Friday READ: from Jackie O & young royals to home sweet sewer

Here’s what caught my attention this week…

The Complicated Sisterhood of Jackie Kennedy and Lee Radziwill, Vanity Fair

Via Vanity Fair

I’m not a celebrity groupie and wouldn’t even bother someone in an airport or on the street. But I found this to be such a compelling read for two reasons:

• The JFK connection. I was in grade school when we heard the news the President had been assassinated. There was an early dismissal and no more school until after Thanksgiving, a week off. My father was home, too. Everything just shut down. I remember watching all the TV coverage together as a family, our eyes glued to the television as the casket moved along the streets of DC, the salute from little John-John, the blood-stained suit Jackie wore to the funeral. It was a time of national mourning and a defining moment for everyone alive then, in many ways like 9/11. We all remember where we were when we heard.
• I never had but always wanted a sister. A friend who had one once told me getting a sister isn't an assurance we'll like each other--haha! So true, as ALL sibling relationships are complicated. Though it isn’t addressed in this article, I’ve read elsewhere that sister Lee, now 83, is an anti-semite, which costs her points in my book, and in this article she portrays Jackie as a money-grubber. Jackie isn't here to answer back and probably wouldn't. On balance, the two supported each other.

Two extremely interesting women, both fashion and design icons, and a compelling and frank discussion of the ups and downs in their relationship. Must read!!

Neuroscientists Create ‘Atlas’ Showing How Words Are Organized in the Brain, 

The Guardian

A UK article on US research done at the University California–Berkeley. For someone like me, whose life is built around words, this is a fascinating read. The video helped me understand the article better. Make sure you give the interactive brain mapping tool a go as well
.

11 Surprising Things That Affect Your Dreams, Woman’s Day

Woman's Day

I’m a sucker for anything brain-related, but especially dreams. Find out how smells, sounds, food, sleep position, drugs, and TV impact the content and characters of your dreams.

Manholes Turned Tiny Homes Shed Light on Homelessness, Design Taxi

Biancoshock

Italian artist/activist Biancoshock has decorated and photographed manholes as part of a project that highlights 600 people making their home within the Milan, Italy, sewer system. He debuted his works during Milan Design Week with the tagline “If some problems cannot be avoided, make them comfortable,” lest in our quest to make our own living spaces beautiful we forget how some people are living. Check out his Instagram feed for more.

10 Shockingly Normal Things You Can Spot Inside Will and Kate’s Palace, Popsugar

Getty Images

Rare photos of the young royals at home, entertaining the Obamas, have the design world abuzz. I was less interested in the piping and pillows, though, than the photo of Prince George looking veddy British in his monogrammed bathrobe and slippers (which might have been the model for that Milan manhole), bidding all goodnight.

As a side note, the piping on George’s sleepy-time duds matched that used on upholstery throughout the room. Okay...so somebody has too much money and too much time to overthink decor. In any event, see ALL the photos from the tête à tête on the Kensington Palace Twitter feed. The ones of Georgie-Porgie are uber cute.

Check Out This Massive Chair Made from a Jet Engine, Apartment Therapy

Fallen Furniture

Technically, it’s a 737 engine cowling. My late father-in-law, who was an aircraft mechanic and tuned up the Enola Gay before its haunting run, would know the difference, but not I. I like it, but it’s a tad over-scale for my living room. Interested? Inquire at Fallen Furniture.

Ever Wanted to Spend the Night Inside a Giant Beagle? Now You Can, Washington Post

Melanie D. G. Kaplan/Washington Post

The Dog Bark Park Inn B&B is located in Cottonwood, Idaho, if you’re interested. Just make sure you can get there from wherever you are, and be careful of that back door. ;->

The Inspired Room Coloring Book, The Inspired Room

The Inspired Room

For all you adult colorers out there who don't know what's missing from your scribbles, it must be what you're coloring. Blogger Melissa Michaels has designed a companion coloring book to her book and blog so we can now color décor items. Follow the links to preorder The Inspired Room Coloring Book: Creative Spaces to Decorate as You Dreamand to order her book, The Inspired Room: Simple Ideas to Love the Home You Have. Also be sure to check out Melissa’s blog for a closer look and recommendations on her fave colored pencils.

5. This Wearable Will Wake You Up with Electric Shocks, Android Authority

Pavlok

No thank-you, but if you're into S&M (or just a very heavy sleeper), here's the lowdown: Right now, it’s vaporware in the form of a prototype on fundraising site Indiegogo. You can still sign on for the next 12 days at the $50 and $99 levels and be the first one with one. Just don't go dangling your foot in a pan of water while it's on your wrist, K?

Finally, some crafts for the crafty...

Solebich

8 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do with IKEA’s $10 KNUFF Magazine Files, Apartment Therapy

DIY Rope Tassel Keychains, Alice & Lois

eHow

DIY Rug Ideas to Dress Up Your Space, Apartment Therapy

DIY Fiber Art, A Beautiful Mess

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

In case you missed this week on BoHo Home...

M 4/25/16
30 BOHO touches
for traditional rental

TU 4/26/16
'Round round get
around' mid-mod 

W 4/27/16
Making ahome 
on a kibbutz

TH 4/28/16
Corner of La Brea &
'collected boho chic'

A dome away from home: West Baden Springs Hotel

Thrillist named the West Baden Springs Hotel the most beautiful building in Indiana. And since I’ve lived in Indiana 40-some years, I’m qualified to say they’re 100 percent right!

What’s so great about a luxury hotel so tucked away in the rolling hills of rural southwest Indiana that it’s tough to get to? 

It’s the dome, man. The dome is gigantic.

At 200 feet across, it was the largest free-spanning dome in the world from 1902 through 1913 and the largest in the United States until 1955. Some called it the eighth wonder of the world, and famous clientele from both coasts flocked to the little town of French Lick and adjacent West Baden to swim in the mineral springs. 

Paul Dresser wrote the state song, “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away,” while a guest at West Baden Springs alongside notables such as boxer John L. Sullivan, New York mayor Al Smith, Diamond Jim Brady, General John J. Pershing, writer George Ade, Vaudeville star Eva Tanguay, and gangster Al Capone. The Chicago Cubs and Sox, as well as the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds, held spring training here.

But the outside then, as now, is meh compared to what’s UNDER the dome…

Sit and watch it change throughout the day as the sun passes over...

...Or whether its panels are open or closed...

...Or whether the cavernous lobby is itself darkened to feature the lit dome at night.

Guests may book rooms that open onto the dome and watch its changes from the comfort of their home away from home. (Or should I say their DOME away from home?)

A balcony room and a long camera lens will get you even better close-ups of the dome’s exquisite detail.

While the view from on high is spectacular...

…Part of the fun is relaxing on the many comfy sofas, chairs and chaise longue arranged in "sitting rooms" at ground level. 

You’ll have your choice of seats, and it’s a great place to kick back and catch up on your reading.

If you get thirsty or hungry, the hotel café and bar are just a few steps away.

You'll also want time to study the “Pompeiian garden” frescoes and mosaics that make their way around the base of the dome.

The columns, friezes and statues are pretty spectacular, too.

Whoa!

Don’t forget to give your neck a bit of a break and look down as well as up.

The floor mosaics are nothing short of amazing.

But it didn’t always look this good. 

The hotel closed following the stock market crash of 1929, and a succession of schools operated out of the facilities until the early 1980s. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987, and people continued touring the deserted structure until 1989, when it was deemed unsafe. 

Ice damming collapsed an exterior wall in 1991, and in 1992 the National Trust for Historic Preservation declared it one of the most endangered historic sites in the nation. 

That same year, Historic Landmarks of Indiana matched an anonymous donor’s contribution and stabilized the property, then eventually found a new owner to restore and develop it. 

A surprise awaited workers performing the restoration

While working on the dome infrastructure, they discovered something not recorded in any of the building’s history. Getting to it required a precarious trip up and across the dome…

…then a drop down into a dark cupola…

…which has since become known as the angel room.

It’s thought that, perhaps, immigrant craftsmen responsible for the hotel’s gorgeous mosaics, frescoes, plasterwork and gilding also painted these angels and "putti," as a blessing for the building, but no one really knows. The paintings are marred by graffiti from the 1950s.

Although tours of the hotel and its grounds are free, sadly there is no public access to the angels. Photographs of the paintings do hang in the circular hallway that surrounds the atrium, and guides will tell you what they know about them, which isn’t much. 

But get some ice cream at the resident sweet shop, rest in one of the rocking chairs along the lavishly curved veranda, and pretend you’ve come to try the waters as well.

Maybe an angel will speak to you in your reverie. And if you choose to stay a while longer, take it from me that it’s NO waste of money. The accommodations are elegant and the food in the main dining room is excellent.

The swimming pool with adjacent spa reminds me of a Roman bath house. 

Plus there’s a sister hotel on the property with additional room configurations, restaurants and pools, as well as a casino and PGA-level golf course.

I’ve never stayed anywhere where the staff was less obtrusive while also providing excellent service and attention.

For a few days I felt like LADY Susan, an honored guest at Indiana’s version of Downton Abbey. 

Follow the link to learn more about French Lick Resort and the West Baden Springs Hotel.  And if you decide to book a room, here are a few insider tips:

• Go during the week when it’s relaxed. Weekends are usually booked with multiple weddings and special events. 
• Although the hotel has WiFi, cell service is worse than spotty. Prepare for a land-line only stay.
• The strawberry soup and the black & blue bison filet at Sinclair's are killer good.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Pantone palette #8 opens rich vein

Early brushes in the media with Pantone’s colors for 2016—Rose Quartz and Serenity—show a lot of baby nursery and girly-girl looks, pastel rooms with all the oomph of a cone of cotton candy. But I attended Pantone’s webinar to introduce the colors last week, and I heard something deeper happening.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with an all or mostly pink room, or blue, or all pink and blue; it's all in the execution. But that's not the whole story. The selection of these two colors—two in itself a first—was a tip of the hat to color psychology.

They represent a choice about choice, about what happens at the intersection of colors, about integration, about going beyond traditionally accepted norms in life as well as in fashion and interior design toward wholeness. After all, this was the year of Caitlyn Jenner and a U.S. Supreme Court decision on marriage equality.

Pantone provided eight color palettes that include the 2016 colors of the year and, at the webinar, encouraged designers and color aficionados to play around with them. What I found in searching for spaces that illustrate these individual palettes was that each looks quite different from the other, and every palette, within itself, can serve up vastly different looks. Layering of pattern and texture, bracketing of color, and variation in emphasis make for an infinite variety of richly nuanced rooms. 

But it doesn’t stop there. It’s perfectly okay to mix and match among the palettes. It’s about choice and intersection, remember?

Today I’m posting about palette #8, which is one of only two in the collection containing yellow/gold and the only one containing both green and gold hues. I admit it’s my hands-down favorite look. Several of these photographs have been in my inspiration folder for an upcoming bedroom redo, and I was surprised to see how on-trend they were.

All Signs Point to Lentil Sprout

Debi Treloar

The confluence of color in the area rug establishes the palette in this eclectic bedroom, which was featured in the 2011 book Decorate by Holly Becker and Joanna Copestick. Speaking of confluence, all the angles in the rug point in, toward the center and the well-outfitted bed. The midcentury lamp and choice of artwork make the reverse-silhouetted toile duvet look quite modern, while the mix of faux fur cozies it up. Pops of Lentil Sprout in the bolster, bedskirt and chandelier show well against the other bedding.

Fluttering Moths and Winking Sphinx

Simon Brown

“Moths” by Allyson Reynolds establishes the palette in this room designed by Kit Kemp, as well as the feel. It’s actually one of the guest drawing rooms at Number 16, a London hotel Kemp co-owns with her husband. Notice the rose piping on the slipper chairs and how the light makes the Sphinx-colored floor read blue. The room is ethereal, fluttering, like the moths and like our 2016 colors.

Mad for Malaga

David Tsay

Though a port of Spain, Malaga sits a scant 81 miles across the Mediterranean from Morocco and was at one time ruled by the Moors. Malaga the color, paired with golds and blues in this Moroccan area rug, gives this room its exotic feel. Various blues dot the space, but just a little pink: a few of those cute tassels on the duvet, a bedside bouquet, and a small patch in the painting over the bed. This photo appeared in Styled by Emily Henderson.

Ride a Blue Horse

See how Sphinx and Rose Quartz side-by-side make the gray appear a bit lavender? This room is all about the print used in the coverlet and pillows, with its whimsical blue and gray horses and market scenes from an exotic, long-ago time. 

Quite often finding a fabric you love is the inspiration for a room, whether it ends up in the draperies, upholstery, bedding or simply as an accent pillow. Fabric, like art, brings together interesting colorways that can then be pulled out for accents in the larger room. Here, the Serenity and Tourmaline that appear in the print provide just the right touch for the solid pillows.

Paint and Textile Pastiche

The cents of the fun, splashy quilt flowers usher in the Rose Quartz in this room, while the paintings by Marion Vinot bring on the blues. The two Euro pillows marry it with golds and greens in this Provincetown, Mass., guest bedroom of designer Ken Fulk. The beach scene absolutely ekes serenity, but all the women in Vinot’s paintings look well on the path to well-being. I love the cheerfulness of this room, including that cute little colt’s foot table serving as a nightstand.

On Reflection

Eleri Griffiths/James White

We can’t see all of this living room, but the mirror reveals Serenity and Sphinx across the way to emphasize the importance of what’s reflected. The Malaga sofa gushes wantonly against the Lentil Sprout accent wall, don’t you think? See/read more on Design Sponge about this 1879 Victorian interior designer and stylist Karen Barlow and her husband renovated. 

A Place in the Sun

Meredith Corp. via One Kings Lane

The Rothko-esque painting whispers growth and well-being to me. I love the Maroon at its edges and in the drapery trim. Rose Quartz and Serenity are subtle—touches in the front throw pillow—but it’s enough to make me want to rest my head right there.

Spin Me a Cocoon

BHG

I’ve blogged this photo once before, and it holds pride of place in an inspiration folder I’m building for my own master bedroom redo. The soft pinks and blues start in those gorgeous Audubon prints, as do all the colors used here. 

The mix of textiles looks simple but is very sophisticated, so I’m still trying to sort out how to adapt the look. Only my headboard is upholstered, and it’s closer to the Cocoon swatch, as are my walls. I don’t want to change either, so I’m still thinking through how to bring the bronze/golds in.

Surprised?

I hope I showed examples of Rose Quartz and Serenity combinations that surprised you—in a good way, of course! Eventually I’ll get to each of the Pantone 2016 palettes. In the meantime, follow the link to take a look at them yourself, as well as all the intelligence behind Pantone’s choices, and follow my blog with Bloglovin.