Two Wishes

My Dining Chairs Are Famous!

I am crazy for vintage design. For furniture, my favorite styles come from around the 1940s, when styles began to incorporate the smooth lines and honey colors of Mid-Century Modern but still retained a few decorative flourishes from the Art Deco days. 

My pre-Mr T apartment sported a real dining room, and I decided it needed real dining room furniture. As usual, this meant searching Craigslist and Ebay for super-cheap versions of the vintage styles that I love. The sideboard and china cabinet came from a DC-area government scientist who talked my ear off about politics and science. The pieces had been in her family since they were first purchased in the 1940s. I know less about my dining table and chairs, which came from Boston via Ebay, dropped at my door by a curmudgeonly man with a trailer. 

Here's a tiny bit of my dining table legs (which isn't terribly relevant to this post, but I can't resist the puppy photo of Zoe):

And here's a chair:

Cut to last week, when Mr T and I were finishing Season 2 of Mad Men. There was an episode where Don visited an old friend in California. He was shown fixing the leg of a wooden chair. And when he turned it over, we saw this:

I can't tell you how bizarrely excited I was to see my chair on Mad Men! When the new season starts, you can bet I'll be watching extra closely in case any of my other vintage possessions show up in the background.

Have you ever had a copy of your possessions turn up in a very unexpected place?

You Think YOUR Apartment is Small?

Mr T and I aren't "huge house" people.  But with 2 grownups, a baby, and 5 pets at home all day in less than 700 square feet, it's hard not to long for something a BIT more spacious.  I admit to overwhelming jealousy every time I see photos of lovely guest bedrooms, offices, craft rooms, and the like.  (Kitchen counter space?  Don't get me started!)

But everything is relative, and once in a while I stumble across something that makes our home feel positively palatial.  Take the 100 x 100 project from photographer Michael Wolf, featuring 100 photographs of 100-square-foot apartments in Hong Kong.  

Besides making me feel great about having 6 1/2 times the space, it's fascinating to see the choices people make when they have only 100 square feet to work with.  I am too attached to "stuff," so my apartment probably would end up looking like this one:

Though I love that this guy has so much extra space:

Most of the apartments aren't exactly vying for a spot in House Beautiful, but a few manage truly lovely decorating schemes:

To think I was proud that Mr T and I coexist happily in our small space:

And I assumed our home was too small for entertaining guests?:

My favorite part of this glimpse into people's lives are the small mysteries that come to light.  For example, what's the story with this guy and his rubber gloves?

Matthew Wolf has several other interesting projects on his Web site.  I'm particularly fond of his collections of historical portraits and Chinese propaganda posters.  (Thanks to Very Short List for the tip.)

And P.S. ... Seriously, what's up with the gloves??  Would love to hear your guesses!

Eye Candy from An Indian Summer

One of my favorite blogs for pure eye candy is called An Indian Summer. Everything blogger Bhavna posts is a visual feast. Even her links and advertisements are beautiful, and a step off the sometimes-very-well-trod path of US design blogs.

Because it's cold here today and I felt like looking at pretty photos in warm colors, here are a few of my recent favorites:

(From a useful post on "How to Create Indian Style")

(India Inspired Bedrooms -- Would prefer a touch of color on the bed in the last photo, but how great is the display of artwork??)

(India Inspired Weddings)

Where do you turn most often to get your fill of eye candy?

Color Palettes -- Beyond the Wedding

We didn't have much trouble coming up with a color palette for the wedding.  But we've started thinking about combining houses after the wedding, and it turns out there are so many more color palettes to consider!

For a long time I worried about the kitchen.  We both have a LOT of kitchen goods, and it makes more sense to keep most of what we've got as opposed to registering for something new.  But my color scheme is "mostly blue", while Mr. T's is "yellow and green."  It seemed too different. 

And then, one day, I was putting away one of my bowls and one of his bowls (I've got a few of his extras) and discovered this:

The three colors actually work quite well together!  And, as it turned out when I looked in my cupboard, there was more yellow/green than I originally realized:

The only trouble?  Mr. T opposes the florals.  And I can't blame him; he's a guy.  I'd be sad to see my florals go, but truth is, I got them at a thrift store so it's no big financial loss.

But without the florals, we'd lose the multi-color pieces that tie everything together....  So here's a question for all of you who have been out there poring over registries:  Anyone have suggestions for how we could tie together aqua/yellow/green without a floral?

Floral Inspiration

I don't remember where I first came across the blog housemartin.  But I know I started reading it for home and design -- it wasn't until recently that I learned the author is also a freelance floral designer with amazing talent.  I am not generally into flower pics -- they all sort of look the same to me -- but something about her designs appeals to me tremendously.  I can't stop admiring the photos on her blog!  Here are a few favorites from the floral designs she has showcased in recent months :

Her floral design studio, Ink & Peat, is located in Portland, OR.  She'll also be starting a shop under that name in Spring 2008 -- hope there's Web shopping, 'cause I can't wait to see it....

(P.S. Clearly I'm particularly slow, as I just discovered that both Mrs. Bee and Mrs. Lime already posted about Ink & Peat earlier this year. But you can never have too much inspirational eye candy!)

Own a Rather Fabulous Piece of History

Today the charming blog beachbungalow8 posted a feature on an upcoming auction at the The Potomack Company auction house in Alexandria, VA.  The Potomack Company will be auctioning off furniture designed by Dorothy Draper in 1948, from the famed Greenbrier resort in West Virginia.

Although Dorothy Draper is no longer a household name, she was once all the rage and known popularly as "America's most fabulous decorator." She established the first professional interior design firm in the United States back in 1923, and she was the decorator of choice for a number of grand hotels and ritzy restaurants, including the cafeteria of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the private residences of the rich and fabulous. She was a brand unto herself long before the era of Martha Stewart, expanding her design work into lines of furniture and fabric, cosmetics packaging, a car for Packard and a jet interior for Conair, as well as writing regular magazine columns and a couple of popular books. (Reissues of her books Decorating is Fun and Entertaining is Fun are currently for sale, and they look fabulous!)

Anyway, in perusing the auction catalog, I came across this amazing piece:

(Lot 94, expected sale price $1,000-$2,000.)

This is no ordinary panel screen.  Apparently, it used to hide the blast doors that led to Greenbrier's secret cold-war-era Government Relocation Center.  What a find for anyone who loves both stylish decor and modern American history. (Oh, and has a few thousand dollars to spare....)

A New Household Obsession: The Jeff Koons Puppy Vase (Or Not)

I've recently added a bunch of interior design blogs to my daily reading list, entirely for the pretty pictures.  And one of my favorite pictures of late has been this one:

Photo from Desire to Inspire

Turns out, I'm a bit late to the party when it comes to this fabulous dog.  Everyone in the design community either already has a Jeff Koons puppy vase or already covets one.   Unfortunately, they were designed in a limited edition of 3,000 and now sell for around $6,000 in galleries.  If you know me at all, you know that's not going to happen!

But you can also probably guess where I'd turn for a solution ... Ebay!  It turns out there are scores of "dog planters" on Ebay at any given time.  While they may not have the same high-end lineage as the Koons vase, many of them are quite stylish.  How about this guy, who's listed for $7.50?

Or this little fellow, who's from the 1940s (according to another listing) and going for a mere $1.99?

You can search broadly for "dog planter", or try more specifically for "McCoy" or "Shawnee", which are art pottery makers who seem to have created some of the more attractive dogs back around the 1940s.  Or you can also search for breed.  (Wouldn't it make a cute gift to find the breed of a friend's dog and fill it with flowers before a visit??)

My biggest problem is that I feel I should be loyal to Zoe, but the Sheltie (well, Collie) offerings aren't really as stylish.  They tend to be more realistic rather than pop-artsy:

But I'll hang in there.  Out of the thousands of listings on Ebay every week, I'm convinced it will happen one day.  I'll keep you posted!

Color Week: Blue

The final color of Color Week comes in handy, because I've been obsessing over a certain Blue topic for a few weeks now.... 

Ed has decided to paint his bedroom, a much-needed update.  He loves blue, and after hours and hours of Internet research, he purchased pure pigments in a lovely shade of Mediterranean blue.  The trouble?  His room is situated at the back of his building, and the one window gets no direct light.  Lovely for quiet naps on weekend afternoons, not so good for owners painting in darker shades without the room looking small and gloomy.

But recently, staring at the paint sample on the wall, I was reminded of the blue trim on  Mediterranean-style buildings that I used to see in Israel:

(House of `Abbúd, Akka, Israel)

(House of `Abdu'lláh Páshá, Akka, Israel)

And I formed a new plan -- paint Ed's ceiling and trim blue, with the walls white.  Overall, the look would be of a Mediterranean house.  His furniture is dark wood -- Chinese antiques, actually, but they should blend well with the look.  And there are many simple blue-and-white patterns to be found in bedding.  With maybe an inexpensive Persian rug from Ebay (emphasis on the inexpensive because the pets will inevitably shred it over time).  The interior of these houses often used dark wood, as well as lots of plants (an actual interior courtyard garden) and Persian rugs:

(House of `Abbúd, Akka, Israel)

For art, among other things, I could blow up some of my altered Polaroids of the actual houses:

(House of `Abdu'lláh Páshá, Akka, Israel)

(Mazra'ih, Israel)
 
Ed is open to the idea but stuck on the fact that ceilings are difficult to paint.  My theory?  If Michelangelo could handle 4 years of work on the Sistine Chapel, I figure we can handle "blue"!

Color Week: Yellow

So I missed out on Green Day yesterday ... completely underestimated the disruption of attempting to blog during a family visit, especially when your family is sleeping in the room where the computer lives!  But I'm just squeaking in under the wire with today's Yellow post.

Yellow doesn't fit well with most of the color scheme of my home, but I absolutely adore the mood lift that the color brings.  I really only have three yellow collectibles that I can think of -- some fake daffodils from Target (beloved for the Wordsworth poem), a little stepstool from childhood, and a teapot that I picked up at an estate sale in NC for a couple of dollars about 10 years ago.  The three have been grouped together in one otherwise-useless corner of the kitchen counter that I think of as "the yellow corner":

And then of course there are the required rubber duckies in the bathroom....  The little guy with all the attitude on the left is said to be the original rubber duck.  When I lived in New York, I once went to the chi-chi Zitomer Pharmacy and browsed its stash of high-end products quite thoroughly, and all I walked away with was this little guy and some Band-Aids with funny patterns on them.  Guess I'm still just a kid at heart. 

Then there's the most important yellow duck in the household -- Zoe's toy Duckie.  The Duckworth Family are supposedly ergonomically engineered to fit a dog's mouth, and, while that has always sounded a bit silly to me, I've never known a dog who didn't love a Duckworth toy above all else.  Trust me on this one!

Finally, a quick shot from Home Cheap Home, the decorating book from dear, departed Budget Living magazine.  They suggest using vintage scarves to recover a lone chair, and I love the bright yellow color they used to paint this one.  How could you not be happy with this chair in your home???

And the house that made me realize that, as much as I love little yellow accents around the house, I love an actual yellow house the best of all!  Frank Black's house from the late 90's TV show Millenium:

But no matter how fond I am of yellow, I think these guys like it even more.....

(Photo by Jodi Cobb, from Fashion, published by National Geographic)

My Obsession: Sunburst / Starburst Mirrors

For many years, I have been obsessed with huge vintage sunburst / starburst mirrors.  (Although they are a staple of high-end decor, on a quick Internet search I could find only this one photo, on the Metropolitan Home website:)

Unfortunately for my obsession, the real deal isn't cheap.  We once saw one at C-Mart, Washington/Baltimore's fabulous discount warehouse for high-end furniture and fashions at a discount, but even at something like 70% off, it was still nearly $1,000 and waaaaaaay out of my range.

Thus began the long search for replacements within my meager range.  Because I purchase nearly everything on Ebay, I created a saved search on Ebay that emailed me every sunburst or starburst mirror listed at under $50.00 within the United States.  There were many because the look is having a comeback these days.  You can even find modern versions at popular stores like West Elm, CB2, and Fortunoff.  Still, a lot of them just looked cheap.  And there are a lot of factors to consider, in terms of "arm" ratio, whether there are little mirrors on the arms and if so where and how many, silver versus gold, etc., etc., etc., and none of them quite pleased me the way the gorgeous ($$$$) traditional ones always do.  The $49 West Elm version interested me, but as I waited to decide, an interesting Ebay listing finally arrived in my email inbox:

The total price?  $10.94!  That was 99 cents for the actual mirrors, with $9.95 for shipping.  If you get too close, their lack of quality is extremely obvious, but there's no reason to get too close.  After all, they hang high above the kitchen garbage can.

These little mirrors have kept me happy and content for a very long time.  Well over a year.  And then it happened....  I received this month's copy of Marie Claire Idees.  It had a crazy-wonderful photo of a sunburst mirror made out of pink plastic spoons!:

For one or two insane moments, I actually considered making one of these.  It's ... Just. So. Cute!  (Plastic spoons ... who knew?)  And then I came to my senses and realized that, no matter how cute, there probably isn't a place in my home for decor made from plastic spoons.  Oh well.

And now I'm feeling the mirror jones ones again.  Though still trying to think of creative -- read, cheap! -- ways to satisfy it.  Recently, Holly Becker at my favorite home decor blog decor8 featured the work of an Etsy seller named AnneChovie who sells lovely paintings of rooms and images straight out of home decor magazines.  Her work is quite affordable and she takes commissions, so I actually considered asking her to paint me a big sunburst mirror!  (Here's some of her work:)

But then today, as I was searching around for images, I actually discovered a couple of almost-affordable versions of the real thing.  This shop has some in silver and gold that are just over a yard in diameter (a bit small in the traditional sense, though not exactly tiny) for $259 plus shipping:

And this shop has a slightly unusual, modern design for $299, with free shipping.  It's a glorious 50" in diameter: 

Overall, not loose-change kind of money, but hardly out of reach....  Let's just say I've added both to my Wists.  You never know!

Edited on 7/9 to say that I found another affordable sunburst mirror, courtesy of the August 2007 issue of Domino.  Called "Vega," it's 45" in diameter and surprisingly only $269 despite coming from Neiman Marcus.  Their Website says it's on backorder till early August, but here's hoping it will come back in stock.  It's a striking one!