LookGirl at home: Shine a light

Monday, June 30, 2008

Shine a light

SEASHELLS BY THE SEASHORE: My favorite restaurant on Isla Mujeres is a little sandy spot tucked back from the street. Hanging from the trees in the courtyard are lamps fashioned out of conch shells. I picked one up for only $30, but they're pretty easy to make yourself. They are made of a simple lightbulb and cord strung through the top of a conch shell. The trick is to find a shell with a body big enough to hold a small bulb. Hang it low over a table or in a dark corner desperate for light, and you'll have a bit of beach year-round, without the messy sand.

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Great Expectations: Not that I'd recommend designing your home like the collapsing mansion in this film, but it is gorgeous, albeit dilapitated. Nature has overtaken Miss Havisham's home, but there's beauty in the devastation, as is so often the case.
Too Close for Comfort: Ted Knight's daughters had the ultimate apartment in this, except for the fact that they lived on the floor beneath him. They had racing stripes painted on the wall in purple, orange and red. It was so late '70s, and so great. Definitely a little too bold for my place, but a great design dream.
Foul Play: Living on a houseboat in Sausalito is one of the top five places I can imagine setting up a home, and Chevy Chase's bachelor pad in this film definitely lives up to my fantasy. Who wouldn't want to be Goldie Hawn waking up there? Of course I could do without the murderous albino tailing me.
Sex and the City: Carrie Bradshaw's apartment was divine, from the desk by the window to the old-fashioned bathroom to the paper Chinese lantern hanging from the ceiling. If I lived in New York and didn't live in that apartment I'd be devastated.
Before Sunset: If I had to choose between following Ethan Hawke back to the states and staying in Julie Delpy's Paris apartment, it would be a very tough choice. Her place is beautiful, tucked back in a courtyard, complete with a cat, with photos posted up all over the walls. Ethan Hawke be damned!
Desperately Seeking Susan: Aidan Quinn was a major crush in my life, and his apartment was half the reason why. Up a dingy staircase in New York City, it was a loft to love, with the mattress on the floor. The instant I had my own dorm room in college I took apart my bed and put the mattress on the floor, all that was missing was him!
The Darjeeling Limited: I want to take a train across India in the hopes that it would be as cool as the one in this movie. Resplendid in greens, pinks and yellows, it is beautiful kitsch, with the subcontinent's countryside blazing by in the background.
St. Elmo's Fire: I thought Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson's apartment was the coolest thing I'd ever seen when I was in junior high. It seemed so urban, young-adult and chic, with the frosted glass walls that divided the loft and the crates of albums. I was sure I'd live exactly like that when I turned 20. I lived up to the crates, but that's about it.
Pretty in Pink: Molly Ringwald in this movie was the epitomy of individual style for years, and her room was no exception. It was a do-it-yourself dream room for teenage girls not into Top 40 music.
The Money Pit: Blame it on my '80s childhood, but this early Tom Hanks film is burned in my head line by line. And, of course, the star of the movie is the not-as-it-seems mansion that goes through a riches-to-rags-to-riches journey of its own. It might have been a dump, but check out the front hall and the staircase after the makeover. So epic.