It is hard to stay focused on the task at hand when my work involves perusing design blogs, online furniture stores, and watching design related television shows. Last week we wrote about Pinterest, which is a new social shopping site and now I find myself splitting my procrastination time between Facebook and Pinterest. I can't deny how much fun it is to see Desire to Inspire's roundup of Pets on Furniture or read about the latest celebrity selling them home in the Hollywood Hills. Below the jump are my favorite design related websites.
- Desire to Inspire: Besides the beautiful home tours, who doesn't love their roundup of pets on furniture. My friend has become quite consumed with submitting pets to their site.
- The Real Estalker: If you love following Hollywood gossip, you will love Real Estalker's almost daily update on which celebrities are buying or selling their homes.
- Pinterest: Enter at your own risk, the social shopping site is very addicting. Each member creates boards to share interior spaces, photography, art and other inspirations with the rest of the Pinterest community.
- HGTV Curb Appeal: The Block: I love that I can watch the full episodes of most shows online without even turning on the television. I will admit I watch Curb Appeal just to stare at John Gidding.
- Rue Magazine: Yes, we are at a point in time when almost everything is now digital. Rue is one of my favorite online design magazines because it keeps the integrity of a print magazine, yet offers the magazine available online.
- The Foundary: A few weeks back I rounded up 10 private sale sites and The Foundary became my favorite. I find myself logging on daily to view new sales and see which sales are ending. With all private sale sites, part of the fun of shopping on the site is trying to beat the clock and purchase goods before they are sold out or the sale ends. If you love the thrill of finding a deal, you will love shopping private sale sites.
- AphroChic: We recently featured Jeanine Hays, the designer behind Aphrochic's blog and product line, in our 10 Women Designers to Watch in 2011 feature. Her journey from lawyer to blogger to product designer has been such a personal inspiration to me. My favorite posts on her blog are her Style Talk interviews, which feature interviews from HGTV hosts and most recently an interview with Maxwell. Of course, if you haven't yet taken a peak at her pillows inspired by the energy of Brooklyn, you must venture over to the AphroChic store.
- Etsy: When composing a list of guilty pleasure websites, I couldn't leave Etsy off the list. It is really interesting to see all the handmade goods and gather inspiration for DIY projects.
What are your favorite guilty pleasure design websites?
Images: AphroChic, Desire to Inspire, Rue, Pinterest
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Flatwa...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
CountryLaundry.com The photos are amazing, easy to navigate and if you love cozy blankets and quilts this site is hard to resist!
There are so many sites/blogs I love to visit during the day! Here's a list of some I like to visit:
HouseTweaking.com
Isabella & Max Rooms
Chiclittlehouse.blogspot.com
blulabelbungalow.com
roomremixblog.blogspot.com
Enjoy!
Very similar to Rue is Lonny magazine: www.lonnymag.com
You can "page through" the online magazine, or review their website.
http://whatkatieate.blogspot.com/ - food and table-styling inspiration
http://www.the-brick-house.com/ - i live my thrifting-life vicariously through her
http://www.dailyicon.net/
http://www.archdaily.com/
oh the BEST place is Catalog Living! Guilty Pleasure #1 for me!
I love Desire to Inspire's sense of style. But I utterly loathe the site's silly pets on furniture feature.
Ha! I agree with Torgny about pets on furniture.
yea, but at least it's a Greyhound on that chair.
People usually use the term "guilty pleasure" to describe something lowbrow or embarrassing to like (i.e. a literature scholar who loves Twilight). But these links are all to sites you find legitimately good, right? Or am I missing something?
I recently checked out Covet Garden, and I thought it was cool. http://covetgarden.com/
My absolute favorite is www.aliceindesignland.com Well......nest to AT of course :-)
ricestein - I see your point, however I'm doing this at work, and I don't work in the design field, very guilty pleasure :-)
Elle Decor (probably my favorite)
Marie Claire Maison
Living Ect
Skona Hem
Canadian House and Home
Lonny and Rue
In the interest of space, I won't start on my favorite blogs :)
Gotcha, HawaiiNei.
Covet Garden is the best! Such a unique design for a website, I have never seen anything like it.
lots of great blogs and site suggestions here. i applaud the plethora of design indulgences found on the internet! i get some of the deserving recommendations, but don't fully understand others. For example, i sincerely can not wrap my head around the success of _desire to inspire_ as a "guilty pleasure". I don't see it as a big-league site especially since it has a "fast food" approach to design blogging: a rehashing website essentially copying & pasteing a collage of designer images - kim and jo take the credit for a blog full of reposted photos. It lacks the substance, content, workmanship and creativity found with so many other design bloggers who invest lots of time posting much more intelligent "meaty" articles full of information, insight, research, imagination and of course, the inspirational photos we all so covet (design sponge is a fitting example). mostly, i - alike many others - dont get the pets on furniture segment... seems like a lazy monday blog filler, especially for a site with two contributors! explain again how a hairless toy chihuahua perched on an eames chair invokes a desire to inspire?
i agree westcoastlove. some blogs, like dti, are overrated