Minimalism + Goth: Can't Wait to See It

I scanned across an aside in AT Chicago that piqued my curiosity this afternoon. Designer Kara Mann (pictured left), has a penthouse which is, "a paean to minimalism with decidedly goth undertones." I'll admit I had to look up paean (song of praise), but once I cleared that up, I was even more interested. The quote goes on to say that most of the rooms in her penthouse are painted brown so dark they're almost black.

I love dark color on the walls. I've experimented for years with a mocha brown in my living room and a charcoal gray in the bedroom and bathroom. We also have an almost-black deep teal in our home-office. I like the colors we chose, but always considered going darker, maybe even to a matte black in our sunnier rooms.

I love the look of minimalism, but I never see minimalist rooms with dark paint. When I redecorate, minimalism was the direction I was planning to head. I'd even been toying with the idea of going white in the living room and I was feeling a little sad about the whole thing.

Luckily, Ms. Mann's home will be featured in the upcoming issue of Metropolitan Home, which I will plan to track-down like a bloodhound. I only hope the style is a interesting as it sounds.

Lemon Sesame Muffins from The Kitchen

These sounds delicious:

Lemon Sesame Muffins
makes 12 generously-sized muffins

2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 c sugar
1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted (1/2 tsp salt)
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons lemon rind (from about five small lemons; squeeze for juice as well)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 c oil
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla

Lemon Syrup
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon rind

Heat the oven to 375ºF. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan with liners or by greasing the cups. Mix the dry ingredients and the lemon rind. In a small bowl beat the milk, oil, egg and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and beat with a whisk just until smooth. Pour into the muffin cups and bake about 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick just comes out clean.

While baking, prepare the lemon syrup. Whisk the lemon juice and sugar together in a small saucepan and boil for about five minutes or until reduced and shiny. Remove from heat and stir in the teaspoon of lemon rind.

When the muffins come out of the oven, immediately poke a couple toothpick holes in each muffin and carefully drizzle the hot syrup over them. Let cool for about 20 minutes in the pan to let the syrup absorb.

The Driftwood Mirror

Riffing on the Cabin Chic theme: The Atlantic Mirror from Devon Driftwood Designs. No price on the site, so you know it's going to hurt.

Cabin Chic

Part modernism, part summer camp: Cabin Chic is popping up everywhere. Inspired by the outdoorsy elegance of this room from Zara Home, I spent a few hours cruising the internet for Cabin Chic inspiration, which I collected for a post over at Shak in Style.

40% off Upholstery at West Elm

Upholstered barstools and chairs from West Elm are now 40% off!

Gardens Inspires in Austin

Over the weekend, I visited my brother in Austin. He's currently redoing his home, which is an amazing modern split-level. His favorite spot for landscaping inspiration is a local store called Gardens. What an amazing place!

The shop and nursery are beautiful in themselves, but the owners also do custom landscaping. Luckily, they have some photo galleries online so that we can admire their work from afar.

I've been pouring over their photos trying to get inspired myself. Around Dallas, our last average day of frost is March 15th. Time to get planting.

All Things Yellow at Anthropologie

I visited my brother in Austin this weekend (more to come on that) and we stopped off at their new Anthropologie downtown. The store is absolutely beautiful, of course. They had some amazing displays, including a huge array of hanging terrariums.

What most caught my eye, is the eruption of yellow in decorative accessories. The store looked like a bed of daffodils, with yellow peaking out from piles of pillows, upholstery motifs, and their new spring rugs.

I've got more on the new yellow trend over at Shak in Style.

All products shown to the right available at Anthropologie.com.

Guest Posting at Shakadoo

Kristen at Shakadoo has very kindly asked me to guest post on their new site for the week. I am very flattered and very excited. I will be posting to their decor blog, Shak in Style. I'll still be posting here, of course. I promise I've got enough to say this week to go around, so please come and visit me on both blogs.