today’s next before & afters both come from across the pond. first up- designers mathilde and christine from studio ma+ chr, who recently redecorated the cafe/restaurant nambodaï in paris. the project was incredibly extensive and really gives the space a new life. i love that patterned stairway! great work, mathilde and christine! (click here for more images from the renovation on flickr)

[have a before & after you'd like to share on design*sponge? shoot me an email right here with your (low res please) images]

CLICK HERE for jane’s ceramic makeover and the rest of the parisian restaurant transformation after the jump!

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today’s first before & after comes from d*s reader jen eckert. jen saved a beautiful wooden chair from the landfill and decided to update it with a coat of soft yellow paint and two different fabrics. i love the combination of yellow and grey (always) and the way that different seat and back fabrics really add an extra layer of detail. great work, jen! check out nichole’s dresser makeover after the jump…

[have a before & after you'd like to share on design*sponge? shoot me an email right here with your (low res please) images]

CLICK HERE for nichole’s silver dresser makeover after the jump!

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good morning! over at the d*s guest blog brooke from inchmark is continuing her week long design-ode to the alphabet. she’s got not one but two posts today focusing on animated abcs (ie: ray charles sings the abc’s) and a fantastic roundup of alphabet posters! click here to check out both posts.

i love the seventies feel of the colors on these giant wood beads, so i decided to embrace it and make a cozy little chandelier for over my small dining table. the softness of the yarn and the smooth beads makes this a very fun lamp, perfect for winter evenings. you could also spray paint the beads a color and go monochromatic (black perhaps?) for a more dramatic, modern look. this is a fun project to do with children as well (another good one for movie time), because it’s really just stringin’ beads! have fun! – kate

CLICK HERE for the full post after the jump!

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the first thing you’ll notice about annie coggan’s home is the chairs. there are chairs in every nook and cranny. if you look a little closer, you’ll notice that these aren’t your run-of-the-mill seat furniture. in addition to design classics like a womb chair and an eames rocker, there are chairs with embroidered detailing and side chairs that have been painted and fused together. after many years of brooklyn living, annie moved her family – and her chairs – down to starksville, alabama mississippi where she and husband caleb teach at the college of architecture, art and design and are also partners in coggan crawford architects and designers. just last year, together with brother ted coggan, annie opened little building café, annie designed the space and it’s filled with even more of her chairs! {thanks annie, caleb and madeline!} – amy a

[Together with our daughter, Madeline, Caleb and I arrived in Starkville in 2007.  Madeline and I immediately fell in love with this house - a 1902 Queen Anne in town.  It is unruly - more space than we need but a very welcome change after life in a compact Brooklyn brownstone. The house has become a laboratory for my furniture design work and I always try to balance the room with color, since my attitude about color is there is no bad color.

This is our living room or as 19th century ladies used to say "the best room," which I love.  It does have all our Best Stuff in it. The light is a modern take on the southern chandelier culture.  It is from the Turkish company Auto Ban. The wing chair is a piece I made. I embroidered a map of William Faulkner’s homestead Rowan Oak and the green fringe on the seat is meant to represent the colias in the front half of his garden. All the mats in the house are by Christopher Paul.]

The Saarinen Womb chair is the most favored chair in the house. It sits directly in front of the TV.  The blue side board is a piece I designed – it’s painted metal and meant to accommodate speakers, books, games, etc. The drawings above are mine.

The Eames rocker was a birthday present from my husband.  The yellow chair is part of the garden series of chairs that I am working on – This one is Eudora Welty’s garden. The large painting is a student painting of Caleb’s and the small ones are from Brooklyn painter Jason Novetsky.

We are firm believers in Ikea when in need of drawers, closets, or shelving – this bunch has been in two houses.

CLICK HERE for the rest of Annie’s peek on one page!

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