joëlle from umbu lumière sent over this beautiful chair makeover. after picking up this antique chair on a free “bulk goods” day (basel, switzerland’s version of curbside freebies), joëlle redid the chair’s seat and, in the interest of leaving a little bit of the original wood, repainted just the outer frame white. and my favorite…
i’ve got an afternoon of before & afters coming up (i’m posting until 2pm today, rather than 1pm) today, so i wanted to start things off with these fun projects from stacey and stephanie. first up- stacey‘s make-under. stacey’s boyfriend phil found this old desk on the side of the road covered in graffiti and…
image above via wgbh/antiques roadshow. i couldn’t resist. before we dive into before & afters today i wanted to share some quick tips from writer kay davenport. kay writs a site called antique furniture where she helps friends and family learn how to restore and evaluate their pieces, and today she’ll be sharing a few…
tonje and ingrid from darling clementine make the most beautiful cards. they recently launched a new series of woodland cards consisting of eight different designs that celebrate scandinavian folk style. you can check out (and shop) the full collection online right here. thanks, tonje and ingrid! *click here for a sneak peek of tonje’s home,…
we’re diving back into trade shows again this morning with another post on trends from the national stationery show. amy’s got another post coming up tomorrow, but today i wanted to share some beautiful floral cards i saw popping up around the show. for the past few years it felt like designers were passing up…
morning! before i jump into regular content i wanted to make a quick update about an email address change. we’re working on a re-design of d*s (to launch this summer) and we finally won back designsponge.com (yay!) from squatters, so we’re migrating over to new email addresses. so, i wanted to let people know that…
Add a burst of color to your room with this crafty pouf! At 17” wide and 10” deep, it’s large enough to serve as floor seating or a foot stool. (And if you have pets, I have a feeling they may want to make this their new favorite spot!) This project is a little challenging…
this fun faux-suzani project comes from samantha baldwin from the new york examiner. inspired by a suzani shown on the home of elle decor, samantha decided to create her own budget friendly faux-suzani pillow using felt. she was kind enough to share the full tutorial with us here today and i’m excited to see the…
in a bout of spring cleaning energy, we attacked our cluttered mess of cooking oils and vinegars in the kitchen. we love to have inspiration while cooking, and now that we’ve re-bottled and relabeled these, they are an attractive arrangement pretty enough to sit out on the counter! this took almost no time, no money,…
i’ve slowly been plowing through the 450 photos i took at icff, breaking things into trends and highlights from the show. yesterday i focused on all the circles i saw everywhere, and today i’m touching on two opposing trends i noticed: hard angled faceted pieces and soft, organic, flowing shapes. i’m talking about both in…
i keep bees on a rooftop in brooklyn and am absolutely enamored with the whole homesteading movement – i’d love to do some canning this summer (ashley, help!) so as grace and i walked through the NSS show, i was excited to see that the homesteading movement has reached stationery! and it wasn’t just bees…
i’m a huge lena wolff fan so i could think of no better way to start the day than with some of her new work. lena’s latest pieces will be shown as part of the upcoming san francisco fine art fair opening this thursday, may 20th through sunday, may 23rd. these beautiful paper collages (and…
Truth be told, I’ve never struggled over a living in post as much as I’ve struggled with this one. Every girl who holds a small but eternal burning flame in her heart for Mr. Darcy understand that Pride and Prejudice is not something to be taken lightly. I could have spent uninterrupted weeks on end…
for this week’s under $100 roundup i thought it would be fun to tackle an area that so many of us are interested in: wallpaper. when most people think of wallpaper, they think of huge price tags and hours of painful wallpaper hanging. and while that last bit might be a necessary part of the…
today’s city guide comes to us from summer redwine of fields without fences, sara poindexter of twelve21 gallery, with photos by jennifer o’malley and a gorgeous illustration from anna bond of rifle paper co. summer, sara, jennifer and anna are celebrating orlando, florida today, taking us on a tour of fantastic shops, restaurants, events, and…
tonight i am both thrilled and honored to be speaking with dominique browning about her new book, slow love: how i lost my job, put on pajamas & found happiness. dominique and house & garden magazine will always hold a special place in my heart, as they were my first real home in the design…
i am happy to introduce our latest biz ladies contributor eva jorgensen of sycamore street press. eva and her husband kirk have been successfully running their custom letterpress and stationery shop for nearly three years now, and they have acquired an abundance of advice on how to make a family business run smoothly and effectively…
this week i’m going to be breaking down icff coverage by trends i noticed, whether it was based on shape, texture, or style. today i’m kicking things off with something i found myself noticing after i processed all of my images: circles galore! the past few shows have felt very focused on angular or faceted…
on sunday amy and i headed over to the javits center for the national stationery show. after aisle upon aisle of new cards and invites, we spotted a few trends at the show: animals, florals, nautical, food/homesteading, and calendars. all this week amy and i will be posting our favorites in each category, starting today…
good morning! before we break into regular d*s content i wanted to take a second to share a post i wrote for another site. for the next few weeks i’m going to be guest blogging a few posts over at life scoop about technology. i’ve never considered myself a very techy person, despite spending about…
