Images via The Selby
Two parts inspiring, one part feeling like I shouldn’t be looking at these intimate details of other people’s homes.. not in broad daylight and certainly not on a big computer screen..
This is all time favourite Selby shoot – the home of NY consultant/entrepreneur extraordinaire Cindy Gallop. LOVE!
My search for a clock has certainly taken some time (sorry) but I’ve only seen a handful that I really like. Will need to check out some local stores in Sydney soon. I tend to shop online a lot more these days just for convenience sake; I dread the day I start ordering groceries online!
Here’s one of my favourite clocks from a previous post: the O Clock.
Oclock; Designer: Anthony Duffeleer
Too bad my apartment is tiny. I would love to have this sitting at the end of the hallway functioning both as a clock and ambient lighting. Also, wish it did not cost USD$4,229.
Love the idea of sideways digital clocks:
Untitled (Numbers) LED Clock; Designer: Jonas Damon
OK this one isn’t really sideways but with that configuration it can be easily mounted sideways onto a wall. Imagine waking up in the morning and not having to scrabble to read that analog alarm clock. Like this Emily sideways clock – what a great idea! Of course it will only work well next to your bed.. or if you’re naturally adept at reading things sideways at a glance.. or if you have a bendy neck..
Emily clock; Designer Greg Wolos
How awesome is this concept by Vadim Kibardin! A clock that is totally minimal, light-sensitive and self contained power source. Wish it was in production.
It’s such a clean, simple design that would look good anywhere!
And this isn’t a clock (duh) but a fun mirror I came across while surfing for clocks. It’s called Mirror, Mirror but I have seen it referenced as the Oh how beautiful (you are) Mirror :)
Too small to actually read but this is what it supposedly says: Oh how beautiful you are! You’re charming. You look gorgeous! It’s fantastic. You are infinitely attractive! I think that you are fabulous, just fabulous! You are absolutely delectable. Your hair is really stunning, it sparkles with life! I love the way that you do your hair, that silken head of curls and waves is glorious… and so on.
Mirror, Mirror; Designer: Joop Steenkamer jr.
Another non-clock item I am fascinated by: the Con_Sequence light by One & Co that is made using 3D printing technology!
Love the idea of gravity being a part of the design; at the same time the bottom spread of chain links means more stability. Win! Those 3D printer things will totally revolutionise the way designers create. Can’t wait for the day they will be commercially available! Seeing them in action blows my mind:
Most of these items are available online from Generate Design.
So I finally made that trip to Ikea and picked up a few things I needed. It has been a wonderfully fun process examining the differences between how I want to live and how I am living. For months I’ve been stalking all manner of interior and design blogs, from Ikea hacking ideas to the crème de la crème of mid-century goodness every other designer I know would kill to collect.
Much as I’d love to fill the new apartment with designer furniture and live in a space out of a Molteni & C catalogue, I can’t really hold down a mortgage and a full set of Eames dining chairs at the same time (or so my accountant mom tells me), not to mention no one can possibly live with minimal clutter in a photo-ready space unless you also have a battalion of maids who pick up after you, thus have settled for reasonably cheap efficient storage while maintaining lots of space and a decently balanced bank account. I love space, but I’m a bit of a hoarder, I think; I cannot stand the idea of living in a cramped space and something has to give. So I’ve started with selling most of the old furniture I bought when I first moved to Sydney. They were things I picked up out of necessity and practicality and never really liked all that much and at the same time, kind of like the shitty public transport system you put up with because the affordable alternative isn’t all that better. And the idea of having to move one day does give one prerogative to keep things minimal. So I’m starting with a somewhat half-clean slate.
Even in Sydney a trip to Ikea on a weekend is a stressful thing; the traffic on Parramatta Road heading West to Rhodes is just as bad as trying to get into One Utama on a Sunday but it was the one and only day the stars aligned: for me and the boy to both be free (well, more importantly the boy had to be free since the bookshelf I intended to buy – and bought – is almost 2 metres high and wide, assembled, and particularly heavy) and with a car big enough to haul it back.
So now I have my massive bookshelf/TV storage, that I’m actually pretty happy with. It holds my TV and enough of my books and it may actually have enough space to store socks and other small things in a drawer if I care to experiment with my weekends and some particle board.
The next thing on my list is a dining table. I am torn between keeping this bar table that I already own and buying better bar chairs for it:
Ikea Utby bar table; Photo by macgeek13
However, I think it can really only comfortably sit two people thus have been toying with the idea of buying one more in the same size thus making it dual-purpose as a work space as well as a table that sits 4-5 when I have people over. OR, sell everything and buy a lower dining table and dining chairs which will look better but will not function as a work space because the table height will be significantly lower..
The last thing I want to pick up is an armchair. Here’s something I really like that is a little reminiscent of Arne Jacobsen’s famous Swan chair (which I also like!). He is one of my very favourite Danish designers/architects. Demi Moore has one of his egg chairs in a gorgeous tan leather. This is Pierre Paulin’s Orange slice chair:
Pierre Paulin Orange Slice; Picture from Deconet
I’ve been having a debate with some of my designer friends who advised me to buy a reproduction instead if I’m serious about buying a mid-century piece, which would be much cheaper than the original. In terms of designer furniture there are three basic categories: originals, reproductions and replicas. Reproductions basically refer to licensed copies of the original, eg. Fritz Hansen makes the licensed version of Arne Jacobsen Egg chairs. Replicas are basically knock-offs: mass-produced copies that may not be made to the original specifications and have no affiliation to the original designers. Have a guess which one is more affordable?
As a designer part of me feels like buying a replica is like condoning copyright theft. At the same time, unless a lot of money magically appears in my bank account, there is no way I can afford to buy an original. The licensed reproduction Egg chair costs about A$3,000, which is fairly reasonable but I’m not sure I am willing to spend that kind of money. So I managed to come up with a solution that isn’t really a solution at all – which is to keep scouring second hand furniture stores in hopes of finding an original mid-century that I can refurbish.
It is pretty fun trawling second hand stores and garage sales on the weekends; so far I’ve come across two Herman Miller office cabinets and a Eames DSW reproduction by Vitra in a very odd blue – quite encouraging really! And Sydney has some great furniture gems I have yet to unearth. Hopefully I’ll come across an armchair I like, though I’m really in no rush to get one.
I will post some pictures of the new apartment up eventually. But until then I will leave you with this gem I found on one of my trawls:
photo source unknown
Such a great idea if you have a lot of old books and belts you have no use for! I’d love to credit the genius but I have no idea where this photo is originally from.
I love the interwebs <3
“Hey honey, did you just Google ‘how to paint a wall’ on your iPhone?”
I think I almost manage to blush.
“Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t doing it the wrong way!”
“Like from side to side?”
It was a running joke. After taking off the masking I finish off my edges with a fine size 0 brush that is meant for my acrylic work.
On that note, it should be pointed out that perfectionists should never paint a wall with a semi-lustre finish unless they know what they are doing. Because it took me four coats and it the surface still isn’t perfect (though, I did get to the bottom of it: the third coat with the wool roller had distributed way more paint that it should have, I should not have used an outdoor roller for an indoor job!) but the fourth was done with a 6″ velour roller. It covered up most of the damage on the third layer. One more layer and my wall might come toppling over from the weight of all those paint layers.
But it looks good. The wall has finally dried and with the boy’s help, paintings hung, furniture moved; boxes unpacked, repacked, moved into storage. It’s starting to come together. There is a whole lot more to do to my new place but it will be a slow progress as I’m trying not to bite off more than I can chew. Here are a few things that will keep me tied up in the upcoming months:
1. My Damien Hirst/Peter Pracilio skull project. I’m still waiting for this brilliant skull I ordered last month to arrive:
(Just FYI, Springboks are one of the few antelope species that are considered to have an expanding population, and are not in any way endangered)
Which I plan to resurface, inspired by this piece:
Swarovski Safari by Peter Pracilio
Will document the (slow) progress of this for later :)
2. A wall display/storage area. I am in the midst of figuring this out and doing some research on different materials to use to put this together. I quite fancy the idea of installing a wall-sized metal panel and using magnetic hooks – pros are with the right magnets there are a ton of other uses for the wall apart from just being a pretty place to ‘store’ my stuff. Cons are it is wall-sized and would cost a bomb to custom make and install.
3. Custom making a storage solution for my very unconventional storage area. This looks like it can be sorted with some hacking of some of Ikea’s heavy-duty storage stuff. Hmm.
Wish I had more time to spend on these fun little things! Oh, and a delivery van for a trip to Ikea.
Sx
I’ve been going a little crazy trying to decide on the perfect shade of red for my living room walls. I wish I had a little more time before my parents come for a visit – this weekend I’m going to (hopefully) see a red finish at Albert Park and the next weekend which is the Easter weekend, we’re going for a drive. So that leaves me virtually no time to get anything done before they get here which suits mom just fine – she loves painting walls (and so do I) so perhaps it will be a mother-daughter wall painting session? My mom insists on bringing her paintbrushes, I’m hoping there is enough for two!
#1 – If I didn’t have a pet I would love white sofas
So after looking at a ton of paint swatches on the weekend I’ve narrowed it down to three shades. I think I’ll let mom pick the final shade. I am leaning towards darker red shades, a lot like the old feature wall in my KL home. There is also the question of Feng Shui (of which I’ve never been an advocate but like all other energy-based belief systems it never hurts to find out more) and so I looked it up and it tells me that I will benefit from having red walls in certain cardinal points of the living area. It also tells me red in the bedroom should be used sparingly. Interestingly, Western concepts dictates that a ‘good’ wall to pick for a feature wall is the one that receives most light which is logical and at the same time corresponds to the Eastern concept of energy and light. The more I read the more complicated it gets so I’ve decided to stick to the original plan and not worry too much about my ‘chi’ since my original plan some what conforms to all these ideas anyway.
#2 – This is what I want my apartment to look like (wish I had a working fireplace)
#3 – This is probably what it will end up looking like (my place is quite hard and angular)
#4 – Oh the fridge! :)
#5 – Have toyed with the idea of wallpapering many times. But painting is way more budget friendly.
#6 – Red stimulates appetite! (lol)
Apparently having dominant colours in living areas also dictate ones personality. Google tells me that people who like red tend to be tigers in the sack. Bwahahahaha. I can think of so many Tiger/sack puns but I’ll leave you with this:
#7 – Meowr!
Picture credits: House to Home, Design Sponge, Living, etc. & Bryan Scott.
