Should I buy this chair?

So we're having just about the craziest week ever, with work and a weird meeting first thing tomorrow, and her going away Thursday (and family coming next Tuesday). I've been working on the kitchen and doing a couple of little projects and I'll catch up properly soon. Meanwhile, should I buy this chair? It's $150 from Ross, and I'd recover it in a graphic (probably mostly black and white) print and put it in the far corner of our bedroom (where there's a black leather and wood chair now that's actually kind-of broken). I want it because I love the shape and I'd rather have a slipper type chair there. I'm wary because we already have several accent chairs with nowhere to go and I'm reluctant to get rid of any of them, and it's on the low side when our bed is on the high side. Also because y'know, it's $150 I don't need to spend. So what do you think?

Dining room pictures on Flickr.

All too often, people ask me "Wtf do you mean 'Hollywood and Western'?". I just direct them to the pictures of our dining room that I just put up on Flickr!

Together with the living room next to it, it's just about the best example of my weird sort of style. However, although I like the room a lot, they're still before pictures really. That bar barely looks like a piece of furniture and isn't even glued together, and I don't really know how to place that fiddle leaf fig in the corner with the curtains. I'm going to do some tweaking. And do the IKEA chairs work?

So go look at the pictures, they have lots and lots of notes about our art and liquor, and I marked one of them up with all the places I'd gotten stuff from for fun.

En suite bathroom help needed!

I just sent an email to Apartment Therapy LA asking for help with our en suite. We were lucky with our main bathroom, which is dark red and light grey-blue (one of my favorite color combinations, as you can see!), but the en suite isn't so hot. It's terracotta and pale yellow, with off white walls. On top of that, we have a recently replaced bright white pedestal sink and toilet, which are nice, but don't totally match.

I just got white and chrome accesories when we moved in, because I didn't know what to do (we also have all the old crappy towels we don't want anyone to see in there). I really think it's best to make things you can't change work, even if that means doing something a little different from your normal style. I've been thinking and thinking about the en suite, and I think the only thing that will work is to go subtly Moroccan, in a kind of retro way. That's not my usual style, but I think it could look really nice, especially as the bedroom is a little asian in a toned down, masculine way. I was thinking about backing the red velvet door curtain with a geometric print in a mustard or orange (probably a Dwell twin sheet off ebay!), and I saw some nice white accesories in Target's Global Bazaar which were sort of the right look. They're gone now though, and I have no real idea what I'm doing or where to even look for stuff! Usually I know where to find a particular thing, but because this is the kind of style I don't usually go for, and it's so specific, I'm lost.

So I really hope they post my question and pictures, and I hope AT readers can hope me! You can see more pictures, including my cat, on my Flickr.

Speaking of marble...

I just won two of these Jonathan Adler malachite pillow covers on ebay. They're so unusual and somehow they seem like a serious grown up thing you have until they're worn away! I think they should help to tie together all the different greens in the plants in my living and dining rooms. I haven't posted any pictures of those rooms yet, have I?

Back from Vegas!

We just spent the weekend at the Rio in Vegas, and got back last night. Towards the end of last week I was crazy writing a plan for work (I hate doing computer work because I procrastinate, I'm glad I have a job where I don't have to do it much). So I guess I haven't posted in a while, never mind, no one reads this anyway!

The suite at the Rio was the most amazing hotel room I've ever really stayed in. I did go to a party in a Presidential Suite at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC, where I got drunk and picked up a fancy urn to find it had a sticker on the bottom saying $10.99! Other guests broke a bed post - it's a story for another day! The Rio suite had a jacuzzi that sat between the bedroom and the bathroom so you could get to it from either side, it also had a beautiful peach velvet couch that felt like silk. By the end of our stay I started to feel claustrophobic and on edge in the room though, and a little bit paranoid. I think because it felt so isolated - I've gotten used to the street noise here, and to feeling connected to the world outside and aware of what's going on. The fire warning system also went off while we were in the jacuzzi on the first night, which didn't help.

Although the suite was nice, and made me wish for a bigger place and fancier stuff, it wasn't really my style. I also find the Rio's inconsistent theming disappointing. I've been reading recently about how themed casinos are on the way out, and simple luxury (think the Wynn) is in. I think it's a bit of a shame, a well done theme is so great, and Vegas is the only place you really see that kind of creativity. I often describe Vegas as 'Disneyland for adults'.

My favorite casino hands down is Caesar's; the theme is so consistent, and well executed and luxurious. I guess it helps when your theme is also an architectural style! Sure it's tacky, but the materials are so expensive, and the attention to detail is so perfect - right down to tiny medallions set in the drive way. I think it's a work of art, and we'll try to stay there next time if we can find a deal. I'm also looking out for things made of marble now!

Love.

I love these silky gold tassels. They're curtain tiebacks, and they came from IKEA - $5 each, three different designs in the same gold thread. You would never know where they are from, they feel amazing.

I'm going to fix them on the handles of the bedroom closet, but I need to do something to shorten them first, and maybe I should use two of the same style.

"Barr's work is the visual equivalent of a David Lynch film".