Category Archives: Design Diversions

Another (little) project

My sewing machine and I are getting better acquainted day by day.  Soon, very soon, my sewing machine and I will be learning how to do zippers. 

Another new baby has come into our lives, this one is the son of one of JT’s band mates.  He is named Harrison after the best Beatle and I couldn’t resist a little Beatles’ inspiration.

“Here comes the sun. . . ” Little darling.  Harrison is pretty darling.  His nursery is all grey and yellow which is very sophisticated and fun.  Methinks the Eames rocker might look pretty good in little Harrison’s nursery as well.  I was digging the yellows together when I photographed it.

It started out the same way I did my monogram pillow (see instructions here) – normal acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium.  This time I used three different shades of yellow to give it a “beachy” feel.

The best part was how the sun really started streaming in when I was taking these photos.   I think George is somewhere up there smiling down on little Harrison . . .

May everyone have a little sunshine in their life.  Cheers!

Embarrassing admission ahead . . .

I bought the Jonathan Adler “Respect the Roll” toilet paper covers.  Not one but two.  I logged on to their ridiculous website, paid $2.99 per thing-a-ma-jig, waited 2-4 weeks for delivery and came home from work one day to this:

Things “respectfully” designed by Jonathan Adler.  I must be a media-marketing sucker.  I bought into the Target/Missoni craze.  Now I’m buying toilet paper covers?  And they didn’t even come with rolls of toilet paper in them, FYI.

Images from Cottonelle's marketing campaign

But I just love the pattern.  Green and blue.  And trefoils?  Yes please.

Since they have not yet touched toilet paper, I’m thinking they might live in the kitchen to hold dog treats for the spoiled-ass dogs.  Because even my dogs love designer things.

Is anyone else as big a sucker as I am?  Probably not, but now that I’m aware of my weakness for random cheap designer items made for the masses I can get help.  Have a great weekend everyone.  I’ll be at my therapist’s office.  (aka Target.)

Working for the Weekend

Most of you guys know, but both JT and I are full-time workers.  Really most people are full-time workers but there are a lot of bloggers out there who are not 8-to-5 office types so I thought I would say it.  We’re 8-to-5 office types.  And lately for both of us the office stuff has been a little hectic.  So after an 8-to-5 or 7-to-5 or 7-to-7, neither of us really want to come home and do a lot of little stuff around the house.  So we don’t 

But when the weekend rolls around, there’s so many free hours to work on all those little (and big) projects that go unnoticed during the week.  And small steps keep getting made.  I’m sorry if these little things are a little boring or tedious, but for us, it’s all we got right now.  At some point, I’d like to have some amazing *ta-da* before and after pictures.  But right now we’re kind of in the middle of everything and just taking baby steps to get on through.

So here’s this last weekend’s progress.

Wait, that doesn’t look like progress, that looks like laziness.  We actually took the dogs to Francis Park (a gem in South City) and ran them around so they were pretty bushed.  It wore us down too but when there’s nice weather and some sunshine, you gotta get out. (And projects gotta wait.  Them’s the breaks).  But for those of you with very discerning eyes, you may notice that I did paint the vent cover on the back wall that was driving me bananas.  Small thing, but it helps it blend away more now that it matches the wall color.  (It would be even more hidden but I took down the peperonia plant to water it and left it on the windowsill to get a little sun for the day.)

The other little thing I did was some spray paint fun.  We have had this nice large ice bucket for some time. (I think I got it as a college graduation present from my aunt and uncle?  Like I said, long time.)  In our first apartment, the baby blue made sense.  Now I wanted to make in our more sapphire/teal blue to give the kitchen a little color (and a little more storage.)

That before picture of the kitchen make me shudder and that was only a few weeks ago.  It feels so much different in there now!  I started out with the same spray paint I used on my “T” collection a little bit ago here.  But it ran out and a spray paint hunt ensued.  I visited Home Depot AND Lowe’s and neither had an exact match.  So I ended up having to start over with a Valspar can I got at Lowe’s.  The color had more blue and a little less green than the previous can, so I had to re-coat and re-coat.  And my little Rustoleum attachment spray handle didn’t work on the Valspar can either.  Boo.  I ended up Smurfing myself a little by getting some blue back-spray on my hand.  But it was worth it (although this next picture is a little underwhelming – the color is so much nicer in real life . . . .)

Now we have a nice out-of-the-way place for all our oils and vinegars that we buy in bulk.  JT and I cook a lot and from scratch too so our kitchen gets pretty heavy use.  I’m thinking on the upcoming IKEA trip (how many times can I mention this trip before it happens?  I think I’m up to 6.) I will get a little plant stand on wheels to put under the bucket and make it a little more useful so it can just roll out from under the buffet.    I also did my “I hate cords” trick and taped the microwave cord and it’s extension cord to the back of the buffet.  Cords be-gone!

We also had a visitor who bought one of our Craigslist items.  One down, one to go.  Now we’re left with this . . .

Just a little microwave cart waiting for a new home.  I moved Little Walter (the tree) over to this spot — he’s sick!!!  I had purchased and photographed him a few weeks before I got around to posting about him and now he’s not doing so good!  I’m hoping by moving him away from the exterior wall, he will stay a little warmer and spruce back up. I also watered him a little more but I have anxiety about over-watering and thus drowning my plants.  I set him up on the milk crate for now because a) I kind of like the height and am using it as a placeholder and b) I’m kind of nervous Shenanigan will lift his little stubby leg on Little Walter so I wanted to get him used to having a big plant near his level. 

 Any other ideas on what to do for poor Little Walter?  I was holding off on re-potting him until after the IKEA trip (#7!!) but I may have to bite the bullet and do it now. 

Have a great week everyone — it’s 8:08 now and I have some office craziness to attend to!

Christmas Recap

Some of you may have seen the movie Four Christmases.  Here at the T residence, we have Three Christmases. 

Christmas #1 was Christmas Eve at JT’s brother’s house.   Sophie and Shenanigan’s cousins “the corgis” live there. (aka Danny and Starck)

 Brother-in-law and sister-in-law just acquired a vintage Malm fireplace.  I’ve been coveting one for  awhile (old post on former blog here) and this one looks just perfect in its new home.  The “problem” (I say sarcastically) with our house is that we already have a fireplace so bringing in a second fireplace just doesn’t make sense.  Maybe our future house will have one of these bad boys ’cause they sure are gorgeous.

Brother-in-law and sister-in-law are also big fans of mid-century modern.  Here’s JT sitting in his present before he realized it was his present . . .

It was a nice, low-key Christmas Eve.

Christmas #2 began bright and early Christmas morning at my mom’s condo.

This picture (above) was taken after the devastation.   She has a nice two-story living space and hung some cool star fixtures from the loft above, scored on our one-day-Ikea-adventure a few months ago.

You can see my sister modeling her crochet chain link necklace along with her Cardinals World Series champion um, apron?  The stars are hanging up behind her.

My mom is always changing out her tablescape so this holiday she had styled a festive silver tabletop for our omelet brunch.

Sophie and Shenanigan traveled with us on Christmas morning, so I entertained them with a reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas to keep them on their best behavior.  They were NOT attentive listeners, but did stay still long enough for one photo.

Christmas #3 was at JT’s dad’s house.  They live at the top of a bluff overlooking the Meramec River and have some amazing views.  I really liked their outdoor decorations on some antique fences they picked up at a barn sale.

I loved the “Happy Holidays” garland.

My father-in-law also has a great high-ceilinged living space and the tree filled the space nicely.  The lights on the fireplace and outdoors on the fences twinkled which added to the ambiance. 

Once I get better with this camera thing, I need to go around and take some good photos of the family’s living spaces.  Each house has its own distinct style which I love.  So that’s the Christmas recap.  Did anyone else have three Christmases or even four?  Who’s making New Year’s Resolutions?  I am!

Reading up this weekend?

Still under wraps with the gift crafting/creating thing.  Since there’s nothing to look at here, I thought I would point out all the design beauty going on around the interwebs.  The new hot thing seems to be online design rags powered by a pdf-ish program called Issuu.  Here’s a round-up of the ones I have in my favorites bar.

Lonny
Somewhat filling the void left by Domino, this is always an inspiring place to browse.

Rue
Hello Brad. 

Kinfolk
So far they have only launched one issue, but I really like this one — celebrating the idea of getting together with your loved ones for quality time over food.  What’s not to like?

House of Fifty
This one is new(er) to me, seems cool.

Matchbook

High Gloss

Covet Garden

Est

Heart Home

Anthology

and a Christmas edition


Have a great weekend everyone!  I’m going to be crocheting my fingers off and maybe starting to deocrate for the holidays.  No promises.  Enjoy!

Design for all . . . including dogs

I’m finally starting to get more projects finished up around the house.  A while ago I shared some images of our first artwork (here) and after looking over those pictures the wall still felt a little empty.

So I did what any obsessesd-with-monograms person would do.  I put a “T” on it.

I made my trusty little newspaper template and hung up one of my many letter “Ts” on the wall.  It felt so much more balanced — happier if you will.  But see that piece of wall on the other side of the kitchen door.  Blank.  Boring. 

It is no longer blank, or boring.  It’s for the dogs!

Sophie and Shenanigan got their own (handmade) artwork.  As a finishing touch I updated their placemat with the rest of the left-over table runner. (A story about why I hacked it up here.)

I’m not sure if they appreciate and/or enjoy their new artwork.  I think they only appreciate and/or enjoy all the dog treats I gave them to stand still for these photos.  I pieced together some paint swatch chips (Sherwin Williams Bosporus, Gecko and a couple of grays, can’t remember their names . . . ) and used a picture frame I already had lying around. 

Shenanigan, true to his name, was being squirrely and kept checking Sophie’s bowl for more treats.  Little monkey.

I tried for the life of me to get my models to cooperate for some better pictures but luck was not with me.    But with sweet little faces like this . . . .

. . . . it’s hard not to give them all the treats in the bag some day.  So I gave them some artwork instead.  Next up is a designer dog bowl.  Maybe for Christmas, if they’re good puppies.

Finally – a reveal! Kind of . . . .

Well folks, I had other projects and things to tell you about from this past weekend but the office/music room just can’t wait. 

It’s (mostly) done!

We put together the FLOR area rug and cleared out all the furniture orphans (banished to the basement with my ever-growing alley finds collection).

We managed to fit in all of JT’s amps, guitars and miscellaneous equipment.  Thanks to my luck at IKEA, we had an extra faux sheepskin to create a bench on our Gap sweater drawer (right now holding, you guessed it, miscellaneous musical equipment.)

This will be a great room for listening to our vinyl collection.  Although once it was all organized (alphabetically) on the shelf, the vinyl collection didn’t look so big.

I was finally able to get all of our books out of storage and organized.  Feels good.  The little black clip lamps came from our IKEA escapade as well.  I spray painted the wire pulls black as well to give it a little extra pop.

We’ve been hanging out in here all weekend.  Sophie and Shenanigan stayed away for a while because all the furniture re-arranging seems to frighten them.  But after things had been settled in for a little bit, they came sniffing around to see what was going on.

That may be one of my favorite pictures ever.

Sophie and Shenanigan love listening to music.  We call them studio dogs because they like to hang out while JT plays.

That’s Shenanigan posing with JT’s newest guitar.  I’m still not sold on it as he traded the Gretsch for it.  I really liked the Gretsch . . .  maybe I would like the new one better if JT would hurry up and make me an Explorer? (Hint, hint.)

Sophie seems to like it though.  Traitor.

So, for now, things are in good working order in the office/music room.  I still need to figure out a window treatment situation as the bamboo shades we have on the windows now don’t really provide privacy at night.  We did go look at the office from the backyard and alley and thankfully you can’t see the hanging guitars from the street.  I also have two more alley orphans downstairs awaiting money for reupholstery, so I want to eventually change out the two chairs for something more comfortable.  I also am working on lighting and a few other little projects.  My house will never really be “finished” though, so we’re going to enjoy the music room as it is for now.  It’s come a long way baby! 

PS — The before pictures are so horrible I didn’t want to put them up here.  If for some reason you want to assail your eyeballs, you can see them here.

PPS — If anyone knows of a good photographer in the STL area willing to barter me some good music room photos for design help on their own house, put me in contact.  My photos need an upgrade!

Flor-ed Part Deux

Before I lucked upon the FLOR carpet tiles at the thrift store last weekend, I had already been considering FLOR for our bedroom.

The blue colored area is what I had been dreaming about for some comfort on the wood floors.  But here’s the problem.

These two monkeys.  (We think) Sophie used to pee on one spot on all the rugs we ever put in the living room.  So we’ve been rug-less for the last three years or so.   I think that the FLOR carpet tiles will be a good solution for us and here’s why:  If Sophie pees on a tile, I can pull it up and hose it off or replace it with another.

I had ordered some samples before JT and I went crazy and decided to paint the bedroom blue.  So at one point I was thinking of bringing the color in through the area rug.

Now that’s out the window so I want something textural and graphic but not too crazy for the floor so I ordered a few more samples:

Yeah, #1 was too crazy, but I had been considering it for the office before the big score.  Isn’t it gorgeous though?  And those chairs . . . and that table . . .

Option #2 was much more subdued but still had that graphic punch.  For the bedroom I was picturing a warm gray to match the new sheets.  The only picture on the website had the much louder purple.  You can see how the cut pile and the loop combine to create a really elegant texture.


My favorite and the current leader of the pack is #3.  It’s a pattern called Sophistikat and I love it.  The only picture from the web has it in a delicious teal color but I think we will get it in the more neutral grey/tan colorway shown in my swatch.

Guess what – tomorrow is IKEA day!! One step closer to having this bedroom thing wrapped up!  After I posted the floor plan above, I realized that the only thing I had in this room originally was the black chair.

It was a gift from my grandmother when she downsized from her house into her condo.  I should ask her more about its origin as there are no markings.  I’m thinking about having another adventure in sewing and trying my hand at a tailored slipcover.  Not like you see the chair a whole lot, usually it’s covered in clothes.  Just keeping it real.

Have a great weekend everyone!  If you see someone hyperventilating in IKEA Schaumburg from over-exertion and general exhaustion due to awakening at 4am to drive there, it’s me!

Flor-ed

This weekend, between painting and moving furniture, I realized it had been a while since I had been to a thrift store.  The pull was growing stronger.  I couldn’t stay away any longer.

Off to the nearby St. Vincent de Paul thrift store for a quick fix.  The furniture seemed a little over priced.  I had my eyes peeled (gross saying I know) for a little mirror or something for the bedroom.  Instead I spotted this:

A whole table of Interface Flor carpet tiles, all boxed up.  Most of the patterns were not my cup of tea, but one caught my eye:

After I emailed my find over to my trusty Interface rep (the advantages of working in commercial interior design), he told me this was an old pattern called Jailhouse that used to go for $30 per square yard.  I had just bought a box of twenty 50cm tiles so about 6 square yards — what should have been $180 was $30.  We’re going to use this as an area rug in the music room/office. (The image below is an install shot from the Interface European website, it’s not available on the US site any longer. . . .)

There has been a lot of commentary on the passing of Steve Jobs.  I most certainly respect and honor Mr. Jobs’ contribution to technology — he definitely seemed to be a champion for form AND function — creating things that worked well and were well designed. 

However, another big CEO passed away this year — Ray Anderson of Interface Flor.  I think Mr. Anderson also “thought different” like Steve Jobs and pushed the boundaries of his industry.  Mr. Anderson wrote a book, “Confession of a Radical Industrialist” and understood that a eco-conscious company could also be a profitable company.  Interface Flor not only creates gorgeous carpet tile, it is a highly sustainable organization.  Plus and plus.

I was trolling around the Herman Miller website today for a work project and found an interesting article — “30 Successful Companies that Get It“.  Of course Herman Miller was in there, but so was Interface and Apple.  I hope more companies can “get it”.  Heck, I hope I can “get it” too! 

Start Me Up . . .

Once I started changing up the office/music room, I just couldn’t help myself.  So Thursday, after a discussion with JT, I popped out and bought a can of paint . . .
When I paint (lefty), I don’t know what to do with my free hand and I always end up with it on my hip like so  . . .

Here’s what’s gone down so far . . .
Elvis lives!  We really just have that taped back there to amuse a friend who spent the night on the air mattress one time.  Who can’t resist a little Elvis? (This girl :: points to self with thumbs::).

The “During” shot still needed another coat which I did yesterday.  My fabulous iPhone photography makes it hard to really see the color all the way, but I love it.  JT wants it for the bedroom as well so we’ll have a nice little sleeping cave.  It’s Bosporous by Sherwin Williams.  I’ll get some more (and hopefully better pictures) once the tape is down and the shelves are pushed back into place.  Because the office is such a dumping ground for all my furniture orphans, right now I am painting it one half at a time and shoving everything over to the other side. .  .

In other update news, my Missoni arrived!  Well really only part of it so I’m still skeptical as to whether the rest will ship.  But it works with the color scheme perfectly.
I think most of it will go to the bedroom but with me, it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings. 

Speaking of singing fat ladies and Mick Jagger and Elvis, I saw 4 bands in three days this weekend and my legs are aching from jumping up and down for three hours straight.  I’ll post more about that later (maybe tomorrow, dunno it’s BUSY at work).

Have a great week!