lindsay stetson thompson of mstetson design sent in this great before and after project from her kitchen. inspired by this d*s post, lindsay took down the wallpaper that once existed in her kitchen (see below) and created this gorgeous chalkboard with all different patterns drawn in chalk. the possibilities are really endless with an idea like this- i’d love to invite local artists to come over and each do a small chunk. thanks to lindsay for sharing!
today is all about before and afters, but to be honest, it’s hard for me not to write a glowing ode to all things seattle today. after a whirlwind tour of the city in what has to be the best weather ever (sunny, cool and clear) i’ve fallen in love with a city i previously associated only with the movie singles, eddie vedder and the real world seattle. it’s hard to pick a favorite moment from yesterday but top of the list would be learning to catch a massive salmon the size of my torso as it was thrown at me by the fisherman at pike place market. and yes, amy took pictures- and video. so tune in next week for a hysterical clip of my first hour in seattle. thank goodness i didn’t leave smelling like salmon.
so, before i get too deep into my trip out here (that will come next week), i wanted to kick off the day with these gorgeous chairs upholstered in hable construction fabric that belong to lisa wong jackson of good on paper design. lisa used some extra fabric from joy and then her studio-mate jacinta from allymoon upholstered them! just a little sunny “after” project to start thursday (the cutie on the chair is lisa’s pup, pixel).
this project was a fun way to combine two of our current obsessions: coffee and knitting.
derek recently discovered the art of home roasting coffee beans, and decided he needed a french press to better enjoy his brew. the coffee tastes great, but since the press isn’t insulated, it gets cold real quick. what to do? knit the little guy a sweater, of course! the pattern couldn’t be simpler, it’s just a rectangle with 3 buttons. now we’ve got the tastiest, toastiest roast in town! click here for the full instructions and more photos or just click “read more” below.
before we get to our regular weekly post, we just wanted to share this awesome set of felted nesting bowls that lauren’s younger sister jessie made for us. the pattern for the medium-sized bowl came from a book called “oneskein” by leigh radford. jessie adapted the pattern to create the small and large versions, so the three bowls fit together perfectly. this is a great project for knitters of all level (especially those who are sick and tired of making scarves and hats!) putting what basically looks like a gigantic ski cap into a hot washing machine and pulling out a felted bowl is like magic! click here for more info and photos or just click “read more” below.
i’m still pretty sleepy and jet-lagged from the time change and last night’s meetup (thank you again to everyone who came!) but not too sleepy to enjoy and appreciate this fun diy project from duffy london. it’s not too heavy on the details but the general idea is easy to adopt: wallpaper cut to size and stuck to the shade with sticky tape. click here for the full video if it doesn’t load above. i’m a sucker for diy videos….
ok, i’m not a huge techie person but i’ve really enjoyed my new iphone while i’ve been away this week. it’s allowed me to publish comments, keep vaguely up to date on emails and make calls when i need to. what i don’t love is the choice of wallpapers i have to choose from. waterfall? nah. earth shot? nah. but i could certainly handle a few of these iphone and ipod touch wallpapers from poolga. all of these beautiful wallpapers are free to download and are created by independent artists around the globe- click here to check them out. thanks to ac (my fiance!) for the great tip.
i’m writing this post after a totally late night of biz lady talking and catching up with old friends. so far portland has been a complete blast and i’m in awe of how friendly everyone in this city is. but with the jet lag kicking in full force- i could use one of these beautiful cups or bowls full of some sort of heavily caffeinated beverage. before i run out the door to seattle i wanted to share these wonderfully simple but stunning pieces by los angeles artist hannah morrow. her ‘stickers‘ collection got a lot of attention in 2007 but i’m partial to the simpler, clean look of her fine bone china ‘hedy‘ collection ($39-$56). click here for more information on hannah’s work and to shop online. see you in seattle on thursday!
i’m exhausted from last night’s meetup so before i crash for the evening i wanted to post a link to the PR/marketing notes so everyone could download them, whether you were at the event or not. thank you so much to everyone who came (it was the largest group we’ve EVER had), our gracious hosts at dwr and the lovely ladies who served as experts: amy ruppel, sarah chenven and debbe hamada of tilde. pictures to come! i need to crash now…
but, before i crash- a great email from one of tonight’s attendees came in. thanks to kristin mitsu shiga there is now a portland biz ladies page on yahoo! so click here to join up and keep the meetups coming in portland!
today’s last sneak peek belongs to janet morales and stu eli, the husband and wife team behind three potato four, an online shop devoted to housewares, accessories, vintage finds and 3P4 originals. based in reston, virginia (go, VA!), janet and stu have a stong love of collections and classic modern design. their home is a wonderful mix of new and old- along with colorful vignettes popping up in bookcases and on windowsills. you can see full sized versions of these photos right here or scroll below to read janet’s descriptions for each photo. thanks to janet, stu and their daughter holly for sharing- and thanks to anne for compiling today’s great sneak peeks!
[image above: Our kitchen gets really nice morning light, so our collection of tin can plants grow really well in the windowsill. Stu found our wood Thonet chairs in a school trash bin in Brooklyn. He called me up on his way home from work to meet him there and we managed to bring five of them home. The yellow chair was a gift from Stu's aunt, who has been an avid antique collector for many years. The other wood chair shown was a gift from Stu, it is an antique chair from an old church and has a slot in the back where a bible would sit. Our kitchen table is Ikea.]
[Our downstairs office is right next to Holly's playroom. It's great that she can play while Stu and I work for the shop. This orange couch is from Urban Outfitters and seems to be a perfect fit for a playroom. Ever since we had Holly, we seem to have become obsessed with little chairs and we've accumulated quite a number of them in lots of different styles. These stackable plastic ones have seen many a tea party. The vintage science print on the wall details single-celled organisms (part of Stu's vintage science collection).]
[This is our downstairs office. We do the bulk of our work upstairs but answer emails and check orders down here. Our bunnies also live in this room, they run around the house but at night they sleep here in the office. This slate blue industrial tanker desk was purchased from a neighbor when we lived in our loft in Brooklyn. It needs some refinishing and is missing a drawer but we really loved the color. The bulletin board I made by cutting down homasoate board (which you can buy at a hardware store) and staple gunning burlap to it. It's a quick and easy diy project. Right: This is the stairway to upstairs. I made these silhouettes of us last year and gave it to Stu for his birthday. I even made one for our two bunnies. The letterpress art print is from etsy, by greenchairpress.]
[A few years ago Stu and I happened upon a old office supply store in NYC that was going out of business, they were selling everything. So we managed to lug to our apartment this industrial file cabinet. I have a big paper collection so this is now filled with lot and lots of paper and goodies. It sits in the corner of one of our offices (we have an office downstairs and upstairs). Right: The large letter S resides in our bedroom. I convinced Stu to buy it on one of our shopping trips for the store. I figured when would we ever again see a great S in this amazing green color. The metal S & J letters were a wedding gift. The print on the wall is a free poster that Volkswagon was giving away when we were walking around Union Square one day, I saved it because I liked the graphics and type and framed it in a Ikea frame. You can see a portion of a vintage pull down map that also hangs in our room.]
[This is Holly's room on the right. The green shelf is filled with trinkets that we change up every now and then, I found the old shelf in my mom's basement. It was a dark wood and I painted it green. The flags that hang in her room I made from my fabric collection and were part of a set I made that we strung up between trees in our front yard for Holly's 2nd birthday. The little white and green table was Stu's grandmother's bedroom end table, Holly pretends it is her fridge. The elephant rocking horse is Holly's favorite. Left: These are some collections in our home. We are always going on shopping trips and lately buying for ourselves and adding to our own collections has slowed down a bit. But we still like to look for interesting books and titles and these are some of them. They sit in industrial barrister bookcases that we have. The collection on the wall is simply made up of fun and beautiful things that hang in Holly's playroom. Just things that make us happy.]
