Restoration Hardware Inspired Vignette

Many of us pull design inspiration from various sources; our favorite home improvement shows, online avenues such as Pinterest and of course print media. Catalogs from some of my favorite home product companies always inspire me the most. I enjoy scanning them and carefully studying every little detail of a table or shelf display, or noting what motifs and colors are popular and may be trending.

My Restoration Hardware Source Book for instance often inspires certain design direction if not inspires an idea or "replica" - to an extent. If you are familiar with Restoration Hardware you know they lean somewhat toward a very stark, minimalist, somewhat industrial / somewhat cold design aesthetic. If you love a muted color palette you'll love RH. I often look at the staged rooms and think of how totally unnatural it would be to live in such a space. Conversely, I can't help staring in utter amazement while thinking of how "gosh darn cool" everything truly looks.

One repeated element seen throughout RH is the use of tattered and torn, plain periodicals and books. Sometimes they appear as huge, weathered manuscripts sprawled artfully across an industrial style coffee table made from reclaimed timber and recycled metal framing. Other times you will see them stacked neatly and balanced across shelving or bound together on a side table. Their minimalist appearance is intriguing to me and very easy to replicate hence my little project.

I bought a roll of brown craft paper, grabbed a few hardbound books and created protective jackets for them "al la junior high". (remember wrapping your books in grade school?)
 
I cut the paper to size, crumpled it a bit by hand, then smoothed it out before folding it into a jacket for the book. Once I had it secured to the book, I took a bit of sand paper and rubbed the paper jacket lightly along the spine, cover edges and even the top of the book to really give it that weathered, Restoration Hardware treatment.

Once done I had to mess around with a little staging of my cool, muted, tattered books. For fun, I added some old metal elements appropriate to the RH aesthetic.

Vintage, metal, door lock hardware I picked up for $3.00 at an antique shop last weekend.

I had to stage my books a few different ways of course, right?

Here they are with some concrete spheres I made with leftover Quikrete mix.  

A vintage bottle filled with rusty, old nails adds more of that "industrial vibe" RH enjoys.

So, where have you been pulling Inspiration from lately?

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