Author Archives: CT

Every (furniture) addict needs an enabler . . .

Living in South City as we do, amongst many two and four family buildings, it is often moving day for the apartment dwellers.  The end of the month will reveal some marvelous treasures left behind in the alleys as the apartment dwellers head on to greener pastures. 

Right now, the basement is so full with said alley treasures that I didn’t think bringing in any more would be fair to the chairs I already have. Last Saturday, with such gorgeous weather and JT tethered to his work computer on call, the dogs and I ventured out for a long walk.  On the way home I spotted some more alley orphans.  They looked sad in the alley, cast aside and hopeless.  They didn’t deserve to go to the orphanage yet.  Once Shenanigan, Sophie and I got home, I told JT of my trouble. 

Me: “I need your help.  I spotted some more alley finds.  I know I don’t have any more room in the house though so I probably shouldn’t bring them home, right?”

JT:  “We could go get them if you want.  Maybe you should start an eBay store for all your furniture.” 

That was not what I was expecting!  But away we went to rescue some alley orphans and bring them home.

This guy (above, with Shenanigan watching over) didn’t have any cushions, but probably so much the better.  It has great lines and a good solid frame and I am going to have some fun picking out its upholstery fabric!

This was a matched pair, which is nearly impossible for me to leave behind.  They will need a little more help but overall had a good shape and were solid wood.  I want to try out the Minwax Antique Finish Restorer that Mr. Modtomic has posted about a few times (once here). 

At some point I’ll have to delve into the basement and really document all the extraneous furniture I have adopted.  You may be suprised at how much I have been able to hoard away down there.  It’s both a blessing and a curse of being able to space plan — I am able to fit a lot into a very compact area!  It’s probably a good thing the Fairlane takes up the garage or that would be full as well.  As to the eBay thing, I’m still not so sure, but it’s definitely something to consider. 

Anyone else had a really good alley score?  That’s the best kind of recycling to me!

Another Weekend Update . . .

Monday is BACK.  How?  I don’t know.  Also, it’s October.  Crazy.  But we had gorgeous weather this weekend in St. Louis and I got a lot done.  Yay.

First up was finishing off some pesky little things from other projects . . . I’m not always the best about finishing one project before I jump into the next one . . . .
Like the front steps.  I painted everything except the one at the door (because I thought it would get scratched up during new door installation) and the side by the azaleas (because I thought I would get scratched up!)

The azaleas did try to eat me but I put a towel around all the scratchy branches so I could push them back long enough to get my brush in there and paint it.  The epoxy paint has proven to be very durable so far, I would definitely recommend it as an outdoor coating.

The office . . . . I’ve been painting ’til I’m blue in the face . . . .


It’s STILL NOT DONE!  But it’s getting closer.  One step at a time . . .

But a girl (okay adult-type lady) still needs time to relax and refresh.  So Sunday JT and I headed to the winery with his dad and step-mom for a belated birthday lunch.

The drive was scenic, the wine was very good and we had the best weather ever. 

There’s nothing like sitting outside getting comfortably inebriated with a group of friends and strangers alike.  All in all a great weekend.  Cheers to a great week ahead!

Sometimes I feel like the internet is taunting me . . .

. . . . like today, for instance.  Browsing through the interwebs, I clicked through a few blogs to end up at Rocket Century, a local STL  MCM resource (but really it’s online only/mostly).  Not only do I find out I had missed an open house/warehouse sale there, but I see this  on their site . . . .

My dream home for my ‘ZZ’ plant, also affectionately known as Zappa or George.  He’s still sitting there in his sad Home Depot pot on his sad wanna-be-Alvar-Aalto-but-really-from-Target stool.  Sigh.  And this is honest-to-goodness vintage.  $125 is still a lot to spend on this right now considering all the other projects I want to do . . . Sorry Zappa.

The Internet continued to knock me around when I spotted this on SF Girl By Bay’s site:

The image was originally posted here on a Spanish (?) design site.  Even in Spanish (not a language I know, except maybe those few words that everyone knows – burrito, chihuahua, etc.), this image says “Here’s the Saarinen table you’ve been searching for to make your bedroom complete and perfect forever and ever.”  Well maybe not that, but you know, what I was thinking when I posted about my search for a Tulip Table earlier in the month.

And to add insult to injury, I saw on The Brick House (another blog I follow religiously) that Morgan just found a Tulip (Coffee) table on Craigslist for $100!!!  I’m glad the thrifting gods smiled on someone, even if it’s not me. 

The knock-out punch came this morning when I got an email from Design Within Reach (of rich people) that the Knoll sale (Tulip table is Knoll) was ending.  Sigh again. 


I think I may need to unplug from the internet this weekend to keep from being battered any more.  Is there a support group for Internet Bullying of the Online Shopping variety?

In all reality, I have my health, I have a wonderful husband and supportive family and fun, great friends.  I have a job that I enjoy, I have a place to live and I have the dogs for entertainment and companionship.  I have this blog to vent my frustrations and share my design ideas.  I don’t need a tulip table or a bullet planter to complete any happiness of mine. 

However, I do believe in surrounding oneself with beautiful, artistic, inspirational things that will last for generations to come, so one day when I’m making the big bucks (call me in thirty years?), they will be mine!!

Art in Analog – Susan Springer Anderson

When I was in New York last year, I also got a change to catch up with my second cousin (first cousin once removed?  My mom is cousins with her dad) Susan Springer Anderson.  We hadn’t seen each other since a Springer family reunion at my childhood home in Wisconsin in 1990 (I think!).  I dug through all the family pictures looking for the one of us as twins (Due to being second cousins we looked very similar to each other as 10 year-old girls.  And I always had wanted a twin so I probably begged her relentlessly to wear a matching outfit and pretend with me.)  This was the only thing I found — taken by yours truly, this is an illustration of how horrible I am with a camera.
Yep, I took that picture on an angle, trying to be all artistic or something. 

Anyways, back to the story at hand.  JT and I met up with Susan at the Candle Cafe in NY.  (Turns out my “twin” is also a vegetarian like me!)  I found out she is up to some pretty awesome things.  Besides having the guts to move to the Big Apple and make it work, she is also an artist! 

Check out more of her work at her blog, Delicate Utility.  I love the 3D armatures with found plant materials (above).

Although I will admit this one kind of gives me the willies, I love seeing the process and work that goes into Susan’s pieces.

The dresses are my favorite . . . .

The one on the left (above) is made of coffee filters and the other is the New York Times.  Project Runway anyone?

Here’s my “Project Runway” moment:

Me and my co-workers crafted the front outfit for the International Interior Designers Association “Unravel” fashion show.  It’s made out of all Haworth furniture parts and pieces.  Enough with amateur hour — back to Susan.

She’s on Etsy as well.  Oh how I love Etsy.  Oh the hours I spend looking at the wonderous assortment of vintage scarves, vintage shoes and delightful artwork.  (What can I say, I have very specific tastes.)

I pulled a few things to show from Susan’s current Etsy shop.  Obviously I have teal/turquoise on the brain . . . this Gloria journal is great.  I always have a little journal with me to jot down things when I’m out and to keep all my measurements and such in. 

Here’s what I’m sporting right now — a free paper one from the latest NeoTini (design trade show in STL).  Even though I use my iPhone for a lot of things, I still need to physically write things down as well.  I can’t seem to let go of that. (Maybe because it’s so satifying when you cross something off the list?)


Although I think the Gloria would be a much more stylish option, don’t you?

I think this next creation might go on my wish/covet list.  I think the artwork that hangs in one’s home needs to have special meaning for its owner.  I think the fact that my “twin” has created something so unique would make it special to me.  Plus the colors and textures are sophisticated and read as both muted and fresh at the same time. 
JT if you’re reading this, we need some more anniversary artwork!  I think that sounds like a great tradition to keep going. 

Thanks to Susan for a) humoring me and dressing up like my twin back in the day and allowing me to blab all about it on the interwebs and b) for letting me use all these images.  I wish her continued success but know that with her talent it will come regardless of any wishes.  Cheers!

Pillow Party (a.k.a. Adventures in Sewing)

A while ago I stumbled upon this great outdoor fabric that had all the colors I was thinking about for our house revamp.
Over the last month I have slowly but surely been making these into accent pillows.

While I was having my pillow party, I thought I would make a monogram pillow too, in honor of the sheets that got away.  (I also had some extra fabric that I had purchased to make the backs, more on that later.  Waste not, want not.)

First I started out by making a template in my trusty Photoshop.  I don’t know what I would do without Photoshop . . . .
Since the pillow was 12″ x 18″, the whole template didn’t fit on one page — I printed out each half with some overlap and cut and taped them together.

Then came the fun/tedious part – fabric painting. I taped my template down to a piece of cardboard and centered my pillow front over it.  Since I had printed my template in black and the fabric was light-colored, I was able to see through it to trace/paint the outline.  If you were using a darker fabric, I have used a large piece of acrylic or plexi with a bare lamp bulb underneath as an improvised light table before.

I just mixed up my front door paint  (Sherwin Williams Briny) half and half with some Liquitex fabric medium.  I was a little nervous the fabric medium would dilute the color and make it kind of meh, but the teal stayed nice and vibrant.  The Liquitex directions did say to let it dry for a few days so I waited four just to be sure and then ironed the heck out of it for good measure (this was extra – the fabric medium didn’t need to be heat set but I wanted a nice flat pillow front before I started sewing.)  Full disclosure: I still haven’t washed it yet.  I’ll update if there are any disasterous results.

Then I just got to work with my trusty Kenmore sewing machine.  And then I ran out of thread . . .  And then it took me two weeks before I could buy more thread . . .  And then I photographed these pillows three different times and didn’t like how any of the pictures turned out . . . . So needless to say this one has been in the hopper for a while.  If I were to do it over again, I would shrink down the height of the monogram a little to accommodate for the curve as it wraps around the pillow.  Live and learn.

I haven’t mastered the art of the zipper yet, and as you will see below, anything on the sofa gets a lot of love from the dogs.  So right now I do envelope back style pillows so I can take them off to launder them.
I had only purchased a yard of the outdoor fabric because I wasn’t 100% sure on the colors while I was at the store.  So I didn’t have enough to do the whole back with the pretty fabric so I settled for just a stripe.  The monogram pillow has a matching teal zig-zag stitch on its back closure for just a little extra detail.

Sophie and Shenanigan have gotten the most use out of the pillows so far . . .
While we were at Winslow’s Home last Friday, I picked up Nellie’s Dryer Balls.  For a quick dog hair removal, I just throw the whole pillow in the dryer with the dryer balls and it gets the dog hair cleaned off and the pillows plumped back up for King Shenanigan.  Those dogs are SPOILED!  But we love them so . . .

In related pillow news, I was over at my mom’s house and saw that the ruffle pillow I slaved over is displayed with honor.  That makes me happy.
(Are we seeing where I learned to love the color blue?  And Diet Coke?  Not the Diet Coke?  Well blue at least . . .)

Oh, the weekend . . .

I’ll never understand how the weekends come and go so quickly.  Due to last weekend being a celebration of my 31st birthday and impending adulthood, JT and my family took me out for a good time.  I don’t know if I’ve fully regained my hearing after going to see 4 bands in the span of 3 days.    It was a great whirlwind though!

Friday we had “80s Night” at the Pageant, seeing Tom Tom Club and Psychadelic Furs.  Both groups were high energy and still have it 30 years later. 

But first JT had taken me to dinner at Winslow’s Home on Delmar. 
Not only was the food yummy and you could order wine from their wine room, it’s also a “New American General Store”.  I’m not 100% sure what that means except that I like it . . .   I had to really crop down the picture on the right as Mr. T doesn’t necessarily want to star on the blog, but look at all the fun things on the shelves behind that handsome man in flannel.  I didn’t make it out of there without treating myself to a few items.

Saturday and Sunday was the Taste of St. Louis.  I had never been before so I wrongly assumed that it was a poorly attended event (because if I wasn’t there, then probably nobody was there, right?).  Whoa was it crowded.   I saw Fitz and the Tantrums on Saturday and The English Beat on Sunday.
(Have I mentioned before that my photography is horendous?  Plus there was a 7 foot tall man in front of me at the Fitz show.)
The Peabody Opera House is about to reopen and was hosting a preview night.  Somehow my sister and her boyfriend pilfered tickets on Saturday night and instead of being down in the crowd looking up at the Peabody balcony, we ended up on the balcony, looking down on our subjects below.
It was a pretty awesome weekend!

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. . .

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!

The difference a year can make . . .

Last year I was in New York City with my best friend Jessica and my husband, enjoying surprisingly warm NY weather and soaking in all the sights.
JT and I really enjoyed our trip and still talk about New York all the time.  Every time I open my Elle Decor, I am reminded of how much New York has to offer and in comparison how little there is in St. Louis (design-wise, you know). 

One year later, I am here.

There’s a big meeting with some engineers and construction manager about a project.  Oh joy.  (Isn’t my desk a horrible mess?  I couldn’t bear to photograph it the other way because the credenza behind my desk is even worse.  That’s what happens when you have about 10 projects go out in the span of a few months.)

Oh yeah — today is my 31st birthday.  Last year was the big 3-0.  Amazing the difference a year can make!  It is official — I am old(er).  Not really OLD old, but it is the first time I have gone to work on my birthday so I think that signifies a shift to adult life if nothing else does.

Music Room comes (back) to life

Because I seem to have decorator’s A.D.D., I jumped from the bedroom makeover to the office.  The bedroom is still moving forward but I am waiting on some swatches and my MISSONI to ship in.  I don’t want to pick a paint color until I have some of the larger objects together and so . . . . I got bored and looked around the house for another project.  (JT and I have also started drinking coffee in the evening which has prompted much more caffeine-fueled work than I ever thought possible, which may be a big mistake.)

So, the office.  When we first moved in to our house back in 2005 (yes it’s been that long and I still haven’t accomplished anything!  But I’m working on it!)  it was our bedroom for about two weeks.  But we realized quickly that the front room was more private and moved things over.  The office had gone through many many iterations since then, mainly a furniture warehouse for all the things I drag in and out of the house. 

Case in point — these pictures I unearthed from a few years back when I started doing the Apartment Therapy Cure on this room.  It didn’t quite stick.  Here’s the embarrassing evidence though —The desk and vinyl MCM sofa have already made their way into the living/dining room.  Those two dressers are currently in the bedroom but headed out of Dodge to make way for the armoire and dressing table.  The lamps have also relocated to the living/dining room as well. (PS – I’m not a huge fan of guns, like at all, but those were my dad’s and right now we don’t know quite what else to do with them.)
For the two weeks it was a bedroom, we had painted it Sherwin Williams Decorous Amber, which is a nice burnt orange color.  Then I painted back a few of the walls to Amazing Gray (the color of most of the walls in the living room) and I thought I would paint the ceiling too.  It has since been painted back to white.  What a disaster!  As you can see, the office is really a music room and there is a lot of gear that needs a home.

Here’s what the office looks like more recently:

( You may have noticed from the photos that JT has revolving guitars going on, so he can’t really give me any grief about revolving furniture.  We’re a good match like that.)

We got that giant white/wood drawer from Warehouse of Fixtures — it used to be a sweater drawer in the Gap I think.  Great storage and JT’s speaker cabinets look nice sitting on it.  The mahogany piece sitting next to the drawer is on the way out and next to it is my future dressing table, which currently holds JT’s recorder/mixer thing and needs to be painted/made pretty before its debut in the bedroom.

Remember a while back I dragged home some more furniture from Craigslist?  Well on a coffee-adled binge last night, I convinced JT to help me start assembling/moving/changing the room around.  AGAIN.  And he agreed.  What a good husband.
It doesn’t look like much just yet . . . but it’s gonna!!! 

Here’s the plan —This New & Improved Music Room/Office has me excited for two reasons and they are both things I had on my 2011 New Year’s resolutions.

1.  I have always wanted a proper place to display our books (a library!) and now with the new shelving they can sit out instead of languishing in storage bins.  Also, all our vinyl will have a home too, yippee.
2.  I want to have a piano/keyboard/organ in the house to encourage me to work on my music more and for JT to master (he masters all instruments almost immediately).

Before we get the shelving all bolted together and settled along the one wall, this room needs a coat of paint desperately.  I’m on the fence right now between A) a creamy white that will blend the shelving into the wall B) the deep turquoise/teal/sapphire blue color that I’m digging right now or C) a nice gray color that I am leaning towards for the bedroom.  I think if I do Option B I may have to paint the ceiling as well, so that makes me a little nervous.  Anyone want to vote as to what color it should be?  I’d love to hear some input!

Ideas and Inspirations

Contrary to public belief, us designers do not often start out with a blank slate.  Often we are inspired by an image or an idea and evolve it into something new.  The great part is that inspiration is all around . . .

As I mentioned in the last post, our ink abstract is one of my favorite pieces in our house and also gives me a lot of design inspiration.  I pulled the teal blue color from the ink splotches to paint the front door and it spiraled into a whole new color palette for the house.I have always been a lover of the color blue (case in point – sapphire engagement ring below! — I wear blue every day)  but up until now, didn’t really have any in our home.  Pretty crazy.  After already painting the front door and knowing I wanted to used some of the colors from our artwork to inspire the decor, I found this fabric swatch (in the image below left) at a local upholstery store (and it’s outdoor fabric so when I make it into some accent pillows they will be very dog friendly!)  When I got it home, I saw that the green in the fabric swatch was very similar to the nice lime-ish green in our artwork and I knew it was a match made in heaven.  The swatch also came with a helpful little color guide (isn’t color #1 a perfect shade of sapphire) that I snipped off and put into my wallet so I would have it with me at all times — just in case. That way if I am out and about and considering a pillow or some drapery fabric, I will know for sure if it will go . . . I also carry a little notebook with a list of things I am looking for (Saarinen table?) and measurements of my rooms and such.  It might be a little bit of overkill, but we’re talking about a person who has drawn her whole house in AutoCAD so I’m okay with an OCD/anal retentive label on this issue. 

Another place I get ideas and inspirations is from magazines.  I have a whole stack of pages I have torn out and saved away for future inspiration.  I kept that picture of the orange and blue kid’s bedroom on the top of the stack because of the amazing herringbone carpet.  (Because I am anal retentive I also try to write on the page a comment about why I tore it out because sometimes when I go back to them 6 months later, I’m not always sure.  My tastes can change that fast.  Yikes).

I also keep a folder on my thumb drive called “Ideas and Inspirations” and am always right-click saving anything I see online that catches my fancy.
When I save an image from the internet, I am trying to get better about keeping its source location and/or who created it so I can possible share it here on my blog later.  Since I’ve had this file for a while, not all of my images are very well tagged.  I’ve been using Tin Eye to do reverse image searches and that has worked out about 60% of the time.  You can see my obsession with the letter T is not limited to 3D objects and has crossed over into fonts as well.  I need help.

Another inspiration image for our new house palette came in the mail at the beginning of the year and since January (and still) I have had my PPG calendar turned to the April/May/June page. 
I love the teal/turquoise color along with the rich leathers, glossy white light fixture and all the old books.  It also had a nice color palette along the side but I knew the yellows and browns would not be right for me. 

I also have loved getting a “robot phone” or an iPhone as most people call it because then I can capture ideas or things I like where ever I am. 

I took this image (another illustrating my crap photography skills) on a trip to Kansas City.  We stopped in at a new(er) restaurant, UnForked, and I really liked the warm industrial/funky atmosphere they had going on. The food was really good too so that helped. 

How do you guys find inspiration?  How do you remember/save/recall your ideas and inspirations?  Are you as OCD as I am?