Apartment Therapy

I was featured on Apartment Therapy as part of their Great Outdoors series. I am beyond thrilled! Here is the post...

Thanks to AT! I read them everyday.

Whole City of Toothpicks

I saw this today on Apartment Therapy and thought it was so good, I had to post it again. This guy amazes me. Check out the video on youtube.

He built the city of San Francisco over a 30 year period with toothpicks! It's 7 feet wide and 9 feet tall.

More Chairs and Flowers

Holy cow! It's been three months since I've posted. I guess that's what wedding planning will do.

Anyways, now that I've essentially missed spring (on this blog), let's jump ahead to summer! Every summer, I plant flowers in pots on my porch. I guess it's my way of convincing myself I have a garden...

I found these two cool chairs in someone's trash on the way to work one day. They have great lines, and the cut outs are awesome. I wanted to use them inside, but really didn't have room.

Here is what they looked like before. Not bad, but the fabric was all dirty and the wood is kind of ugly:



And here they are after:



Project Breakdown:

Chairs--FREE!
$8 white paint
Ikat fabric (already had)

So the total of $8 for two new chairs that can be used outdoors/indoors = SWEET!

And here the chairs are with my newly potted flowers. Oh yes I also spray painted some of those pots silver.









Please ignore that ugly fence in the last shot. There's nothing I can do about it since I rent...

Mother and Daughter Team Up!

I came across this mother/daughter team in Traditional Home while I was waiting at the dentist's office. Not a day or two later, I've seen this cute apartment circulating all over the blog world! And why? Because it's so fantastic. Simple and serene, yet playful and a bit feminine. I want to get rid of everything I own and start over. That's what good design does, right?!

Mother and daughter, Suzanne and Lauren, have a great blog called goodbonesgreatpieces.com/blog.

Here is Lauren's sweet apartment:







Don't you love that lucite bench with the antique desk, the yellow gourd lamp, and the ticking loveseat? Oh my! Such great stuff here!

Calico Fabrics!

Well, I ventured out of the house finally! We had 2 and a half feet of snow over the weekend, and needless to say, I needed my shopping fix! ha ha! So I went to Calico Fabrics.

I love their fabrics, but the saleswomen are incredibly snooty. They don't even say hello until you've been wondering around the store for 10 minutes. I was eyeing this beautiful ikat fabric when the woman asked if I needed help. I told her I had a lime green sofa and throw pillows in this aqua color and exact pattern (see below). She tried referring me to some other fabrics with lime green and aqua, and I didn't like them at all. I said, "I love this ikat fabric so much I want to make it work," and she said, "well it's not working." Just like that. What the hell does she know about my taste? I was so annoyed. So you can't mix patterns now? Ugh! Why would I want matchy matchy? Oh well.

Here are the swatches. Maybe they don't work, but I love them! And they're just throw pillows for crying out loud! Plus the shapes are similar...





And here's the lime green couch:



Is it too busy? I don't think so.

Dream Room

How do I make my living room like this?



When it looks like this?



I want a lighter, airy feeling to this room. I'm not sure how to achieve it with the green sofa and yellow curtains. The curtains could easily change, but the sofa is harder to replace. Any suggestions? I have great light in my apartment, so that's not the problem. I also have a lot of dark wood furniture. Perhaps replace the coffee table? Ugh! I want all new furniture.

Kristan Cunningham's Rental

I stumbled across Kristan's home on the LA times awhile back, and then was thinking of it the other day. I always liked her on Design on a Dime! So I did a search and found it again, with more images this time. I am so in love with this place. I will let the images speak for themselves. But what I really want is those silk grey curtains and wingback chairs. I die... Seriously where I can find those curtains.