Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » sneak peek: dave and surya

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today’s special tuesday sneak peek belongs to dave and surya of wee gallery and shop worthy. this designing duo creates art card and wall graphics for little ones, in addition to completing some lovely before & after projects in their spare time. today they’re sharing they’re beautiful 1920s st. petersburg, florida bungalow with us so i hope you’ll enjoy their home tour as much as i did. thanks, surya and dave! click here for more information, and HERE for additional, full-sized images.

[image above: Ours is a typical 1920's bungalow with the crown molding, frames around the windows, and wonderful wood floors throughout the house. Our decor is constantly changing as we bring in and sell off pieces for my vintage shop on etsy. We also have a lot of kids traipsing through the house on a regular basis, so we try and keep things simple. This shot is our living room- The extra long vintage couch (almost 9 feet, see Flickr set) is perfect for a Saturday afternoon nap. The fireplace dollhouse that we created for our daughter was reproduced by Cookie Magazine in one of their Smart Cookie features.]

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[image above: The large painting on the wall is an original Indian Warli Folk Art painting my mother gave me. We got the bench in NY on Craigslist for a trade show prop.]

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[image above: The pillow on this chair was featured in a d*s before & after post!]

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[image above: These pieces are from our dining room. My desk is also in this room, found on eBay. It's compact and cute and perfect!]

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[image above: Our dining room. This is the room we spend most of our time in. It has lots of great windows making it so bright and cheerful. We eat, work and play in here. I found the dining table with 6 chairs at Salvation Army for $80! The table has a veneer on it which makes the top unattractive, but the amount of paint and food stains I have wiped off easily has made me forgive it for that. The banyan tree tile set is made by our friend Josh Johnson who makes craftsman tile. The boy and girl print is my very first purchase off etsy, from the Black Apple shop.]

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[image above: Ever since I saw Lisa Congdon's plate wall, I wanted one too! I started to collect plates, but as I went along I realized how difficult it was to find a cohesive set (= even more admiration for Lisa's wall). So I decided to make mine myself, and I think the result is more of what I wanted.]

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[image above: Typical of a 1920's house, we have a small galley kitchen with two rows of cabinets. There's a large window on one side which brings in a lot of natural light. The floors are the bane of my hubby's existence, we love the cork, but the sliding floors came apart where the dishwasher is - I guess because of the moisture. Next time we will try cork tile which glues down. Any feedback on this would be great! The adjoining room is the mudroom where I keep all the stuff for my vintage shop. The floors of the mudroom are raw wood which I use to photograph many of my products against.]

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[image above: From our son Sid's room. All the furniture in his room are buys from garage sales or charity shops. My favorite picture is the Hindi Alphabet chart that we brought back from our last trip.]

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[image above: Sid's room, continued: Like most little boys, he loves to collect sticks, stones, feathers, and all kinds of curious objects. He uses the various containers I find to house these collections. I'm still looking for the right storage solution for his room - waiting for Ikea to come to Tampa!]

CLICK HERE for the rest of Surya’s sneak peek after the jump! (8 more pictures)

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[image above: Our daughter Anya's room: She loves pink, can you tell?! Her bed is actually a sofabed from Ikea that is now discontinued. The bedcover is from India in bright pink silk. The rug is a gift from my sister when Anya was born. Anya chose the little wardrobe for her room on one of our thrifting trips together and I have to say it is perfect for her. Just her size, and the perfect design. The large picture above her bed are from the portrait day we had at our house when we all had the flu - we painted pictures of each other and some self portraits too. It's not very good in the artistic sense, but it's a fun memory for us. The little framed pictures are postcards from wee wonderfuls.]

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[image above: a shelf above surya's desk]

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[image above: a bird hook in anya's room]

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[image above: more details from anya's room]

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[image above: more details from sid's room]

Surya–
The cork floor shouldn’t buckle by the dishwasher unless there’s a leak in the dishwasher lines or basin; I would pull it out and check all the connections. We’ve had our floating cork floor in for 4 years, installed under the edge of the dishwasher and cabinets, and no buckling at all with daily dishwasher use. At any rate, when you replace the damaged boards, I would suggest running a line of caulk along all exposed board edges near the dishwasher and sink–we did this, just ran a thick line of clear caulk to seal the roughly 3/4 inch joint from the underlayment (which is waterproof) to the top of the first floating-floorboard edge. The glue-down tiles work fine if you have a clear, level subfloor, but they’re much less cushy than the floating boards and spongy underlayment, and since I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, my feet and legs really can tell the difference!

You all have such a beautiful home! I love your simple, classy style. I used to live in an older home, which I loved, because it had similar crown molding and window frames. Also I love the plate wall you all have. Such an interesting piece of art! Great work and thanks for sharing!

re. cork- we have the tiles in our laundry room. i would suggest sheet instead of cork or else have it professionally installed. i found the glue difficult to work with (we do everything diy) and even though we positioned the tiles snug together it still looks like there is variation with small gaps in between. we have marmoleum (sheet) in our bathroom and i love it.

I have to say, I don’t mean this to be directed towards these people specifically, but after a year or so of looking at this site most of the houses sort of run together. (mine is similar too.) it’s like every 20 to 30 something hipster type is into danish modern/eames chairs/bright colors/similar looking artwork ( I hate that illustrator-y style of portraits, whatever you call it)/cathrineholm/silhouette pictures/vintage knick knacks, etc. I would like to see something new and creative while still being affordable and livable.

India: The grey paint is Behr – “Anonymous” Grey 780F-5.

Adrienne: The hippo print is a screeprint by Marushka, bought from a thrift shop.

Annonymous: The chair is a Wegner chair from a thrift shop too.

I have a folding chair with a folding footstool, just like in the third photo. They belonged to my grandparents and they said they were old deckchairs from a ship. The weaving is gone and needs to be redone. Does anyone know where I can have this done?

Hi Sandra,
The few places I’ve seen online to have these kind of chairs redone have been prohibitively expensive – to the tune of $700-800 per chair! I have some extra chairs too, which need to be redone, and I was planning to redo them myself using upholstery webbing – I saw a similar project on design sponge where somebody had used upholstery webbing to create the weaved effect on the doors of their entertainment center. Unfortunately I can’t find that project again! If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them too…

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