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Dominion Building

britt — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:58:47 +0000

We finally bought one of the massive prints from the salvage yard that I have been thinking about since we went last June. It is taller than me, which I guess isn’t saying much. There were five of them available, and we had trouble deciding which one to get but this one won out when we realized that it is in Gastown and home to one of our favorite restaurants, Nuba. I took a “now” shot of the building for comparison. Apparently, these prints survived a fire that destroyed the bank they were hanging in.
This is my favorite part:

What is that person looking at? They should really be more careful.
I’m trying to decide whether to leave the frame, or paint it a bright color. Any thoughts?

Kitchen Tools as Lights

britt — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:48:12 +0000

These lights remind me of the trouble light-inspired pendants from Anthro that I posted about. But these little guys are made from vintage industrial whisks! Want. (Check out this tutorial, via Remodelista.) Ashley Ann came up with another light inspired by the trouble lights using a wire basket (thanks for the link, Sarah!).

A vintage bundt pan pendant light? Fantastic! I really like it, and not just for the novelty factor. Even if the pan had been created for the sole purpose of being a shade I would like it. The fact that it has been a carrier of cake does make it a little sweeter, though. Easily DIY-able, of course. Get yourself a lamp cord kit, thread it through the center and hang it low so you can see its fluted sides. (Images from Light Locations, via Decor8)
There is a very cheap lamp cord kit at Urban Outfitters, but it’s a swag-style light. You can find the hard-wired pendant kind at your hardware store (or here).

The Quilt That Wasn’t

britt — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:33:37 +0000

I thought it would be a long time before I attempted another quilt, but here I go. I’m just getting over a nasty cold, and this has been a nice project to do while I’m feeling under the weather. It makes me feel slightly productive while sitting on the couch, and keeps me warm at the same time! This is actually our old duvet cover (you can see it in this post). Our bed is in a small storage room, a room precisely the width of a full-sized-bed, and I got a little bored of our duvet (as it is pretty much the only thing in the room). When our new cover arrived in the mail, I was surprised to see that it matched this one quite well, so I am turning it into a quilt for our bed.

My thinking - and this might be wrong - is that doing it this way eliminates the need for adding binding at the end. I’m hand stitching the flowers, and then I am going to finish the rest with a sewing machine in a simple grid-pattern. Hopefully it will be an interesting contrast with the puckery flowers and smoother background. Because there will be no binding and thus no allowance for shifting fabric, I am trying to gently persuade the excess upper fabric into the flower (if that makes sense). It might be a disaster - stay tuned to find out! Just don’t hold your breath because this is going to take me a long, long time.

Linear Kitchens

britt — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:44:12 +0000

Raise your hand if you hate linear kitchens. They are also referred to as “modern single wall kitchens” or “efficient European-style kitchens” in pretty much every apartment ad on Craigslist. We have this style in our current apartment and I will admit, you can wash the dishes very efficiently… while sitting on your sofa. We have realized in our ongoing apartment search that linear kitchens are very popular here. (Popular with developers, that is.) Even heritage buildings have all been “updated” with these kitchens. Is it just Vancouver? Or has anyone else run into this problem?

Strange floorplans, right? However, I do think I could possibly make peace with this kitchen layout in our next apartment, in one of two ways.
One: If the kitchen is very modern and all-white, I could keep the counters bare all the time and let it sort of blend in with the wall.
Two: If there is room, add a island or table to add counter space and make it more of a designated kitchen area.
I have been digging up some inspiration and thought I should share it in case some of you are facing a similar problem. They make me think that maybe this style is not so bad… (Click the images for sources.)

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!