today i’m extremely happy to share a sneak peek into the homes of one of my favorite artists, heather moore of skinny laminx. i’ve been a fan of heather’s work for the past year or so and was overjoyed to catch a little glimpse into her home which was, to no surprise, full of beautiful color and pattern. based in cape town, south africa, heather shares her lovely deco-style apartment with her husband, paul edmunds. heather has been kind enough to include descriptions of each photo in her own words so i hope you’ll enjoy her sneak peek as much as i did. as always, you can click here for full-sized and additional images of heather’s lovely home. enjoy and thanks to heather for sharing!

[images above: I live in Cape Town with my husband, Paul Edmunds and our two cats. We’re lucky to live right near the city center, but also close enough to Table Mountain to go for a stroll or a bike ride whenever we like. I work variously as an illustrator and a writer, and also have a growing business called Skinny laMinx, where I design and sell my screenprinted textiles. Paul is a sculptor who makes beautiful things. The very top photo above is of our sofa. It is an Ercol daybed that we just got hold of recently. I spent years hanging my head out of the car window whenever I passed a junk shop, hoping to spot one of these, so can hardly believe we actually own one, even if it is a knockoff version! There’s quite a riot of cushions going on, some made by me, and some from fabulous Etsy seller, Absoluut. The photo directly above is our lounge: The chair in the foreground is evidence of the fact that both Paul and I like to make things. He made the chair, and I made the tapestry cushions. Above the Dux chair with another Absoluut cushion on it is a painting by my studio mate, Medina Morphet, and beyond that is our kitchen. We did a big renovation two years ago, turning a small bedroom into a nice big kitchen and what had been the kitchen became our study. It’s really transformed the place.]

[image above: Our kitchen was a real splash-out, and was worth every penny. We had some really excellent cabinetmakers work on it, and opted for solid wood countertops. The green color was not exactly what we’d planned, and was a little alarming at first, but we love it now. The sliding cupboards are great for storage and display.]

[image above: We bought this gateleg table with a cash engagement gift from my parents. It is so beautiful, and makes our 85 m? place incredibly versatile. Our Burmese cat, Nanook, likes it too. The set of four 50s Swedish chairs were bought from a retro furniture store with money I got from the Road Accident Fund after I was hit by a car. It was a nasty accident, but resulted in some great chairs!]

[image above: These three stone birds are by Zimbabwian artist, Benard Nka. The black one is ours, and the other two were bought as gifts. Let’s see if I ever get around to giving them away though… The West German ceramics were a lucky carboot sale find.]

[image above, left to right. Bedroom: The lamp was made as a wedding gift by a friend, and the painting is by my dear friend Lauren. Is it appalling to use sheets found at a car boot sale? I kind of think it might be, so won’t tell you where I bought these. Kitchen: I’m always in junk shops and fleamarkets with my eyes tuned for a good find. Consequently, I often end up gazing adoringly at my washing up. That’s all, but I’m always taking photos of our place and the things in it, which you’re welcome to visit at my flickr page right here!]

this thursday i’m heading over to the city to meet up with joy and check out the launch of a new line of stationery from orla kiely. her exuberant work is just the dose of color and pattern i need on this cold and dreary brooklyn day. it will be tough not to try and hide a few pounds of orla-paper in my purse on the way out but hopefully joy can keep me from a life of paper crime. in the meantime, you can shop orla’s stationery collection online right here. i’ll be back at 12 with a new sneak peek!

for the past few years, artists working in brooklyn seem to have had a particular fascination with creating more permanent, decorative versions of everyday throw-away containers. my first encounter with this style was lorena barrezueta’s gourmet dishware collection in 2004 and it seems the trend is continuing well in 2008 with this new collection from designer virginia sin. based in brooklyn, virginia recently launched her collection of porcelain “paper plates“. to create her series, virginia shredded actual paper plates, (which were previously used to mold the plates) and then combined the paper pulp with porcelain slip to create her own unique batch of environmentally sound paperclay (which requires only one firing, as opposed to several with traditional clay). the porcelain paper plates have such a wonderful delicate feel to them and, according to virginia, are actually as light and thin as actual paper plates. virginia’s microwave and dishwasher safe plates will be shown at design within reach on april 24th as part of their ‘modern+design+function’ exhibition next month. click here for more information.

now that i’m starting to tip my toes into the world of wedding planning, i’ve become engrossed in packaging design. our wedding will primarily be a DIY affair so i’ve been trying to come up with interesting ideas for invitations, favors, table decorations, etc based on projects that don’t necessarily come from the traditional bridal magazines (most of which i have a hard time getting through). packaging design has been a great source of inspiration for me, whether it’s about lettering, a color combination or the way two materials have been used. today i’m loving these beautiful bottles of lotion designed by matthew stiffler of palatal collective in chicago. i love his use of color and the combination of a damask-style print with script on the joie bottles. while our wedding probably won’t be using these color palettes, i love the idea of using simple labels and perhaps creating a custom rubber stamp, or several stamps to create an effect like this that’s simple but has multiple colors or patterns. i’ll be sharing my wedding inspiration boards when things are a bit more planned out, but for now you can click here to see more of matthew’s work online.

Greetings! My name is Elka, and I’m very happy to be guest blogging here this week. In my normal life you can find my posts at CasaSugar where I get to write about everything from starting seeds to finding nesting tables. It’s a great gig, and I love unearthing new home and garden finds every day.

This week, I wanted to concentrate my Design*Sponge posts on something that I’ve been ruminating on for many years how to make a home in tandem with another person. I’ve been recently obsessed with this topic because I moved in with my fiancé, Peter, five months ago, and we’ve been choreographing a push-me pull-me dance ever since related to the renovation and décor of our home. Some of the time he agrees with my design sensibility– he even made up a new adjective, ‘Elkan’, to describe it– but other times I find that his objections to a project or particular wall color are not without merit.

In the past five months we’ve done a lot of work on making Peter’s house our house. One of the biggest issues in the push-me pull-me dance has been Peter’s Wall of Sound. When I moved in, the Wall of Sound was a precarious pile of turntables, mixers, CD players, vinyl, and CDs that marched across an entire wall of the living room. Some of these stereo components sat on– I kid you not– plastic foot stools. After much convincing, Peter realized that a more aesthetically pleasing (and functional) solution to the Wall of Sound might be warranted.

We ditched the plastic footstools and bought a midcentury mahogany Danish credenza that had an unfinished backside, and used a hole saw bit to bore large holes in the back. We then threaded all of the cords and wires through the back, and stored a lot of the components inside the credenza. We also broke up the Wall of Sound, separating the CDs and vinyl so the shelving didn’t overwhelm the living room.

You can see some of our house progress in these pictures, including the rearrangement of the Wall of Sound. Our home still is, and most likely always will be, a work in progress. Peter has been an objective sounding board for projects, and a great helping hand when we’ve had to wrest sofas across rooms and roll paint across walls.

This week I will be bringing you interviews with three couples and one sister duo who’ve managed to find interesting, aesthetically pleasing solutions to design problems. These folks all have definite needs for their homes. Some have to run businesses out of them. Some have studio space there. Some regularly host intricately themed parties. All of the people who I will bring you posts about are united by the fact that they are some amalgam of artist, photographer, tinkerer, designer, jeweler, craftsman, woodworker, cook, or seamstress. In most cases they are many if not all of the above. I hope that this week’s look at their shared spaces will inspire you in finding new approaches to design in your homes.

today i’m thrilled to welcome elka karl of casasugar to the d*s guest blog. not only because she’s a great writer, but because she’ll be covering a topic i’ve wanted to cover on d*s for years: co-habitation design. whether you’ve moved in with a husband/boyfriend, wife/girlfriend, sibling or a random roommate from craigslist, you’ve probably experienced a few bumps on the design road when trying to find good compromises for two different design styles. lord knows that when ac and i moved in together the honeymoon ended precisely when we had to choose paint colors for our new apartment. i wish there had been a manual on how to “combine styles” but sadly there isn’t. so i’m excited to read elka’s posts on the guest blog this week as she features friends, siblings and couple’s who have managed to successfully combine styles. click here to check out elka’s first post on her own home. welcome, elka!

[image above: elka’s battle (that is near and dear to my own heart)- girl vs. the wall of sound/stereo system]

next week ac and i are heading down to savannah to scout wedding locations so today i’m heading out a little early today to make calls and set up appointments with vendors and locations (hooray!). i’ll be back on monday but until then, here is a summary of this week’s highlights. have a great weekend! [image above, my favorite residential project by page goolrick.]

• thank you to LAist for this
• new under $100 column: 20 decorating essentials under $100
• new sneak peeks: design for mankind and john & joe of river, ct
• new product guides: shower curtains and bath mats
• new before and afters: chris’ dresser, sanam’s bookcase, and summer’s cabinet
• new DIY projects: inside-out security envelopes, joyce’s spring/fall bedspread and kate’s industrial framed sconces
• new: india rose textiles
• new guest blog: designphiladelphia’s local designer sneak peeks
• new in the kitchen with: 101 cookbooks & spring minestrone
• new: bird coat hooks by ingibjörg hanna bjarnadottir
• biz ladies LA: april 15th, 2008
• new: ‘mug’ tea towel from skinny laminx
• new: midwest modern textiles from amy butler
• classic artwork: dutch touch art
• new: clocky in chrome
• new: erin ruth eco-friendly gift wrap

to say that i’m a fan of heidi swanson, her blog 101 cookbooks and her incredible food photography would be a massive understatement. i’ve been reading her beautiful food/recipe blog for years now and was thrilled when she agreed to share one of my favorite recipes from her book, super natural cooking. heidi’s spring minestrone soup is just what i’m craving right now, especially after an afternoon of eating french desserts with a good friend yesterday. after all that sugar, i could use something light and full of “green”. i hope you’ll enjoy heidi’s recipe (and photography) as much as i did. if you’re still looking for something sweet, our food writer kristina of three layer cake suggests heidi’s recipe for all-natural thin mint cookies. delicious. thanks to heidi for sharing her fantastic spring soup recipe with us- click here for the full recipe or just click “read more” below.

about heidi: based in san francisco, heidi swanson takes photographs, writes cookbooks, publishes websites, and sometimes (mostly in the past) helps to produce gatherings of interesting people (TED, TASTE3). her writing, projects, and photographs have been featured in publications such as food & wine magazine, the washington post, glamour, whole foods markets, saveur, fast company, and many more. her recipe journal, 101 cookbooks, won the 2005 people’s choice webby award for best personal web site. ten speed press recently published heidi’s super natural cooking- a cookbook inspired by whole foods and natural ingredients.

remodelista just posted a gorgeous sneak peek of london-based designer ilse crawford’s latest project. ‘das kranzbach‘ is a spa hotel in the bavarian alps full of bold color and some great modern design classics. all i know is that i would spend most of my time in that yellow and white room- no question about it. click here for more information on ilse’s latest project.