(0) Days of Summer

Labor Day weekend is like Sunday of the whole year.  That back-to-school melancholy is in the air, along with the Hampton Gitney's last breath of exhaust, and I find myself entertaining wistful thoughts of sunny L.A. ranch houses, bright blue swimming pools and endless summer bonfires back in my native SoCal.  (Going going back back to...)

My last post was all about getting a jump start on fall.  But today I just want to cling onto summer like a schoolboy with ADHD.  Part of that means wearing my Ray-Bans on the subway, listening to Solange Knowles on loop, and making my own Bumble&Bumble Surf Spray in my kitchen sink (hint: salt+water = saltwater). 

But I thought I'd put together a little greatest hits list of summery Cali style, as well.  If used wisely, you may never have to buy a new Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper for school again....

I'm all about using art as inspiration, especially when you're trying to evoke a particular energy or texture in your decor.  For instance, David Hockney's swimming pool paintings are so piquantly summer-sexy that I can almost feel the sting of chorline in my eyes and the residual prickle of a fading sunburn.  I'm an indoor kid at heart (Scrabble and spray-on tan to the core), but I like to pretend that my past is filled with debauched Malibu pool parties chez Geffen.  No reason I can't decorate as if.  Like my mom always says: "If you can't do lines on the lanai with Carly Simon, then you should go shopping at CB2 for accessories." 

Oh Ma, you're so right!  To get that Hockney look try a mix of the following:

Art Deco Table Lamp from Target, sunny and funky:

A few Astroturf floor tiles from FLOR underfoot:

A Kartell stool in your favorite shade of shallow/deep end:

If Hockney is too-too for you, take a look at one of Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park paintings.  There's a beachy rustication to the simple shapes and sunbleached colors that, to me, conjures up images of the Venice boardwalk and the bungalows along Abbot Kinney.

Since a Diebenkorn is a little out of my wannabe beachbum budget, I found these great photos in Union Square from a company called She Hit Pause Studios.  Sold in perfectly weathered frames, they look like Holgaroids that have been left out by the pool on a sunny day.  The photo doesn't do them justice, so check out their site at shehitpausestudios.com.

Enviroments Furniture has a collection of reclaimed wood furniture that seems ready-made for your Venice Beach bungalow/Murray Hill 1BR, with a little 70s romper room mixed in for good measure.  Fabrics are in earthy tweeds and funky felts.  Check out their Union Square showroom if you're in the hood.

Any other cures for the summertime design blues?  I'd love to hear 'em.