Business Casual

Just returned from a few days in San Diego for the PR job. While I spent about 85% of my time in the convention center with clients, doctors and loads of amazing new endoscopes - I woke at the crack of dawn for some brisk exploration filled with boats, baseball and even a bit of beach. Above is the sand outside the Hotel del Coronado.

...and these are the seats inside Petco Stadium. The American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) rented the joint for its annual awards ceremony. They have a good location scout: The other ones I've attended were in the new wing of the Chicago Art Institute and smack on the field of the Super Dome.

The Maritime Museum has subs, tall ships and aircraft carriers. I like how this guy looks like a whale. I suppose that is the point.

The Hotel del Coronado brings in falconers (and hawks) to scare off the sea gulls. "Bird abatement" they call it.

I looked down on the pool from my room at the Grand Hyatt...

...and got a perilous new perspective on Eisenstaedt's V-J Day kiss next to the USS Midway.

After dinner, we got to go down into the dugout at Petco stadium. Trace evidence of the inhabitants was left behind.

The old pink police HQ by the marina has been abandoned and looks like something out of Havana. I've always wanted a pink house. This is why.

Slide (Scanners) Rule

This image of mom and my four-month-old chins appeared before human eyes for the first time since '79 on Wednesday. On Thursday, the only in-hospital shot of me and the fam on my real birth day I'd ever seen developed, too. Hallelujah, dad bought a slide scanner! (Mom looked quite pooped from giving birth to a toddler-sized baby, so I'm sparing her the public viewing). There really aren't many of mom and me because she was always the one taking the pics and telling me to strand up straight. So, this is quite a treat!

Another product of the slide scanner, which highlights the wrong holiday (and the wrong parent) on Mother's Day Eve: dad looking pretty sharp in his slips and tartan pants on my first Christmas. He was always sweet enough to read us books before bed every night when we were little - and to scan fun old photos for us when we're big. Thanks for sending these over, Daddy! 

For more notes on Lana Hovey, check out this from the archives. Happy Mother's Day!!

A Hovey Design Before and After

Right after The New York Times story about our first project (see previous post for shots) came out, a couple in the same apartment complex called on us for some overall direction for their new penthouse. They'd been together for years, but needed advice how to make their two different styles become one. They wanted a few new things to help balance out some of the pieces they already had - all with simple, clean lines - and nothing shiny.

Below is the before (albeit about a week after they'd moved in) - and above is the place today. We advised them to go for a more delicate couch and chair combo instead of the red sectional. They found this fantastic Børge Mogensen set (yes, we love B.M.) at Strawser & Smith, the beautiful industrial vintage shop on Driggs Ave. We also thought that a Madeline Weinrib rug (the Indigo Brooke) would make the space pop more than the Oriental they had in there. The orange box, the coffee table books and the blue and white garden stools help add nice bursts of color, too, and all tie in with their Chinese coffee table, the Sheherazade chandelier and Buddhist sculptures. 

They clearly adore wine and the four industrial fridges were very important to them (and didn't fit elsewhere). In a feat for proselytizing collectors, we've managed to convince them to start picking up vintage cork screws to compliment (and open!) all that vino. They have - and so far, all three are displayed with pride along the console. It's been so fun to see their excitement over all the new purchases and pairings. They tell us that it finally feels like the home they wanted, which is pretty much the best thing you can hear when you're in the decorator's shoes.   

(Before)

 

(After)

The view from one of the three balconies, 32 floors up.

Our First Hovey Design Project in the June Living Etc!

The penthouse that Porter and I decorated last fall - the one that launched our Hovey Design dreams - appears in the June issue of Livingetc! Matthew Williams shot the space beautifully (as he always does) and really lets everyone get a peek at the amazing light and the somewhat incomparably high ceilings. What I actually love most about that apartment is how it almost glows at night. With all those earth unfriendly, dim, silver tipped bulbs, it's like floating on brown leather above the sparkling Brooklyn and Manhattan skies (which, if you're to try floating, is a pretty nice way of going about it). The issue is available on newsstands - and for download on Zinio.

Elephant on the Move

Little Hugo Cabret got that magical little man, but loads of little Belgian kids got to watch this guy move all around in a shop window 80 years ago. Oh the joy and wonder of the automaton (especially when it's shaped like Babar...or actually, a nude Cornelius)! This joy and wonder costs an arm and a leg, but we all can dream.

Available at Obsolete in Venice, Calif. and through their shop on 1stDibs.