Architectural Digest VS. Elle Decor

                                   Extreme Way (Moby) from the closing credits of The Bourne Identity.


After falling back to sleep, during the early morning hours of the rainstorm, I woke to find Jeff in the living room, seated on the sofa, near the coffee station, watching the Bourne Identity on our small TV that I dug out of closet storage last evening. Huddled around him were the indoor gang. SO pathetically spoiled.
After coffee Jeff has settled in at the long oak table to spread out his storyline ideas for a Hollywood script contest, while I tackled the last remants of leftover chaos from the rearrangement of decorating items yesterday. Do you notice how when you move things around you find an isolated spot and begin heaping things there so that when you're finished you now have another area to tackle?
I can honestly say I really like the way the rooms have turned out-- we have a great team spirit, since I can't move furnishings these days, Jeff moves them according to whatever plan I have going on. Then I tackle lifting/moving and arranging the smaller decorative accessories- it works well for us as Jeff is part of the process, no more tripping over things I've moved while he's been at work, although, those moments were vastly entertaining for me- the dark twisted side of my personality is easliy amused.
Jeff and I love beautifully decorated homes like you find in Artchitectural Digest. Unfortuneately, while appreciating this style in magazine layouts and homes of friends, we've discovered we're Elle Decor. The artists in us are more creative in a boho chic environment. Jeff and I love open spaces with 3-4 sitting areas... like Soho, or the Old Tribecca industrial warehouse environment. It just works for us.
Of course, I haven't always favored this design. In my teens I found that I liked the artful floor displays of say, a Macy's supplemental advertisement in the Sunday paper, or the then widely popular Ethan Allen design gallery showroom. This changed to Bombay and then in the 80's to Shabby Chic, which arrived just in time as my 3 kids had pretty much gone through my Ethan
Allen type furnishings by then.
Then I discovered Elle Decor magazine and realized that the entire time I thought I liked, or felt, I should like traditional furnishings and the home environment they created/represented of middle America, I really didn't. 
Years ago, I happened across a home photo shoot of Jacqueline Schnable (wife of Julian) and it hit me like a thunderbolt, her style was my style, who'd have thunk? 
I still have a Met Home magazine (from the 80's) that showcases a NY city townhouse with that same type design. This occured at the same time as I saw columnist Linda Ellerbee's original NY Bronx brownstones (love those!) It was so boho chic (before the term was coined and in pop culture speak).  Why change and be conventional?

Nathan Lane after a reference to the intriguing design element of a large crucifix and Nancy Drew collection.


 I placed the above Birdcage footage on the blog because one of my most cherished collections is my mom's original Nancy Drew book set. I've lost photographs, paintings, etc, but I have managed to always hold on to these.  So, the above reference always makes me laugh, because I've always had to juggle where to place them. I rearranged them (again)
 this morning to fit into our new winter new design scheme.  These days Jeff and I are more inclined in having a house that is comfy and that we and our indoor gang can lounge and hang out in. Maybe this is an added benefit of age, but whatever it is... it works for us.
Here are some pics:

Notice the Nancy Drew collection (above)? This display still needs some tweaking, but we're getting there. Breaktime. We have to dash out into the world to get a jump on our Thanksgiving day menus...