TUESDAY: Inspring Spaces - Joni Webb

Shortly after I started blogging about interiors, I found a blog that literally absorbed all of my time. For consecutive hours on end, I more than read the pages, I studied them, learning more from what I read there, than I have in any of my interior design course work to date.

I'm not quite sure who lead me to Cote de Texas, or exactly when, but I do remember the many personal emails I got from Joni, the author of Cote de Texas, after I left a number of comments on her older posts.

The picture that started my love affair with Joni's blog. From her post on living with books, here.

Sweet, sharp, and highly educated on the principles of good design, Joni delights hundreds of thousands monthly with her posts on interiors, exteriors, and the world of high-end interior design. Filled with insight and amazingly accurate information, Joni must spend weeks researching a post before she shares it with me, and all of you, and still the writing is fresh, fun. She entertains more than 60,000 readers monthly, and is still firmly planted, down to earth, and remains humble, never pompous.

I emailed Joni last week (very short notice, given the date of this post) and told her that I was going to be featuring her work on my blog during this Inspiring Spaces Post. I wanted to share something with my readers that her readers, nor the rest of the Internet hadn't already pulled up and salivated over. Joni, sweet thing she is, sent over pictures almost immediately of the new styling in her living room antique armoire.

Here's what it looked like before she moved some things around to give her the new look. Filled with porcelain, it was the perfect display space for her collection. Now,

it's the perfect display space for a different collection: these vellum wrapped books, shells and corals.

Here we have a view that includes the gorgeous chandelier in the space. I'm sure Joni gets a lot of "WOW" comments when someone first walks through the door. Now, I remember Joni's collection displayed a little differently, don't you?

Equally as beautiful, but very different, I wonder what Joni has done with this space. Yet, another reason to keep all eyes on her blog! No doubt a huge talent, and certainly an asset beyond compare to the design and design blog world, Joni is one to watch, read, and listen to, thanks to her radio gig with Megan and Linda at the Skirted Roundtable.

Now, stroll through the rest of my favorites from Joni's extensive and beautiful portfolio, and after you're finished head over to her blog to take a peak at her newest post!

Another bit of before and after for you. Before (top) as it was photographed for Joni's "Texas: French Style" feature in Better Homes & Gardens and the After (bottom) as it looks today. I'm guessing that Joni added the chandelier recently, how about you?