Design Public

Beth Adams writes Crazy Us, a blog about her family and life in Utah. She and her husband Dave have two beautiful and creative kids whose escapades give her plenty of material.

When I was about eight months pregnant with my second son, Eli, l panicked and realized that I had a lot of decorating to do, or at least in the “nesting” frenzy I was in, I thought I had a lot of decorating to do. Kyle was almost two and we had recently moved into a new house. It was one of those suburban cookie cutter homes in the Washington DC area filled with big, bare white walls to cover.

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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.

Lizabeth Sorensen writes the “Daily Stroll”, a daily article profiling new designers and boutiques delivering style, humor and exclusive promotions on hot products for mama and baby. Her website is also supported by a blog and forum in which mothers from all over the world share their experiences and favorite products.

We are thinking of putting our house on the market. I should be afraid of the comments from potential buyers trampling through our home making remarks about each detail, but I am not.

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Amy’s website Amalah chronicles her life and pregnancy. She has a very succinct description of her blog on her site, but we can’t reprint it here lest we be taken out by the FTC. Enjoy.

So I’m pregnant. Very good and pregnant. Due in eight weeks.

And I’ve been working very hard to create a warm and loving and peaceful environment for our son to come home to. Look! (click to enlarge)

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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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If you don’t want to commit to having ballet shoe/baseball/ducky wallpaper permanently (or even temporarily) attached to the walls in your nursery, don’t fret. Seriously, wallpaper is pretty much permanent - ask anyone who has ever suffered through removing it or tried to paint over it.

Look to Brooklyn-based* Twenty2. Twenty2 makes gorgeous wallpaper** that you would want to be permanent, but even better, they have wallbands. ra-ra is my personal favorite, and would look great with a lot of Angela Adams rugs, like Teddy Dandelion Rugs
and Islands Chocolate Rugs. Another dynamic pick is “racer”***, which I would pair with a Wyatt Rug or a Jimi Rug. Perhaps the brown racer wallband with Dwell Chocolate Dots bedding and the Nurseryworks Upholstered Rocker. Pink or baby blue accents with brown are are great updated ways to work with the traditional girl and boy colors.

*Side Note/Query: Doesn’t it seem like all the coolest stuff is Brooklyn-based lately? What do they put in the water over there?

**Another side note: I’m mad for their ginkgo leaf “Montague” wallpaper in shower and blanche. Smashing!

***Last side note, I promise! Call me crazy, but “racer” reminds me of Mr. Kotter’s Brooklyn apartment, especially on the diagonal - remember that orange and brown diagonal stripe that said “closet” in it? Anyone? Horshack? Horshack? Anyone?

Whitney Wingerd is the founder of Mommies with Style. Prior to Mommyhood, Whitney worked in the high-tech industry for seven years as an Online Producer and Editor. She’s been published in the Hartford Courant, on ZDNet and worked on stories at local NBC and CBS stations. She’s also a self-proclaimed “Mommy Shop-aholic”. Her “Mommy” experience began in 2003, but her “shopping” experience began in the late ’70s, when she told her mother that she just wouldn’t be in style if she didn’t own a Barbie Dreamhouse.

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At Design Public, our mission is to bring you fresh new design. But it’s also to deliver this design in a fun and approachable way.

We can blog about all sorts of cool things related to design, for example, from Vespa customization to Gary Coleman sightings to watermelon strut tables.

This week we are rolling out new Kids and Baby categories, so we are going to have some extra-fun. Kid-like fun. For the next several weeks we are blogging about children and design. We’re calling it ‘Baby Blogapalooza 2005′.

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It gives me great pride to announce that Design Public has given birth to two new categories, Kids and Baby.

We’ve been expecting for a while now, and early this morning at around 2 AM (wouldn’t you know) we began to labor on our site. The labor was short — about an hour or two max — and at the end of it we brought two beautiful bouncing new categories into the world. We think they are both adorable, and the Baby category even looks a lot like my business partner Sina.

We are going to celebrate this wondrous occasion all week long. How? (more…)