good office chairs aren’t always the prettiest pieces of furniture, so i always love when someone turns a functional task chair into something cute enough to co-exist with the rest of a home’s decor. this great office chair upgrade comes from joanie and james, who snagged this great retro aluminum frame office chair for $10…
before i head out for the day i wanted to wrap up before & after day with two more chair makeovers. the first is from melanie in hamburg, germany, who reupholstered her father’s chair from the 50s. melanie used a lovely swedish fabric that gives her dad’s old chair a much fresher look. great work,…
orla kiely‘s fabrics and wallpapers seem to be a popular jumping off point for before & after projects these days. amber lined her shelves with orla’s paper, surya made cushions with her tablecloth, pink covered her fridge in her wallpaper, and now kelly decided to upgrade two pieces in her home with orla materials. starting…
this before & after upgrade comes from pink at casa pinka. after trying to wrap her fridge with gift wrap (with not-so-hot results), she decided to try orla kiely wallpaper. the result is so cheery and happy, how could you not want to see this in your kitchen every morning? click here for more info…
bklyn designs is coming up on may 8th and i’m starting to get excited about some of the newer companies showing this year. two of the designers i’m excited about seeing in person are shanan campanaro of eskayel studio and furniture designer matthew fairbank. eskayel creates bold graphic wallpapers that seem to burst with color…
Certainly a big simple pleasure for me here in Portland is hanging out with my friends. We do a lot of trips to the beer garden, dinner parties and long walks. My friend Karen Gelardi is a great walker. We’ll meet, walk and break down what’s on our mind concerning our artwork and balancing time…
this morning is a great morning. why? because american idol turned out exactly the way i hoped last night! i don’t want to spoil the outcome for anyone who hasn’t watched it (or who cares) but this morning i’m a happy lady. so i thought i’d start the day with some eye-candy that also has…
happy april! normally this would be an odd month to introduce a new calendar into your life, but this handy little guy is perpetual, which means “good anytime”, forever and always. we ran across something similar at a thrift store a while back and thought it would be an easy, and super customizable project that…
this past week i have been passionately involved in nineties movie madness on best week ever, where the public can vote on the ninetiesest of nineties movies (go clueless!). the relevance of this to my diy is that in my mind, altoids are a very nineties food. if there was a nineties food bracket, i…
i have a deep love for all things related to tea-consumption. i love tea cups, tea pots, tea packaging- it all reminds me of relaxing and taking a few moments out of the day to just chill out. but one thing that bugs me about my favorite tea pots is that i can’t use them…
to say that craftynest is a wealth of fantastic diy projects would be a massive, massive understatement. monica ewing, formerly a designer for sunset magazine, now runs a fantastic blog called craftynest where she shares some really spectacular diy projects. there were too many to even pick a favorite so i thought i’d share a…
as an art major in college, i spent an awful lot of time making things out of styrofoam: sculptures, models for buildings, you name it. so when i saw these beautiful pieces by kwangho lee on kate pruitt’s site i was blown away. i always felt so frustrated and limited by styrofoam (guess that’s why…
guy merrill at man make home just sent over a link to fyndes, a fantastic shop in los angeles that carries both antique and contemporary design. i found myself swooning over so many of these pieces i thought i’d round up a few of them for a little morning eye candy. click here to check…
easter is right around the corner and this cute new card from sycamore street press is perfect for sending a friendly easter hello. i’m not normally a big fan of easter imagery, but i love eva’s playful, folk art-inspired spin on eggs. click here to check it out and shop online. [click here to see…
About a year ago I started going into Homegrown Herb and Tea at least every other day and sometimes daily. Over the course of that year it became a habit that stuck and I can honestly say that it has changed the way I feel, both mentally and physically, in such a positive way. Each…
