our second sneak peek is into graphic designer/illustrator michelle armas’s patterned atlanta home. michelle is yet another of our talented finalists from the lena corwin printing by hand contest. it was great seeing her submission photos, but so much fun getting a deeper look into her home. planning to buy a home - when the real project begins - in the next year, her goal was to make the place feel homey (on a budget), keeping purchases simple, sticking to craigslist, thrift stores, vintage and floor samples. i do say that she succeeded with flying colors! [thanks, michelle!] -anne
Dinning room: Dinning chairs were such a score! 50’s woven leather and chrome chairs, 6 for $150 on craigslist. I felt kind of guilty paying so little for the, that girl just didn’t know how cool those chairs are…Our table is from DWR, we bought that in Brooklyn, it was my work desk and took up half of our living room, crazy.
Living room: our couch was ridiculously cheap, a sample at a boutique around here. The back cushions are not great quality so we replaced them with down pillows, much better. Green pillow from Pottery Barn, red pillow from Lena Corwin. The side tables are actually night tables from Victory Vintage, my favorite place to buy anything in Atlanta. The coffee table was a sample, not my favorite, but hey, it was cheap! I also printed the striped curtains in the living room. The home had these horrible, cheap blinds, and I wanted to replace them, but not spend too much, and be able to re-use whatever I went with. I ordered the fabric from my favorite discount wholesale fabric shop, made the print, and put them up with book binding rings, I can always use those, and you can’t tell. Later on, I can use the fabric to make something different.
I love all the windows in my office, they all look at the back of the house, with several 100 year old trees, actually it is kind of a jungle back there, and high up. At my desk I have an “office” phone because my actual day job is doing Spanish language sales for O’s business. I have a cute boss :)
We have a malm bed, and I hate to make it, actually, I hate making any bed. I make sure that we have interesting sheets, all mis-matched, but l like that. I dont fight my bed-making phobia, I work around it! I just throw out the sheets and the bed cover that was a gift from my mom in the morning and let them fall where they may, I kind of like it that way.
We put excess dishes on the chrome metro shelf from Container Store, it works here, but later, it can go anywhere, those baskets hide pots and table clothes and I like the contrast with the metal. The oil above it was made by some guy in 1974, it still smells like oil, and I love how 70’s it looks.
The West elm parson’s desk was a sample, I love that lamp, I got it for $15 at Marshalls! I have lots of things from artist Lena Corwin, and that is one of her plates there, we put mail on it.
I got the wooden chair on craigslist for about $100 from a prop stylist, and that pillow is from Lena Corwin.
