life so far
A small sampling of tonight’s project… Compiling textiles and finish materials for a final project for my class. They are ugly because they are discontinued samples that we get in our resource library on campus.
And oh yeah, this is the first time I’m writing a post from my iPhone… We’ll see how this works…
“If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
-William Morris
My professor mentioned this quote the other week in my History of Architecture class when we were learning about William Morris and I remembered that I had posted it here a while back.
I loved it then and I love it now. If you don’t love something, don’t buy it. Furniture or clothes, if you feel that you can’t leave the store without it, then buy it. I think it’s far better to have a nearly empty room than a room full of meaningless or blah furniture and accessories.
It’s finally mine. The ubiquitous 5×5 white Expedit bookshelf that you see everywhere. E.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. I’ve wanted it for years but have put off buying it because I didn’t want to pay for the shipping ($150) and the only other option would be to load up the sucker in my car and drive it home myself.
The other week I finally took the plunge and drove to the IKEA in Woodbridge, VA. I made my usual stop to get a hot dog and cinnamon roll before the shopping began and then picked up a few knick knacks I needed from around the store and then headed down to the warehouse to pick up my precious baby. Oh that’s the other thing, it is constantly out of stock. I had checked that morning and it said online that there was a high probability of it being in stock at the Woodbridge store. Guess what? It wasn’t in stock. Right then an IKEA employee pushed up a flatbed truck with my bookshelf (in 4 massive boxes) that someone had obviously just returned. I’m so glad because it would have been very difficult trying to load all 4 boxes on the flat bed truck myself.
So I get out to my car and realized I hadn’t planned very well. This book shelf is ummm, massive and my Camry is ummm, not. Thank the Lord one of the IKEA valets came up to me and (all in Spanish, which I don’t know how he knew I spoke Spanish, he just was speaking in Spanish from the beginning) totally loaded all 4 boxes into my car, it involved having to take the passenger’s side seat apart, but somehow he did it. 45 minutes later I was home was trying to get the first box out of my car when my neighbor came out of my house and saw me obviously struggling and unloaded the rest and put them on my front porch.
Are you asleep yet? My dad got it in my house and a week late assembled but I don’t want to show you the picture yet, because it’s not organized to OCD like perfection yet courtesy of several boxes and file holders I need to pick up from The Container Store, so until it looks like this:
Does that not make your heart sing? Mine looks nothing like that the moment. I love the idea of putting some kind of background behind it… I think this person actually used wrapping paper. How easy is that? (Raise your hand if you love Ina Garten).
Progress photos to come…
I love finding new (free) fonts to download. Dafont.com is one of the best sources out their for free fonts… it has a ton of them. I recently, and by recently I mean over a year ago, stumbled upon The League of Moveable Type, another great source for free fonts. It only has a handful of fonts but I’ve found some of my favorites on it, League Script and Ostrich Sans. League Script is actually what I use for my blog header (look up).
(All graphics from The League of Moveable Type)
I recently took a webinar on design tips for blogs and they recommended some other sites which I haven’t checked out yet: fontsquirrel.com, typekit.com and google.com/webfonts. I’d love to hear if you have found any other great font sites.
I’ve heard the Alt Design Summit talked about from time to time on several of the home and design blogs I follow. To let them explain what it is:
Design. Lifestyle. Photography. Fashion. Events. Styling. Art Direction. Food. Interior Design.
If you’re obsessed with lifestyle, food and fashion blogs, fantastic images, smart ideas and great design inside and outside — all wrapped up with a social media bow — Altitude Design Summit is the place to be. Because we feed those obsessions.
We’ve created a place where design and lifestyle bloggers in all their forms— foodies, photographers, travelers, fashionistas, interior designers, product placers, adventurers — come together, share ideas and connect with marketers. There will be discussions on how to grow your site, how to fund your site, how to keep your site above the fray. You’ll find panels on blogging etiquette and blogging ethics. People will share good advice for creative entrepreneurs. Friends will be made. Contact books will be filled.”
Someday down the line I would love to attend in person. I was really happy to learn that they are now offering online classes similar to what you could take at the conference throughout the year. I learned about it from one of my favorite blogger’s, Nicole from Making it Lovely- she is teaching several courses. So far I’ve registered for blogging 101 (which I’m not sure I need, but I got a little over-zealous and was registering for anything and everything, understanding analytics, content is king, getting started for advertising, and growing a readership. Obviously I went a little hog-wild. I really just love to learn when it’s about subjects I’m passionate about. I would love to take some of the photo classes so my photo taking knowledge can advance beyond iPhone instagram, but I’ll hold off on that for now. Anyways, if you’re looking to get some help/ get started blogging check out their upcoming list of classes: http://worldfunction.com/.
I was at the Kravet Showroom at the Washington Design Center the other day and I was so drawn to some of the furniture they had out. Kravet is mainly known for their textiles but they do have a line of furnishings which I am a big fan of.
I loved both these two blue couches but the navy one below was my favorite… probably the rich, deep navy color. I also liked the frame of it better than the other.
I really liked these chairs too- I liked the deep yellow color and straight lines. I would even buy them off the showroom floor with the KK on them (because you know they’d be cheaper).
I loved this headboard. I’ve always loved this style of headboard, tall, tufted, a light white variation. Restoration Hardware has some similar ones which I’m sure I’ve written about before, they just seem so sumptuous.
I always love going to the design center, I feel like a kid in a candy store… all the best fabric and furnishing lines in the country in one place… I know the DC design center is small beans compared to the NYC or Chicago ones which I’d love to get to see someday…
I wrote here how I ordered Blik’s Olivia “headboard”. It’s been an insanely busy winter so it took a few weeks to even take it out of the package and temporarily tack it up on the wall to make sure I place it in the right spot. It had been hanging on the wall like this for at least a week. I can’t decide if I like it because I’m too lazy/ busy/ scared to remove it from the backing and stick it to the wall or I really like the blue- I think it adds some needed depth/ color.
Henry wanted to help.
Anyways, this morning I finally got around to peeling it off the backing and sticking it to wall. It did not…. go well. It really is a two person job. It was like saran wrap when it starts sticking to itself.
STOP. GO GET ANOTHER PERSON TO HELP YOU. WAIT. THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BUT THESE SUCKERS.
They weren’t much of a help.
FRUSTRATION.
I DON’T NEED A MAN TO HANG THIS FAKE HEADBOARD, DANGIT.
Voila. Not too great.
Verdict: It looks great from far away but up close you can see all the crinkles and air pockets and wear I ripped it in some places and wear hair accidentally got stuck in it. It wasn’t pretty. But darn it all I put it up myself. I think there products really could be great, you just need two people for these larger things.
You know the Friends episode where Chandler is trying to break into Monica’s secret closet and when he does he finds that it’s the one place in the house that is totally unorganized?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apvf4UihPd8
I’m totally a Monica, I’m a shameless Obsessive Compulsive label making neat freak. Except when I want not to be. One area in my house I choose not to be is my linen closet. It’s really only one shelf. It all started out with fitted sheets. My motto has always been that life is too short to fold fitted sheets, so I never have, I just kind of haphazardly scrunch them into a ball when they come out of the dryer. And then I just got lazy with the flat sheets and pillow cases and started cramming them all into the top shelf of my linen closet. It’s bad people. And I have no intention of folding my sheets anytime soon.
I posted here about how I bought a cheapo IKEA pendant shade to replace the ugly fixture that was in my dining room. I finally got around to ordering and installing the medallion to cover the not so pretty part of the ceiling (correction, my dad installed). The medallion was only $8 something bucks but it really made a difference.
I’ve yet to order the shade I talked about in the previous post… I’m fine with my cheapo IKEA shade for now.
A few months ago I bought a cheapo IKEA pendant lamp to replace the ugly 70′s chandelier that came with the dining room in my rental town house. It’s working out ok as a temporary replacement. It did leave a little gap in the ceiling that I’ve been meaning to fix. I finally got around to ordering a medallion from Home Depot. Medallions are quick fixes to cover up and mess ups or to add a little decorative flare to the ceiling. I just searched ‘medallion’ on homedepot.com and sorted it by price to find the cheapest one, this one was $8 something. Since I’m just renting I’m not too interested in spending tons of cash on my house, just a quick fix.
My next thought is to replace the cheap shade with a slightly less cheap one from Ballard Designs. These small Chandelier Drum Shades are only $18 but I think it would make a big difference. I love a good drum shade.
I’m leaning towards the blue color even though I know your supposed to veer away from shades of blue in eating areas (it decreases the appetite). Red is great to use in eating areas as it increases the appetite but I think the color. I’ve yet to order the shade, when I do I will post a picture of my updated shade.
