Two Birds by Kate Gibb
Thanks to an email from Apartment Therapy’s Maxwell last November, I found an awesome new source for artwork. I’ve used Etsy and 20×200, but Print Society is a great aggregate of printed artwork, including selections from the aforementioned websites. Here are some of my favorites.
I Employ Magical Thinking by Kate Miss
Eivind by Michelle Arcila
Divining Light by Erika Somogyi
Fourth of July #2, Independence, Missouri by Mike Sinclair
Um, I guess I must be longing for summer.
Just a couple weeks ago I added this amazing Patrick Townsend Orbit Chandelier to my Wists as a potential consideration for the dining room chandelier. (I have 30 potential lighting fixtures bookmarked on Wists.) And whaddaya know, last Friday Karly from Design Crisis posted about her lust for the same fixture.
So basically, I either have completely unoriginal taste, or there’s just something in the air out there in design land.
I’ve started to realize that some people–my boyfriend, my mother–don’t understand how all-consuming decorating and this house are in my brain. It’s hard to explain. To tell you that I think about it all the time is an understatement. Trying to document all my plans and ideas on this blog is turning out to be a monumental task. Right now I have eight posts drafted and at least ten more floating around in my head. It starts to seem daunting. So I thought I’d share a less-formal glimpse of some of the bonkers shit going on in my head.
Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, my half-conscious brain was floating out pictures of Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs. How do I even know what a $730 chair is called and who designed it? I have no idea. I also didn’t know I was obsessed with them until last night. But I am. I love them. They’d go great with the big, beaten-up farmhouse table I fantasize about having for the dining room.
Did I ever tell you that my idea for our new Christmas color scheme (green and silver) came to me in a dream? My brain is FULL, people.
I have 334 bookmarks to items I want for my home. I love every single one of these things. Do you think this is about consumerism? I don’t. I think it’s about the fact that my home is the most important place in the world to me, an expression of who I am, and a huge influence on my mood. I also just love great design.
When my mom was here for the holidays, she accused me of not having a plan for decorating the house. (Believe me, in our family, saying that someone doesn’t have a plan is an accusation.) If only she could see inside my head–I know EXACTLY how I want my home to look and feel. Herewith, just a few of my hundreds of inspiration photos.
via Remodelista
via Remodelista
via Remodelista
via Remodelista
via Remodelista
via Decor8
Lots of new options for ottomans or coffee tables for the living room have been catching my eye lately. I like our IKEA Karlstad footstool because it’s a soft spot to put your feet up and a tray can hold your drink or candles.
However, I’m pretty over the pattern, even though it’s a nice pop of color in the room. I really like the new Grönvik multicolor cover (left) and the Ullevi gray cover.
I especially like coffee tables that are the height of the couch cushions or lower, which in our case means a maximum of 18 inches high.
Here’s Brocade Home’s gorgeous Velvet Ottoman in Apple ($1,599). Completely impractical for a house with two cats and a dog–I’d never be able to vacuum all the fur out of the tufting! The texture and color are totally dreamy, though.
Holly Becker, proprietess of Decor8, has my dream coffee table. Unfortunately, it’s from a German store and is no longer available.
I also love IKEA’s PS Bruse coffee table, which is a perfect 14 inches tall, but at nearly 60 inches long, I think it’s too long for our sofa.
What do you think? Any suggestions for great low coffee tables or ottomans?
I thought it wasn’t possible to love our house any more than I already did. I was wrong.
While my mom stayed with us for the holidays, I painted our entire common area. Chalkboard paint on the dining room wall next to the door to the carport, and Benjamin Moore Regal Matte 04 “Decorator’s White” in the kitchen, living room, and rest of dining room. If you have a family member who always serves you three home-cooked meals a day, I highly recommend having her around when you undertake home improvement projects. I don’t think I’ve eaten so well since I moved away from home.
The white makes the natural wood and brick look AMAZING. In case, like Nathan, you’ve already forgotten what the paint colors used to look like, check out these rooms in the House Tour section of the blog. In this picture you can also see the new fireplace tool set that Nathan’s Aunt Enie got us for Christmas.
The house looks modern, bright, and clean, and the wood positively glows, thanks to my mom’s application of Formby’s Lemon Oil to all of the trim, doors, and cabinets.
I love the way our dining room table stands out against the white wall.
Perhaps best of all, we finally got some storage for some of the crap that ends up on our landing strip. After priming, painting, curing, and conditioning the chalkboard wall, we hung two simple peg racks. I love the way they look against the gray chalkboard wall. At the far left is the custom handmade leather purse my mom had made for me in the Netherlands last month.
I also started stripping the brown paint from the tongue-and-groove paneling that borders the kitchen peninsula on the dining room and living room sides. We’re not sure what we’ll do with it when I’m done, but anything will be better than the monolith of poop brown!
So, do you like it? You can be honest. My mind is already made up: I LOVE IT!!
Thank God! Last week we tried bringing the tree back in the house and Barney has been fine. Lights are up outside, the tree is decorated, the other day I went to World Market and picked up some Dutch and German treats, and my mom will be here in a few days so we can bake cookies and roast ham together.
The lights along the roof line are big, clear G40 and C9 bulbs. I think the chimney needs a bold, brightly lit decoration, like a 40″ wreath or snowflake, but I haven’t been able to find anything in the right color.
I love how the exterior and interior lights mirror each other and are reflected in the clerestory windows.
I’m pretty happy with how the tree turned out, but I wish I had even more ornaments. It’s hard to find the right color green unless they’re in a multi-pack with other colors like red, purple, and blue.
I love the tree with the fire flickering nearby. Enjoy the rest of the eye candy below.
Maybe you’ve been wondering where we store all our crap, considering the fact that we have neither a basement nor a garage. The answer is this space we euphemistically call the “office.” This room is between the master bedroom and bathroom, and its windows face the patio and the back yard. The window in the picture above is actually quite large–considerably larger than the horizontal windows in the dining room and master bedroom–but it’s obscured by an old vinyl roller blind that won’t go any higher than you see here.
A dear friend asked where all the books are. Here’s the answer! We have two seven-foot-tall bookshelves, one of which you can see here. Also visible is the dog’s crate, the dog’s stereo (he listens to NPR when he’s home alone), a short bookcase full of DVDs, and piles of wrapped and unwrapped, framed and unframed artwork.
Here’s the other bookcase. I actually went through this pile of boxes last night, in search of my humidifier (it ended up being in the guest room closet, obviously a logical location). Of about eight still-unpacked boxes in this room, seven of them contain Nathan’s “mementos”–I’m using the word generously–and junk. The closet holds suitcases, a sleeping bag, vinyl LPs, my old college classwork that I need to throw away, and some office supplies. The wire shelving on the right holds my magazine collection and all other office supplies.
This shot reminds me that this room holds almost all the decorative and personal items that I should be using to give our house character. Check out the adorable knitted cupcake by my friend Dana, the garage sale candelabrum I plan to spray paint, and the box marked “candelabra, pictures” that holds all our framed photos and a white candelabrum.
If you’re reading in a feed reader, be sure to check out the new blog header! Which do you prefer? Here’s a screenshot of the old one to refresh your memory.
Behind the utility room, the hallway turns to the left and ends with the bathroom straight ahead and the office to the right.
The bathroom has pretty standard-issue vanity and medicine cabinet.
I love our stainless steel accessories from Target. They’re the Brushed Metal Lotion/Soap Pump, Brushed Metal Tumbler, and Glass Jar with Brushed Metal Top.
The back of the toilet has a wooden tray from Target that displays perfumes, cologne, and lotion. The towels, rug, and shower curtain are old style from Thomas O’Brien Vintage Modern for Target that are no longer available.
The linen closet is behind the bathroom door.
Like most of the doors in the house, the linen closet doors slide open to reveal the shelves.
Behind the shower curtain, the tub is lined with white ceramic tiles. The window in the shower has the same wooden frame as the windows in the rest of the house, so we have to keep it covered with a shower curtain liner. The fixtures are separating from the wall and I’m pretty sure the moisture behind the tiles is growing the mold that has spread to the grout lines in the bottom left. Eventually we’ll have to replace the entire enclosure with new cement backer board and some beautiful mosaic tile.
The floor is vinyl sheeting that’s in great condition, so it will have to wait to be replaced until we win the lottery and remodel the whole room.
The vanity is inoffensive enough, but really not my style. It also has way more storage than we need–those drawers are far from full.
Next time we (finally!) wrap up the house tour with the “office,” a.k.a. the junk room. Scary!
