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Whut Glamour: Aandersson Ceramics

Photographs Courtesy Aandersson Ceramics Dear Diary, I love my life and everything is perfect! I never see anything I want that I can’t afford and I have all the white ceramic objects a man could ever need. I’m so content! Love, Orlando …Moments later… Dear REAL Diary, I hate my life and I want everything all the time and can only afford one expired can of tuna and a half-drunk Diet Mountain Dew in a dented can. Oh Diary, how I long to buy all the white ceramic things in the world, so that I one day when there is a…

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Homepolishing Kelly Oxford’s House

Photographs by Tessa Neustadt with Additional Photography by Sean Gin, Courtesy Homepolish Dear Kelly Oxford’s Weird Looking Cats, Have you heard the news? Kelly’s new house is finally furnished and ready for scratching! After months of texting and mutual whining to each other about everything, Kelly and I wrapped up the project a few weeks ago and I’m super stoked with the results. My favorite thing at her house, which I am def getting made for my own place, is this triptych by Erika Gragg. Erika and I have been close friends since college and I’ve always been a huge fan of her…

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Six Shocking Facts About Fire Island That Will Change The Way You See Everything

Dear Tell-All Diary, Did you know there is a Gay Island super close to New York City where lots of gay guys go every summer to wiggle around like Mexican Jumping Beans? It’s called Fire Island and its about 2.5 hours away from Manhattan (via a train, another train, another train, yet one more train, one final train, a bus, and a ferry). I went there this past weekend and I learned a lot of facts about this magical island. If you like facts, keep reading! If you hate them, just look at the pictures! Okay, onto to the facts! 1….

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A Dining Room That’s Good Enough to Eat!

Photo by Sean Gin Courtesy Homepolish Dear Internet, Hi there! It’s me, Orlando, here. And I’m typing directly to you. Anyway, do you have a boring dining room? Do you wish the walls had more personality and stuff or whatever? Do you sometimes stare at the wall hoping a giant shape will show up out of nowhere if you stare hard enough? If you answered “yes” or “no” to any or none of these questions than you simply must read the heartwarming story of my dining room’s transformation from moldy to marvelous today on Emily Henderson’s Glamoursite and Homepolish Magazine. CLICK…

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Hello Giggles? I Will Remember You? Will You Remember Me?

Photographs by Tessa Neustadt Courtesy Homepolishc Dear Zooey Deschanel, Remember when you started a website called Hello Giggles? With your friends Sophia and Molly? And then Hello Gigggles moved to downtown LA? And the office was all beige and boring and made everyone want to claw their eyes out? And you wanted it to reflect the fun, happy vibe of the site instead of being sad and depressing? And then me and Homepolish came over to spice things up? Well now you can see what the office looks like now that it’s decorated? By reading posts on Hello Giggles and Homepolish? WHY…

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Whut Glamour: Robert Bingaman’s Night Pool Series

Photographs Courtesy Robert Bingaman’s Website   Dear Art Nerd, Every once in a while I see paintings and wish I’d made them and it infuriates me and makes me want to punch the computer whilst screaming “WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY!” These amazing pool paintings by Robert Bingaman are the perfect example. I love how simple yet totally intoxicating they are. I just want to jump inside these paintings and live in them forever, saying goodbye to the worries of the real world where you have to do boring things like eat breakfast and dress yourself every day. Enjoy Robert’s Night Pool series here and…

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From Nasty to Rhinoplasty: Upholstery Made Simple

Photograph by Sean Gin Courtesy Homepolish Dear Sir or Madam, Remember when you were applying to jobs and you used to write cover letters and you’d always have no idea how to address them? “Do I write ‘Dear Sir or Madam’? Do I write ‘Dear Hiring Manager’? Do I write ‘Hi There’?” It was so confusing, because whatever you wrote it sounded stupid and you felt like you’d never get the job and it seemed pointless and annoying because applying for jobs is the worst thing in the world. Well this post I wrote for Homepolish Magazine is nothing like…

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Homepolishing The Beach House Great Room

Photography by Tessa Neustadt Courtesy Homepolish Dear Diary, I spend a lot of time wondering if the stuff I do is weird. Like is my love for peanut butter unclean? Is is wrong to drink so much coffee every morning that I start vibrating? Does it make sense to listen to NPR all day just so I can hear liberal voices murmuring things about foreign policy even if I don’t listen to what they are saying and I just use it as a substitute for being around actual humans? When I’m not neurotically second guessing daily activities, I’m usually wishing that whatever room I’m…

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Interior Design Magazine’s Designers to Follow on Instagram

Dear Instangrandmas, I’ve had a lot of luck in with my Instagram account lately. I’ve been added to a few fun “Design Instagramers to Watch” lists, including Buzzfeed and DesignSponge. The latest of these lists I’ve magically been included on is Interior Design Magazine’s list of 15 Inspiring Designers to Follow on Instagram. They created their list in collaboration with a mobile mood board creation app called Morpholio, so each designer was tasked with creating a mood board representing their brand (see mine above). Below is the list of Interior Design Magazine’s list, along with each designer’s mood board: Kemble Interiors Miles…

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D.I.Why? Making a Headboard All Alone By Yourself in Silence

Photographs By Sean Gin Courtesy Homepolish Dear Slumberers, Do you have a bed with no headboard? Do you yearn to make one alone, by yourself, in silence, whilst weeping? If so check out my latest post for Homepolish Magazine! In it, you’ll learn how to make the lovely headboard featured above. Also, you’ll see hair-raising action shots like this one: Think you can handle it? Head over to Homepolish Magazine and check it out! Best, Orlando READ FULL POST HERE

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Deck Design Challenge Reveal: Before & After at My Parents’ House!

Dear The Cast of Melrose Place (the original one, not the Ashlee Simpson one, which I cannot stop watching now that it’s on Netflix because the fashonz are so 90z and amazing), As you may remember, I entered a design challenge recently and I’m thrilled to announce that I have won and that everyone else is a complete loser. Just kidding I don’t know if anyone is actually winning. But if one were to win, I’m hoping it would be me. Or one of the other bloggers who entered the challenge. Or better yet a random person on the street who…

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Fashiontimez: Eliran Nargassi’s Cool Clothes You Need to Covet

Dear Fashion Diary, I was sitting at home alone the other night, minding my own business and fantasizing about the future, when I came across this exciting fashion designer on Etsy. His name is Eliran Nargassi and his work excites me because it’s interesting and unique and for dudes. Have you ever noticed how fashion for guys is always boring and disappointing? Meanwhile, women’s fashion is filled with creativity and fun. Don’t get me wrong, I love a classic suit and tie combo. But it’s always refreshing to see something kind of cool/weird out there in guys fashion. Also, I kind of love…

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Homepolishing The Beach House Guest Rooms

Photographs by Tessa Neustadt courtesy Homepolish Dear Diary, The owner of the beach house is constantly hosting friends and thus wanted the two guest rooms there to be welcoming and comfortable. I had a great time designing them because there’s always less pressure with guest rooms than there is on bedrooms where people sleep every night, scrutinizing all of your design decisions each night before they go to sleep. I ended up loving the these two rooms, which have the same spare design of the rest of the home but feel a little more playful, more youthful. The goal with these…

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I Entered A Design Challenge And If I Don’t Win Everyone Will Die

Dear Reader, Do you have a big outdoor space that is just DYING for a makeover? Me neither. Because I am a poor, apartment-dwelling fool and the closest thing I have to an outdoor space is the window ledge I sometimes stand upon because I am so upset about not having an outdoor space. Thus, you can imagine my confused outrage when I was approached by Del Mar to enter into their outdoor space design challenge. Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re all “GAG ME WITH A SPEWN THIS IS A TOTALLY LAME SPONSORED POST” but it’s totally not. I…

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A New Bedroom Gets Newer With Some New Newness!

Dear Everyone! I made some changes to my bedroom and now they’re on the internet for you to put your googleyes on! Check out my new, improved, masc4masc bedroom on Emily’s blog! Hurry! There’s not very much time left BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE ENGULFS US ALL IN FLAMES. Love, Orlando SEE FULL STORY HERE! PS: BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! Check out the step-by-step instructions for how to get this look yourself, including where I bought everything, at Homepolish Magazine! Hurry! READ FULL STORY HERE! Okay bye.

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Homepolishing The Beach House: Media Room

Photos by Tessa Neustadt Courtesy Homepolish Dear Beach House, Media rooms are kind of the worst. Most designers hate decorating them because there’s all sorts of ugly electronic stuff and electronic stuff makes you think about math and math makes you think about sadness and death. Even worse, you have to think about something clients are always obsessed that you wish they didn’t care about. Comfort. If you ask an interior designer why he became an interior designer he’ll never be like “I always wanted to be an interior designer so I could find functional, slouchy sofa for my clients to wallow on.” If…

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Ten Things Not To Do As A New Yorker Visiting LA

Dear Diary, I awoke yesterday in terror, the same kind of terror that fills my hummingbird heart every Monday morning, as I realize I didn’t work enough over the weekend and I’m already behind and my whole life is going to be like this and then I am going to die and then I’ll be like “why did I waste all my waking life in terror?” And then I realize I should calm down so I try to calm down and that stresses me out. Did you know there’s something called “Meta Stress” where you get stressed out that you’re stressed out…

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Pegs: Not Just for Pirates Anymore!

Photo by Sean Gin Courtesy Homepolish Dear Reader, I spent the weekend with my family up north and got to spend a lot of time with my little 3-year-old niece, who is adorable and looks like a Kewpie doll. My parents moved close to my brother so they could hang out with the grandkids and, to my surprise and delight they set up their VCR (analog… so trendy) so that my niece could watch all my old Disney movies (which they kept along with every terrible college paper I wrote). This meant I got to watch ‘Pocahontas’ with my niece…

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D.I.Why? Painting a Graphic Door at Hello Giggles

Photo Courtesy Hello Giggles Dear Hello Giggles, As you may know, you’re getting a Homepolish makeover (headed up by ME!) in your sunny Downtown LA offices. Because your brand is so youthful and fun, I’m incorporating some fun DIY projects into your makeover. The first of these is this glamourdoor: You can read step-by-step instructions on how I did it over on the beautifully redesigned Homepolish site. Hurry up and do that now or I will die of sadness and it will be, like, all your fault. Love, Orlando WAIT THERE’S MORE READ THE FULL STORY HERE!

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Homepolishing The Beach House: Master Bedroom

Dear Reader, Whenever people ask me what my favorite project is I always say the most recent one, because it’s the freshest in my mind and still the most exciting to me. I’ve designed for a huge variety of clients and they all have their own styles, but my beach house project stands out for me because it was the first time I worked with a client who had such modern,  minimal taste. My client is a young guy, super cool, who started a tech empire in his twenties and loves art. Since I come from an art background, I…

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Fashion Felicitations: 80s Ralph Lauren

Photographs by Sean Gin Dear Fashion Diary, A while ago while snooping through my father’s closet, I found this amazing vintage Ralph Lauren shirt. I fell in love with its crazy 80s plaid pattern and it’s lovely purple undertones (side note: for the past few years everyone has been saying purple is a thing, and I keep waiting for it to be a thing, and it’s never a thing. WHAT IS HAPPENING???). Because this shirt is so crazy I decided to pair it with an awesome New Era hat I bought for Coachella last year (yes I am one of…

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Throwing a Glamourous Birthday Party with Kitchensurfing

Photographs by Sean Gin Dear Gorgeous Interior Designer Matthew Lanphier, You had a birthday recently and you didn’t know what to do about it. Birthdays are fun when you’re little because your mom throws you a huge party and invites all your friends and everyone gets candy. But once you hit your 30s birthdays start to get annoying. You can either get one of your friends to throw you a giant party at their glamour mansion, or you can force your friends to go out to fancy dinner somewhere and then everyone will secretly resent you while pretending they want…

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Homepolishing for Fashiontoast

Photographs by Tessa Neustadt, Courtesy Homepolish Dear Fashion Ladies, Do you read Fashiontoast? It’s the beautiful fashion diary of Rumi Neely. Do you know who Rumi Neely is? She’s the cute girl that’s so cute it will make you want to scream and tear out your eyeballs and cry blood until you die. Homepolish recently hooked me up with Rumi to redesign her living room and dining room to reflect her elegant, minimal style. Here’s me excusing her beauty while we looked at magazines together: DINING ROOM For the dining room, we started with a large-scale French country-inspired table from AllModern (who sponsored the…

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D.I.Why? Making an Ugly Coffee Table Into A Simple Work Of Art

Beautiful Photographs by Sean Gin. Ugly Photographs by Orlando Soria. Dear Old Coffee Table I Got from Emily Years Ago, You taught me a lot of things. Firstly, you taught me that it’s important to take care of things or they’ll turn into garbage. I remember the day years ago when Emily and I looked at each other and were like “What are we going to do with this piece of garbage?” This once-beautiful royal blue lacquer coffee table got scratched after we moved it around in our storage for two years. Which reminds me, I HATE LACQUER. Yes it…

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