Nearly 200 ladies started the year of America’s 250th with a sumptuous luncheon at a private club on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, each place setting gracefully adorned with a miniature commemorative Apricot’s Home Blossom Candle, a token party favour just the right size for a lady’s afternoon purse . The VIP gift bags were filled…
Tag: old money aesthetic
Fashionable learning: the French art of scent
The first time I visited Ladurée in Paris was the summer of 2006. I was studying fashion at Parsons School of Design in Paris and most of my time was dedicated to drawing and browsing fabric stores. Down the street from Ladurée, I wandered into a perfume shop, L’Artisan Parfumeur, my first exposure to the…
Introducing the Wintr Markt
The newly launched Wintr Markt is an online concept shop offering featuring holiday and winter collections of modern American luxury home décor by Apricot’s Home. Inspired by winter weekends spent at christkindl markets and ski villages all over North America, the Wintr Markt brings sparkling warmth into your home even on the darkest days of…
Is your quiet luxury home preppy at heart?
One of the hardest interior decorating choices in American luxury homes, is whether or not to include upscale preppy influences. Is covering your walls with paintings of horses and dogs subtly nostalgic, or, is it tacky and fake? Anyone with old school preppy grandparents can tell you, it’s ok to be fake as long as…
Custom decor: make your own pine toy box
The toy box in the picture was designed based on the beer crates that Detroit Brewing Company used to carry bottles of beer more than a century ago. I loved the cool, industrial feel of the Martzes’ beer crates, but wanted something new and modern for my puppy to store her toys in. When it…
Great book: Soul of the Home
Some coffee table books are so great, that you don’t just decorate your coffee table with them, you read them cover to cover. Tara Shaw’s influential interior design book Soul of the Home: Designing with Antiques is a “must-have” for anyone who has inherited antiques or an interest in shopping for antiques. Unless you’re refurbishing…
Sewing 101: how to bind a blanket
Sooner or later, you will likely have a blanket that needs to be rebound. My puppy loves Pendleton blankets, but the binding the blanket in the picture came with was not a puppy-friendly material. I rebound the blanket with a more durable binding and mitered corners. You don’t need amazing sewing skills to bind a…
Furniture mods: how to Hollywood your sofa
Reupholstering a sofa with a custom-made cover is the first step in transforming a living room from coastal vibes to a Hollywood allure. Picking the right upholstery silhouette and fabric takes a few weeks to do. The sofa in the picture started with a contemporary off-white cover in an Upper East Side apartment. Living on…
Custom decor: the power of an exclusive book
A well placed coffee table book that is exclusive and meaningful both brings authenticity to a space and inspires conversation. My sorority recently published a special edition book as part of the Gamma Phi Beta 150th Anniversary Oral History Project 2024. The Gamma Phi Beta book, In My Words, includes stories and photographs from thousands…
Decorating 101: attractive and colourful linens
When introducing colour into your home, purchasing colourful linens is a great way to test how different colours attract positive energy to your environment. Colourful curtains, pillows, throws, towels and bedding can all enhance the ambience of a room without the permanence of investing in colourful paint or furniture. Linens typically last for about 5…