Design Inspiration: More Sex and the Single Girl (This Time She Cooks)
Are we obsessed?
We’re still having so much fun thinking about Sex and the Single Girl – especially since we got our hands on a copy of Helen Gurley Brown’s follow up cookbook, Single Girl’s Cookbook. It includes some real gems, like Rhett Butler’s Casserole You Can Feed Any Man, which involves pork chops, canned sweet potatoes, and thinly sliced oranges (and yes, given that recipe, it does seem like Ms. Brown, like Rhett, just doesn’t give a damn, doesn’t it?). We love the prose, of course, but we’re really more taken with some of the great illustrations, like these:
Love that jumpsuit. Not to wear, maybe, but perfect for pillows. And check out the busy working woman, moving seamlessly from boardroom to kitchen:
Pretty fab, isn’t she? The cookbook was published in 1969, five years after the movie came out, which explains some of the aesthetic differences. It’s not hard, though, to imagine those women working in this office (we can’t resist posting this picture again):
The cooking girls, though, might be just a little more modern. Chances are they’d be stuck with a tiny apartment kitchen (and chances are it would not be as amazing as Mario Batali’s tiny apartment kitchen). But when a single girl is hosting guests, a big kitchen isn’t necessary – it’s really all about the dining space.
We think Brown’s movie character would simply die for this Miami Beach dining room:
We love the black and white and dark would palette and the sharp lines of the furniture. Plus, who can resist an enormous mirror? The room is sophisticated and sexy and modern, all at once.
Or maybe she’d serve fondue neuchateloise (page 90) around a coffee table in the living room (very late ’60s of her, right?):
We love how this space combines the clean lines and angles of the movie’s furniture with the brighter colors of the cookbook’s cover (without getting too bright). We’d add a big, low coffee table in a dark stain (you need someplace for the fondue!) and some additional pattern – a little of that jumpsuit flair – in the form of throw pillows that could go on the sofa or the floor:
We think the Alluminare pillow in Moroccan Medallion in Rust, Chocolate Milk, and Chocolate would do just the trick – adding some excitment and exotic mystery for our Single Girl without overpowering the rest of the room.
We’re still not sold on Brown’s recipes, but we certainly do like her look!
[Photo credits: Office from Sweet Sunday Mornings. Dining room and family room from Houzz.com. Pillow from Alluminare.]
When she’s not mopping up juice spills, Kit throws way-too-big parties, cooks complicated dinner, and decorates (and redecorates) her house. Plus, she writes about all of it – both the fabulous and the disastrous – for Examiner.com, Baltimore Magazine, Houzz.com and on her personal blog, Mango & Ginger.
