good morning! i wanted to start out today with a new design from downstairs studio. the sprout bookshelf hook is a clever little hook that uses the weight of books to hold it in place. i’m shoving things onto the tiny ledge of our bookcase so something like this would let me hold things in place much more easily. and for an office shelf? even more convenient. downstairs studio is currently showing the shelf hooks at CODE09 with the designboom mart in copenhagen- if you’re in town be sure to check them out. thanks, karen!

and over at the d*s guest blog caroline has a beautiful post on decorating with houndstooth. click here to check it out!

sara jensen always sends me such fun links. last night she sent me a link to designer emiliano godoy’s new ‘drip table’, made from sustainable teak saplings. i love the cobbled together feel of all the bits and pieces of saplings and the different wood tones you get from each piece. i definitely wouldn’t mind sitting down to a meal at this table. click here for more information on emiliano’s work. thanks, sara!

happy wednesday morning! i’m heading off to one of my favorite flower shops this afternoon but i wanted to kick off the day with this great new desk from danish designer gesa hansen. based in paris, gesa recently debuted her “hansen family” line of furniture and this desk is the first off the line. i love the simple colored cubby holes- they make for such sweet spots to store office necessities (and remind me of a fun spin on the nelson swag leg desk). click here for more info on gesa’s work (and to check out her lovely hansen family website).

meg has another fun guest post today…all about rope! click here to check it out.

ac and i are heading out early today for our last trip of the summer. we’re escaping to little school house from the early 19th century (complete with a separate sleeping house) for the weekend, but i’ll be back on monday with some great home tours and a special feature on one of my favorite san francisco sweet shops. until then, i wanted to end the week with some beautiful pieces from the girls at bokja. they’ll be showing at tent london (i want to go so badly!) as part of the quirico company, so if you’re attending the show be sure to check them out. i hope you all have a wonderful weekend- see you monday! below is a summary of this week’s highlights…

• must read posts of the week: sneak peek: alyn carlson and paul clancy, a tale of 2 ikea hacks
• living in: little women
• past & present: the history of the fork (collecting and care)
• biz ladies 09: preparing presentations & proposals
• we like it wild: breakin’ the law (wildflowers)
• new city guide: buenos aires
• sneak peeks: alyn carlson and paul clancy (wow) la finca, kelley moseley, tugboat print shop
• diy projects: made with love: potted topiary, vintage sheet file folders, vintage hotel key rings
• before & afters: a tale of 2 ikea hacks, seating makeovers, a tale of 2 cabinets, claire’s chair & kyla’s kitchen, alison’s headboard
• small measures with ashley: home canning
• new recipe: in the kitchen with jennifer davick’s mini fig pies with honey mascarpone cheese
• student design: copenhagen student design show
• misc: felt pillows from undercollar, new pillows from judy ross, furniture by valentin löllmann, vitra trays, the new saipua store, modular storage from benjamin peters, found my animal leashes

good morning! today i’m kicking things off with this beautiful shelving project from designer benjamin peters. the u*shelf is a modular shelving unit that allows the user to build and shape the shelving system to meet their own needs. you can create a variety of random shapes and the components themselves are both lightweight and sturdy. click here for more information on benjamin’s work and here to contact him about purchase.

also, over at the d*s guest blog, amy has a fantastic post about artist hattie newman. she creates fairy tale-type worlds made of paper birds, gingerbread men and rainbow-colored villages. click here to check out her incredible work.

sometimes the combination of beautiful furniture and photography just knocks me over. these pieces from german designer valentin löllmann, created from bits of old “forgotten” furniture, are so lovely i can’t resist them. i love the lighting in the photos- everything is so moody and gorgeous. i’d love to have that sofa on a sunny screened in porch. with a pillow it’s just right for morning coffee and the paper (anything more comfortable would be nap-inducing for me). click here to check out more of valentin’s work online.

quick note: i’m looking to have a little brainstorm/research session with a few regular d*s readers in brooklyn this week. if you’re in the nyc area and are free to join me this week, please drop me a line right here. the coffee and sweet treats are on me.

[this post is the seventh in a series of guest posts we'll be sharing from our summer correspondent in copenhagen, brittany watson]

Hi folks, After 6 weeks of often little sleep, constant travels, and definitely lots of printing we showed our digital textile prints at the final exhibition of the Danish Institute of Study Abroad students this past week held at the Royal Academy of Architecture. Can I please let out a little sigh of relief please? Sigh. Thanks, much better. We were joined by the architecture/interior design and furniture design students and it was pretty stellar if I do say so myself. Six weeks is a short amount of time to pack in four printing processes and a final show, but it was all worth it. Well, you decide. Thankfully, I’m here for a couple more weeks soaking in all things Scandinavian before it’s back to Washington, DC to start school again. In other words, this isn’t the last of me quite yet! -b. [image above: Just a few of my awesome fellow textile design classmates: Sarah Griner, Katie Chappuis, Natalie Apuzzo, me, Amanda Barnes, and Shif Whiteman.]

Paying homage to my Danish ancestry, I dubbed my final print “Watsonville.” I began with the shape of a family tree and added buildings rotated along a central axis and then breaking off into “branches.” Many of the buildings are iconic Copenhagen structures, confirming the notion that cities, like people and families, are living, breathing, and constantly evolving/revolving over time. I kept my test prints in a book I made with a contrasting green fabric and added two more books, one for sketches and the other for products I made with my print using Photoshop.

CLICK HERE for the rest of the post (including all 20 images on one page) after the jump!

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