Top 10 Lamp Shade posts of 2012

The Mayans were wrong and we get another year of decorating craziness to snark on! 2012 saw my return to the blogosphere after a months-long hiatus in which I was dealing with aging parent issues. Those remain, but my enthusiasm for grump-blogging interior design and its constellation of talented and sometimes goofball stars is stronger than ever. Let's wrap the year with a countdown of La Lamp Shade's most-viewed posts...

10. Helen Gurley Brown's apartment
Cosmopolitan founder HGB broke down gender barriers with a sledgehammer in the early 1960s. Some of her pronouncements seem quaint now - “A man likes to sleep with a brainy girl. She’s a challenge. If he makes good with her, he figures he must be good himself" - but they were revolutionary in their time. Her New York apartment was a tamer version of fellow magazine editor Diana Vreeland's Garden in Hell.

9. Miles Redd "The Big Book of Chic" - PRE-ORDERED!

A couple of emergency home repairs forced this off pre-order, and I still don't have it. For those of you who do, was it worthy of the pre-publishing excitement?

8. Floor plans of your fave TV show sets

Really? Okay. I thought it would just be semi-interesting blog filler.

7. FOUND - Jenna Lyons' new house
The 2008 Domino feature of the J.Crew Creative Director's Brooklyn brownstone went viral to the nth power in the design blogosphere. (One of my death bed flashbacks is sure to be that chalkboard-painted master bedroom.) So it's no wonder there was mucho interest in Lyons' new digs with girlfriend Courtney Crangi (whose brother's work was featured in the Target/Neiman's holiday implosion).

6. Bronson Pinchot for Restoration Hardware
What started out as a (clearly defined) spoof of a goofy reality TV show and a self-important furniture retailer took on a life of its own when Restoration Hardware's head of PR demanded I take down the post. It seems the imagined collaboration was easily believed and Resto was receiving legitimate press inquiries about the project. Never underestimate the power of a blog (a lesson Resto has yet to learn).

5. A first look at the Target + Neiman Marcus holiday collection
This collabo garnered a tremendous amount of buzz, but it sat stale on the shelves for weeks. It's first mark-down came early and there is still a boatload hanging around sales floors. Too pricey and too many names known only to fashion cognescenti.

4. Amanda Peet's Hollywood Hills house, Domino 2007 and Vogue 2012

She's incredibly charming. Her house is incredibly charming. This post's appeal is a no-brainer.

3. New photos of the Nate Berkus Collection for Target
The highly anticipated T-town collection didn't seem nearly as large as presented once the categories were broken down into sad little endcaps in their respective departments. A new home office collection abundant in chevron and ikat patterns was introduced in stores yesterday.

2. Restoration Hardware boss Gary Friedman resigns amid sex scandal
Friedman resigned his CEO post in August amidst rumors he'd had an affair with a much younger subordinate. What surprised Lamp Shade readers and its author was the dalliance was with a woman. The announcement, a house cleaning so to speak, came as Resto was preparing for its IPO. Friedman stayed on in an advisory capacity and was front row center for the Wall Street announcement in November. Shares in the company are holding strong at $33.73 after an initial offering of $24.

1. Natural swimming pools 

This post has twice the number of views (in the thousands) of its closest competitor. It's my top-searched post every single week. A lesson in SEO.

I'm wishing each and every one of you Dumplings a fabulous New Year filled with heaving bar carts, sparkling double-height metal casement windows, and magical kilims woven by swarthy Atlas mountain elves!