Category: Objects

The Great Etsy Art Hunt

Let’s face it: just the mention of the word “art” can make your head spin and your blood pressure rise like a phoenix. So many artists, so little time. (Okay, let’s be honest, that little mantra sounds a whole lot better than admitting outright that what you’re really internally monologuing is the speech you’re preparing for your children/future children about how losing their education funds to a “no brainer” of an investment opportunity truly isn’t such a bad thing because real life experience is just SO much more important than college anyway.)

If this sounds like you, may I suggest you check out a little thing called Etsy? Yes, as in that website that you might traditionally identify with handmade baby bibs, lovingly crafted made-in-the-USA jewelry, or that gorgeous table made of reclaimed eco-friendly, sustainable barnwood (possibly made by an equally gorgeous, shirtless, bearded mountain man of a hunk?). That, though, is the Etsy of yesteryear, my friends (actually, come to think of it, they still have all that charming stuff…and now just so much more to boot).

Here are a few finds from a recent tour through the site in pursuit of some eye-catching abstract pieces that go easy on the wallet:

From the LeSage Gallery / artist Tommelise le Sage / Brooklyn, NY ($1,380):

From Untitled76 / artist Neil Williams / Mansfield, OH ($349):

From Ronald Hunter Paintings / artist Ronald Hunter / Rotterdam, Netherlands ($339):

From Art by Cindy Robinson / artist Cindy Robinson / Providence, RI ($400):

From studioArtificial (starting at $199):

From Lola Donoghue / Galway, Ireland ($900):

From polkadottydolls / artist Lynda Black / Calgary, AB, Canada ($45):

And from Linnea Heide Art / artist Linnea Heide / Norfolk, VA ($150):

So what do you say that you just remember me when your children thank you for not ditching that trust fund in the name of art (and in the same breath, mention that said art would just look oh so good next to the Che Guevara poster on their dorm room wall).

Got any of your own fabulous Etsy art finds to share with the rest of us? Spill your secrets here…we won’t tell!

March 12, 2014
Leather, Leather on My Sofa…

Let me just start by saying that rebellion at 37 looks nary a thing like one at 16. Case in point: I have traded climbing out of my window in the dead of night so as to attend the latest glamorous bonfire party being hosted down by the river in my little town for wanting to…wait for it, wait for it…add a BLACK.LEATHER.SOFA to my living room. I’m baaaaad.

Now, when I was 16, you didn’t really have to put much thought into being bad / you just kind of did whatever was dumb and destructive and called it a day / no further research necessary. Unfortunately, the older version of bad kind of comes with a little more baggage. Like, one must think about what kind of bad they want to actually be.

Is it a Portia de Rossi & Ellen DeGeneres kind of bad? (Check out their living room in Elle Décor below and maybe you can figure out what exactly that means…and let me know if you do.)

Maybe throw in a little Swedish kind of bad?

Or perhaps a little bohemian bad:

How about Fornasetti bad?

Or, even crazier…rustic bad:

Okay, so truth be told, none of these were exactly the kind of bad I’m going for, but they did provide some good inspiration.

So off I went to make my own rebellion in this world (btw, I’m guessing my parents are wondering why on God’s green earth they couldn’t have had this version 20 years ago).

Here were some of my favorite finds along the way (and you can also check out my more extensive/less curated Pinterest collection as well if you’re so inclined):

1: West Elm / 2: Talisman / 3: 1stdibs / 4: Cisco Home / 5: Benchmade by Brownstone / 6: 1stdibs / 7: Dering Hall

But I still hadn’t found exactly that je ne sais quoi bad that I was looking for. What was a girl to do? Answer: DIY. In other words, comb through the sofa fields ad nauseum, find a silhouette that sings to you, imagine it in leather, decide to do it “COL” (customer’s own leather), go on a leather hunting mission, strike gold, combine the two…and pray that you’ve got it all right in your head.

Now the million dollar question becomes…am I baaaaad…or just plain old bad?

Tune in in about eight to ten weeks and we’ll have the answer…

*Note: if you want some other well-researched ideas, check out Victoria Smith’s / aka sfgirlbybay’s piece on the subject.

Photos from here, here, here, here, and here.

November 21, 2013
We All Scream for Teepees!

As if there weren’t already ten million other things camped out on your parental to-do list, here’s another one to break that ballerina-thin straw barely holding it (and you) together (and we’re talking do or die here). Do you…for the love of all things keeping up with the Joneses…have the right teepee for your child?! If you don’t, look no further than Leelee Sobieski’s (aka Leelee Jones’) playroom that has my son already asking to be adopted at the tender young age of two.

I’m not sure whether to be nostalgic for the old days of yore when kids built their own haphazard forts from pillows, mom & dad’s comforter, the dining room chair, and other things that happened to be in optimal grabbing range…or to count my lucky stars that there is now an abundance of pre-fab versions that are decidedly easier on the eyes from an obsessive design perspective.

But after seeing these contemporary nods to the Old West pop up with increasing frequency in both shelter mags and my friends’ playrooms (and living rooms and other ostensibly grown-up spaces to boot), I decided to be a good little sheep and get one myself before my son found his way to Leelee’s front doorstep. Best $130 I ever spent. There’s nothing like a luxurious fifteen minutes of quiet time to oneself in the morning to brush one’s hair and maybe throw on a little makeup while listening to “Hi, I’m Cad…and you can count on me,” emanating for the 538th time from the bedroom corner where our teepee now holds court. And when I recently had four kids under the age of two clamoring to claim space in there, I decided that I would become a mini expert on all things teepees in order to share this very open secret with the rest of the world. So if you would like to join the rest of us arriving late to the party, read on for a few more ideas to get you started.

Inspiration

If you find yourself frantically starting to scratch your arms (are those hives?!) while contemplating the above two examples, below are a few more palates that might be decidedly more in the realm of mother earth for the vast majority of us.

Nothing like going neutral and mixing it up with some fun, eclectic pieces:

Ditto here:

And a fun pop of color and a nice contrast to the not-so-kid-obvious furniture and rug:

And while this could technically be characterized as a “tent,” it’s kind of hard not to include since it’s of yet another “Jones” family (also frequently referred to as the Herrera family)…and since thinking outside of the box is the name of the game here, I think we can all conjure the below with a little bunching of sticks at the top…and voila, there’s our teepee:

Execution

So how to bring the Joneses into your very own home? Here are some of my favorite picks to get you started.

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And of course, don’t forget that the sky is the limit and you can ALWAYS come up with your own design and DIY (or find someone else who will!).

Happy tee-peeing…and please do share with the rest of us any other fabulous finds that I may have missed in my mad scramble to keep up with the latest and greatest…

Pictures from here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Update 12/13/13: Just found this gem from Indoek, check it out!

October 23, 2013
Cherishing on Chairish.com

I’m not really sure when one technically “earns” the right to a home makeover, but I’m going to call it for the Faust family after nine years. (Does a marriage, three cities to call home, a bambino, and two new jobs help my cause?)

Let’s start with the living room for now (baby steps, baby steps):

So serene…and orderly…and white!   (Those poor couches, I can see them shudder every time our toddler son’s eyes light up in preparation to scale them.)

As perfect as this space once was for us, it doesn’t seem to quite capture the new, older, edgier, chaotic, willing-to-throw-caution-to-the-wind version of our little family…and as our mothers always told us, making sure we present ourselves in an honest light is super important, right? While this pitch still technically needs to clear the family congress around here (where we vote one to one and I get the tie-breaker “in case” of a deadlock), visions of home décor sugarplums are already dancing in my head.

The goal: clean California design with a dollop of glamor and an appreciation for the cheeky edginess of modern design…or in other words, a cutting edge yet livable design aesthetic.

First step: creating a new layout that works with this space that I’m convinced was just some evil attempt by the original architect to have the last laugh. Think a long rectangular room running from the second you step into the house until you hit the hallway leading to the bedrooms broken up on both sides by French doors on the one hand (which we originally decided to treat as middle children and ignore by plunking a couch right in front of them) and a fireplace on the other. Awwwesome. (Sorry, what I meant to say was, “OMG, what a cool challenge!”)

Second step: consult the Oracle / aka Pinterest for some inspiration.

Oooh, I’ll take a little helping of that casual glamor via Kelly Behun:

And add a dab of elegant eclecticism:

A dollop of California rustic:

And just one more little one of those, please:

And a lot of Mid Century fun:

And you get…????

Answer: a heart palpitation when considering (a) how the heck you’re going to integrate all of these styles into a cohesive whole and (b) what your grand operatic vision will run you.

So what is one to do?

Why, head to my newest obsession, Chairish.com, of course.

Straight from the horse’s mouth:

Chairish is an online consignment marketplace for design obsessed people to buy and sell exceptional pre-owned home furnishings. Our mission is to make the world more beautiful, one room at a time and save people money in the process.

I’m now thinking I myself might be the inspiration behind this site?! Okay, if they’re not going to credit me, at least I can reap the benefits with aaaamazing, inspiring finds which hopefully won’t break the bank. Check out a few such things that caught my eye during my last scouring session (note: while some of these might break my bank, they might not yours so I’ll include them here as well since I had so much fun window shopping them):

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While each and every one of these pieces won’t make their way into the Faust Family Operation Update, I’m sweating a little less knowing that Chairish has my back on this…and that like a good friend, it will always be there when I need it. And that, my fellow design obsessors, is why I’m cherishing Chairish these days.

Pictures from here, here, here, here, and here.

October 9, 2013
Kelly Behun is My Friend

Okay, well not really (I wish). But did anyone here see this New York based designer’s spread in the July/August 2013 issue of Elle Décor? Even if you did, it bears re-sharing here for one very important reason – without uttering a single word, her living room perfectly defines what it is to engage in “highlow” design.

Absolutely and totally gorgeous, right? Must have cost a fortune. Okay, yes. But guess where those stools came from? Yup, Ikea. Yes, that’s right, Ikea. You heard correctly, I’m not joking. This architectural and design wonder of a home’s living room is tied together by none other than stools from the largest furniture retailer on the planet, whose products most decidedly come nowhere close to breaking the bank. How exciting is that?! We could all share in a little bit of Kelly Behun’s fabulousness in our very own homes if we just got thee down to our nearest Ikea store/hangar.

This got me thinking about other swoony interiors I’ve encountered that have also managed to incorporate a little Ikea love into their design. I’ve giddily conjured up two more off the top of my head.

Poppy Store (purveyor of luxe children’s clothing) in the Marin Country Mart in Larkspur, CA:

Not only are those storage bins under the birdcage sourced from our favorite Swedish megastore, but so are the chairs and table off to the right.

And then there’s el restaurante Compartir de Cadaqués in Cadaques, Spain:

As we settled in for our meal from el Bulli trained chefs last year, I remember feeling right at home as I recognized these wicker chandeliers as having the same provenance as the one hanging over my dining table at home. (I also applaud Christopher Salon & Home in Tiburon for having similarly fine taste in lighting.)

Looking at these pictures got me wondering what new cool stuff Ikea has up their sleeves these days. As always, they didn’t disappoint. Herewith are a few items that can hold their own in any room:

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And there you have it. There is truly nothing more exciting, thrilling, and satisfying than celebrating both “high” and “low” design in all its brilliant forms. Even more exciting is when you get to combine the two to create something wholly unique and no one can tell which piece came across on that container from Europe and which one you found on eBay for $12 from the random guy in Saskatoon.

So what I’d like to do here is share things that might be way out of your price range, but provide great inspiration for something a little more financially palatable…as well as things that might be entirely too far below your generous (and envious) budget, but that I’m sure you can always find a more expensive version of! Wherever there is inspiring design to be found, it will be shared here.

Here’s to taking the highlow design plunge together, hope you enjoy…

Photos from here, here, and here.

September 17, 2013