mrr design

Did anyone follow Stylebeat's contest last year?

Marisa Marcantonio is a former style editor for House Beautiful and O at Home.

Marisa challenged her blog readers to ''submit an example of how you or someone stylish you know turned a page into reality with an idea brought to life from the book’s pages."

Winners received one of five terrific new design books - click here for full details.

I could not resist and submitted two entries:

My Inspiration came from Charlotte Moss's books,

A Passion For Detail, and Creating A Room,

which were both illustrated by the talented James Steinmeyer

whose watercolor illustrations were infinitely more interesting

than photographs.

I loved Steinmeyer's illustrations so much

that I bought the series, printed on card stock,

from Charlotte Moss's first store.

Years later I discovered a stash of artwork by a grand aunt.

I wasn't wild about my grand aunt's pen and ink drawings,

but I loved the frames.

I found five more frames to match,

then framed the James Steinmeyer illustrations,

and hung them in a group

in my living room

to mimic window panes.

Voila

A Room With a View

In fact,

a room with many views

of other interiors;

mini views where the viewer looks in instead of out.

My series of views,

grand rooms, famous in the annals of interior decoration history,

are a fun curiosity in my quirky, antique, Connecticut cottage.

A list of the illustrated rooms

Diana Vreeland's living room, Coco Chanel's living room, Bedroom of Mark Twain, Dining area of Thomas Jefferson, Ogden Codman's sitting room at the Grange, Cecil Beaton's drawing room at Beaton House, Elsie de Wolfe's bathroom; Winston Churchill's drawing room at Chartwell, Duchess of Windor's dressing room and Vita Sackville's writing room at Sissinghurst.