Clayton Gray Home

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez

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In honor of Mardi Gras, take a look at some stun­ning exam­ples of classic New Orleans archi­tec­ture. According to about​.com, during the early 1700s, French colonists set­tled in the Mis­sis­sippi Valley, espe­cially in Louisiana. They learned building prac­tices from the Caribbean and the West Indies to design prac­tical dwellings for a ter­ri­tory prone to flooding. One example […]

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The Home Office — Tips and Tricks

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More people work from home these days. And we con­tinue to notice a few “home office” trends that we adore. While each office is dif­ferent, some ele­ments remain con­stant.  1) Great lighting — and mul­tiple sources of it. Photo from Houzz  2) Excel­lent use of ver­tical space for shelving and storage.  3) Desk place­ment in front of a bookcase […]

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The Campaign Desk

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Happy Pres­i­dents Day! In honor of our past, present and future Pres­i­dents, our blog post is about the Cam­paign Desk. Not cam­paign as in elec­tions or pol­i­tics. Cam­paign Desk…as in fur­ni­ture. According to wikipedia “a cam­paign desk is an antique desk of normal size which was used by offi­cers and their staffs in rear areas during a mil­i­tary cam­paign. The campaign […]

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Design Tip Review

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We recently posted design tips (from a few of our favorite dec­o­rating resources) on Face­book, Twitter and Pin­terest. In case you missed them, here is a quick review…plus a few extra photos for added inspi­ra­tion. Tip#1: Estab­lish an entryway with a chest and a chair placed near the door. (Domino: The Book of Dec­o­rating. Photos from Pin­terest.) Tip#2: Use a barn […]

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Meet Trina Turk

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(www​.tri​naturk​.com) “Trina Turk con­siders her­self lucky on two counts. First because she knew at a fairly young age what she wanted to do when she grew up – to design clothing pro­fes­sion­ally and second, because she is suc­ceeding at doing it and has suc­cess­fully evolved what began as a women’s con­tem­po­rary clothing line into a mini lifestyle brand. Born […]

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Moss Is Back

Moss Is Back!

Moss is back. And we are not refer­ring to Kate. According to gar​den​de​sign​.com, moss was “a fad in the late 19th cen­tury, when newly dis­cov­ered plants were being car­ried across the globe, and Vic­to­rian gar­deners and arm­chair hor­ti­cul­tur­al­ists enjoyed domestic dal­liances by cul­ti­vating mosses in ter­rar­iums and mosseries. When the craze abated, though, mosses were more […]

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Barbie Malibu Dream House

Remember Barbie? She is an archi­tect now. One of my favorite toys in the late 70’s and early 80’s was, of course, Barbie. Fast for­ward thirty years to 2011.  Barbie is a pro­fes­sional archi­tect and designs eco-​​​​friendly and modern homes. Recently, The Amer­ican Insti­tute of Archi­tects announced the winner of its Barbie Dream House com­pe­ti­tion: a four-​​​​story, eco-​​​​friendly […]

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Easy Valentine Cupcake Recipe

Make some deli­cious cup­cakes for your Valen­tine! This recipe is pro­vided by Mrs. W. Braxton Schell. (The Junior League of Tampa’s The Gas­par­illa Cook­book 50th Anniver­sary Edi­tion.) Choco­late Refrig­er­ator Cup­cakes 1 stick butter 1 1/​​2 1-​​​​ounce squares bitter choco­late 1 cup sugar 2/​​3 cup unsifted flour 1 tea­spoon vanilla 2 eggs, well beaten 1 cup coarsely chopped […]

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Carlo Scarpa

Carlo Scarpa

Carlo Scarpa was a genius Italian archi­tect as well as glass and fur­ni­ture designer. According to Wikipedia, “Scarpa was born in Venice and attended the Academy of Fine Arts where he focused on archi­tec­tural studies. Grad­u­ated from the Accad­emia in Venice, with the title of Pro­fessor of Archi­tec­ture, he appren­ticed with the archi­tect Francesco Rinaldo. Scarpa mar­ried Rinaldo’s niece, […]

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Yellow: JCrew’s New Neutral

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We keep hearing that yellow is the new neu­tral. A click flip through JCrew’s web­site, one of our favorite fashion venues, and you will see a fair amount of this sunny hue. A tweed skirt, snake­skin sling backs, roller suit­case, flower head­band, shorts, wool capri pants and sun­glasses are a few exam­ples of JCrew’s new neu­tral, yellow. Add […]

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