Downtown Chic (+ giveaway)




I hope by now you've heard of the design-savvy duo and proud parents of seven children Roger and Cortney Novogratz of Sixx Design. (I've mentioned them before here and here if you are unfamiliar.) Yesterday I got their much anticipated book, "Downtown Chic" (released last month) and was further inspired and impressed to see in glossy full color images what they are known for ... creating unique, high-style, family-friendly homes on a budget with ease. Not only is their book full of eye-candy, but it is accompanied by an added personal flare of their helpful renovation and design tips as well as uplifiting quotes. It truly is one of the best interior design books I've seen in a really long time... one to add to the book shelves for sure. Get your copy here. If you haven't perused their website... do check it out!



I also was surprised and thrilled to see them mention Black Eiffel along with some of my other favorite blogs as websites they frequent. Thank you so much... I'm very honored. I also can't wait for their upcoming Bravo show, their glass house and boutique hotel projects all in the works!



Another exciting thing... one lucky reader will win a copy!

To enter - keeping in line with the quotes shared throughout their book, please share one of your favorite inspirational quote(s).

You know the drill :
One entry per person
No anonymous please
Giveaway ends Sunday June 7th at midnight.

118 comments:

Sarah S said...

I love their style! One of my favorite quotes:" Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love."-Rumi.Congrats on your inclusion in their book!

vonblum said...

love your blog and do hope to win this great book ....quote:
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” - scott adams I think of that everytime I want to create something:)

nolabean said...

Once again I found something to get me excited about our upcoming renovation (a beautiful farmhouse style home in bayou st. john, new orleans-120 years old!). “The key to change... is to let go of fear.”

My husband says that I should change the quote to “The key to change... is to let go of our budget!"

Regards, K

Lauren From Texas said...

congrats! everyone is talking about this book - I'd love to have a copy. :)

My quote is: "It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it." -W. Somerset Maugham

Viewtiful_Justin said...

One of my favorite inspirational quotes is, "Dance like no one is watching and love like you've never been hurt."

Ann Forstie said...

My current favorite quotes are from these Motivate prints:

Get your sh*t together
Do something about it
Get on with it already
Quit your belly-aching

Just the sort of kick in the pants I usually need.

Love the blog -- would love the book!

Megan said...

I LOVE this book and keeping my fingers crossed to win a copy!! Just one of my favorite quotes would be ...
"Be who you are and say what you feel because the people who mind don't matter and the people who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss

I ♥ You said...

Congratulations on the mention! How fab!

I have a paperweight on my desk that reads:

May you live everyday of your life.

- Jonathan Swift

Cayenne said...

I found this quote when I was looking for an epigraph appropriate for my dissertation:

Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.
-Georgia O’Keefe

gina bina said...

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
- Mahatma Gandhi

CMN said...

Gorgeous, gorgeous book. Congrats on the shout-out! A little bit cool and a little bit frightening, eh? :-)

"For if anyone makes a loving home with all his heart, he can never miss heaven."
- President David O. McKay, April 1935

Anonymous said...

Congrats on being in the book! Hooray. I love the ideas on that page too--observing a functional kitchen. Brilliant. Also am super inpsired that they are doing this with 7 kiddos.

And sorry for a cheesy quote but I believe this one:
“Notice what no one else notices and you’ll know what no one else knows.” City of Ember (2008)

blair said...

Lovely, lovely.

Cordelia said...

How exciting it must have been to read your mention!

"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat." F. Scott Fitzgerald

Emily said...

Ooo this looks like a fabulous book! One of my very favorite quotes that I pull out time and again is "If there is nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire." It's from a song by Stars.

Whits said...

That is pretty special that you got a mention.

I dont know if this is very inspirational, but it makes me feel better about myself, so I suppose it is.

"I never fall apart because I never quite fall together" -- Andy Warhol

millieshi said...

This book seems so exciting!
"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm" - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

moxie said...

everything comes and goes marked by lovers and styles and clothes.

-joni mitchell

Brooke said...

It looks like such a lovely book! Amazing style... amazing inspiration.

"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken." -Oscar Wilde

Something I struggled with when I was younger and now as I get older, I find so satisfying.

Thanks for your blog and the giveaway!

Becky said...

Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. - Oscar Wilde

Becky Grimnes

KatieBabie said...

A new favorite: "You know you are in love when you don't want to go to sleep because your reality is better than your dreams." Dr. Suess

Love your blog and would love the book.... I have a second favorite too, "Life isn't measured by the amount of breathes you take, but by the moments that take your breath away."

{becca alder} said...

Love your blog, love the book!

a quote that i heard when i was little that has always stuck with me and keeps me in check when i am quick to judge:

I will not judge until i see clearly. And once I see clearly, I will not judge.

JTA said...

Way to go Rach!

"What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?"

Kristin - The Goat said...

My favorite quote - one that I say frequently is "I Love You" I don't know who first said it, but it's a good one.

Congrats on the mention in the book!!

Lindsey Michelle said...

Congrats on making it in the book!
One of my favorite quotes:

"A ship is safe in the harbor but that is not what they are built for."

Thanks for the chance!

Yellowgoat said...

Congrat on the book link. They have some awesome interior designs.

I have a qoute written in my chalkboard right now: "You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction."

I find it very helpful whenever I want to procrastinate, I take a look, and knowing that so many things need to get done, and procrastination will just make things worse.

Jana said...

Congrats!

"love all, trust a few. do wrong to none." Shakespeare

Kate said...

My favorite quote is
"There is no sincerer love than the love of food" -George Bernard Shaw

kt said...

"If we live our lives the right way, then every single thing we do becomes a work of art."
- Claire Fisher in Six Feet Under

Blogful said...

I have been eager to get a copy. Finger's crossed!

Anonymous said...

I would love to win it! Just sayin' in case that increases my chances. :)

So many delicious quotes, but I especially love "To love anything is to become vulnerable" - c.s.lewis

Julie C. said...

"I always count the stars".
-Pre-K student

I view your blog daily...thank you for the inspiration!

Carrie said...

Oh man! I tried to buy this book a couple of months ago when I first heard about it. It wasn't out yet (obviously) though.

One of my fav quotes is more a poem but here it is:

"Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make our earth an Eden,
Like the heaven above." -Julia A Fletcher Carney

Anonymous said...

"we tell ourselves stories in order to live". joan didion
love your site, love the book!
jessica

jes [a mountain bride] said...

live the life you dream about.


jes p.
http://simplyfreckles.blogspot.com

Alie said...

"Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves." -Albert Einstein

I love it! AND I LOVE THE BOOK!

carrie said...

this is my favorite quote (at least of the moment)

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.

- James Oppenheim

good luck to everyone :)

Unknown said...

My favorite quotes all seem to be Albert Camus, and my favorite-favorite is:
"A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession."

Stephanie said...

Oh my, I could use some renovation + design tips! Love Sixx Design...

p.s. congrats on the mention! that is sooooo cool.

Rebecca (Dog-Eared) said...

a fortune cookie from my (at the time) long-distance boyfriend: "time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once"

cute, right? congratulations on being featured, by the way :)

Unknown said...

Oh, I *love* their work. I would be super psyched to win this book.

I don't know if the following quote was intended to be inspirational, but I find it to be so:
"No matter what night preceded it, she had never known a morning when she did not feel the rise of a quiet excitement that became a tightening energy in her body and a hunger for action in her mind–-because this was the beginning of a day and it was a day of her life."
It's from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which is definitely not the kind of thing I usually espouse! I like, though, the sentiment that one's life is one's own and that each day derives potential simply from being part of that individual life.

Ashlee said...

Ooh, what a great giveaway!!! I like this one: "What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." -- Oscar Wilde

Elizabeth said...

Your blog is spectacular. Love it all!
My grandfather told me a few years ago, "Go forward with optimism." And let me tell you, it helps.

Jenny Quld said...

I've been hearing about this book for ages and would love a copy!

The best thing though, is the dedication....I read it on Coco + Kelley's site and have now found your lovely site.

I'll be back.

Kristi said...

Would love, love to get inspiration from their book.
"In all living, have much fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured." Gordon B. Hinckley

The Dominos said...

Congrats on the mention, I would love to spend hours looking through this book!

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
Pablo Picasso
(my mantra when picking out wall art)

wideopenspaces said...

“If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty."


-Rainer Maria Rilke

Erin Sipes said...

When I'm feeling like giving up and just going along with whatever, I think of this Gandhi quote, "We must become the change we want to see in the world."

It can be put simpler, "Lead by example," but I don't know who said that first.

BirdieMann said...

This is one I've been thinking about a lot lately...

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."
—Elizabeth Stone

Nali P. said...

awesome book. hope to win!

this quote has always resonated with me.

"be the change you want to see in the world" -mahatma gandhi

Heather J said...

"Failure’s hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you’re successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever."
-Po Bronson
Thanks for the giveaway!

Diana Hulme said...

“The best thing to hold on to in life is each other.” -Audrey Hepburn.

Richae said...

I constantly watch your blog – it's so great!

My latest favorite quote....

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." – Dorothea Lange

angela hardison said...

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." - Plato

I always try to remember that, though it's hard sometimes. I'd love the book!

Kate said...

This is just the inspiration I need!

I love the following quote-

"Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us."

Emily said...

One of my new favorites comes from a poem called 'The Summer Day' by Mary Oliver.

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Such strong and inspiring words.
Congratulations on being mentioned in the book - The Novogratz family is really incredible.

Joanna Lee said...

I would love to add this to my collection!

My quote:

"I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details."

Albert Einstein

Viva Cindy said...

I love this quote by Mark Twain- I have it posted on my blog and it reminds me to take chances.
I would love the book, thanks!

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream."

Unknown said...

"Live the life you have imagined." - Henry David Thoreau

Cara said...

never, never, never give up.
-Winston Churchill

That's always been a favorite of mine! This books looks awesome, if one can judge by the cover!

JJB said...

lovely book.. i'd love to flip through the pages.

my favorite quote and personal mantra: "are you happy?" -ray bradbury

Sarah said...

Great giveaway, and congrats on the shout-out in their book!

My favorite quote: "Nothing is hopeless; we must hope for everything." By Madeline L'Engle from her book "A Wrinkle in Time"

Anonymous said...

Cute!!! my quote is from nike "just do it". I like it becuase it gives you the momentum to do anything.

caitlin.d said...

"don't ask. don't say. everything lies in silence."

found in a fortune cookie at the most perfect moment.

Brandie said...

"Some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity..." -Gildna Radnor-

Thanks for this opportunity. I'm sure we're all longing for a chance to own this book. Sixx Design does such amazing work!

L. said...

"I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou

Congrats on your shout out in the book. Would love to own it!

Roshni said...

Your blog and their book bursts with so much inspiration! One of my favorite quotes is..."A year from now, you may wish you had started today."

Krissy (Shimmer Like Gold) said...

Everyone keeps talking about this book, and I'm anxiously waiting for my local book store to get a copy. Would love to win one. :D

One of my favourite quotations is from the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (gorgeous book - I highly recommend it!)

""When blessed silence returns,I can listen to the butterflies that flutter inside my head. To hear them, one must be calm and pay close attention, for their wing beats are barely audible. Loud breathing is enough to drown them out. This is astonishing: my hearing does not improve, yet I hear them better and better. I must have butterfly hearing." Jean-Dominique Bauby

Sarah Bradley said...

Oh... If I don't win this then I'm going to buy it! My favorite quote:
"There are people who have money and people who are rich."- Coco Chanel.

mdcano said...

oooh! i love SixxD!!!! hope to win this book!!!

Bethany said...

Congrats on the mention! One of my favorite quotes is, "Live what you love." So simple, so perfect.

Liz Stanley said...

oh man, i have to get my paws on this book. and congrats on the mention!

Alicia M said...

What an awesome giveaway! My quote is a bit longer, but I try to live by it every day:

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than explore the power they have to change it.
Impossible is not a fact - it is an opinion.
Impossible is not a declaration - it's a dare.
Impossible is potential.
Impossible is temporary.
Impossible is nothing.
-adidas commercial

aubrey said...

"your playing small does not serve the world. there's nothing enlightening about shrinking so that others feel secure around you." nelson mandela

aubrey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sue said...

I love Mark Twain and have several of his I love, but here's a favorite... "When you cannot get a compliment any other way pay yourself one."

Thanks for sharing~

Genevieve said...

I've been hearing a lot of buzz about this book, I think it'd be a great tool for my current overhaul of our place.
This quote reminds me that being a great friend/host can bring about a very pleasant change, by simply focusing on the things that really matter: "If more of us valued food & cheer & song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." J.R.R. Tolkien

Ms. P and C said...

I have so many favorites, but this seems to match my mood for today:

"You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm." -Colette

TwinkleBee said...

I just bought a house. It's empty. I'm scared to death to decorate it. I NEED this!

Emma Christensen said...

Oh, looks cool! Here's one of my favorite quotes:

"I may walk slowly, but I never walk backwards" - Abraham Lincoln

j. said...

I'm not sure who said this but here's a quote I like and have written down - "Anything unattempted remains impossible."

Mouse said...

Come on, luck! Love this style.

Kristen said...

"Smile. It increases your face value."

Dolly Parton
Steele Magnolias

Joslyn said...

so cool about the mention lady! congrats.
happy weekend.

kalanicut said...

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves -- JM Barrie

Love design, would love this book!

Sarah said...

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained!" - my friend's dad :)

Kathleen said...

If everything is under control,
you are going too slow.
- Mario Andretti
Congratulations on the Black*Eiffel mention in their book!
Cheers,
Kathleen
13things.typepad.com

michelle said...

"Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Ferris Bueller

Kelly said...

"When you wake up, WAKE UP!" -Julie Andrews singing "I have confidence". (I find it's easiest to do on a sunny morning.)

I love the inspiration this couple at Sixx Design gives. Really amazing.

You Are My Fave said...

Oh, I've been wanting to get my hands on a copy. Lucky #90.

selina said...

I love quotes! Can't wait to see what pops up in the comments. Here is one of my favorites:

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -Mahatma Gandhi

sunny said...

"Done is better than perfect."

AMEN to that as I'm a perfectionist. Must remember that picking up clutter from my closet floor and putting items away is better done than wishing it were perfect.

The book looks lovely and I'd love to own a copy!

sunny
sunnysblog @ gmail . com

jo said...

i first learned about this family in domino, and i love their design philosophy and their can-do attitude.

my favorite quote is from a song, "let's get up early now, dive clear into the day, let's get out of the car with open arms, not wait to be embraced." -from when mac was swimming by the innocence mission

elliedoan said...

Thanks for offering this! I'm so interested.

I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. --Harry Truman

austin said...

They are absolutely inspiring! Just like my favorite quote:

"Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon" - anon.

And it is no surprise to me that you were mentioned in their book!

The Baker's Goods said...

My mom (Rebecca Knudsen) always says"You make your own happiness" It's quite a liberating thought.

OH it would make me so HAPPY to win this book!

Trixie Jones said...

My favourite quote is "if you stand for nothing you'll fall for anything". Always helps me keep on track with my goals.

Ann said...

Looks like a lovely book!

My favorite quote:

"What I expect from my male friends is that they are polite and clean. What I expect from my female friends is unconditional love, the ability to finish my sentences for me when I am sobbing, a complete and total willingness to pour their hearts out to me, and the ability to tell me why the meat thermometer isn't supposed to touch the bone."
-Anna Quindlen

Unknown said...

I've been absolutely dying to pick up a copy of this book to see for myself!!

"It has done me well to follow my gut and intuition rather than be guided by tradition"
-Alanis Morisette

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.--Friedrich Nietzsche

cerebral e said...

"Never, ever, ever, give up." Winston Churchill, famous depressive.

Really love the look of this book and their website

Citygirl said...

"Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid." -Goethe

I've been living on this quote for the past five years. I'm really shy and it's the first thing that's gotten me to force myself out of my shell on a consistent basis.

Fairlightday said...

Oh, this sounds amazing! Would love to have a copy. We are planning to start building our dream home in the next few months and this would be great inspiration. One of my favorite quotes right now is:
“I do it for the joy it brings, cause I’m a joyful girl. ‘Cause the world owes us nothing, we owe each other the world.” -Ani Difranco

Fairlight

Chloe Scheffe said...

"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think." -Christopher Robin

P.S. The book is great, and congrats on the little spotlight!

Natural Salvage said...

beautiful book! I would like to share this quote:

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." unknown

LobotoME said...

luv this quote: “if you woke up breathing, congratulations! you have another chance.” -a. boydston

this girl said...

"you can't be afraid to step on toes if you want to go dancing" - lewis freedman

love this quote and would love the book!

xoxo

pamela said...

A friend just posted this on her blog and i love it - it's about the past...

"I don't think I could go back. The past closes up behind one somehow. One would rather have a new kind of misery. The old kind seems like death or unconsciousness. You can't force yourself back into that mold again. No, one can go back"
-Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark

Sandra L said...

this book looks great!..one of my favorites "nobody can go back and start a new beggining but anyone can start today and make a new ending"

Mara Dawn said...

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner"
-Johnny Castle, Dirty Dancing

KJ@letsgoflyakite said...

Here's mine - Everything Will Be Okay in the End. If It's Not Okay, It's Not the End.

Thanks for the giveaway, Kareena W.

mdcano said...

hope it's me!

Tania said...

ooh, I would love!

this is the tagline of my personal blog--"If you can walk you can dance. If you can talk you can sing."
Zimbabwe proverb

Anonymous said...

Oh! This book has been on my wishlist since I read of it. And my quote is:

'I see that I must give what I most need.' from Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels

Kristi said...

I am in love with this book already and haven't even viewed a page yet. My favorite quote right now is "Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year." -Emerson

Congratulations on the BE shoutout- you deserve it!

Tiffani said...

"The better part of one's life consists in his friendships." - Abraham Lincoln

Had never heard of that couple/family, but after reading your post, am curious to know more!

{Erica} said...

One of my favorite shows. How cool that you and other blogs that I love and adore are ones they check out as well...AWESOME!

A favorite quote of mine at the moment is:

"When you love someone you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror at its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity- in freedom."

- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

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