Living Beauty & Fashion:

Shop My May Edit From Mytheresa

Living The Essentials:

28 Essentials to Elevate Your Home Laundry Experience (Yes, It’s Possible!)

So fresh and so clean, clean!

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28 Essentials to Elevate Your Home Laundry Experience (Yes, It’s Possible!)

Found: 19 Affordable Artworks Under $500 to Elevate Your Space

Design:

Found: 19 Affordable Artworks Under $500 to Elevate Your Space

Rattan Is Having a Major Moment—Here’s How to Bring It Home

Design:

Rattan Is Having a Major Moment—Here’s How to Bring It Home

Room Swoon: Brooklyn Bedroom

Design Room Swoon:

Room Swoon: Brooklyn Bedroom

Recipes Desserts:

7 Delicious Desserts to Share With Someone You Love (Or Yourself!)

Comfort in the kitchen.

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7 Delicious Desserts to Share With Someone You Love (Or Yourself!)

Citrusy White Fish in Parchment with Confit Potatoes

Food EyeSwoon Unplugged:

Citrusy White Fish in Parchment with Confit Potatoes

10 Delicious Spring Recipes to Taste the New Season

Food:

10 Delicious Spring Recipes to Taste the New Season

Slow-Roasted Cod with Citrus and Fennel

Food EyeSwoon Unplugged:

Slow-Roasted Cod with Citrus and Fennel

Athena Calderone X The Wooden Palate Ritual Bath Tray – White Eucalyptus

Sagebrook Home for Target Rattan Round Accent Table

Z Gallerie Fresco 2

CB2 Victoria Black Vase

Necessary Objects

These items may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using this link.

Design The Essentials:

Shop My Coffee Station (and Discover the Secret Behind the Design)

I take my morning coffee ritual very seriously.

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Shop My Coffee Station (and Discover the Secret Behind the Design)

How to Make the Swooniest Pin Boards

EyeSwoon TV Design Therapy:

How to Make the Swooniest Pin Boards

The Ultimate Food Lover’s Gift Guide

Living The Essentials:

The Ultimate Food Lover’s Gift Guide

Simple Ideas, Thoughtfully Executed. Vogue Living

Living Entertaining:

Simple Ideas, Thoughtfully Executed. Vogue Living

the Books

Live Beautiful

From celebrated design expert Athena Calderone, a look into how interior designers and creatives decorate their spaces. Click here to order today & snoop our upcoming book tour events!

Peek Inside and Order Your Copy

Cook Beautiful

Where design meets food, where culinary tradition marries food styling, where home chefs become experts.

Peek Inside and Order Your Copy

@eyeswoon

Hello sunshine. Hello summer. Hello friend filled weekends!

Laundry day? Not really my thing. BUT, I can get on board with a well appointed and downright sexy laundry room — even in a small space. My laundry room is nestled within a hallway that leads to our guest room — with everything being visible I chose both functional and aesthetically pleasing elements to have on display. I also added two pocket doors on either side of the laundry / hardware portal to close off the space when in use.

On today’s eye-swoon.com @sacha.strebe has highlighted 28 laundry essentials to elevate your home laundry experience (yes, it’s possible!)

Photo: @selliottphoto

My Brooklyn bedroom was very much a work in progress. It changed quite a lot over time, or perhaps a more honest statement would be that I struggled to get the components “right” on my first or second… okay fine, maybe third try.

Anyway, the final result makes me happy and so, I’ve made the space shopable on today’s RoomSwoon on www.eye-swoon.com #athenacalderonedesign

Last light always gets me 🤍 #athenacalderonedesign

Pulling weeds and gathering fallen pine needles is all I have the capacity to do today. Busy work. Honest work. Mediative work. And that’s ok — emotional restoration. 🌿 #athenacalderonedesign

So many conflicting emotions mingle within me

A full heart
A broken heart
A pure heart
A worried heart
But mostly a heart full of prayer + gratitude

I try to live life in the present and gently guide my mind away from “what ifs” at every turn. But this past week I was confronted with life’s greatest “what if” — and one that could not be ignored. I do not know what our family would be battling if not for Tuco. He is our little miracle pup as he discovered and detected cancer within Victor, triggering a symptom that immediately sent him to the ER.

My love for my husband has no words. He is my absolute everything. Our families grounding force. Any and all prayers welcomed today. And Tuco — you are simply incredible. Truly God sent.

🤍 @vcalderone @tucocalderone

Jivan is the link that allowed me to connect deeper to my own mama as I became a mother myself. And their relationship and connection is the most precious thing.

In celebration of Mother’s Day I had a visit to the @Tiffanyandco flagship in NYC to not only experience the ethereal Lewis Miller floral installation but also to purchase a gift from Jivan to my mama. I decided on two interlocking links from their HardWare collection to represent their beautiful unbreakable bond. #TiffanyPartner

Yes, the navy and ochre tones in my family room are a complete departure from the rest of my home but this is a perfect reminder that taking a bold color risk, even in a singular space, can still work in an otherwise neutral environment.

Shop this space on RoomSwoon on today’s eye-swoon.com #athenacalderonedesign

PSA: I take my morning coffee ritual very seriously. There is a ceremony-like cadence and cherished monotony about my routine. I wake at 6:30am. I light palo santo, building on my ritualistic tendencies, as it sets an intention for the day ahead and awakens my spirit. Then, I pour myself a glass of water with half a lime and walk over to the coffee station where I grind my beans daily. There is something about both the noise of the burr machine grinding and the aroma of those fresh beans that immediately awakens my body and mind.

But something tells me you're not here to listen to me wax lyrical about my coffee brew (if you are, I go into more detail on the site!). So, let's get into the story behind the design of my coffee station. And for this, I'm going to get real honest with you because I know you all think I have it together at all times (the perfectly curated images I put forth on Instagram will foster that misconception), but truth be told, I am a bit of a disheveled, unorganized mess.

Yes, that's right! I never have a place for things—papers, bills, linen napkins, and kitchen accessories are continually getting stuffed into the abyss of junk drawers. Knowing this about myself, I purposely designed a coffee station that had a place for everything—and I mean everything. That said, knowing I would NEVER follow my own rules, I also designed the coffee pantry to have retractable doors to close shop on that mess at any given moment. So, there you have it. I'm perfectly imperfect! But aren't we all?

Head to Eye-Swoon.com to read all about how my morning ritual inspired my coffee station design—then shop the look! #athenacalderonedesign

Golden hour on the Camaleonda
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Honored to have this space featured in the Art & Design section of today’s @nytimes #athenacalderonedesign

Nothing comes close to the look and feel of handmade objects. There's an energy exchange between the material and the maker that yields an emotional response both visually (in the way it attracts the eye) and physically (in how it transforms a room).

Rattan wicker is certainly one of those crafts that have always inspired me. I'm especially drawn to vintage rattan furniture and décor for their ability to infuse soul into a space. Their natural woven texture always adds much-needed juxtaposition against the slicker, smoother surfaces in a room—and that tension is so crucial in design.

But the beauty of rattan, aside from its natural texture and color, is the price. You can usually source both vintage and new rattan furniture or rattan lampshades for a very reasonable price—as always, the thrill is in the hunt! Let your eye lead the way and find joy in tracking down pieces that excite you and personalize your home.

And since we love that process too, we sniffed out a few rattan pieces on today’s www.eye-swoon.com to get you started—happy shopping! Story by @sacha.strebe #athenacalderonedesign

Curious — who’s made my citrusy fish in parchment with potato-olive-shallot-chili-confit goodness? And if you have not — why? And can I answer any questions for you? Kinda life changing on the flavor front so please lemme know how I can be of help. Recipe on eye-swoon.com and a swipe up in stories! #eyeswooneats

Flutes on flutes. And always a branch

🤍 @kampstudios

Getting real quiet

There is only one way to tame the complex, tart flavor of rhubarb and that’s to infuse it with ginger and aromatic flecks of vanilla bean. This fave spring recipe from Cook Beautiful is ushering in galette season with its zingy, flaky, and positively delicious pastry — promised to become a new favorite.

This recipe and 6 others desserts are featured on today’s www.eye-swoon.com #eyeswooneats

Photo @johnny_miller_
Food Styling @rebeccajurkevich
ES story @sacha.strebe

How can a room change with you as you grow? Well, we have explored this exercise in my son, Jivan’s Amagansett bedroom so let me share my experience. Jivan is 18 now but when we purchased this house he was six. This home was the very first gut renovation/interior design project that I did on my own and I can remember being so proud of the choice for Jivan’s bedroom then. It was one of those design magic moments when a chance visit to the local (and coastal) hardware store yielded all the inspiration I could have ever hoped for.

While perusing the aisles I came upon spools and spools of brightly colored marine rope (I was in Sag Harbor after all) and at that moment a lightbulb struck—I would let Jivan choose five or six different colored and varied size ropes and together, we would apply them to the wall to act as a chair rail. Now, brilliant idea, YUP—the execution? Hmmm… not really my forte. Luckily my crafty and hyper-precise husband was up for the task. Truthfully, the three of us did it together. We used a glue gun and level, then painted the bottom half of the wall a vibrant jade green and it was perfect. It was the beginning of building memories in our new beach home. Swipe right to see the before photo!

Fast forward to 15 and, understandably, Jivan did not want a neon yellow, green, and blue bedroom, nor did he want a town bed any longer. So, as much as it broke my heart, we slapped some gray paint on the walls (and, yes over the rope too!) to create a monochromatic and far more age-appropriate bedroom. Moving onto 17, and the bedroom theme was refined once more to accommodate the streamlined Scandinavian modernism style Jivan is so akin to. But now he’s off to college…. Wahhhhh!!!

Head to Eye-Swoon.com where I dive into the granular details of Jivan’s bedroom transformation through each age and life stage!

Monday musings....
I love spontaneous bursts of color
Remember to smile
Art can transform a space

AND.... we’ve rounded up 19 affordable art pieces under $500 on today’s eye-swoon.com

Call me a hoarder or call me a collector but either way my affinity for patina’d ceramics is evident in every corner of my home.

I began collecting vintage vessels for both their function and decorative nature — they almost act as abstract art. I love that each piece is imbued with memory and emotion, triggering its place of origin and a snapshot of my personal design journey.

Head over to @cultured_mag to read about my collection of ceramics and what I have my eye on next! Thank you @sarahgharrelson #athenacalderonedesign

Mother Earth deserves our attention every day, at every turn. And the world needs more thought leaders to both innovate, raise awareness, and encourage change. I am truthfully blown away at the mindfulness surrounding @ruinart’s new Second Skin initiative and could not be more proud to partner with them for Earth Day. This chicer than chic case is eco-designed from start to finish, made of 100% paper and entirely recyclable, molded to the shape of the bottle. The second skin case not only protects the quality of the wine, it reduces the carbon footprint by 60%! Well done Ruinart — a beyond elegant approach to sustainability and conscious action! #RuinartSecondSkin

Champagne bucket @thewoodenpalate
Dress @jonathansimkhai

M O T H E R

The most astounding beauty — rendered me speechless. Mount Etna, Sicily 2016 #earthday #mountetna #italy

It’s a beautiful day to be filled with light and hope — as we breathe a collective sigh of relief #athenacalderonedesign

Objects. Texture. Blooms. And Tuco. Morning!

The Calacutta Monet marble led to the choice of soft green paint which led to the fluted plaster detailing, which finally led to the vintage ceramic lamp — a last minute discovery and icing on this verdant cake. All of which mimics the greenery just beyond the glass doors. I love tracing the chain reaction of design choices. You never know that alchemic piece of the puzzle that will send you on your way. #athenacalderonedesign

Plaster @kampstudios
Marble @abcstone
Paint Ash Grey @farrowandball
Runner @armadilloandco
Kitchen fronts @semihandmade
Hardware @optimum_brasses
Faucet @brizofaucet

This week I discovered that #LiveBeautiful has sold 60,000 copies in a single year — during a pandemic and with no promotion. Wow, just wow! I am filled with both humility and pride but most of all gratitude to each of you for purchasing the book. And of course unwavering appreciation to my impeccable team, I absolutely loved creating every facet of this book together — from the early ideation to the intimacy of being on set styling and capturing the homes to distilling the essence of each space through word — it was a dream to create, to write, and share with the world.

Thank you @abramsbooks @nicole_franzen @nicoletourtelot @therealhollydolce @mieketenhave @jorxy @jennasaraco @colinking @nr2154nyc @aire_nyc @dadagoldberg 🤍 #athenacalderonedesign

Me becoming a mama. My beautiful mama.

There is nothing truer or purer than the love of a parent. Through the highs and lows, all the ages and stages, the happiness and heartbreaks, a strong familial bond emerges that is deeply rooted in affection, loyalty, honor, and wonder. This spiritual tie has the power to connect you to one another, no matter where you are in the world—and it's truly magical.

This year, we wanted to honor the mother in our lives, whoever that is for you, with love and spoils in a bid to give back what they gave us, in some small way. So we curated the swooniest Mother's Day gift guide — on today’s eye-swoon.com

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” ―Mary Oliver

This morning I woke early and was filled with emotion. My only goal was to walk, with no place to go. To hear the birds, to see the blooms, to feel all the feels. To pay attention. 🤍 a #athenacalderonedesign

When that sliver of light comes streaming in... #athenacalderonedesign

Woke up this am to the sun shining, the birds chirping, and a plan to plant my annual herb garden. Is there anything more exciting than the onset of spring with all the vibrant veggies and crisp flavors ripe and ready to play in the kitchen? Asparagus, fava beans, arugula, mint, basil, and spring onions make for the simplest salad with a decadent blob of creamy burrata. Well, that’s my plan for the day — what’s yours?

I have rounded up my favorite spring recipes on today’s www.eye-swoon.com #eyeswooneats

Photo @johnny_miller_ for #CookBeautiful
@rebeccajurkevich @bartoshesky 🌱

Calling all botanists....

We all know my heart is tethered to a seasonal branch, however the clean up and changeover is the bane of @vcalderone’s existence. So my botany question is this — can any experts recommend a dramatic and sculptural bonsai-ish tree that can live on my kitchen island?
FYI — South facing & all glass