Other's Homes and Gardens: Michelle and Tracy McCormick

I love the McCormick's delightfully curated home in Hollywood. It feels lived-in, falling a hair short of slouchy; cluttered, but just-so!

Love the old Hollywood glam of their lobby, with the wood mail boxes and crown moldings galore.

There are a few eminently imitable things going on here, so stay with me:

The bookcase is a just perfect contender for DIY: I'm thinking a walnut veneer or black Expedit bookcase, upholstered with free, richly textured wallpaper samples like so:

Graham & Brown's Alice(top) and Grace wallpaper

A bit of Mod Podge or a stapler gun, and you've got yourself an amazing new bookcase for the wallpaper-adverse, or renting-agreement afflicted.

Notice the liberal use of conch shells and dried sponges in this book case, which manages not to look like a Cape Cod beach house vacation-rental decor when paired with the dark tones and curio cullection here: now go forth, and decorate wisely.

This photo has made me reconsider disco-balls. They look so fresh paired with the otherwise ethnic-tinged and vintage-weird items here, don't they?



Your homework for this blog is to study this image and ponder how to combine terrariums, animal bones, tiny plants, ikat, exemplerary book covers, vintage china, and heirloom tomatos. Go.


This takes the recent design-blog boner for taxidermy and raises it to the 987th power. Bold strokes, brave readers.


Remember those oval picture frames I mentioned I'd inherited a few posts ago? Well, they lie abandoned in the study while I puzzle over what, still, to do with them. But what . . . . if . . I . . . made . . an oval into an . . . ellipse? and made a picture frame . . . a mirror?

Ooh, la la. I'm tingling with excitement.

Bye bye, Michelle and Tracy! Thanks for letting the selby visit! By the way, I love your credenza, map, and wicker baskets! If you ever get bored of anything, let me know. You know where to find me.

Kiss!

DD