Look here (though I can’t read the full article Decorno links to as I’m not a subscriber to WWD).

I can’t say I’m surprised.  It’s been really dreadful recently and the articles have only been good for ‘Go Fug Your Room’ posts. I’ll miss the website though.

I do wish the editors of shelter magazines stateside (which are all closing rapidly) would take a look at their British counterparts, such as Living etc, Elle Deco and even Ideal Home. All fabulous, and none, as far as I know, in danger of closing.

Living etc. there’s a huge gap in the US market now.  Come and launch here!

 

UPDATE: Here’s the full text of the WWD article, again courtesy of Decorno.

Domino magazine will cease publication, it was announced today by Charles H. Townsend, President and CEO of Condé Nast. The final issue will be published in March 2009.

“This decision to cease publication of the magazine and its website is driven entirely by the economy,” Mr. Townsend said. “Although readership and advertising response was encouraging in the early years, we have concluded that this economic market will not support our business expectations.”

Domino was launched in April 2005. The magazine’s current ratebase is 800,000.
Condé Nast, a unit of Advance Publications, includes twenty-three consumer magazines, Condé Nast Digital, the Fairchild Fashion Group, Parade, the Condé Nast Media Group, and the Shared Services Centers.

It has been reported on the extremely fabulous Mrs O blog that Michael Smith, the Obamas’ decorator, ordered the bed below (though not the rest of the furniture) to be sent to the White House.  The bed is an 1820s tiger’s eye maple king size four poster from Leonards of New England.

Photo by Leonard’s of New England.

If so, it fits in very well with Michael Smith’s, dare I say it, somewhat boring style. Here are some examples of beds he’s done from the Domino website.

I know the White House is a historic house and he can’t go too funky and modern but I do hope the Obamas are getting something that doesn’t look like it belongs in a cluttered Cotswolds B&B.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we’re on the subject of White House bedrooms the below made me laugh.

This is Jackie Kennedy’s fabulous bedroom – elegant, sophisticated, timeless and quietly sexy.

And here is the bedroom she created for her husband Jack Kennedy – frilly, awkward (what’s with the bedside table in front of the door?), uncomfortable looking, it’s hardly a shag palace is it?  He must have been SO embarrassed bringing Marilyn Monroe back here for a session.

Or, Miles Redd – WTF? So, another super fashionable decorator with whom Americans seem to be incredibly enamoured is Miles Redd.  Domino describes him as the sultan of swank and his work is variously described as luxe, opulent, elegant, sumptuous, chic and glamorous, which all appear to be euphemisms for cluttered, ugly, muddled and like a dowager duchess on speed.

Like our dear friend Kelly Wearstler, he is another designer that I just do. not. get.  So, in the words of Rachel Maddow, I need you to 'talk me down'. Tell me just what it is that makes this guy so amazing and so worshipped.

Here are pics of his latest photoshoot in Domino.

{All photos by Paul Costello from the Domino website} 

I'm sorry, but this is ugly. The colour scheme of beige, grey, plum, pale blue, forest green and red is incoherent, dull and generally bleurgh and I don't like the over-emphasized symmetry; those lamps are pretty, but look all wrong here, and I'm really not keen on the arrangement of pictures of wall, which for some reason puts me in mind of space invaders.

 

{Photo by Paul Costello from Domino magazine}

I had to scan this picture in from the magazine as it wasn't on the Domino website, so you could see the far end of the room in all its ugly glory.  That picture is HIDEOUS, surely?  And I just find all the beige, grey and forest green deeply depressing; and no, it's not jazzed up by the 'witty' animal skin cushions, which just look try-hard and out of place here.

Inoffensive, dull, more 'witty' animal print, like a bad hotel bedroom.  Move on, there's nothing to see here.

Well I suppose this is better. Not so cluttered with junk and I quite like the colours, though I'm not entirely sure about shiny red patent leather in a bedroom context (or in any context aside from little girls' party shoes). The lamp and bedside table arrangement is OK though.

I like this kitchen as a concept. I'm not sure I'd like it so much in the early morning while fumbling for a cup of coffee with a hangover, or indeed if I was actually going to attempt some cooking.  The coffee maker is aces though.

 

And here's the man himself.  The Husband walked past my computer as I was pulling these pictures together and said 'he looks like a twat'.  Well, quite.  (I believe the North American equivalent of twat is 'douchebag', which is one of my all time favourite Americanisms).