we always love a good tip from our friends telling us about great homes, and we have joanna goddard to thank for giving us the heads up about this carroll gardens 1100sf brownstone apartment of her friend, jennifer ward. jennifer is imagination agent and creative director of minor details, a children’s interior consulting firm focusing on commercial, residential, and recreational spaces. her blog is a must see for all parents (or kids at heart), with tons of fantastic finds for the home (with an emphasis on play). in the meantime, enjoy the sneak peek into her warm and colorful home. click here for more images. [thanks, jennifer!] -anne

[Above: since we are renting, we really wanted to create a home to suit our needs without spending a ton of money or compromising  our aesthetic because we have a child. it was important for everyone to feel a sense ownership throughout  our entire home. our style is very flea market vintage with a modern twist. . . My husband is in the photography industry and our camera collection continues to grow. ]

We really wanted to create a peaceful and calm room. The piece over the bed is from Kenneth Wingard. It was the first piece of wall art that I had gotten for my daughter’s nursery 4 1/2 years ago and seemed to work here.

This is my daughter’s bedroom. I wanted to tap into the 1950 french flea market era.

This is a little corner off the dining room that also serves as my reference library. (I have about 5 boxes of books in the attic that we need more space for!). I took an old birdcage and turned it into a pendant light.

These are vintage plant holders that I turned into a lighting fixture.

In the living room, we needed a warm and cozy vibe to read or watch tv.. . . This plastic framed floor mirror was found on the sidewalk. It was an awful dark brown made to look like wood. I gave it a white paint facelift and it now serves as my daughters “mirror, mirror, on the wall.”

man do i love this before & after. not only because i love retail design (i like some of my favorite stores more than my favorite houses) but because i love to see traditional furniture used in non-traditional ways. this furniture makeover comes from arielle glade of compressed pattern studio in portland, oregon. arielle’s firm found this antique sideboard and converted it into a seriously cool reception desk for the fada salon in portland. arielle and her co-designers used graham and brown textured, paintable wallpaper (in a pattern called “paintable small squares“) for the new section of the sideboard and then made a white laminate top for the desk. in order to support the corner of the desk (and house essential computer components) they made a cabinet-like leg out of maple so that it would match the floors and blend in. it’s such a transformation and i’m so pysched arielle sent this over. it makes me want to find some fleamarket furniture and start chopping. thanks to arielle and compressed pattern for sharing!

d*s reader candlyn sent in this fun lighting before & after, complete with instructions! using a thrift store lamp, a little spray paint and some good old fashioned elbow grease she created something perfect for her daughter’s room. want to do something similar? click here (or just click “read more” below) for candelyn’s instructions and process images.

read more …

i’ve been spending the last few weeks deep in the new york public library working on our new joint video series (which launches next week!) so i’ve definitely got books on the brain. so i was excited to hear from coralie bickford-smith of penguin classics about these new pattern-inspired book covers. coralie designed this 10 book-series and included a beautiful matte foil design on each piece. i love when covers don’t rely on pretty jackets (i always end up losing those anyway) so these are right up my alley. want to see more? click here to check out penguin classics online.

update: you can buy the books in the uk right here! i’m waiting to hear from coralie about the north america retail link. will add asap!

i always have a weakness for ikat so i was thrilled to see it pop up in these beautiful deck chairs that haley of all things grow sent over. she picked up these ages wooden deck chairs at a thrift store for only $3 each. then she headed over to a closeout fabric warehouse where she picked up this gorgeous ikat fabric for $4 a yard. a little sewing and a few hours later, haley had brand new chairs. if i had a backyard or a porch i would be doing this in a heartbeat- what a great way to update your chairs each year. thanks to haley for sharing.

have a before & after you’d like to share on d*s? click here to send me your photos and story.

well hello, lovely lamp of my dreams. too bad this sucker is about $2,000 more than i can afford right now. even in economic times like these i still like to window shop…one day if i win the lottery i’ll be picking up a pair of these for my bedside tables. they’re so warm and dramatic.

ps: i had a little server glitch yesterday and couldn’t get creede’s wednesday guest blog posts up, so they’re up right now. his thursday posts will be up later at 12!