More magazine talk today...the new issue of
House Beautiful was released on Zinio and I plowed right through it hoping to find lots o' inspiring interiors. Once again HB didn't do it for me, at least for the most part.
I did love the following bedroom that was designed by Pat Healing. Believe it or not, this is a teenage girl's room. Um, what a LUCKY girl, right?? If my parents had given me a room like this, I probably would have never moved out! The color scheme is very fresh and the overall style is really cool - it's just the right mix of being both tasteful and fun. The
Quadrille Paradise Background wallpaper looks pretty amazing with the
Canopy Designs' Sara Chandelier, doesn't it?
It was also fun to see the
Kitchen of the Year in this issue, which was designed by Tyler Florence. I think it's good to have a chef design a concept kitchen like this because that ensures that function doesn't fall after form. With that said though, I was surprised to see a rather tiny induction cooktop instead of a huge gas range. The outdoor kitchen looks pretty awesome and I wish that HB had included bigger photos of that part in the magazine (the ones below are from the
HB site). Anyhow, I need to circle back to this feature and actually read the interview!
Here's a shot of the main part of the kitchen (along with Tyler, chopping vegetables). I like the dark cabinetry against the classic white subway tile and the huge island is a great feature. I'm not a big fan of the open shelving because realistically, anything stored like that will get dusty unless it's used weekly. And you can't see it very well here, but the breakfast area is a bit of a train wreck with a motley collection of upholstered chairs. I wish they'd just gone with one statement-making style.
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| Image via House Beautiful, designed by Tyler Florence and Lori Yeomans, photo by Francesco Lagnese |
Have you seen this issue yet? Since I don't get this one in the mail anymore I never know when everyone else receives that version. If you have read it, did you love it or hate it? Did any of the features stand out to you?
Like I said before, I'm just not excited by the content in HB at the moment. I don't want to disparage the magazine or discredit their staff or the designers that create the published projects. But the fact is that I am not inspired by the features that I've been seeing lately and I always have been in the past.
The overexposure to trends that blogs and Pinterest have caused is not to blame here either. To me, the content being produced right now is underwhelming. And I know that there are PLENTY of designers out there that are executing outstanding projects, so I don't think the design community is the problem. I think the publishing industry is simply going through a difficult adjustment period.
With new EICs, a changing of the guard has taken place at some of the major shelter pubs (including HB and Elle Decor) and I think we're seeing the result of those changes. As Anna Wintour and Margaret Russell have proved, the EIC's vision shapes a magazine and an exceptional EIC creates a consistently exceptional magazine. I'm hoping that Newell Turner (of House Beautiful) and Michael Boodro (of Elle Decor) will find their mojo...and I hope that Margaret Russell can keeps hers at AD! Basically, I've long loved shelter mags and feel like a parent that doesn't think their child is fulfilling his/her potential. But maybe my expectations need to be adjusted :)
, I need to plow through my pile of magazines. I subscribe to a few old school paper versions and also read some digital mags, and those are the hardest ones for me to keep up with because sitting at the computer any more than I already do is typically not appealing. Nevertheless, there are tons of inspiring tidbits and photos so I'm making a point of going through 
