Get the Look: You've Got Mail

September 11, 2022

"Don’t you love Okotoks in the Fall? Makes me want to watch You’ve Got Mail."

Well, I guess if I’m being completely honest, I always want to watch You’ve Got Mail, but the urge is especially strong at the first hint of Fall. In a lot of ways, I’m not typically nostalgic when it comes to the 90’s. I’m not eager to revisit my grunge phase, but I do have a special place in my heart when it comes to 90’s interior and set design. Enter You’ve Got Mail and, more specifically, Meg Ryan’s apartment.

Meg Ryan, or actually, Kathleen Kelly’s apartment was cottagecore before cottagecore was cottagecore. Floral fabrics, twee wallpaper, framed botanical prints, rustic French country furniture, cozy oversize roll arm sofas and chairs, ruffles and stripes; all layered and combined in the most effortless of ways. It’s the perfect foil to Joe Fox’s more modern, clean lined apartment at 152 Riverside Drive and both apartments serve to highlight the differences in the lives of their owners and the manner in which they conduct their businesses. Both characters own family run businesses, Kathleen’s inherited from her mother and Joe’s from his father and grandfather, but the two could not have taken more different paths. The Kellys value the quaint and personal, greeting their customers by name and offering firsthand knowledge about the books they carry. The F-O-Xs specialize in selling “cheap books and legal addictive stimulants”. I think this difference is at the crux of what sets the stage for our (my?) enduring love affair with the film’s interior stylistic choices.

So, what is it about Kathleen Kelly’s apartment that still resonates 24 years after the movie’s release? I definitely think a healthy dose of 90’s nostalgia plays a role. A not so small part of me longs for the day when cabbage rose chintz on roll arm sofas reigned supreme. But more than that, a big part of the allure is that the apartment is part and parcel to the quaint lifestyle she’s carved out for herself amid the hustle and bustle of New York. The charm that first greets us in her historic brownstone apartment as Shopgirl logs on to AOL at her slightly cluttered French country desk extends to virtually all areas of her life: The Shop Around the Corner, a vintage style storefront with an atmospheric interior evocative of a bygone era; her unhurried morning routine, stopping for flowers, a pumpkin and coffee on her way to work; and a social network that has her crossing paths with literary New York. Most of us won’t ever live in New York, own a children’s bookstore, or be invited to parties where there’s a heated debate involving caviar, but we sure as heck can wallpaper our living room and use a chintz fabric on our sofa. So, let’s get the look, shall we?

Get the Look

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Dressed in Holiday Style

December 11, 2022

Whenever I hear that verse of Silver Bells, I always imagine myself bundled up in a long coat, wearing a jaunty little hat (not unlike the one worn by Mary Steenburgen in Elf) and carrying several brown paper Macy’s shopping bags. I am standing outside of a store gazing at its Christmas window display while around me the shoppers rush home with their treasures. All at once, I am jostled by a passerby and one of my packages drops to the sidewalk. I bend down to pick it up and come face to face with the stranger, who has also bent to retrieve it. He looks alarmingly like Jude Law as he did in the movie The Holiday, his eyes- how they twinkle, his dimples how merry! When he speaks, I swear I can hear a hint of an accent, ”Drop something?” he says, his droll little mouth drawn up like a bow. I have only slightly regained my composure when Clint sidles up behind us and says “I’m so tired. Why do malls make me so tired? Where did you get that hat?” And as I turn back to thank my kind stranger, I hear him exclaim, as he walks out of sight, “Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!”

AHR's Guide to Being Scared Silly

October 16, 2022

Allow me to immediately absolve you of the illusion that I’ve been a lifelong fan of all things scary. It’s true that movies like Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13^th and Halloween were all the rage when I was a teen but, unfortunately for me and my street cred, I was the kid who’d leave the room at the mere mention of them. I once found myself in a situation where I was forced to watch Children of the Corn and it traumatized me for YEARS. For literal years, every time I thought about the movie, I’d get a chill that would run from the front to the back of my left shoulder. I literally have no idea how I ended up in a situation where I watched this movie, but it probably involved a boy and dear reader, it was not worth it. I’m still not into slasher flicks, mainly because I just find them a little ridiculous, but I am into psychological thrillers and have a passion for true crime that occasionally concerns my husband (but also keeps him on his toes?). Apparently, I’m only engaged if these horrible things are within the realm of possibility? I’d prefer not to look too closely at the psychology behind that, so let’s get down to business!

AHR's Design Rules

August 14, 2022

"Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist." - Pablo Picasso

When you think of creativity, rules probably aren’t the first thing that come to mind. But in art, as in life, there are certain rules that point us in the right direction and give us a better chance for success; interior design is no exception. The following are guidelines for some of the most common stumbling blocks I see, those tricky little design conundrums you shouldn't need a degree to master.

Get the Look: You've Got Mail

Get the Look

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Also in Indoorsy: A Blog Dedicated to The Great Indoors

Dressed in Holiday Style

AHR's Guide to Being Scared Silly

AHR's Design Rules