OMG, people, I am so over the whole "Keep Calm and Carry On" thing.
It was vaguely charming at first, but that poster has become so ubiquitous -- like the pink "For, Like, Ever" prints that suddenly seemed to pop up everywhere -- that it's become a cliché. (Please don't hate me if you have one hanging on your wall. To each her own -- and if it makes you smile when you see it, then, well, carry on.)
So when I was scrolling through my daily blog reads just now and saw this on one of my new faves, Reclaiming Miss Havisham (authored by the refreshingly snarky and occasionally acid-tongued young Miss Leslie King, who tends to like things darker and weirder and isn't afraid to thumb her nose at prevailing decorating trends), I spewed the coffee I was drinking all over my computer screen.
Right on, sister. Because sometimes, y'know, you just feel like a smartass bitch -- and during those times, Reclaiming Miss Havisham is the design blog for you.
P.S. Leslie, where can I get mine?
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
That's Random: Look What Leslie Made
Etsy Find of the Day: Norajane Pillows
Check out these super-fun and affordable throw pillows from Etsy seller Norajane. They're a bit smaller than normal -- many measure about 12 by 12 inches -- but that just means there's room for more of them! Above: Chocolate Teacups, $18
Aves, $18, and Japanese Blossoms, $22
Trees and Sky, $18, and Echino, $20
Leon and Leona, $30
The In Crowd and The Out Crowd, $20 each
See more from Norajane right here.
The Artful Home: Christopher David Ryan Leafy Mysteries
I love this set of 15 ethereal "Leafy Mysteries" images from Brooklyn graphic artist Christopher David Ryan. Above: Figure 8.
Figures 10 and 13
Figures 5 and 6
Figures 14 and 15
Figures 1 and 2
Each 11-by-17-inch print is $20 right here. See more of Ryan's work here and here.
Monday, May 19, 2008
House Voyeur: Fanciful in Florida
Several months ago, I fell in love with Jen Renninger's dreamy artwork. I had a feeling that her home might be equally lovely, so I asked if she'd be willing to give us a virtual tour.
Happily, Jen agreed. But she also warned me that architecturally speaking, the Tampa, Florida house she shares with her husband, Bill, dog Barley, and cats Zoe and The Dude was nothing to write home about.
That didn't deter me at all, because honestly, not all of us are lucky enough to live in a home with great bones -- something that would be beautiful almost in spite of what we put in it. But creating a charming home from something a little less spectacular takes talent, creativity, and vision, not to mention a healthy dose of resourcefulness. And I had no doubt that Jen possessed all of those gifts in spades.
I was right: Jen has taken a somewhat cookie-cutter suburban house and filled it with bursts of cheerful color, absolutely arresting vignettes, and wonderful surprises around almost every turn. And she's done it all on a very tight budget, using thrift-shop scores, found objects, bits of nature, and her own gorgeous artwork. At the end of the day, that impresses me a lot more than a pedigreed home that's had a huge decorating budget and a top designer thrown at it.
Here, Jen offers a glimpse of her fanciful abode in sunny Florida:
"Our house is a fairly plain, standard suburban two-story built in the late 1980s. From the outside it’s all garage, which isn't terribly attractive. But the inside is simple and just right for highlighting our things. Our style is eclectic, and I guess you could say our home is 'artsy.' We like to create little vignettes of things around the house. Our interests run the gamut: Part midcentury modern, part 'Cabinet of Curiosities.'
Our biggest inspiration is probably photography. Bill and I both studied photography in school, which is where we met. I’ve always been into details, but looking at photos (especially still-lifes) really gave me a foundation for placing objects together in what I hope is an interesting and pleasing way.
I think Bill is better at overall room design than I am -- he can take a room and readily see elegant placement and flow. I get muddled and want to clump things together. We make a good pair that way -- we create a good balance.
I love the light in my office during the day; it’s bright and inspiring. That's my work scattered about.
The wall just over our fireplace, which is covered in starfish, is another favorite feature. The starfish wall was inspired by the artist Kiki Smith. She created a star wall for an exhibition and I've had a postcard image of it sitting on my desk for years. I also have a soft spot for scientific collections (taxonomy of any kind, really).
A few years ago, Bill gave me a collection of shells and sea creatures for Christmas. He'd found it at a yard sale and knew I'd be thrilled. I unwrapped box after box of labeled shells and sponges and starfish, among other things. I used specimen pins -- like what you'd see holding butterflies in place on a specimen tray -- to attach them to the wall. I kept them off the wall by about an inch so they have a slight shadow behind them. Sometimes they just seem to be floating there, like stars. The Bell Witch poster came from a shop in New Orleans.
Our couch (below) is from Scandinavian Designs, but for the most part we find things at thrift stores and flea markets and then refurbish them on our own. The apothecary chest in our dining room was a $50 purchase that Bill spent six months refinishing. The Sealtest Ice Cream sign is one of my pieces.
My advice: Look for classic designs to complement smaller, more unusual decorative objects. We have a few Heywood-Wakefield tables (that lazy susan coffee table is the best!) and an Eames RAR Rocker, which is my husband’s favorite thing ever. But other than that everything is based on how charming we thought it was when we found it. The painting of the woman with the branch of oranges is one of mine, and Bill took the two framed photos on the wall.
I think it's important to stay true to the things that inspire you the most. For us, that includes lots of art -- our own and others'. The artwork hanging on the wall in our stairwell is by Kathie Olivas, and the rainbow-colored piece is by our nephew, Gavin. We also collect work by Jill Faustnaught, Raydel Shanks (my sister), Jill Dryer, and Brian Reedy.
The work over the bed is Bill's. The porcelain bowls on the side table are from Alyssa Ettinger. (I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!) The kudu drawing, below, is mine from high school.
I have a soft spot for found objects -- leaves, shells , bugs, butterflies, rocks -- and tend to use those a lot in decorating. Remind yourself to always look for the beautiful details in everyday objects."
Thanks so much for sharing your truly inspiring home with us, Jen! And readers, don't miss Jen's incredible artwork here and here and here.
(P.S. Want to see more? Click here for a peek inside other readers' homes.)
Shameless Request: Want to Show Off Your Home?
Calling all creative homeowners and renters: Show off your deft decorating, renovation, and garden design skills here!
Your house or apartment doesn't have to have grand architecture or be done to the nines to be considered. Small and modest is great. Budget decorating is great. The key components are creativity and freshness.
Hell, you don't even have to show off your whole place -- I'd love to see a single room, a completed renovation project, or even a small area that you've decorated and are particularly proud of.
If you're interested in offering up your abode for one of my "House Voyeur" tours, please let me know!
eBay Find of the Day: Painted Antique Armchair
Sometimes, I'm a thoroughly modern girl -- all about clean lines and sleekness. Sometimes, I like things with a funky, industrial edge -- oohing and aahing over patinaed and battered metal. Sometimes, I'm retro all the way -- give me vintage or give me death. And sometimes (though not very often), I'm kind of girlie -- drawn to things that are fresh, feminine, and fun.
This chair is definitely calling out to my girlie side. The antique, Swedish-style armchair has a bit of baroque flair, but it's been lacquered in pure white, giving it a more modern sensibility -- and maybe even a sense of humor.
Current bid: $295
Friday, May 16, 2008
The Artful Home: Valero Doval at BlueFlip Art
Some great new prints (including Japanese Poster No. 3, above) from Valero Doval just went up at BlueFlip Art.
Doval, who was raised in Spain but now resides in London, is an illustrator who has exhibited in Europe and has done commercial work for clients such as Paul Smith, Timberland, and Volkswagen. I really like the combination of retro imagery and delicate handwork on these pieces.
Japanese Poster No. 1 and No. 4
Zeppelin No. 1 and No. 5
Each 11-by-15-inch archival giclee print is $38. As with all of the art for sale at BlueFlip, 10 percent of the proceeds will be donated to charity -- in this case, Action Against Hunger.
See all of Doval's new BlueFlip prints right here -- and check out more of his work here.
Mark Your Calendar: Whitney Smith Studio Sale
Two of my very favorite local artisans, ceramist Whitney Smith and felted-goodness goddess Patty Benson (aka Papaver Vert), are teaming up for a studio sale this Saturday, May 17.
Jewelry designer Leah Rivers will also be on hand with her beautiful handcrafted creations.
The studio sale takes place at 539 Athol Ave. in Oakland from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 17. (Can't make the sale? No worries -- Smith, Benson, and Rivers all have Etsy shops!)
P.S. Check out the virtual tour of Smith's pottery studio (above) that Victoria of sfgirlbybay put up earlier this week, and the House Voyeur tour of Benson's Alameda apartment (below) that I ran not too long ago.
P.P.S. Locals, don't miss this roundup of the other fun Oakland events happening this weekend, courtesy of my buddy Jessica's blog, OaklandGoods.
Etsy Find of the Day: Cathy Nichols
The image above, called Spun, caught my eye several months ago. I stuck it in my Etsy cart, as I often do when something grabs my attention, and went along my merry way. But the image stayed with me. I don't know what it is about it, exactly, but I keep coming back to consider it.
Perhaps it's the sense that it can be read more than one way -- as sheer, childlike delight at the dizzying, exhilarating sensation that you're floating on air after a gravity-defying carnival ride. Or maybe it's the slightly unnerving suggestion that something has gone awry here. Or perhaps there's a third interpretation: That this girl has somehow been liberated from gravity and other bothersome worldly constrictions after her thrilling ride on the spinning contraption. (I guess you could call it a Rorschach test of sorts: Do you see unbridled summer-fair glee, disaster, or a break for freedom depicted in the simple image?)
Maybe this is the same girl, being borne into the sky by a cluster of balloons in Aloft. Or maybe not. Or perhaps, as usual, I'm just overanalyzing things. But still, I dig it. I'm pretty keen on the rest of the slightly surreal, candy-colored prints in New York painter Cathy Nichols' Etsy shop, too. Take a look:
Hello Summer 1, 2, and 3
Summer's End 1, 2, and 3
Day Off
Sanctuary
4 Songs
Cathedral
Each 7-by-7-inch print (on 8.5-by-11-inch paper) is $28. See all of Nichols' Etsy offerings right here -- and check out more of her work here.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Mark Your Calendar: Birth of the Cool in Oakland
I confess: I don't go to museums as often as I should. I will, of course, make a point to visit big-city museums like London's Tate Modern, San Francisco's de Young, and New York's MoMA when I'm in town. (Did I ever tell you about the time my son, who was then a toddler, gleefully leaped into what he thought was a ball pit but that was actually a 3D installation at MoMA by a really famous Japanese artist whose name now escapes me, and how we were then quickly escorted out of the museum by horrified security guards? Ah, good times ... )
I tend to forget about the smaller, less glamorous museums in my own backyard, though -- like the Oakland Museum of California, which I believe I've only been to once, and that was while chaperoning a second-grade field trip. But there's a new exhibition arriving at the Oakland Museum on Saturday, May 17, that I'm pretty excited to see, and that will finally snap me out of my hometown-museum slacking.
Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury "looks at the painting, architecture, furniture design, decorative and graphic arts, film, and music that launched midcentury modernism in the United States." The show includes a jazz lounge; film, animation, and television clips; Van Keppel Green furniture and architectural pottery; a period art gallery featuring hard-edged abstract paintings; art, architectural, and documentary photography; and an interactive timeline that highlights California, national, and international culture and history in the 1950s. Featured artists, photographers, musicians, filmmakers, architects, and designers include Lorser Feitelson, Julius Shulman, Miles Davis, Oskar Fischinger, Richard Neutra, and, of course, Charles and Ray Eames.
Though Los Angeles was the epicenter of the American Modernism movement, the Oakland Museum has added a dose of contemporary homegrown cool in the form of Cool Remixed. The exhibit examines modern-day "Made in Oaktown" youth culture in the form of graffiti, DJs, themed lounges, street fashion, scraper bikes, skateboarding videos, a quarter-bowl skate ramp, impromptu hip-hop performances, and T.U.R.F. dancing, as well as art rendered on car hoods, hubcaps, and sneakers. (Random Oakland claim to fame: Both "hella" -- hence my "I Hella Love Oakland" series -- and "hyphy" sprang from O-Town's dense primordial soup before entering the American lexicon.)
Birth of the Cool and Cool Remixed will be at the Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak St. at Tenth, through August 17. Museum admission is $8 for adults (although it's free on the second Sunday of each month). Catch them while you can!
Design Dilemma: Help Me Find a Yellow Shower Curtain
More Ways to Waste Time reader Joanna writes, "My bathroom has turned out to be the greatest design challenge in my condo. The color -- a 1970s neon yellow -- is very strong. I've tried to compliment the yellow with aquas and apple greens, but it doesn't work. I'm looking for a lemon-yellow and white shower curtain that isn't vinyl with ducks on it, but I'm gun-shy after failing with the last six shower curtains I've tried (yes, six). Can you or your readers suggest anything?"
First of all, Joanna, can I just say that I'm actually a little jealous of your lemon yellow bathroom? Yellow's such a cheerful color, and though it's been a challenge to match, at least you're not stuck with an impossible pink-and-maroon bathroom like mine.
Anyway, my initial thought is to simply use a white shower curtain. It's fresh and clean and might help offset all that yellow a bit. I especially love the frilly, feminine White Devil Shower Curtain from India Rose, above, $96 at Burke Decor. Or you could just get a plain white shower curtain and jazz it up by sewing a band of yellow fabric across the bottom, or by simply glue-gunning on a length of yellow ribbon or rick-rack as contrasting trim.
But if you're set on a yellow-and-white patterned shower curtain, I scoured around a bit and found a few options for you:
Pottery Barn Tile Print Shower Curtain (center), $59
Anthropologie Languid Leaf Shower Curtain, left, and Sundew Shower Curtain, right, both $88. I like these because they have just a dash of sunny yellow on a mostly white field.
Marimekko Unikko Shower Curtain in Lime/Yellow (left), $49
Restoration Hardware Butter Collection Shower Curtains, $79 each
IKEA Saxan Shower Curtain, $4
When I started thinking about it, though, I realized that you shouldn't limit yourself to just shower curtains. Pretty much any kind of curtains could be pressed into service in a bathroom -- you'd simply need to use a waterproof liner so they don't get splashed and retrofit them with grommet holes or hang them on a pressure-mounted rod if your regular shower rod isn't detachable. (I like Anthropologie's Spiral Vine and Climbing Dahlia curtains, above, $98 and $88 for one 50-by-84-inch panel.)
You could also just pick out some fabric you like and have your local seamstress or drycleaner seam and hem it for you -- and voila, a totally custom shower curtain. Here, some yellow-and-white fabrics that caught my eye:
