By LIN ELLIS
DavidsonNews.net

Last night, I followed a link from one of my daily design reads to another very popular design blog to read not once, but twice, a post on the Design Trends of 2011. If you are a design junkie like me, & want to read what these 6 very popular & experienced diy & design bloggers love & disdain about 2011 trends & what they foresee for the future, the link is here. A lot of what they mentioned, I have written about here in Stylephile (& on Running in Stilettos) like chevron, ikat, starburst mirrors, mid-century come-backs & pouffes to name a few.

Continue Reading

By LIN ELLIS
DavidsonNews.net

Exotic handcrafted textiles have become quite popular in western design ~ think ikat & suzanis ~ but the Moroccan wedding blanket is definitely the most luxurious. Also know as handira, these luscious creamy wool, cotton & linen textural masterpieces, adorned with sequins, are made with love by Berber women. Relatives of brides in the Atlas mountains in northern Morocco gather together to loom & adorn these blankets; a process that takes weeks. It is a teaching & bonding time for the bride & her family in preparation for the nuptials. The blanket is worn during the ceremony & then blesses the union with good luck & fertility & wards off evil forces.

Continue Reading

By LIN ELLIS
DavidsonNews.net

Hardcover books always come with a jacket or dust cover. A popular way to style a bookcase is by the jacket’s color ~

Continue Reading

By LIN ELLIS
DavidsonNews.net

There has been a lot of chatter in the blogosphere as of late speculating about the slow demise of bookshelves as we traditionally know them due to our shift to reading on ipads, tablets & various other e-readers. This was fueled even further when Ikea’s iconic Billy bookshelves, originally designed at book depth, were reinvented & they introduced a much deeper unit ~ suitable for bigger coffee table books, tchotchkes & other decor accessories. I personally want to live in a world that has both!

Continue Reading

By LIN ELLIS
DavidsonNews.net

Halloween is just around a few days away & lots of homes in Davidson & Cornelius are already spooktacularly decorated! Lots of these abound ~

Continue Reading

By LIN ELLIS
DavidsonNews.net

When I think of tile, I think of its usage on floors & in bathrooms, but a trend I have noticed as of late is the liberal use of tile on kitchen walls. Not just as a back splash, but on entire walls.

Continue Reading