Indigo by Leslie Thompson
It’s Friday. It’s going to be a snowy, hibernation type of weekend. I bought a new Mac.
All is right in the world.
Hope you have a great weekend!
Breathe
Monthly Archives: February 2010
Clawed Confusion
There is nothing that makes me want to take a long bath more than a old, beautiful clawfoot tub. I think they’re SO MUCH more inviting than even the most chic modern tub. And the clawfoot is just as charming on other pieces, don’t you think?
Clawfoot Umbrella Stand via Renest
Clawfoot Table by Confused Direction, via Design Milk
How does your table grow?
When preparing my tabletops for a harvest dinner pot luck last fall I became obsessed with the idea of using little birch tree stumps as candle holders or for platter stands. Luckily, my office is right near the flower district and I was able to stop one of the flower shops after work and find exactly what I needed.
I’ve kept those trees on my tables since then, adding a red ribbon for the holidays and creating a stark centerpiece for winter. I imagine with some greenery they’ll be equally lovely in the spring.
Moral of the story, trees make for good table decor.
Birch Tree Basket, via Design Sponge
Tree stumps by Readymade, via Thoughtful Day
Gotham Gardens
Nikki and John's Cozy Style, via Renest
Logs
Stacked Wood Wall via the ever fabulous CasaCara
Rustic Wood End Table via Renest
Two lovely ideas for those who have access to large stacks of wood. You know where you can find lots of sticks and logs? On the island inhabited by the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. Charlie and Mr. Echo were building a church, but I think I’d build a table like this one.
Lost
I’ve watched at least 10 episodes of Lost this weekend. This must be some sort of an achievement – or does it just sound pathetic? I suppose it depends on what side of the island you’re on…
Anyway, with Lost on the brain, I thought I’d explore the idea of repurposing old airplanes.
First I found a airplane wing table from Reestore…
Airplane Wing Table by Reestore, via Inhabitat
And a further search yielded an entire line of furniture made from vintage plane parts from Motoart. To be honest, much of it is a little too “stranded on a island” for my tastes, but I did find a few pieces that are kinda neat.
Room Divider by Motoart
Galley Cart Bar by Motoart
Frame (with picture of loved ones) by Motoart
Scrappy
made from scrapwood
made from vintage window casing
made from scrapwood
If I were a piece of scrapwood, I’d want to find my way to the Piet Hein Eek workshop and become one of these beautiful pieces. Not a bad second coming for a window casing either!
PS. How awesome is it that it’s finally Friday?! What a week! Hope you have a great weekend!
All images via Piet Hein Eek.
Grrrrrrr
A few weeks ago, I finally watched my first Werner Herzog documentary, Grizzly Man. It’s about a man who lived with grizzly bears in the wilds of Alaska for thirteen summers. The story is fascinating, and I highly recommend it. However, the ending… let’s just say that the “bears” I found below are much more pleasant.
First we have reclaimed rugs cut into animal shapes from Stefan Lehner.
via Apartment Therapy
And next is a variation bear carpet made from a wool blanket by Lise LeFebvre.
via Apartment Therapy
Mama, let me know when you’re ready to replace that old oriental rug in the basement, I have an idea…
Empty Frame + Chicken Wire =
For months, no wait, years, I had an empty (no backing, no glass front) distressed frame on a wall of my living room.
This frame was one that my friend Meredith found on a street in the LES. When she moved back to NC, I jumped at the opportunity to inherit it, not having any idea how I’d use it. So, for years, this empty frame adorned my wall. My former roommate, Dan, and I liked to claim it held symbolic significance.
When I recently moved things around my apartment and painted a wall, my empty frame was relocated and again found itself homeless. Upon seeing the chicken wire frame below on the Urban Outfitters website, I became inspired.
Thus began the search for chicken wire in NYC. After multiple calls to garden and hardware stores in Brooklyn, I found the elusive material at a hardware store on Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg. I actually went on my first date with BC carrying chicken wire, birch tree stumps (for a harvest tablescape), a roll of burlap and nine flour sack towels.
The next evening, I started the project slightly later than planned – it was 3am. I also didn’t have garden clippers to cut the chicken wire. But I was determined, one tortuous hour, a little elbow grease and many, many chicken wire cuts later….
Voila! It temporarily hangs proudly on my living room wall… until it will take up permanent residence in my bedroom to house my earring collection.
Looks pretty good, right? I’m just glad to have figured out a way to keep that frame around longer - and for cheap!
Ode de Steamer Trunk
There’s a delicious little book I read a few years back called “The Red Leather Diary.” It’s about an UWS girl who one day (in 2006) spots a load of steamer trunks from her building’s basement discarded in the dumpster. She and her neighbors dumpster dive to find the treasures that await, and in one steamer trunk she unearths a red leather diary. The diary contains the adventures of a teenage girl growing up in the same building on the UWS in the Roaring Twenties. The UWS girl, who is book’s author, painstakingly searches to locate the diary’s author and then interviews her to supplement the diary with the author’s memories. It’s a really wonderful book.
This is the first thing I think about when I think about old trunks. And then I think about brides of the past bundling up their their wedding trousseaus. Ladies filling their trunks to set off on adventures abroad. Families packing up their trunks to make it big out West. Adventure, journey, romance, excitement.
You can understand why I love seeing an old steamer trunk still used today.
via HGTV
Readymade, via Renest
Source unknown
Lola et Moi Home Tour, via Design*Sponge
Charity's Gramercy Apartment, Salvaged Grace Home Tour
I remember being at an antique store with my mother (I must have been 8 or 9) and in the back of the store there was this ginormous Chinese antique traveling trunk. It was twice or even three times the size of any of the trunks on this page. The shop owner had affixed a large plate of glass atop and made the chest into a dining table. I’ve never seen anything like it since, it was spectacular.
Blanket Effect
Designer Jo Meesters has got us covered with his Odds and Ends/Bits and Pieces collection, “which is entirely made out of 34 discarded wooden beams and 16 leftover blankets, and based on upholstering and weaving techniques creating soft variations of everyday objects.”
via Rethink and Reuse and Apartment Therapy