we love living in san francisco. this city is just chock-full of fun, talented, and friendly folks. one of them is our pal lorena siminovich, the artist and proprietress behind the oh-so-lovely petit collage. lorena’s got a great eye for color, and we’re big fans of her bold, graphic work. this week, we were the lucky recipients of a quick lesson in diy furniture collage from a true master of the form. thanks lorena! click here for the full post with instructions or just click “read more” below.

-derek & lauren

ps: we are going to be taking a few weeks off to finish up a couple super exciting projects we’re working on. thanks so much for all the diy & crafty fun. see you in a few weeks! (ed note: during the curiosity shoppe’s posting vacation we’ll have new diy projects contributed by a special guest editor)

[portrait of lorena by lisa congdon]

today’s second diy project comes from designer julie reed. in addition to crocheted and sewing some beautiful pieces for her etsy shop, julie also knows her way around a mean crocheted bath rug. and since i’ve still got affordable bath decor on the brain from last week, i thought this would be the perfect project to share. click here for julie’s full instructions or just click “read more” below. stay tuned for lauren and derek’s diy wednesday post at 1pm!

last weekend ac and i scooted up to williamsburg for burgers at dumont burger (yum) and some quick book browsing at spoonbill and sugartown (where i always end up buying a handful of new pancake and franks cards). while looking sifting through a table of incredible penguin books (and drooling over their covers), i looked up and caught a beautiful set of atlas shelves. as my mind starting mentally calculating how long it would take me to save up for a set of the real things i remembered that we had a fantastic diy-version of these shelves waiting to be posted! d*s reader susannah becket was a finalist in this year’s diy contest and was kind enough to send in the full instructions for her budget-friendly atlas-inspired shelving. if you’ve got a wall of books at home like we do, this project will certainly come in handy. click here for the full post, more pictures and instructions or just click “read more” below. thanks to susannah for sharing!

i’m a big, big fan of artist alice stevenson. i first saw her work a few years back and immediately ordered some of her incredible illustrations. i was thrilled when i was able to hire her to create the design*sponge shop logo and i’m even more thrilled now to hear that her fabric for st. jude’s is available! ‘treehouse‘ is a 2 color design screenprinted on upholstery weight linen and available in two colorways: grey on grey and grey on faded red. i’m loving the grey on red style and am now saving up to buy a few yards for a small chair reupholstery project. you can pick up yardage for your own home projects right here for around $86 per yard right here.

…scenes from the incredible collaboration between camilla engman and karin eriksson. their first series together is available online at manos and will be on exhibition at the shop in stockholm through june 7th.

d*s guest blogger (and all-around incredible artist) jeana sohn has shared some seriously fantastic posts already this week. we’ve seen some beautiful homes and galleries and today jeana’s sharing the lovely LA home and shop of annie crowninshield and michael towey of empiric studio. between jeana’s first two sneak peeks and today’s i’m seriously ready to move the d*s headquarters to sunny los angeles. all that light is so tempting…click here to check out jeana’s posts for wednesday.

I’m so excited to show Annie and Michael’s (the owners of Empiric) house. Their house is located above their design studio in Culver City. I was very inspired by their small (960 sq ft) but amazing space — I hope you love it as much as I do!

more photos

Q - First of all, how did you start the business? What’s your background?

A - The store was opened by Michael, my fiance, 12 years ago. It evolved from a print making studio and continues to evolve by us and the creativity of our staff. I was raised in a family who had a high appreciation for this era of design and studied art in college. 3 years ago I partnered with Michael and oversaw the opening of our Culver City location.

Q - How would you describe the theme and kind of pieces you sell in your stores?

A - At Empiric we focus mainly on vintage pieces that are modern, filtered, restored, and pragmatic.

Q - I really liked how you had so many types of pieces coexisting in your space. You had modern, mid century, Victorian, weird clinical stuff, etc all side by side and everything looked great together. Could you talk about how you formed this aesthetic?

A- When purchasing pieces for the showroom we buy as we would for our own home. Often times customers purchase an item because they love it and decide later how it will function in their space. I personally believe that beyond the necessities this is the way to shop. In retail you have to buy this way for your floor. It is how you differentiate yourself from your peers.

Q - In your house, I love the colored walls and how they match your furniture. how did you choose the colors? Did you buy your furniture before you colored the wall or was it the opposite?

A - The Paul Smith rug in our living room is bold for a small space. For this reason we chose a fairly neutral palette and pulled colors from the rug into the rest of the space using paint, pillows and throws.

Q - The square footage of your house is pretty small, but it feels really open and doesn’t feel cramped at all. Could you share some tips on making small spaces livable and fun?

A - It is all in the floor plan. By having flow from each room we don’t feel cramped in our 960 sq ft. Opening walls, and in some cases closing them off, has allowed us to maintain our privacy and still have an ample amount of room for entertaining. The outdoor patio doubles as our second living room in warmer months.

Q - Do you keep some of the furniture from your store for yourself? i would be very tempted. : )

A - Yes, of course! I fall in love with things each and every day that I often enjoy before adding them to our inventory. For this reason I have a healthy relationship with “stuff” which is one of the reasons we can manage in a smaller home.

*One more sneak peek is coming tomorrow. It’s about a single girl’s apartment!