today’s sneak peek takes us into the 2 story loft of sarah fox (cursive design) and jon satrom in chicago’s noble square neighborhood. between the two they make jewelry, home accessories, art, teach and own studio thread (a small video production company that primarily works with artist and non-profits). everything is run out of their home so they needed a versatile, functional space for living and working. despite being a small space, the open floor plan was the answer to their problems. click here for more, full-sized images. [thanks so much sarah and jon!] -anne
[above: 1st floor - this room is our main living area. it's a living room, dining room, kitchen and my studio. it's basically our everything room. there is a bathroom on this floor and our porch connects off to the side. when we first saw this place we fell pretty hard for the brick, exposed timber and ductwork.]
this is our dining room/my studio. in the morning i pull the curtain open and sit down to work. and at night when i’m done for the day i can pull it close and unwind. my studio used to be in the basement and i really craved being up here in the natural light. i’m finding that more influences from nature are popping up in my work since i’ve moved up here.
this is my favorite piece in our apartment. the tord boontje midsummer night light in white. tord boontje is one of my favorite designers and i draw so much inspiration in my own work from this piece. the owl plate was a wedding gift a friend got for us in portugal. and the print is from third drawer down. (it was way too pretty to use as a dish towel)
i really wanted wallpaper for this room but couldn’t afford anything i was looking at. so i decided to hand paint, and silver leaf a pattern of my own design. i am in love with this mustard color and i think bathrooms are for trying out a bold look. a couple months ago i got lena corwin’s printing by hand book and learned how to make my own stamp for hand printing. the pear/tear drop shape was a stamp i made and the vines are hand-painted and silver-leafed.
this is our 1st floor bathroom. i painted it this fresh mint color. the shower curtain is marimekko and the print is from golden hen press.
our porch is our salvation. it doubles our living space in warmer months. we basically live and entertain friends out here for 6 months out of the year. my favorite thing this year was the bunny tail grass i grew from seed and my organic herb garden. sadly our “porch season” is ending but i think we have a couple days left. the porch furniture is from a thrift store. i re-painted them and stained/sealed the wood. the table was a bookcase i found in the alley and re-fashioned it into a table. the white standing planter is from cb2, and the hurricanes are from crate & barrel.
our bedroom in downstairs. we built the room ourselves. built a frame, hung the drywall, mudded, sanded, primed, and painted. (phew!) it is a very small bedroom which we like. it feels cozier to us. we also need every square inch of the space behind this room for jon’s studio, and our video production studio for studio thread. here is our lovely cat megabyte (mega). the weather is getting a little colder now and soon she will be all the way under these covers. the quilt was a wedding gift, the light blue duvet is marimekko, the white & blue pillowcase is also marimekko (and i’m just now realizing just how much marimekko stuff we have…) the yellow pillow case is from ikea.
