Growing up, my family never owned a photo album. All of our photos were stored in a wooden dresser in our entrance hall. And if you went down to my Granny’s house, hers were stored the same exact way. Just as I’m sure my Great Granny’s were. But with our wedding just one month away, I’m thinking about bucking our family tradition and investing in a luxury photo album.
For one, a hall chest isn’t exactly the best storage method for photos. If you want to keep photos looking sharp, they should always be stored in archival quality materials — whether that be a box or photo album. Two, I like the idea of special photos getting special treatment. It feels like they deserve it. And three, photo albums make it so much easier to flip through photos, and when you spend as much as you do on wedding photos, they should be enjoyed. Often.
So, I’ve rounded up a bunch of retailers offering luxury photo albums. Unfortunately, my favorite is no longer available.
1. Cypress Albums. Offers handmade, custom photo albums made out of the finest quality archival fabric, ribbon and paper.
2. Aspinal of London. Offers handmade leather, linen and satin photo albums made of the highest quality archival materials.
3. Photograph Albums. Offers fine Italian leather photo albums.
4. Epica. Offers handmade Italian leather and wood photo albums.
5. Jenni Bick. Offers a variety of leather, velvet and paper photo albums.
6. Nicole Anderson. Offers handmade, custom fabric photo albums using the finest materials.
7. Graphic Image. Offers a variety of brightly colored leather photo albums.
8. Smythson. Offers the creme de la creme of leather goods including a variety of luxury leather photo albums.
It’s never too late to invest in a luxury photo album. They make wonderful presents for yourself or someone else. Years ago my mom and dad organized all of my Grandmother’s — not to be confused with my Granny from above — photos into photo albums and it was one of her all-time favorite presents. So even if you don’t have a special occasion coming up, you may want to consider picking up a fine photo album to display your favorite photos.
I stumbled across this photo (above) yesterday and was stopped in my tracks by the painted baskets. So simple. So inexpensive. And so chic. All you need is a basket and a can of spray paint, and you can create a beachy bohemian look perfectly coordinated with your decor. Or if you want to achieve the half-painted look below, a bucket filled with paint to dip your basket in.
If you’re feeling extra creative, you could tape out and paint a pattern. Stripes. Checks. Chevron. Polka dots. Can you imagine? I may have to give that a try. What do you think?
The other day while on the new-home hunt, I ran across a home with a living room that literally did not have space for a sofa. The arrangement of the windows, doorways and staircase made it completely impossible to put a sofa in the room without blocking a walkway. And that’s not the only wonky room I’ve seen.
Dining rooms too small for a decent sized dining table. Bedrooms too narrow for a bed. Family rooms with no spot for a TV. Wonky, poorly-planned rooms are everywhere. And the sad part? Most people don’t realize their rooms are wonky until after moving in.
Empty rooms are deceiving. When you walk through an empty home, you assume the furniture will fit in each room. But there are no guarantees. And if the home does have furniture in it, there’s often so much to take in you don’t notice you have to suck in and shimmy against the wall to get around your dining table. Or even worse, you assume they just arranged the furniture poorly. But that may be the only arrangement that works.
So before you sign on that dotted line, always draw a floor plan. Sure, your realtor or potential new landlord may think you’re a little crazy when you whip out a tape measure. But it’s well worth it, because you’ll know without a doubt that your new home will work for you and the way you live.
And don’t worry about it being perfect. Your floor plan doesn’t need to be pretty. You just need to make sure your furniture — or any furniture — will indeed fit.
If you need help drawing floor plans or would like to discover how to make yours better, pick up a copy of my how-to decorating book. I go into great detail about how to create and optimize your floor plan, which happens to be my favorite part of decorating.
Ever since spotting these gorgeous sunrise and sunset photos shot by the uber-talented Eric Cahan, I’ve dreamed of having one on my wall. They focus on just one small portion of the sky, capturing both the vibrancy and ethereal nature of a sunrise or sunset, which is what makes these photos absolute stunners. They’d be perfect as a focal point for a room, and talk about an awesome jumping off point for a color scheme.
With our wedding just a little over a month away, I’ve been hard at work ironing out all the last details. One of them being: find a stylish set of toasting champagne flutes. Thinking the traditional cut crystal would dominate the options, I was shocked to find a number of fresh, fun and far from traditional options. Whether you’re toasting to a romantic dinner for two or festive, family occasion, these flutes will have you clinking in style.
Now whether they’ll stay in style, as in, for our 50th wedding anniversary? Only time will tell. I’m betting the ones I chose will, and if not, at least we’ll have something to laugh about while saying “Cheers.”
