alluminare.com
Southport Side Table by Oomph

When picking out accessories for your interiors, are you sometimes uncertain which direction to go in? There are so many choices out there! My advice is to take a look at your favorite wardrobe pieces and pick items that reflect your fashion sense. Or if you are not very daring when it comes to dressing, pick items based on the outfits of your favorite celebrities or that girlfriend whose style you admire most.

To read my entire post on fashion inspired design, visit the design blog of the fabulous company Alluminare, an online design resource that is setting trends by offering custom designed lighting and home decor options for the most stylish homes. Jeff Lewis, of Bravo TV’s Flipping Out, has his own line at Alluminare and I happen to have a custom-designed fabric of my own on the site, too. Now if I could just get my fabric made into a dress, I would know just what to wear to all these interior design events that I am scheduled to attend!

Paisley prints

{Paisley on Polyvore}

Paisley is back in fashion! Whether you choose to wear it, or dress your interiors in it, there are a few tips that will help “make it work!” Click here to view my Alluminare guest post where I share my secrets to designing with paisley.

Black and white on Alluminare

Busy as a bee this week! Visit my latest
guest post at Alluminare.com!
Have a happy weekend : )

Y knot!

Y knot pattern designed by Yvonne Blacker
available exclusively at Alluminare.com

A while back I mentioned wanting to try my hand at creating patterns for fabrics, etc. What designer hasn’t searched for the perfect pattern in just the right color combination and wished they could just design what they were looking for?

With a background in illustration, graphic design, and print production, creating a pattern for fabrics (or other surface designs) seemed like a fun extension of the same creative process to me. After day dreaming about it for some time, I have finally given it a shot!

Y knot in White/Chocolate Milk, Small Scale
on an Alluminare 20 inch drum pendant light

This week my pattern “Y knot” was introduced exclusively on Alluminare.com! Now anyone can order a throw pillow, lamp shade, fabric or wallpaper in this modern-geometric typography inspired pattern (see the chain of capital letter Ys?)

What I love about Alluminare is that each pattern they offer can be custom designed with a variety of colors and pattern sizes. See how easy it is to transform Y knot into completely different looks from subtle to bold ...

Y knot in White/Silver, Tiny Scale

Y knot in White/Spring Grass, Large Scale

Y knot in Black/Cantaloupe, Largest Scale

This last pattern, when blown up to its largest scale, reminds me of a monarch butterfly! This was not intentional, just a pleasant surprise as butterflies happen to be one of my favorite graphic design icons.

Look for them in the following design show spaces:

North Shore Design Show, 2010
(can you find 3 in this post?)

North Shore Design Show, 2009
(can you see 5 in one photo?)

Danvers Historical Society Design Show, 2010
(can you find one?)

I plan on creating more patterns and hopefully a collection or two in the future. Thanks to the creative minds at Alluminare.com, custom pattern design is now a dream come true for me : )

Click here to see how you, too, can utilize the custom design features available at Alluminare.com!

A few guest posts

Creating rooms featuring custom
designs from Alluminare.com


• Three degrees of Jeff Lewis
• It’s nice to have choices

Arrange Flowers like a Pro
on Lynnfield Patch.com



Words of gratitude from
Gathering Change, Inc.


This has been a busy week! Please visit the
above posts while I spend some time over the
next few days working on the next issue of
New England Finery Magazine : )


PS Click here to sign up for a FREE subscription of
New England Finery Magazine and you will be notified
by email when the next issue is available online!

A “slow home” gets a new room

2004: First winter in our New England “farmhouse”

We live in an old house. Built in 1904, it was at one time a dairy farm with a large barn and around 15 acres of land. All but two of these acres were sold to other parties, with some deeded to the town as conservation land, a large section was developed and is now a street with a handful of homes, and the last six acres belongs to a neighbor behind me. Those six acres were scheduled to be a development of homes, but many of the acres were determined to be conservation land so the project stopped at just one. Knowing that someone could not build behind us or next to us was one of the main reasons we felt this property would be a worthwhile investment. It can be quite unnerving to buy a home in a neighborhood that you fall in love with, only to look out your window one day and
see the landscape change before your eyes!

We bought our current house in spite of
room-after-room of dated wallpaper.
Today I wish we had saved more
of it then just this swatch.

There were other reasons that we fell
head-over-heels for this property:

1. It felt like a “town and country” home, located within walking distance to the center of town and most of the schools, yet the backyard felt like a rustic retreat from modern day.

2. Our house is situated in a way that it gets full sun
in the backyard with lots of great interior light throughout the day. Shaded farmer porches in front are a welcome place to sit. Tall evergreens stand at
the properties edges, adding both privacy and
natural beauty.

3. This home is bigger than our last house, but still manageable in size, with plenty of room to grow
(barn will one day be a family room, over garage will one day be office space ... )

4. The dining room probably sold us. We did not have a formal dining room in our last house that was big enough for our young family, let alone for entertaining guests. This dining room is plenty big and is centrally located in the perfect spot to enjoy it every day, not just on holidays.

5. While we realized some areas could use increased storage and energy-efficiency, we figured we redesigned our last home — how hard would it be
to do it again???

If only feathering our nest was this easy!

Well of course it has taken us much longer this time around to complete our home renovation projects. When we were working on our last home we raised the roof before we had any children, started our kitchen addition when we were expecting number two, finished new kitchen and bath by the time number three came around, and then finally got around to all the final details just in time to put it on the market and simultaneously find out number four was scheduled to arrive six months after closing on our new home. To say it has been a challenge to renovate with four little ones under foot is to put it mildly! And as our little ones have grown, our visions for our current home have changed at about the same pace. When we were surrounded with babies, we needed to be close at hand, but now we have a bit more breathing room ...

A sneak peek of our newly completed master bedroom.

Today I am happy to report that as of last night we have officially finished one of the major renovations that has been on our construction “to-do” list ... the master bedroom that we built from scratch is a reality! What was once an inaccessible attic space is now a brand new room with a new set of stairs, new carpet, freshly painted new walls and it even has the newest type of insulation. We slept in it last night for the first time (our twelve-year-old actually helped us move the bed upstairs ... we have come along way!) and it felt like we had traded in “this old house” for a new and improved version. I always knew this house had room to grow, I had just imagined it would be laterally not vertically! Some day we may do that addition we dreamed about, but for now, we are happy with this new arrangement which is actually more energy/cost efficient in the long run than a large-scale addition would have been.

Find out how your home rates by taking this
test available online at Slow Home Studio.

While we could tell our home had inherent value, we mainly bought it based on a gut feeling. It felt like the home I had grown up in and it seemed like it could be improved upon without too much effort (okay, we were off just a little bit with that part!) What sold you on your home? Are you comfortable living in it or are there areas that could use improvement? There is a great test available that evaluates the quality of a home’s design. It is called The Slow Home Test and it is great if you are looking to solve design issues in your current home or if you are looking to buy a dream-home of your own. I recently mentioned this test in a post on the Slow Home movement that I wrote for Alluminare.com (which BTW sells some really great custom designed lighting and home decor pieces). The Slow Home movement is all about creating homes that feel as good as they look. Learn more about it by checking out the following links:

• Slow Home 101
• The Language of Slow Home
• Slow Home and Going Green

Later I will post some true “after” pics of our new space. I really should be decorating for the holidays about now, but I’d much rather be accessorizing our new room than pulling out boxes of ornaments and wrestling with strings of lights! How long do you think I can put it off without the kids noticing that we don’t have a tree, yet? ; )

Decorating memories ...

How was your Thanksgiving weekend? I really enjoyed the time we spent with family and friends over the past few days. There is something special about visiting with beautifully familiar faces! Along with enjoying a delicious meal prepared by my fun-to-be-around in-laws (when the Blacker’s get together, there is always a lot of laughter) I also attended my High School reunion which certainly stirred up some memories! Of course the yearbooks all came out, along with the childhood photo albums (which are my personal favorites). How adorable is my outfit in this photo from Thanksgiving, circa 1972?? And how cute is my younger brother looking up at me? If you go back to my last post, you will notice that as an adult I have essentially copied my mother’s decorating style by purchasing a matching buffet and very similar colored table lamps. The flowers are even in the same place. Some parts of our visual past are forever
ingrained in us, I guess!

How has your childhood influenced
the way you decorate today?


Author’s note: “Not-so-big posts” are in the queue for this week. If you would like to read some in-depth posts on current design trends, please visit Alluminare where I am presenting a series of posts this week on the Slow Home movement. And if there is a current design trend that you would like to learn more about, just let me know!

Kona Chair at the High Point Market

Kona Chair at Century Furniture by designvignettes
on Polyvore.com

Today is the first day of the High Point Market in North Carolina where over 2,000 exhibitors will present some of the newest design trends in the furniture industry. It is also where the winner of Project UDesign – the first crowd-sourced eco-friendly wing chair – will be announced at the Century Furniture showroom. Three designs are in the running and I have already announced that my favorite is the Kona Chair designed by SCAD student Emily Carpenter. There is still time to cast your vote on the BiOH facebook page up until
the contest closes on October 19th.

Click here to read more about
the final voting process.



Screen capture from Project UDesign video on YouTube


Even though I will not be able to attend the
6-day long event at High Point, I will be in the
showroom “virtually” by means of a really cool
video that features the three finalists along with
the blog posts created to spread the word
“that sustainable design is beautiful design.”

Ash Entertainment Credenza


So in honor of the Kona making it into this final round, I have chosen some pieces from the Century Furniture line that have the same laid-back vibe as the original room that I designed for Alluminare. I can definitely see the Kona being featured in one of these gorgeous room settings for Century or paired with some
of their nature inspired accent pieces.



Water Hyacinth Sofa

New Traditional Display Cabinet

Table Lamp with raffia shade



“X” Bench from the Metro Luxe collection

Console Table with antique white-wash finish

Inlaid Capiz Shell Mirror

Oscar de la Renta Occasional Table

Vote now for The Kona Chair
by Emily Carpenter



“What I like best about the
design of the Kona chair is
that it can easily fit in with
today’s modern take on the
traditional. It looks both
comfortable and solid,
while still being fun.”


Tune in to twitter on Monday, October 18th
starting at 5:00pm EST for a tweet-up with
the Project UDesign finalists and the press!

Use hashtag
#ProjectUDesign

A laid-back room to relax in ...

Kona Chair and Alluminare by designvignettes
on Polyvore.com

I just wrote my first guest post for Alluminare.com!
It features the Kona chair designed by Emily Carpenter of SCAD for Project UDesign.* Student designers created personal interpretations of the classic wing back chair which incorporated soy-based BiOH Polyol foam and eco-friendly Ultrasuede fabric into their designs. Six finalists have been chosen, and now it is up to the public to vote on their favorite design. The winner’s chair will be produced by Century Furniture and added to their permanent line-up. Then the winner gets to sit back (on their designed chair I would imagine!) and wait for the royalties to come in! How amazing is that?? So after you read my guest post ; ) be sure to go over to Facebook to vote for your favorite. I already did (good luck, Emily!)

And don’t forget to take a look at the bright ideas at Alluminare.com where designers are creating custom fabrics, lighting, pillows and more. I have actually been working on designing some patterns of my own as
I mentioned this summer. Who knows? Maybe
you will see some of my fabric designs
featured in the not-to-distant future!


*The fine print ... Project UDesign is sponsored by BiOH Polyols in partnership with Savannah College of Art & Design, Century Furniture and Ultrasuede

The “Kona” Chair

Check it out! This fun and stylish take on the classic wing back chair was designed by Savannah College of Art & Design student Emily Carpenter and is in the running to win Project UDesign which is sponsored
by BiOH polyols. Contest partners include
Century Furniture and Ultrasuede.

I have been working on a post that will be promoting
it in collaboration with Alluminare.com

Stay tuned for more!