Jul 15, 2009
in Home and Garden
alicatstrut was kind enough to compliment my apartment and ask to see more of it—and I happen to be rather fond of it myself—so I thought, "What the heck..."
So, I've posted a picture of one side of my main living area and this is the other. As with a What I'm Wearing post, here's the breakdown of where everything is from:
Couch: IKEA Kramfors (sadly, they don't make this slipcover anymore)
Side table (L): West Elm Side Step Table
Side table (R): Vintage from a consignment shop
Lamps and shades: Target
Plastic skull: Archie McPhee (the one they sell now is different)
Pewter lion thingie: Vintage from Erica Weiner
Framed thingie: An Amadeus laserdic (Oh, yeah! Laserdiscs!)
Acrylic chair: Philippe Starck Louis Ghost chair
Museum banner: BetterWall
Coffee table thingie: Patricia Uroquiola T-Table in amber
TV cupboard thing (which you can barely see): IKEA Benno
Console table (also, which you can barely see): IKEA Malm occasional table
Horseshoe above the front door: Picked mine up at a Ren Faire, but it's very similar to this one
Wire chair tucked under the console table: Vintage from a NYC street mart ($6 for a pair!)
I wish ever so much that I had hardwood floors. I know the little table isn't the greatest there and I'd like to ground the area a little more, but I won't put a rug on top of carpet and I don't want anything too big. I'm considering adding another table (they come in three heights and are often stacked), but we shall see.
So, I've posted a picture of one side of my main living area and this is the other. As with a What I'm Wearing post, here's the breakdown of where everything is from:
Couch: IKEA Kramfors (sadly, they don't make this slipcover anymore)
Side table (L): West Elm Side Step Table
Side table (R): Vintage from a consignment shop
Lamps and shades: Target
Plastic skull: Archie McPhee (the one they sell now is different)
Pewter lion thingie: Vintage from Erica Weiner
Framed thingie: An Amadeus laserdic (Oh, yeah! Laserdiscs!)
Acrylic chair: Philippe Starck Louis Ghost chair
Museum banner: BetterWall
Coffee table thingie: Patricia Uroquiola T-Table in amber
TV cupboard thing (which you can barely see): IKEA Benno
Console table (also, which you can barely see): IKEA Malm occasional table
Horseshoe above the front door: Picked mine up at a Ren Faire, but it's very similar to this one
Wire chair tucked under the console table: Vintage from a NYC street mart ($6 for a pair!)
I wish ever so much that I had hardwood floors. I know the little table isn't the greatest there and I'd like to ground the area a little more, but I won't put a rug on top of carpet and I don't want anything too big. I'm considering adding another table (they come in three heights and are often stacked), but we shall see.
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May 21, 2009
in Home and Garden
Inspired by the post in the Dwell Kit about Sarah's crafty dresser makeover, I thought I'd share my recent bit of craftiness. Now, I'm admittedly not the craftiest girl around, but I'm pretty stoked on how this turned out.
I had this plain white bust on top of the bookshelves in my little reading nook (aka, the dining room area I don't use as a dining room) and wanted to do something to make it stand out more. I considered painting a canvas and propping it up behind it but I wasn't so sold on that. Then, after I'd posted some pictures of my place somewhere online, someone suggested painting it. After making sure it was OK with my mom who'd given me the bust (it's nothing fancy or expensive, but just wanted to be sure), I decided to paint away.
I picked up some fluorescent green and glossy black spray paints and went to town. My poor little balcony ended up getting green paint dust everywhere despite my best efforts to cover surfaces (I added way more coverage than you see in the pic above), but it cleaned up fairly easily.
So, the results are pretty good. I did a good layer of green, re-did that the next day, and then taped off the base and painted that black. Because I'm not so great at crafty type things, I have some spots that still need touching up (I need to add more green around where the black and green meet) and I over-sprayed/sprayed too close to the bust on her face so she has a bit of a green textured beard, but it's not particularly noticeable from the ground, so I may or may not sand it and re-do it. I do think I'm going to add a glossy top coat to the green, though. The black is already glossy but the green only came in one version.
So, yeah! I think the paint job was a success over all. In place now it does what I wanted it to. It's bold and draws your eye upwards (I have nice 9.5' ceilings) and I think it goes well with my slightly wacky (orange naugahyde and stumps...and pink bunny I bought for Easter but can't seem to make myself move!) decor. :)
I had this plain white bust on top of the bookshelves in my little reading nook (aka, the dining room area I don't use as a dining room) and wanted to do something to make it stand out more. I considered painting a canvas and propping it up behind it but I wasn't so sold on that. Then, after I'd posted some pictures of my place somewhere online, someone suggested painting it. After making sure it was OK with my mom who'd given me the bust (it's nothing fancy or expensive, but just wanted to be sure), I decided to paint away.
I picked up some fluorescent green and glossy black spray paints and went to town. My poor little balcony ended up getting green paint dust everywhere despite my best efforts to cover surfaces (I added way more coverage than you see in the pic above), but it cleaned up fairly easily.
So, the results are pretty good. I did a good layer of green, re-did that the next day, and then taped off the base and painted that black. Because I'm not so great at crafty type things, I have some spots that still need touching up (I need to add more green around where the black and green meet) and I over-sprayed/sprayed too close to the bust on her face so she has a bit of a green textured beard, but it's not particularly noticeable from the ground, so I may or may not sand it and re-do it. I do think I'm going to add a glossy top coat to the green, though. The black is already glossy but the green only came in one version.
So, yeah! I think the paint job was a success over all. In place now it does what I wanted it to. It's bold and draws your eye upwards (I have nice 9.5' ceilings) and I think it goes well with my slightly wacky (orange naugahyde and stumps...and pink bunny I bought for Easter but can't seem to make myself move!) decor. :)
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Sep 23, 2008
in Home and Garden
I'm well chuffed with this print. I moved into my apartment in March '07 and have been looking at a blank wall over my TV since. When I saw this print from Richard Roberts at the Keep Calm Gallery a month or so ago, I knew I'd found something to finally go there. I picked it up from the framers today and I've been sitting in my living room admiring it ever since. It's a limited edition dealie and is signed and all that good stuff. Nifty, man.
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Jun 16, 2008
in Home and Garden
I remember when Blik first came on the scene. Back then there were basically a few different dot designs, some squares, and some circles. Even those were awesome, though. Especially for me, living in a white-walled apartment. Six years later, Blik offers all kinds of awesome designs. They now produce various designs from Threadless and they just launched their line of super-cool Nintendo decals. Seriously, you can turn your house's walls into a giant Donkey Kong or Mario Bros. screen. Very cool.
Amazingly, despite wanting to order some Blik for the past six years, I've never quite gotten around to it....until now. I picked up a black chandelier design at a local boutique recently and decided to class up my loo. I mean, what says "classy bathroom" like a faux chandelier? Exactly. Seriously, though, bathrooms can be tough from a decor standpoint. I mean, it's just a bathroom, but, unless you have kids, chances are you don't want to get too silly and fill it with little fishies and stuff. Still, it's a bathroom and not exactly the most serious room in the house. My apartment is pretty nice, but I like to keep things from getting too serious (hence the stump). To that end, what could be better than a chandelier in the loo.
Blik can be tricky to put up (the more intricate the design, the harder it is), but after we put up our custom decal in the office, I could put up anything. I have textured walls in the apartment, though, and that's not the best thing with Blik, but it's staying up pretty well, despite the moisture you're going to have in a bathroom with a shower. I like it so much I'm going to get another for the wall opposite. Hurray Blik!
Amazingly, despite wanting to order some Blik for the past six years, I've never quite gotten around to it....until now. I picked up a black chandelier design at a local boutique recently and decided to class up my loo. I mean, what says "classy bathroom" like a faux chandelier? Exactly. Seriously, though, bathrooms can be tough from a decor standpoint. I mean, it's just a bathroom, but, unless you have kids, chances are you don't want to get too silly and fill it with little fishies and stuff. Still, it's a bathroom and not exactly the most serious room in the house. My apartment is pretty nice, but I like to keep things from getting too serious (hence the stump). To that end, what could be better than a chandelier in the loo.
Blik can be tricky to put up (the more intricate the design, the harder it is), but after we put up our custom decal in the office, I could put up anything. I have textured walls in the apartment, though, and that's not the best thing with Blik, but it's staying up pretty well, despite the moisture you're going to have in a bathroom with a shower. I like it so much I'm going to get another for the wall opposite. Hurray Blik!
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May 30, 2008
in Home and Garden
So, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is my favourite artist. I have the central image from his painting Friedrichstraße tattooed down the back of my calf. His paintings, especially his "street scenes" from the Great War era are amazing.
I also quite like BetterWall, the company that started up a "Recycle and Reuse Program" whereby they procure old museum banners (you know, the kind that are hung from streetlights in order to publicize museum exhibitions) and sell them, rather than having the vinyl banners end up in landfills. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the banners makes its way back to the museums. Everyone wins!
So, anyway, in late 2006, New York City's Neue Galerie (which is super-terrific! I was a member when I lived in NYC) acquired Kirchner's Berlin Street Scene for $38.1 million. The painting was the focus of the gallery's July-September '07 exhibit. And the Neue Galerie just happens to be one of the museums who have a deal with BetterWall. Awesome!
So, my banner was a little pricey at $635, but they only had seven of them, and I think, as The Dude might say, it really ties the room together.
I also quite like BetterWall, the company that started up a "Recycle and Reuse Program" whereby they procure old museum banners (you know, the kind that are hung from streetlights in order to publicize museum exhibitions) and sell them, rather than having the vinyl banners end up in landfills. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the banners makes its way back to the museums. Everyone wins!
So, anyway, in late 2006, New York City's Neue Galerie (which is super-terrific! I was a member when I lived in NYC) acquired Kirchner's Berlin Street Scene for $38.1 million. The painting was the focus of the gallery's July-September '07 exhibit. And the Neue Galerie just happens to be one of the museums who have a deal with BetterWall. Awesome!
So, my banner was a little pricey at $635, but they only had seven of them, and I think, as The Dude might say, it really ties the room together.
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May 23, 2008
in Home and Garden
So, I moved in to my apartment back in March of 2007. I moved back to the Bay Area from New York City and, save a couple of accent chairs, I left all my furniture in New York. Fast-forward to early-2008 and my apartment decoration is nearly completed. The only thing missing (well, minus getting some stuff framed and hung up) was a side table for next to the awesome orange naugahyde chair that I found at a consignment store. Seeing as I work for Kaboodle, the wise thing to me was to create a Help me Choose poll. As you can see, the choices were a fairly subdued stool, a disco silver stool, and a stump. (My taste may seem weird, but I swear my apartment looks great!) The stump lost. Big time. Ha, ha! Alas, despite the will of the masses, I went with the stump. And I love it.
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