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I’m In Trouble

britt — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:04:39 +0000

Seriously in love with these vintage-inspired trouble lights. Wouldn’t one of these lovelies look beautiful strung above a wooden table and tolix chairs? Of course, with such a setup one would be forced to eat aged chevre and torn bits of crusty bread with a glass of red wine for every meal… Sounds perfect to me.
Mechanic’s Beacon Lights 1, 2 & 3

Vibrant & Modern Area Rugs

britt — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:48:13 +0000

Above, left to right: Coqo Floral Rug in Yellow, Anthro; Vernal Cusp Rug, also Anthro; DwellStudio Home Plus Rug, Design Public

Above, left to right: Thomas Paul Lovebirds Rug, Design Public; Stilton Jellybaby Rug, Madeline Weinrib; Whorled Trapunto in Charcoal, Anthro

Above, left to right: Mantadia Rug in Black, Anthro; Chrysanthemum rug, Amy Butler for Chandra; Helix Rug, Jonathan Adler

Above, left to right: Green Zig Zag, Madeline Weinrib; Parrot Tulip, Amy Butler for Chandra; Periwinkle Chi Chi Kari, Madeline Weinrib
Can you tell I’ve been rug shopping? We want to get a nice, graphic rug for our living room. Our kitchen, dining room and living area are all together so we thought it would be nice to define the living room area a little. It’s really hard to find a good area rug - locally, anyway. Apparently in the world of rugs “contemporary” means art deco revival patterns in muddy green, burgundy and taupe. Those are earth tones? What horribly depressing earth are these people living on?
Anyway. I love all of these rugs but my absolute favorites are the Green Zig Zag and Stilton Jellybaby (both by Madeline Weinrib). I have seen the red and white Zig Zag rug in several places (like Design*Sponge and Making It Lovely) and it’s really charming, but I haven’t seen the green one as much (the only picture I found is here). Rugs are a bit of an investment so I want one that is versatile and that we’ll be happy with long term. These two seem like they would work equally well in the living room, dining room or bedroom.
Any suggestions?

Chair: Before & After

britt — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:57:14 +0000

Months and months ago, when we still lived in Nelson, we found this chair at a thrift store for four dollars. It has been in storage at my dear parents’ house since we moved to Vancouver. We brought it back with us on our last visit there a few weeks ago. The wood was very unevenly finished - the arms had been worn right down to the wood. So I sanded it down and finished it with varathane. Nothing fancy, but a little more even. I added a thin layer of padding and reupholstered it in a sky blue ultrasuede.

The fabric was on sale for $15 per meter and because it was so wide I only needed one meter. Everything else I already had, so the grand total for this project was $19. The seat is a little too deep for short people like me (perfect for Ryan, though) so I will have to make a little pillow. I was thinking something with a contrasting texture, like one made out of recycled leather, or burlap. Other than that, it is incredibly comfortable. And the color just makes me feel happy.

Salvage Yard

britt — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:20:10 +0000

This is pretty much my new favorite place. These are pictures taken this morning at a salvage yard in Burnaby. Ryan and I would some day like to build a house with materials bought exclusively at this salvage yard. We bought a 100-year-old barn door for ten dollars! In all the excitement (there was another couple eyeing up the door so we had to act fast!) I forgot to take a picture of the door. I’ll post more about that soon. But what about these old radiators (shown above and below)? There were dozens of them, and they were so pretty. I wonder if they would still work.

Below: There were also these giant old photos of buildings that are actually close to our apartment. They were maybe six or seven feet tall. We were thinking it would be really funny to put one of them above the bed in our tiny closet room (we have really high ceilings). Probably would have bought one but, alas, no room in our car.

Below: There were tons of this wrought iron metal things (fences?).

Below: It was old window heaven, as well. If only we had a need for old windows. Dry erase board for the office, maybe?

Below: Lastly, there were tons of these lockers for fifty dollars each. I was thinking it would be a good pantry, because we need some more kitchen storage.

In the end, we only bought the old door. But we’ll be be going back soon, with a truck!

Light-It-Yourself

britt — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:33:45 +0000

I was flipping through Readymade’s book How to Make (Almost) Everything and came across the project pictured above. I love that it uses recycled material, but looks really modern. The instructions can be found here but if you don’t have the book, I highly recommend buying it.

This is another lighting project from Readymade magazine, created by Jean Pelle.
These two are my favorite, but here are some other really unique DIY lighting projects:
Plastic bottle chandelier by Michelle Brand: Inhabitat
Bic ball point pen chandelier: Inhabitat
Wine Glass chandelier: Readymade
Light string globes: Curbly
CD jewel case chandelier: Ecofriend
Part of me just wants to hang a single edison lightbulb but our apartment isn’t architecturally interesting enough. It seems like bare bulbs only work with gorgeous hardwood floors, exposed brick and beams. Like this, actually:

Anyone else have ideas for recycled and/or DIY lighting?

Toile de Jouy

britt — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:39:05 +0000

Toile. I think it’s one of my favorite words. Twahhl. The fabric can be rather matronly, though. A few months ago, I saw a toile pillow in an article on the Canadian House & Home website featuring Canadian bloggers (article has since been removed). It was in a really great shot of Arren Williams’ home, and said pillow looked like as if it had been colored in with highlighters. Very tongue-in-cheek. You can see the photo here, on Arren’s blog (scroll down). I emailed him to find the picture, and he told me that he had used highlighters. Fantastic.

I had bought half a meter of toile from Chintz & Company. So I got some highlighters and set to work. Coloring is very soothing, by the way. I was worried about filling it in too much, but I can always add to it. Here it is on our sofa:

I’m working on another (different) pillow but I think it goes quite well with the print we have above the sofa. The print is by Jessica Ritter and it’s called “Beneath the Surface”. We got a great deal on the Gus Modern sofa. It was the floor model at Koolhaus. Our apartment is still feeling a little sparse but Ryan and I are making a coffee table (more on that later), and I’ve been looking for some sort of rug.

Thanks to Arren for the great idea!

A Tiny Room

britt — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:11:47 +0000

A few days ago, I saw this article on Sunset (via AT) about Lotta Jansdotter’s apartment. The space is 725 square feet, and she uses the space very wisely. One of the things that stood out to me was that she transformed an oversized closet into a bedroom. I want to do it! Our 700 square foot apartment has a very strange layout, with one large window at the front. The bedroom has a frosted glass partition so it gets lots of light still. Here’s how we have it set up now (please excuse the diagram):

The kitchen is all lined up along the wall, which puts the “office” pretty much right next to the sink. Awkward. Especially when we both work from home. So here’s what I want to do:

Our full-sized bed fits in the storage room. Just. It would literally be a bed room. Maybe with some wall shelves and hooks. I would move our dresser into the closet, which is actually pretty big and underused. One benefit of moving the bed back there is it would be pitch black. I sometimes have trouble with insomnia and it would help to have a completely dark (and quiet!) room.
And then we could have a real office! It would be glorious.
What do you all think? Should we try it?

Simply.

britt — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:24:10 +0000

Beautiful objects.
Edda carafes from Anthropologie
Mortar & Pestle from Kuhn Rikon, via NotCot

Tolix Chairs. Voilà!

britt — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:11:07 +0000

Maybe it’s because I just read Molly Wizenberg’s book in which she fondly recalls memories of Paris as a child, but I have been loving the A chair by Tolix lately. It’s like bringing a Parisian bistro home.
They’re sold at Design Within Reach here and, with for slightly cheaper at Pottery Barn here. I would love to find a few vintage ones - the more scuffed up, the better.
Below I have compiled some really gorgeous photos of these chairs. Aren’t they incredibly versatile?
Some of them are actually the AC chair, A56 or A97, all similar but a bit more rounded. And I’ve thrown in some of the tolix stools for good measure.
There’s a nice little write-up about the history of these galvanized beauties here.

Alvhem Mäkleri & Interiör, via Desire to Inspire

via Coco + Kelly

via Indenfor & Udenfor

by Per Magnus Persson

by Alvhem (Fredrik Karlsson), via HasMusen

Salt Tasting Room

Living Etc., via Style Files

via Butik Sköna Rum

Wayne Pate’s studio, Grain Edit

Design*Sponge (hiding on the far side of the table)

Zara Home, via Apartment Therapy

Design*Sponge

Photographer: Trine Thorsen

britt — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:54:27 +0000

Norwegian photographer Trine Thorsen’s portfolio is absolutely stunning. Each photo makes me think, well, I want to go to there.
The other day I bought a little record cabinet (for Ryan’s thinned out, but still huge, record collection) and the woman who was selling it had a fantastic vintage metal locker as well. We passed on it because we were driving our car and didn’t have room, but these pictures (here’s the tie-in) of reclaimed cabinets make me realize our mistake. We should’ve strapped it to the roof of our car. Or, you know, maybe rented a truck.
In any case, you need to click through her portfolio (but be prepared to spend some time oohing and aahing):
Trine Thorsen, via Graphic Exchange