Summer's Here

And we have three Elle Decor June issues to prove it. It seems like the magazine's US, Italian and German edition all had a consensus to show al fresco dining setting on their covers this month. What could be more lovely on a summer's day!

Chic Reads

I am obsessed with design books and I have a compulsion to buy them whenever I am at bookstores. Whenever we go on trips, I always come back with an overweight luggage filled with heavy tomes. When it came time to look for inspiration and references for the apartment, I only needed to go to my bookshelf as you can see from the Post-it filled book Hue by Kelly Wearstler (above). I love her Domicilium Decoratus and Modern Glamour books.

Orlando Diaz Azcuy and Elle Decor's So Chic (opened to Candace Bushnell's apartment)

These books really helped me set the tone for our apartment: Metropolitan Home's Glamour, Elle Decor's Style and Substance and Jan Showers' Glamorous Rooms

I know this one is old but I leaf through it all the time and I always find or learn something new. Bright Young Things by Brooke de Ocampo

Chic Inspirations - Women of Summer Part 2. Aerin Lauder - Elle Decor July 2009

On the heels of our Women of Summer post with American icons CZ Guest, Babe Paley and Marina Rust comes the July 2009 issue of Elle Decor with American society's current style icon Aerin Lauder. We have always been a fan of Aerin Lauder's taste and we've joked that we could probably give her a tour of her own homes as we've devoured photographs of them in the book Bright Young Things and in magazines like Vogue Living, Harper's Bazaar and House & Garden. Aerin's festive House & Garden December 2007 cover was the final issue of the magazine.

The July Elle Decor cover story features both Aerin's  East Hampton and Manhattan homes, 12-pages of stunning photographs and a sidebar where Aerin talks about her taste, where she likes to shop and decorating tips. One of her quotes resonates with us:

"I love floating around Paris. I'm always looking for chandeliers there. I have an obsession with them. But I've always said that even if you have no furnishings at all, if you have a chandelier, you can create a special atmosphere."

We love chandeliers with the same passion as well.

We also love Aerin's collection of artworks especially those Elsworth Kelly, Alexander Calder, Yves Klein and Lucio Fontana.

But what we love the most is the pool house!

Forgive the quality, the images were taken from an iPhone.