This post is a total procrastination tactic. The 50,000-word manuscript for my book needs to be done in 3 days, before I leave for a trip, and I am SO not done. But hey! Writing begets writing, and I’m feeling super-inspired by one thing right now, so let’s talk about it: spotted-deer hide.
Source: Etsy
I’ve been calling this one for, like, 2 years. Seriously, my poor colleague Alex has been patiently listening as I rant incessantly about why none of our go-to area-rug companies are doing what I TELL THEM TO and producing this lovely pattern of white dots on a field of toffee brown for everyone's floors. Zebra? It's out there. Cow? It's everywhere. But deer hide, or its close relatives, Axis deer, antelope, and fawn, has largely remained in the world of the upscale and the strangely cool.
Things seem to be changing, however. I think deer hide is finally ready for prime time, a.k.a. the rest of our houses, now, too. Here I present the mounting (ha) evidence:
Erin Gates called it out on her great blog, Elements of Style, back in 2013. This was one of the rooms she highlighted—the apartment of designer Nicole Hanley Mellon.
Source: Vogue, via Elements of Style
Sue De Chiara of The Zhush posted pics of her awesome antelope runner last year.
Source: The Zhush
A couple of months later, I spotted it (someone please stop me) again and again at High Point Market. Fawn print everywhere.
Credit: Donna Garlough
Textile powerhouse Thibaut recently debuted a fabric called “Gazelle.” Even better, it’s a Crypton fabric, which is crazy-good at resisting stains.
Source: Thibaut
Jayson Home's fall catalog? Oh, look what's here!
Source: Jayson Home
Check out this Karastan runner posted by Nicole Balch of Making it Lovely this week. This is HAPPENING, people.
Source: @makingitlovely
Oh, and I dressed up like the deer Snapchat filter for Halloween. Obsessed? Nope, not me.
Source: @donnagarlough
Here are my picks in this great inspired pattern. It's the perfect not-too-wild animal print, is it not?
1. Honest Beauty Everything makeup palette, $35, Ulta. 2. French Axis deer arm chairs, $2,195 for two, Chairish. 3. Antilocarpa carpet, price on request, Stark. 4. Fawn wallpaper, $3/sq. ft., Wayfair. 5. 1838 spotted Axis deer print, $35, Etsy. 6. Velvet fawn spot pillows, $429 for two, Chairish. 7. Axis deer hide, $309, Etsy.
