here come the last of the altoids tins diy projects, just in time for mother’s day! my mom is a bit of a globetrotter for work, and she has definitely honed her skills at packing lightly. but i hope i can add one more thing to her travel kit with this mini tin travel frame. the nice part is the storage for extra photos inside, so she can switch it up over the course of her travels. i also want to take this opportunity to apologize to my sister for unsolicited publication of this kid picture! enjoy, and happy mother’s day in advance! – kate

CLICK HERE for the full project after the jump!

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good morning! i’m back in brooklyn today, writing as a married woman! our wedding went off without a hitch last weekend and we spent the last two days cruising around charleston enjoying beautiful weather, the smell of marsh (which i love), and incredible southern food. i ate more biscuits, okra, and shrimp than i can even remember so i’d say it was a successful trip. i just wanted to say a big thank you for all of the kind emails, notes, tweets and comments we received over the past week or so. i’m just now diving into them all and i can’t tell you how much we both appreciate your kind thoughts. thank you. (also, thank you to everyone who came out to our SCAD panel last week!)

our wedding is going to be featured in an upcoming issue of martha stewart weddings so unfortunately i won’t be able to share photos right away, but after seeing the photos they took the morning of the wedding i know they’ll be worth the wait (for me at least).

i’m still catching up on emails and work this morning but i’ll be back in a sec with diy projects and a beautiful sneak peek! also, katie runnels has another great home tour on the d*s guest blog this morning- click here to check it out!

[morning everyone! aaron and i are on our "mini-moon" in charleston today so i'm going to posting katie runnels' guest blog posts over here today. they're also on the guest blog, but i thought you guys might enjoy the interiors over here, too. so, welcome katie!]

Winifred Ross Riley or Fu (as her friends call her) is an artist and designer whose home environment is thoroughly an extension of her art. Several years ago I got to tag along with her good friend, Kathy Thompson on a visit to Fu’s when she installed a sculpture made for her friend’s garden. I fell in love with the Reilly’s funky modern dwelling, entirely enchanted by the deliberate and artful choices made throughout. Fu’s artwork runs the gamut from mixed media sculptures, ceramics, painting and screen-printing, and many may remember her decorative lighting designs that were featured heavily in design magazines throughout the nineties. Her current artwork is available exclusively through Ann Connelly Fine Art in Baton Rouge.

Winifred and husband, Kevin Reilly purchased the 1970’s home in 1988 and renovated it entirely and adding the colorful stucco sections present below. The house sits on a three-acre flood plain that does occasionally do just that, hence the house is raised 8ft amid a lush marsh-like setting that visitors often refer to as the “treehouse”. The redesign was a collaboration between the Riley’s and New Orleans architect, Leonard Silvado (deceased).

Winifred’s side entry opens up the family room to a multi-tiered modern deck overlooking her organic garden and pool. The vintage Russell Wright folding chair was purchased by Fu’s mother in the 1940’s and the contemporary prayer flags are by Kathryn Hunter of Blackbird Letterpress. The art construction over the mantle is from Fu’s new series that utilizes scrap honeycomb boards left over from a boat yard.

In the living room an unusual mantle was created from a Cypress tree that had to be felled to make way for Fu’s studio. The lounge chair was handcrafted with two-by-fours by Fu and then professionally upholstered.

Guy Martin crafted the cypress knee-inspired coffee table. The large encaustic painting is by Clark Derbes- also represented by Ann Connelly Fine Art.

The master bedroom is an oasis of natural fibers accented with vintage Tommy Parzinger lamps (for similar try 1st Dibs) and painting by Michael Crespo. Fu also had four vintage charcoal drawings framed that she found at a flea market.

This is a view of Fu’s desk with convenient built-in shelves to the side concealing personal effects. The lamp was made by Fu using a vintage fiberglass shade. The photographs are by New Orleans artist, David Halliday and the resin piggy bank is by Harry Allen available through Unica Home.

A peaceful corner of the master bedroom with a muslin chaise lounge facing a collection of Fu’s Swamp House series.

Fu has been creating these small ‘swamp house’ sculptures for several years. She often begins them as an exercise to get re-acquainted with her studio.
“If I need to loosen up when I get to the studio I’ll make a house out of whatever is in front of me. When I travel I’ll pick up leaves or sticks or something that will remind me of the place and bring it home to make a little swamp house. The form of the house was a fairly random choice as I was just looking for a 3-D shape to test out different surfaces and textures. After about ten of them I just kept going and now have close to one hundred. They are not for sale because I become attached to each of them.”

My favorite spot- a deck integrated into Fu’s lush herb garden. Chairs from CB2.

The beginnings of an organic veggie garden. Fu’s cut bamboo to stake her tomatoes in
beds raised with the same colorful stucco element featured on the home’s exterior.

Mixed-metal pod sculptures by Kathy P. Thompson (those installed during our visit) play and spout along the poolside. I love how they have aged over the years!

Fu’s studio sits to the side of the main house like a private hideaway enveloped in cypress trees. Studio design by Joey Wild of Domain Design.

Interior of Fu’s bright studio with more from her collection of Swamp Houses.

A construction piece in progress. Fu summed up the main difference between her home and studio in one word: clutter.
“Since I work with so many materials and I collect just about anything I find visually interesting, it starts crowding me out of the studio unless I use it in a piece. In my house I like things neat and in place…I am working on consuming less and getting rid of things, like a lot of other folks, I know. What were we thinking in the last decade?” On the subject, Fu recommends artist, Nigel Poor’s project, Relative Value. She also likes to keep tabs on fellow creative Southern re-use designer, Alabama Chanin through her online journal for Alabama Studio Style.

Thanks for the tour, Fu! And thank you for opening my eyes to the possibilities!

xo, Katie
The Constant Gatherer

CLICK HERE for full-sized images after the jump!

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[morning everyone! aaron and i are on our "mini-moon" in charleston today so i'm going to posting katie runnels' guest blog posts over here today. they're also on the guest blog, but i thought you guys might enjoy the interiors over here, too. so, welcome katie!]

I consider Amy, my fellow co-creator and current director of ShopSCAD to be my oldest and dearest friend. We met when she was living in my hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas and worked at Hi Lines-Pam Pemberton’s (coming up on my list of mentors!) former boutique. I consider my lucky break to have been the handful of Satudays spent shadowing Amy as I learned the ins-and-outs of retail and the magic of display. That was approximately 15 years ago! After Hi-Lines, I worked for Amy as she managed a similar boutique. There she encouraged my art career by commissioning my drawings for advertisements and then selling my work in the shop. We parted ways when I went off to graduate school in Savannah and she left to work in San Francisco, but happily we reunited two years later to create shopSCAD in Savannah…the rest, as they say…is history.

You may remember Amy’s fantastic dining room from a post Grace spotted a few months back. Here are some better quality photos for you to actually see! Amy reinvigorated the vintage mirror and generic gold chandelier with white paint. That goes for the table, and the cabinet you can see peeking out the mirror…and those chairs…and that cabinet in the living room…you get the idea. Whenever I hastily decide to sell a piece at a yard sale or give it to Amy, without fail I go to her house, see it in its glorious new light and wonder why I ever gave it away. (I suppose this is why she’s such a super entrepreneur!)

The living room is grounded on one side by brick built-in shelves and fireplace where Amy displays her collection of vintage milk glass. A collection that started and finished the same day as she and husband, Randy collected them from his grandparent’s long abandoned homestead in Oklahoma. The two inherited many vintage treasures that day, pieces that no other family members had deemed worthwhile.

Windows enclosing three of the four walls make the living room a favorite on a sunny day. The room is spacious and child friendly to the daily play operations of Amy’s adorable three year old son. The crewelwork upholstered couch was purchased from a Salvation Army in Boca Raton, Fl for $99. One of Amy’s favorite found objects is the vintage chalkware St. Theresa statue (found at an estate sale) that she feels keeps protective watch over her young family.

Amy’s spin on a classic sunny kitchen is painted in a split-pea green; a shade of paint that she and I have painted in every apartment, home, studio or business we’ve come in contact with over the past 15 years! An oversized rag rug from Pier One in friendly green stripes make this kitchen super cozy. The yarn wreath over the sink area is one of mine! Have I mentioned that Amy is the most prolific collector of my artwork? She even holds on to the wacky pieces I made in college, what she refers to as “vintage katie”.
(Photo: amyKitchen1)
The opposite side of the kitchen houses a great Hoosier cabinet (a gift from her parents-Hoosier residents!) which is roomy enough to accommodate bowls, canisters, snacks and the large salt-and-pepper collection bequeathed to Amy by her grandmother. Encaustic “Sour” painting by Woodie Webber.
The vintage cake plate reads, “If I knew you were coming, I’d have baked a cake!”

Amy’s bedroom is my favorite spot in the house; a sanctuary of birds, butterflies, and leaves abound in the matching bedclothes and curtains from Pottery Barn. A collection of found furniture-again, resurrected in white- anchor more treasures of family heirlooms and the artwork of friends. Both mixed media shadow boxes assembled by yours truly.

Charlie’s Nursery is ready and waiting for his arrival that could occur at any minute now! The classic Jenny Lind crib was a gift from Amy’s much-admired boss, Kari Herrin. Amy added the modern Dwell for Target baby bedding that complements the guest bedding and brown and white rocker from Baby’s-R-Us. The rug is by Flor, the painting over the crib is by Tim Wirth, and homespun yarn mobile by me.

This bright and sunny room was one of the main reasons Amy wanted to purchase this house. Painted his favorite color, young Billy Zurcher is always eager to show off his fun orange room with guests. He is delighted by his vintage Mickey Mouse sheet set purchased from Ebay. Amy painted the vintage lockers in a red inspired by the Flor tiles and then hand-numbered each cubbie for Billy to practice his numbers. The large vinyl giraffe is from Romp.

I asked Amy what was important to her to have in her home environment…
“It is important to me to have reminders of who I am and this means the photos and letters of loved ones, and the things they have made or given to me. My space is so personal…that it is almost painful to have anyone who is not a dear friend come over. People tend to walk around our home picking up things and questioning their origin or importance, and why I still have them in whatever predicament they might be in”
I believe she is one of the few who absolutely treasures her heirlooms, and those heirlooms aren’t the kind you can purchase at any store!

My thanks to Amy and the Zurcher family for sharing their home! xo

Special note* Amy has been busily orchestrating the launch of an entirely new and innovative shopSCAD website! It debuts tomorrow, April 21 at www.shopscad.com!

CLICK HERE for full-sized versions of these photos after the jump…

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