This find is borne of a road trip. A road trip to California's central coast, specifically. My family just returned from vacation last week.

We saw plenty of fabulous things: the beaches of Carmel, the sea lions in Big Sur, and the sunny hills of Carmel Valley, where we stayed. But it was the Monterey Bay Aquarium that I found most inspirational from a design standpoint. The jellyfish were amazing of course, as were the coral reefs and kelp forest. But my heart belongs to the lowly sardines. Delicious, yes. Sustainable too. And also unbelievably gorgeous:

I was so taken by their shimmering, glimmering quality. I knew it would be just beautiful indoors, if I could only capture that effect. So I went searching, and turned up this wallpaper. The pattern is called Geodes, and it's produced by Brooklyn based studio Flat Vernacular.

Geodes wallpaper in Chalcedony via kenyaworkspace.com

The pattern reminds me of fish scales, with its delicious sense of glow and movement.

Geodes pattern, part of the Layers project

I also really love it in this form, printed on top of another pattern. Part of Flat Vernacular's T he Layers Project, it looks less like fish here, and more like a glorious, golden field of flowers, beautifully abstracted.

Geodes would sing in any number of places. A dressing room, entryway, or powder room all come to mind. It would also look lovely as the backing for some shelves, a bookcase say, or a pantry or built-in bar. I think it's sophisticated and modern and organic all at once: a pleasing trifecta indeed.