Amanda Nisbet: What She's Up To

Amanda Nisbet

The name conjures up images of fresh and colorful design, the perfect blend of tradition and modern edge, comfort and chic elegance.

You know her from her frequent forays into the pages of the top shelter magazines: Elle Decor, House Beautiful, Traditional Home, House and Garden and Southern Accents.

Many of you have been introduced through design blogs such as All the Best and La Dolce Vita (two of my personal favorites!!)

Recently, I had the opportunity to catch up with Amanda and ask her a little bit about what she is up to right now. And believe me when I say, she has been up to quite a lot!

Here is some of our conversation:

How did you get your start?
I was a struggling actress and found myself getting more attention for the design of my apartment than for my acting talents so I transitioned from one creative role to another. I have to say my background as an actress comes in very handy as a decorator.

What/who inspires you?
I am so lucky to live in New York where I’m constantly stimulated and inspired by the art fashion, architecture and all the creative people who make their mark on this city.

How would you describe your own personal style?
Comfortable cozy, elegant and not too perfect. I like things to be a tad off balance and not too matchy and predictable. Formulaic decorating seems too “easy” for me I’d rather stretch myself and create more of a personal environment for my client.

Amanda has been working recently on a new line of chic fabrics and brilliant lighting.

Tell us a little about your new fabric line:

My new fabric line is essentially about the transformative powers of colour. I have 10 designs and 32 colours all hand-printed on either oyster linen, oatmeal linen or silk.

What was the inspiration for this particular project/product?

Some of my patterns are very painterly and loose some are more precise and clean. Achieving exactly the right shade and tint for my colours was of paramount importance. I was really inspired more by what I felt I needed yet couldn’t find for my own client’ projects.

What color are you and why?

Fuschia- its bright and happy gets along with everyone yet isn’t wimpy.

What is on your nightstand?

An Aquiesse candle, my kindle, “”The Week” “Laughter On The Stairs” by Beverly Nichols and “the New Yorker”

Here is just a peek at Amanda's new fabric line. Fresh, classic, colorful. I can just imagine all of the possibilities!

Pizzetta and Positano

Maderia and Chip 2

Alannah 2

Note in the first Living Room photo above, Amanda used her Chip 2 fabric on the stool behind the sofa. So perfect!

Amanda's full fabric line can be viewed on her website HERE and is available though the Holland and Sherry Showrooms.

Amanda has also introduced a fantastic lighting line which you can also see on her site. It is available through The Urban Electric Company.

It was so much fun corresponding with Amanda Nisbet. She is one of my all time favorites, and I have to say everyone in her office is top notch as well. Thank you all very much for your gracious attention!

Last, but not least, I just wanted to mention that Amanda Nisbet is one of the judges for the Bedroom Design Contest being held over at Ronda Carmen's All the Best blog HERE. If you have not had a chance to check out all of the amazing entries, please hop on over! AND there is going to be a "Reader's Choice Award", so do stop by and vote!

Quadrille....You Make Me Smile

The latest from Quadrille's Home Couture Collection:

Persepolis and Taj.

Check it out HERE.

Busy Week, Overwhelming Actually....

So what do you do when you are trying to fit too much into a week (Art class chauffeuring, puppy shots, client projects, a traveling husband, school schedule foul-ups for a daughter, computer meltdowns... for starters) and then some other things try and push their way into the same week? Like the flu for example (two kids home from school)? Well...., I try to take a deep breath (or ten) and listen to some music that will make it a little more upbeat. This helped...... Especially drivng home on the freeway after taking my dear husband to the airport at 4:00 AM this morning.....windows open....wind rushing...radio loud.

Here's to a weekend where I hope to catch up with the music on!

A few nights ago, I was walking through the neon tunnel to return a book on reserve (savin' mucho monies!) and stopped dead in my tracks at a chalking:

QUILTING CLUB

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But then I realized that it said "Outing Club." Thought to myself how horrible of a place Smith is to have a club with the express purpose of outing people. Then I realized that it was an outdoors outing club.



:( Not much time to craft lately...

My Sunshine

She is my light. Her smile and her wisdom draw friends and love like a moth to a flame. She can make me laugh with one look. She can dispell gloom with one thought.

There was a knock on our door this morning. A troup of friends were there to sing :"Happy Birthday" and whisk her away to school. She is blessed that way.

Happy Birthday sweet, sweet girl. I love you to infiniti and beyond.

R Rüm

We've moved two doors down! Same dingy and crackling wallpaper, one fewer window, but plus mega square footage and a fireplace!!

Will preface this by saying that among other others, ja - ich brauche eine neue Kamera!

My roommate Lauren got this for me (she's from Princeton). LOVE IT SO HARD:

Mmmmmhm!

VIVAN curtains, 10 at Ikea

We spotted a fallen branch propped up against it's mama tree on Chapin Lawn. Sweet, sweet Lindsay took me to the mechanical shop where all the engineering majors cut steel bars wearing those fugly protective glasses. Thought it would look cool if we had really thin, straight birch branches propped vertically inside the fireplace (like a single tier of bamboo), but it looked really stupid when we tried it with these thicker branches. So horizontal and orderly:


Lauren got these supafine moroccan boxes at home. Presumabely expensive because she won't tell me how much they were.


Angela and Dylan brought a handful of these leaves to our Mr. T themed tea party on Sunday. Lauren and I decided to do something with them... a la The Canvas Cafe in 2006?

Spy the Amy Butler fabric from Peapod below? BODY PILLOW MM!!




Little alcove next to the fireplace! Essential hot water boiler/heater and weeds from Community Gardens. We got the little ribbed milk glass lamp at Northampton Antiques for 15.

Olive ribbon from Essentials

Friday is Here. What are You Doing?

Enjoy your weekend!

All Finished! The Emmy Green Room

Are you ready for the Emmy's this year? It looks like the Green Room is ready! Architectural Digest chose designer Martyn Lawrence-Bullard which resulted in this global-chic space. Sort of makes you want to belly up to the bar and say: "Play it again, Sam".

If you missed it, I had posted about the brilliant designs of Mr. Lawrence-Bullard and the design sketches and concept board for the Green Room HERE.

A little clip of making of the 61st Prime time Emmy Award Green Room:

They make it look so easy, don't they?

Acorns and White Porcelain

The Oak tree out front is trying to tell me something: "Fall is fast approaching".

I was just playing around with some of my white "objets". I have things that are not quite perfect.: broken coral, a weathered concrete balustrade piece I made into a lamp (it still has green and brown paint on it that has worn through), a chipped vintage porcelain lunch pail with a metal lid. But I find them all beautiful and intriguing. Maybe more so than if they were perfect.

I found the lunch pail at the latest Sacramento Antique Faire and don't know a lot about it's origins. Has anyone seen one before? As I mentioned, it is white porcelain and has what appears to be a zinc lid that has clasps that wrap underneath the front and back. With all of it's imperfection, it is the perfect size for letters and postcards, photos and other small remembrances.

Perfectly imperfect.

Mika shits gold!

As if I didn't love Mika and his tight white pants enough already, check out these super fly kicks in the We Are Golden video. BAH!!!! I especially like the white and gold ones.




All handmade by Christian Louboutin. Signature red soles. SO GOOD


Shoes are for whilin' out. Can't wait to go to Shanghai for all the crazy/crazy cheap shoes!




I realized that one of the reasons I like Mika so much is that he looks like Derek Zoolander in the Love Today video. More to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking?

Bustin' out!

Spanks Johofotopro.


New room pictures post soon mwrawr!

Worth a Look: Mae Brunken's Beachwood Canyon Home

I saw this in the Los Angeles Times, here.

It looks like Mae Brunken is going to be on my radar from now on. You can tell just by looking at her: talented.

She bought this 1927 Spanish Colonial house in Beachwood Canyon, and decided to fix 'er up a little.

Nice, huh?

I especially like the bathroom! Such drama.

(Sorry about the lack of verbage....but I am off to the dentist....joy.)

To read the whole thing and see more pictures of this "chic girl and her house" click on over HERE. And to see her Interior Design Talents click HERE (quite a cool site!).

What are those Crazy Kid(s) Up To Now?!?!

Hi all!

Even if you are not a fan, I thought this was very well done! Just passing it along.

More info the guy(s) in the video here and here. Can you tell who is who in the video?

Have a great Monday!

Who's Doing the Green Room for the Emmy's This Year?

Architectural Digest chooses Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, an AD 100 designer with a stellar career which began at the ripe old age of 18....(I know!)! His past clients include the likes of Cher, Sir Elton John, Cheryl Tiegs, Christina Aguillera, Felicity Huffman, Tamara Mellon....the list goes on, let me tell you.

Before we get to the presentation board images for the Emmy Green Room, I thought it would be fun to take a bit of a trip down memory lane. I have chosen some of my favorite Lawrence-Bullard designs which have graced the pages of the leading shelter magazines. Just so you can see how stellar this designer is:

The photos show how adept Mr. Lawrence-Bullard is in any style, from traditional to contemporary. Perhaps the mark of a truly great designer is that one would feel comfortable in any of the environments they create. There is something about every one of these rooms that is very appealing: the mix of objects, the proper scale, the combination of colors.

It is small wonder he was chosen for the 61st Primetime Emmy Green Room design! So here is a sneak peek at the Moroccan oasis Mr. Lawrence-Bullard has created:

The designer acquired many of the antique items from 1st Dibs. The custom area rug is from The Rug Company. Edelman Leather supplied the leather floor tiles. Schumacher supplied many of the fabrics.

Martyn has been blogging about the progress (so cool), so take a look here.

And I love the fact that there is a Mood Board! (I always love to see how other designers present.)

For more info on the making of the Architectural Digest Greenroom at the Primetime Emmys, click here. It is quite interesting to compare the designs of the last eight years shown on the website. I think this year is going to be a winner.

AND don't miss those Emmys!!! Sunday, September 20 at 8PM (ET/PT) on CBS.

Who are you rooting for? Me, I'm loving Hugh Laurie of House, M.D. (which premieres Sept 21 BTW!)and Mad Men (of course!)