Life

Things I’m Excited About.

Things I’m currently very excited about:

I found a new (old) couch on craigslist. It popped up on Apartment Therapy’s scavenger, which I sometimes browse because they take out some of the hassle of thumbing through thousands of uglies before you find your gem.

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The couch is an older version of Crate and Barrel’s Cameron sofa and I’m just elated to finally have a grown-up couch to replace my junky old college one! Plus, I bargained and talked the owner down to half the original asking price! Mom would be proud.

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And in other exciting news, I heard a rumor that Jonathan Adler is taking on Boston and opening a Newbury Street shop. Sure enough, a little googling revealed they’re currently hiring store managers and a visual confirmation was found on Diary of a Yummy Mummy. adler coming to boston

Would it be unreasonable to leave my career and salary to be a shop girl at an Adler store? I think I would be the happiest girl in the world rolling around in faux zebra rugs and union jack embroidered pillows all day!

To top off my list of exciting things, my 2010 Ikea catalog finally came in the mail, and I’m oozing with happiness as I start the first of many many many reads.

DIY

Before and After: The Kitchen Cart.

I’m now bartering for blogposts. I promised my good friend Taz (who you may remember from my back to school series) that I would lend her my sewing skills in exchange for her before and after pictures to post.

Taz has a challenge that so many of us apartment dwellers face; a severe lack of kitchen cabinetry. So, to store some of her bigger kitchen items like pots and pans, she’s been using a kitchen cart. The problem? Other than exposing her George Forman grill to the world? Dust. She had to wash the tools before she used them each time, and when time is of the essence to get dinner on the table, that’s the last thing anyone wants to do!

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So with armed with some Alexander Henry fabric, the trusty sewing-machine and a dash of Velcro we transformed this:

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Into this:

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I love the playful print; I think it looks great with her Orla Kiely accessories and brightens up the room! I’m trying now to persuade her to make some valances out of the scraps… in exchange for some before and after pictures of course.

Travel

Rested and Recharged.

My hiatus is over, I’m back from a lovely 4th of July, a very relaxing week at the beach, and have finally caught up on my overflowing inbox that welcomed me at the office. It’s so hard to come back to the real world after days of BBQs, beaches, shopping, and lovely weather.

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The one day of non-beach weather was filled with fun activities: a wine tasting at a local Cape Cod Vineyard and some flea market hunting (an ideal vacation day). The vineyard had beautiful gardens and the property had a precious cottage where we tasted some great wines and jumped on a tour of the vineyard and bottling barn.

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At the flea market I scored a small vintage oil painting of a coastal scene that needs a new frame but was too cute to pass up. At a nearby thrift store my mom found a white milk glass hobnail vase. My mom taught us well: my sister spotted it the second we walked in and we flipped it over, real Fire King milk glass… and it was only $2.00! Nothing is more satisfying than a successful thrifting trip!

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After we got back from Cape Cod, we just weren’t ready to let go of the vacation-mode yet and took a day trip to Newburyport where we stumbled upon Oldies Marketplace, an enormous barn turned marketplace for all shapes and sizes of antiques and treasures. I amazingly walked out of the place without buying a thing, but regret not stocking up on some of the vintage Shiny Brite ornaments and the quirky plastic beads they had displayed.

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Now I’m back to the daily grind, but I missed my blog while I was away and kept a list of post ideas even when I was internet-less, so now that I’m rested and recharged expect more in the coming days!

DIY

The finished product!

I finally finished my upholstered headboard project this weekend (with only a few minor speedbumps along the way). At the last minute I changed my mind and switched from the grey ikea fabric to a velvety golden yellow color; I decided that since I haven’t yet fallen in love with a new bedspread that  I would choose an upholstery fabric that would match with both my old and new color schemes.

I decided that using a big piece of plywood like I had originally planned was going to be too cumbersome with my 1. lack of car and 2. possible moving at the end of the summer… so I substituted the heavy wood idea with a frame made out of stretcher strips used for stretching canvases:

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In another attempt to substitute, instead of using an expensive piece of decorators foam, I bought an egg crate foam pad from target and cut it to fit the frame, which I then attached with staples:

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Then I laid out the fabric and stretched and stapled it just like assembling a canvas:

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And after attaching some picture hangers to the back of the canvas and nailing it up to the wall, voila! my upholstered headboard is complete:

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Now onto the next project… pillows?

Home

A salute to the purple couch.

Do you have a childhood moment that spurred your love for design?

I’m sure there were plenty of shopping trips to flea markets and hours in the fabric store with my mom as a child that helped build up my design-addiction.  One moment that sticks out in particular though is from a visit to my grandmother’s farm house when I was little; she invited us in the living room to show my mom and aunts her new upholstery project: royal purple velvet slipcovers for her couch. As a child, the thought of owning a purple velvet couch was probably the most magical concept to ever enter my mind, I was in love.

As teenagers my sister vocalized her desire to have it written into my grandmothers will that she would be the recipient of the purple velvet furniture should anything ever happen to their rightful owner and I still regret not thinking to stake claim first! So this is a salute to the infamous purple couch, may it live as long as it’s free-spirited upholsterer!

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via Homes and Gardens

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via Apartment Therapy

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via Patricia Gray Interior Design

Home

In it to win it.

The fabulous bloggers at We Love Domino have been doing a great job filling the post-domino void, and are now holding a “Domino Inspired My Home” contest to highlight reader’s homes that drew inspiration from the favorite mag. Since I actually ripped a picture out of the magazine last year and used it as my jumping point for my tiny apartment kitchen, I decided to submit an entry and share some pictures of my result.

This was my inspiration:

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I was so overwhelmed with the space challenges when we first moved in. For starters: the counter space is no bigger than 2ft by 2ft, there were no closed cabinets, and my storage space was limited to 3 small drawers.  Luckily, the tall ceilings afforded me some open shelving and I used that as a jumping point. The inspiration I took from the Domino kitchen was making use of the open shelves and essentially creating simple vignettes that displayed my cooking tools as part of the decor.  I stuck to the stainless steel, white, and jadeite color scheme in the photo, because it allowed me  rely on cheap classics from ikea and to make use of a lot of the stuff I already had!  Check out the result below:

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Home

Goodbye Dear Domino.

When I called a friend to share the horrific news that our favorite magazine Domino was going under, she initially thought I was calling to tell her someone had died because I was so upset.

The New York Times article  said that “while its circulation was strong and growing, advertising numbers, much more important, demanded it die…”

It seems like almost every blog post that came through my feed last week had people mourning the loss and reminiscing about favorite issues.  Many posts from European readers noted that magazine subscriptions in the US are relatively inexpensive, since most of the revenue is generated from ad sales.  I will say this, I would gladly pay a higher newsstand price if it kept my favorite shelter publications in circulation.

Several bloggers are convening at We Love Domino to post about the best of the magazine and it’s serving as a reminder of why we all loved it so much! Here are few of my favorites from the past few years:

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Life

Better late than never.

A month late on my new year’s resolution, I’m jumping into the blogosphere. Better late than never, right? It took me a month to actually start because I’ve been obssessing over what to write in the first post.  After reading hundreds of design blogs everyday for the past year, I promised myself i’d start to be a more active participant and create my own space for collecting inspiration and tracking my endeavors in design.  After much encourgement, this is it, the first step from reader to writer, wish me luck!

 
 
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