Chairish Color Challenge

So we've all heard of Chairish right? If you haven't then you need to go check out their website ASAP! Chairish is an online marketplace for vintage furniture and home decor. They have vintage finds from all over the country for every room in your home. It is a great place to find unique and one of a kind furnishings.

I was contacted by Chairish last week about creating a bold color mood board designed around one of their many vintage accent chairs. It's no secret I have a chair fetish so I was happy to oblige! I choose this Mid-Centruy Beauty to work with:

I loved the color and the clean lines. I paired it with a dark grey sofa and the design quickly took a moody yet cozy turn. Maybe it's because fall is just about here but I would love to be sitting in this room sipping some coffee right now!

What I'm Digging Lately: Iacoli & McAllister

I've never been a big jewelry person. Maybe that is abnormal for girls but I've just never been that into it. My poor husband- while most girls would love a piece of jewelry for their birthday or Valentines I'm kind of like- Meh. Not that I don't think jewelry is a great gift or would be ungrateful if I were given some- it's just not what excites me. (Vintage furniture is more my thing :) 

Well that perspective has changes somewhat when I discovered Iacoli & McMcallister. They are a team of designers who use their knowledge and skills to create some of the coolest jewelry and furniture I've seen. 

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I love the simplicity, the use of natural material, and the use of color. I like the clean lines and modern look. Just love over all. And I not so subtly hinted to The Hubs that I wanted this necklace for my last birthday:

(He got the hint..:)

They don't only make jewelry either. They make amazing furniture that has won awards and is giving me some ideas of my own.

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But what originally turned me on to them was their lighting. I don't remember where I first saw it but I was in love right away. If only I could afford it...

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They also have a lot of other items as well. Like this bottle opener for example:

I don't usually use bottle openers but maybe the Hubs needs one? That still might be a gift more for me than for him. I just want an excuse to buy it.

I think this pink paper weight would look nice on my desk! Now that I'm working I need my desk to look cute right?

Maybe some cute mini pedestals? For all the plants I don't have but might get soon?

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I just want some more Iacoli & McCallister in my life if you can't tell.

Their website is pretty fun to poke around too. Their "about" story is interesting and they have some pictures of their studio. It's for great inspiration and makes me want to toy around with new ideas and try to be creative and original as well.

Modern Masculine Office Loft

Hey Friends! I'm back with another design mood board- hope I'm not boring you too much with these lately. I haven't had time for much DIY with my work load suddenly picking up steam. 

I am enjoying the ride though. It's nice to be doing some design work again!

This client is a hotel broker who wanted to update his office. He spends a lot of time there and is hiring an assistant was is ready to spruce the place up a bit. It is a pretty cool office space with brick and big windows. (which you can't see well from the pics but oh well)

The only thing we can't change is the ceiling- the landlord won't allow it. But new flooring is an option as well as paint. The client also wanted to create a separation between him and his new assistant. So here are the floor plans:

Basically the plan is to give him some privacy by building a wall between the two rooms. We are also building out a cabinet and counter to make space for a fridge and coffee maker, and closing up the rear door.

The next step was looking at new furniture options. The client needed a new desk for his assistant, a couch and chair, and art work all to go with his existing desk.

Option 1:

Option 2:

We discussed wood flooring for the office but it doesn't look like it will be in the budget. So far the client has bought the chair and coffee table from Option 2 and all the art work!

We are still making some tweaks to the furniture selections but this project is moving right along. 

What do you think? Which option would you have gone with?

Master Bedroom Progress

I've had 5 million things going on (Well more like 4 but it feels like 5 Million). One of them, the marathon, is over with. But the other 3 I'm still working on and am dying to to share with you- it's just not the right time yet. 

For now you'll have to settle for some photo updates of our Master Bedroom. I made up my mind that I'm not going to procrastinate and let this room sit unfinished like I do with so many other rooms in our house. So here are some before shots just to remind you where we started:

Wallcovering Wall Panels- A Renter's Solution

Design Dilemma- you update one part of your room and then you have to update all of it. It's a serious problem people!!

Case in point- my new super awesome patterned wall panels!

I was lucky enough to win a roll of wallcovering from 2Modern several months ago. Since then I've thought about how I would use it in our home.

DIY Mod Plant Stand from a Stool!

Hey Friends! I'm here with my first official project of 2013. Whoo!

If you read up on Monday you may remember this guy I picked up at a local furniture auction:

A sad little stool that was likely headed for the burn pile before I bid $5 on it and took it home. I have actually been looking for a little stool for a while. My plans were to cut it up so I'm glad I got this one for cheap.

A Blue Redo For You

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! My LSU Tigers had a heartbreaking loss but thats ok; I'll get over it.

And don't forget that the Ana White giveaway ends today!

I wanted to share a makeover with you today. I found this metal vintage card catalog drawer at the Goodwill several months ago for just a few dollars. 

Furniture Designers I Love

It's no secret I love furniture, especially Mid-Century Design. The clean lined, forward thinking designs of the mid-century era still resonate with people today as evidenced with it's popularity today.


Perhaps my favorite designers are the Eames- Charles and Ray. 

An American husband and wife design team most famously known for their furniture designs but were also great architects, industrial designers, and film makers. Their view that stylish furniture should be affordable for all gave them great success in the post war era. Everyone wanted to work for the Eames because they believed design should be fun and playful- an idea they expected from their employees as well.

Oh Eames Lounger; how I covet thee.

One day I will have an Eames chair, be it a vintage or new one. I will have one!! Once I save up the money.... You can buy their pieces new from a Herman Miller Dealer or from places like Design Within Reach.

Another awesome designer is Charles Pollack. 

Though he gained his fame from the Sling Chair he developed for Knoll;

He is most famously known for his Pollack Office Chair. Designed with comfort and style in mind the chair is still a best seller today.

He has recently come out of retirement with a lounge chair line he designed for Bernhardt; the CP.1. Awesomeness!

Another designer I want to mention is Florence Knoll. In a field dominated by men she designed and produced some of the most well know pieces of the mid-century. 

She trained as an architect and is known as a champion of planning and "total design". She and her husband formed Knoll Associates and encouraged other designers to develop their own modern designs. She developed new ways of planning that are still used today.

Couldn't you see this in a home today!?

There are a million others I could name but I'll just leave you with 3 for now. 

I'm not sure when my love for clean modern design began but it culminated in college during Interior Design School where we learned about all the modern masters. And also at an internship I did at a Herman Miller dealer where I was exposed to the classic furniture on a daily basis.

Today I like trying to mix old and new together in our home. Slowly but surely it will come together. Maybe I'll even have my own Eames Chair one day!!

In the meantime-

Here's some stuff I have been working on; (I promise this blog will not be all baby stuff but it's all I've been able to do lately...)

So ever since I found out I was pregnant I wanted to give my baby the coolest stuff around. None of that Baby's R Us everyone's got one junk.

I had seen these cool wall hangings on Design Public and loved them! But a) they weren't the right color and b) they are way expensive! Here's the website incase you want some of your own: http://www.designpublic.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=spot+on+dog

So I tried thinking of ways I could make them myself and make them my own. I started by borrowing my mom's scroll saw thinking I could become a master scroll saw-er. Well turns out its not the right kind of saw for this purpose and I can't buy any attachments for it since its so old. Massive Fail as my friend Shelby would say.

Here's the scroll saw wasting away in our shed

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So I needed another approach. I thought- hey why don't I just paint them? Hello!! So I saved the images I wanted from the website and sized them to the size I needed. I found some ready made frames from Walmart and covered them with a white sheet.

I painted the backgrounds the color I wanted them, cut out the images and traced them onto the squares. Then carefully filled in a cat, dog, pig, and cow. Now sweet little Con-man has animal friends to look at all the time!

I found the frames at Walmart for about $11 each. I used an old white sheet I had gotten from the thrift store for $1 and used paint I had left over from painting our house. So for about $45 I have custom made artwork that I won't mind having to get rid of when Con-man wants a change of scenery.

Much better than $260+ I would have spent on the wooden ones online!