There’s no doubt about it – it’s an amazing time to be into design. All over the world, designers and photographers and regular people who happen to have fabulous taste are doing cool things and finding great sources, and instead of keeping their new discoveries to themselves, they’re sharing their luck and skill online.
The result is a dynamic – and enormous – collection of design-oriented blogs and websites, generating huge amounts of content every day. Design-obsessed internet surfers all surely know about the (justly) famous blogs, like Apartment Therapy, Design*Sponge, and SFGirlbyBay, but what about some of the lesser known spots? With thousands and thousands of blogs out there, it’s easy to miss some great ones.
With that in mind, here are five of our favorite inspiration-friendly design blogs:
Started as a part of her architectural studies, blogger Miss B. is a grad student at the Corcoran College of Art & Design in Washington, DC, a lover of all things Danish, and has an amazing eye for cool stuff, from tights to buildings. We fell in love with the blog last year, when she was part of the team working to outfit the Danish embassy for the embassy Christmas party. She found inspiration in the white paper flowered-staircase of the Spring 2009 Chanel runway show, and from there created a winter wonderland of white paper flowers, artwork, and birds (including the wreath at the right). Talented and inspiring!
2. The Selby
He’s kind of like The Sartorialist, but for interiors. Hipster photographer Todd Selby photographs the artistic elite – fashion designers, artists, restaurateurs, models, the odd actress – in the spaces where they live and work. His photographs catalog spaces that are purposefully not carefully prepared for the viewing public and the result is one part art, one part anthropology. We love checking out the tiny details that make a house seem truly lived in, like stacks of books here and there, or odd knicknacks on the fridge. We especially love it when he captures homes and shops of noted tastemakers, like Vincent Darre (chez Darre and at his Paris shop, Maison Dame):
3. Belle Decor
It’s name might sound like a punch line, but the magazine Garden & Gun has, justly, elicited a whole lot of praise in the couple of years it’s been around, thanks to its thoughtful profiles of the people, places, and activities that are helping to define the “new American South.” We don’t always like magazine blogs, but G&G Associate Editor Haskell Harris’s excellent blog, Belle Decor, convinced us to never say never. Harris covers all things design in the south, showcasing architecture, artists, books, jewelry – all thin
gs style. She’s a great read for anyone interested in the Southern aesthetic (as diverse as that is).
Hollister and her sister Porter might not be such underground design heroes anymore – not since their Brooklyn apartment, with its black walls and commitment to crazy taxidermy, made it into both the New York Times and House Beautiful. They’ve been identified (by the NYT) as a part of the “new antiquarian” trend – a group of young people who design with tradition and history in mind. Hovey’s actual commitment is a little more than we could ever promise to show in our homes, but we admire her style, her photography, and her eye. She posts some great ebay finds, too, so if you’re an auction-lover, be sure to bookmark!
ne of the cooler things about being a design junkie is that you can take inspiration from anywhere. You love clothes? Think about how they can translate to your home. Into graphic design? Think about how that can influence your furniture choices. In design, the lines between different disciplines are fluid. Our love of typographer Jessica Hische’s blog is proof of that. Hische has done type and graphic design for a bunch of famous clients, from Tiffany & Co. to Golf Digest, and she still has time to share some of her design inspirations via her blog. We find them equally as inspiring – plus, we absolutely love her “Daily Drop Cap” project, in which she designed a new capital letter every day of the week (like the “O” at the beginning of this paragraph) – and shared the HTML for the letter on her website.
Hope you enjoy the new links. In fact, you might want to set a timer – give yourself an hour or so. Otherwise, you never know when you’ll stop reading. When you do put down that mouse, though, let us know which bloggers you turn to for regular design inspiration. Our bookmark list could use some updating, too!
[Photo Credits: Danish Embassy from The House that Lars Built. Vincent Darre's home from The Selby. Hollister Hovey's home from Hollister Hovey.]
















Even if everybody’s in the house and around the table, there’s still one more step to make dinner work. Turn off everything. The TV, cell phones, Blackberries – all of it. That goes for Mom and Dad, too. See that TV at the left? It looks great off, doesn’t it?
























