It was as if a switch was hit. Overnight, without warning, I now need someone to stand across the room with the soup can so I can read the calorie and fat content. For four decades I have been silently health-arrogant about being cavity-free, having canine-quality hearing and being the go-to person for the finest print. On a Wednesday at noon my eyes went.

Ironically, just days later there is news coverage about how “aging eye” syndrome strikes like a youth-bandit suddenly striping one of the ability to read the myriad of side effects on a drug prescription. I resist that explanation. What really happened to me is that the magazines Metropolitan Home, Domino, House & Garden and Cottage Living folded.

My self-diagnosis…design blog induced farsightedness.

Design blogs are a wonderful source of armchair home inspiration. They are a tangled web of beautiful images, must-have products, of-the-moment color palettes, and ethereal rooms that seem to have been shot by the same frosty lens as Cybill Sheperd on Moonlighting…flawless. I have suffered the consequences to bring you some of the best:

Majors Who’ve Mastered It

Design*Sponge designspongeonline.com
Decor8 decor8blog.com
The Local We Love Design Evolution designevolutionblog.com
Out of this World Desire to Inspire desiretoinspire.net
Coco + Kelley cocokelley.blogspot.com

Just because HGTV is now back on air everywhere is no reason to avoid these laptop design resources and sources of inspiration. Failing eyesight…well, that’s another story.

Kelly DelRosso is co-owner of semplice, a home furnishings shop in Montclair, NJ and founder of ShopLocalMontclair.

Tags: Interior design, Semplice