Map Fad

Is the decorating with maps fad over?  Once Ballard and Pottery Barn and Home Decorators start framing maps and hanging them like art, you know its a mainstream idea.  But does that mean we have to start moving onto the next fad? 

via Elle Decor

via Martha Stewart

via Apartment Therapy

I think that the appeal of cartography-as-art is the personalization that can be achieved. You're from Oklahoma? Go find and old map depicting the state boundaries during the Land Run of 1889. Love to sail? Find nautical maps by the bookload and frame them for your powder room. Have a young astronomer in your house? Have galaxy diagrams wallpapered onto the kid's ceiling.

via Elle Decor

via Elle Decor

via House Beautiful

via Elle Decor

Martha's Maine House via Martha Stewart

To avoid that overtly-contrived, generic store-bought feel, it's generally best to work with maps that matter to you.

And for this reason -- the seemingly endless options available -- the 'decorating with maps' practice may not be so easy to pigeonhole as "a fad."

via DecorPad

via Martha Stewart

via BlackEiffel blog

by Steven Gambrel

by Pootery Barn (typo, and it stays!)

via Simplified Bee blog

via Forever...Whenever blog

via Houzz

And don't just limit the cartography to your walls.  Bring cartography to your doors...

via Apartment Therapy

via Apartment Therapy

 Get down with your DIY self and Mod Podge some things! 

via PS I Made This

via Urban Sardine

Have your favorite globe turned into a hanging light fixture!

via Addicted 2 Decorating

 A rolling map can be easily converted into a window shade!

via Martha Stewart

via O at Home magazine

 Cartography products can be chic and happy in many forms...  A pillow, a plate, a lampshade!

via Rockett St George

via homelife

via Ralph Lauren

All in all, I think it's fair to say that the map fad is indeed a fad.  But, it's a long-lasting fad because it can be so widely interpreted.  Lots of editorializing from the consumer can keep this fad from looking tired.  

The easiest way for you to incorporate a map into your decorating is to choose a map that has personal meaning to you.  Whether you frame it, decoupage it, wallpaper with it, cover a window with it or make a lampshade with it is up to you.  Keep it personal and it becomes authentic!

Have a wonderful day, world travelers!!
Cheers,
Whitney

Stolen Masterpieces

Did you hear/read about the the Picasso Doodle Bandit?  He's the bawdy fella who walked into a San Francisco art gallery over the July 4th weekend and walked out with a $200,000 Picasso drawing and escaped in a taxi. Crazy! The Bandit was quickly caught and arrested, and the Picasso was recovered unscathed.  it turns out that the bandit is a New Jersey boy, who has worked at a sommelier /waiter at some quite fine NYC eateries. What the heck was a sommelier doing stealing fine art in San Francisco?!? My mind races at this stupidity; art theft is a brazen move and bold criminal act. 

If I didn't know better, I'd think this bandit's bust was some sort of viral marketing campaign for the much-anticipated book Stealing Rembrandts by Anthony Amore and Tom Mashberg. Amore is the head of security and chief investigator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and he knows a thing or two about art theft; the Gardner Museum was robbed of 13 works of art in 1990 by two men dressed as police officers.    

No longer on pre-order, it's finally available! Click here to purchase

Stealing Rembrandts details the history of art theft over the past century, by following thefts of Rembrandt paintings. It also biographies the Dutch master, whose work is generally regarded as the greatest of European art history.

"Portrait of a Young Girl Wearing a Gold-Trimmed Cloak"

The FBI offered a $5 million reward for

the return of "Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee"

"A Lady and Gentleman in Black"

But, as the Huffington Post pointed out (the obvious predicament to art theft, duh), "Unlike diamonds or gold, a celebrated old master painting actually has little street value. Instantly recognizable, it cannot be reintroduced into the legitimate marketplace without attracting attention and is therefore difficult for criminals to monetize."  So why do people steal art?  And why, specifically, do people steal Rembrandts???

The book is part historical biography, part fine art education, part crime thriller.  It would make a great gift for a true crime fan or an art enthusiast.  Or make it your compelling beach read this summer (if you have it in you to commit to a compelling read on the beach)!

Cheers,

Whitney

Yellow. Books.

So I've still got yellow on the brain...  The long-awaited bookshop Van Alen Books opened last week on West 22nd Street in NYC.  The architecture & design bookstore serves also as a public reading room with an amazing installation of steps/benches painted a fantastic daffodil yellow.  I am liking this edgy look in a retail space; it's attention-grabbing.  I passed the store this morning, I took a pitiful photo of the LOT-EK steps but others have photographed this space so much better...

crummy image via Whitney's phone

 images via Architizer

more photos of the opening available at Architect's Newspaper

If you're in the Flatiron or Chelsea areas, try to make a pitstop at Van Alen Books.

And quickly, while we're on the topic of design & architecture publishing, may I suggest some reading?  The Architecture of Happiness by Alain Du Botton is awesome.  It's not a new release, but it's worth picking up if you've never happened upon it.  It reads a little text-bookish and esoteric but nevertheless is a fascinating study of the human relationship to our produced environments.  To understand why we are drawn to certain design styles more than others, Du Cotton explains the psychology behind taste.  It's a fairly quick read and you're sure to learn something about yourself and your ideologies about design. 

Whitney