Design Public

So I started to tell you about the Modern Atlanta Home Tour yesterday but I didn’t get very far! I wanted to show you more from my favorite home that I saw on the tour (stairs described yesterday are pictured above). By the way, I only made it to five. I’d say five to six is the maximum you can really see when driving from place to place in a five hour time limit. It’s exhilarating but also exhausting. Also, once in Decatur my car automatically drove me to Victory Vintage, and I stopped by my house for a snack before visiting the house down the street. That’s how I roll.

O.K. So first, the architects who live in the house with a soul also designed this house around the corner (photos immediately above and below). It’s absolutely gorgeous, and the inhabitants have a smart mix of high end items and art and IKEA. I just found myself wondering if all the stuff they usually keep out was smushed in the “not part of the tour” closed door rooms, or if they are really this strictly minimal. That’s cool if they are, I just know that I could not accomplish such discipline in a million years:

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As some of you know, I lived in Charlottesville Virginia for eleven years. Every time someone came to visit, we went to Monticello. Then when I went to graduate school for landscape architecture there, it seemed like I was either walking what was then the future site of my Roads teacher Will Reilly’s walkway up to Monticello or doing a historic preservation class and studying Mulberry Row, or exploring the roundabouts starting way below at his father-in-law’s estate property. Once my friend Chad even got me access to the Dome Room. I think I could give the Monticello tour with my eyes closed.

Last night I went to bed thinking a lot about old T.J. and how he had his foyer arranged. Is my life racy or what??? Anyway, it was meant to be a museum, full of artifacts from the territory in the Louisiana Purchase, maps, Natural History and American History. This is how one hangs antlers Louis-and-Clark-style,* under the auspices of a Natural History Museum:

Don’t you feel like designers today are still emulating this composition? It’s so interesting! Maybe this will bring real antlers back in, who knows.

I just received my copy of Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern (yes, I wait until books get a little cheaper sometimes, thus I’m a bit behind). I loved the way Amy and her husband David have created what they call “the nature study.” Amy describes it as “a kinetic environment where we can study and display our finds. We really have a ‘catch and release’ program with rocks, leaves, shells, plants, and branches. In order to keep it from cluttering up, we’ll study a piece for a while, and then take it back outside.” I love it! It’s so Jeffersonian! This idea also translates well for families with kids - what better idea than to provide them with their own mini-musuem.** Check out Amy and David’s Nature Study:

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Looking to coordinate your bedding and your Fatboy? The long wait is over! The new Fatboy’s by Dwell are live on the site!

This is Dwell’s first licensing deal, and we hold the worldwide exclusive for a limited time.

Check out the complete collection here.

OK, I admit it. I don’t have any children. In fact, nobody who works here has any children, so what do we know? That is why we invited all the fabulous parents who blog to Baby Blogapalooza - they actually know what they are talking about, and we didn’t want to fake it! However, we like to think we are ok at sniffing out fantastic furniture, and we’ve been choosing a lot based on what we’d want for our hypothetical children.

Enter ducduc. Seriously, I want some of this stuff for me, and I’m 33 years old. I don’t know if this means they are great at designing furniture meant for children that is universal, or if I have some serious inner child issues. I’d like a graphic on my own bed like the one on the Alex crib, with an arrow that says “girl” (well, technically, I guess it should say “woman,” that’s not as fun). I’d also like orange Alex dresser and a PJ play table. In fact, I noticed that one of my favorite stores, Delaware River Trading Company, has a table in the window where their in-house designer has scribbled all over the top in pencil. I think I prefer the chalk version on the PJ table. By the way, once you and/or your children are tired of the chalkboard, you can flip it over to the lacquered paint side and bring it on down to the living room.

So whether you are shopping for your child or your inner child, you are good to go with ducduc. Finally, the Austin Credenza has holes in the back for all of your electronics if you do not need the toy storage capabilities!

View the ducduc collection of children’s furniture.

Elizabeth Thielke writes Busy Mom (go figure). “40 years old, married to Busy Dad for 15 years. 3 kids: Busy Girl (10) Busy Boy (9) and The Preschooler Formerly Known as Busy Baby (3).”

I may or may not have a talent for home design and decorating, I’m really not sure. When faced with a room that needs that special something like oh, say, paint, I tend to freeze up and not know what I want and, therefore, don’t end up doing anything. I think it stems from growing up in a home with all white walls and linens; my father wouldn’t tolerate anything else. Fortunately, I live in an old house that is detailed enough to be interesting on its own and I don’t have to do a lot to it downstairs. Upstairs? Not quite as interesting. It needs a little more effort.

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Kris Bernard blogs regularly for BLTD.org, a daily online magazine about affordable design.

One of the best things about having kids (aside from the intrinsic joy of getting to nurture them and watch them blossom into young adults) is getting all the miniaturized things: tiny shoes, itsy clothes, and small furniture. The latter can be extremely tricky since 98% of children’s furniture is over-designed (and you could be unintentionally teaching your child all the wrong concepts about life: propagation of design error, disposable consumerism, primary colors as a fundamental design scheme, etc.)

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Kyra and her husband Robertson founded Twenty2, a Brooklyn-based design shop producing a variety of textiles and wallcoverings. Their latest creation is Wallbands, a line of easy-to-apply, pre-pasted, washable wall patterns.

Kids really seem to dig our Wallbands. When we showed our 5-year-old nephew Brooks some early samples of our Wallbands collection, he immediately said, “I want to see all of them” and proceeded to spread them out on the floor and choose his favorites.

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Mrs. Kennedy writes Fussy. And to her, “writing well is the best revenge.”

White towels are a bad idea if you live with a four-year-old boy. Or a forty-five year old man, or yourself, who inhabits a body that houses a soul that never learned to bleach anything without burning a hole right through it.

We recently moved into a condo that gave my son and us, his parents, our own separate bedrooms for the first time in our family life. Decorating decisions were made and at least one of them spawned from the demon seed of Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse! Disney Colors is a line of interior paint I found at Home Depot on one of fifteen or so disorienting trips to the big boxes to agonize over carpet samples and bathroom fixtures. I was drawn, zombie-like, to the colorful rack of paint chips near the cash register, their unearthly colors a strangely compelling antidote to hours of contemplating the mind-numbing nuances of beige and chrome. I quickly collected a fat handful of sample cards and stuffed them into my bag, wondering who was going to have more fun playing with them, me or my son.

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IMPORTANT AMENDMENT!

I wrote my Top Ten Baby Gifts List before we had the Zid Zid Cushions up on the site. For frivolous fun, there are the Zid Zid Animal Shaped Cushions - I think I am most drawn to the elephant and the giraffe. Then again, the crocodile reminds me of my preppy 1980’s youth, and you have to love a pink zebra…basically, you can’t go wrong. Plus, for less than fifty bucks, you have not broken the bank yet you’ve given the gift that stands out in the sea of generic* baby gifts everyone else is sending.

If you are more generous with your baby gift budget than I am, go for the Zid Zid Mini Poofs. These are artsy little squishy cushion seats for tots. The designs look like they belong at MoMA, the color combos are totally unexpected, yet they still meet the universal standards for “cute.” Seriously, whether new mommy is a modern design aficionado, a Pottery Barn junkie, or into Kountry Krafts, you can’t lose.

O.K., seriously, as far as the modern Kids and modern Baby categories go, I think these might be my new very very very favorite! I mean, I am 33 years old and childless, yet I really want the giraffe cushion and am desperately trying to figure out how to make it work in my place. Check out the Zid Zid site to find learn more about the adventurous spirits of the founders, the inspirations provided by Moroccan artisans and the names and talents of all the pillow animals.

Greg Allen is a father who writes Daddy Types. His site collects useful gear, advice, news and resources for all dads, but especially new ones. Eventually, he hopes Daddy Types’ influence will extend beyond dads, to improve the lot of mothers–and kids–too.

As I was reading over some of my older posts, I kept thinking that some of the best comments weren’t mine, but a reader’s. (shocker, I know). I thought I’d just pull some juicy quotes from various threads, and let people link through if they want to. Sort of a “lessons learned” kind of thing. Here goes:
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