Design Public

Today is the final day of ‘Baby Blogapalooza’.

On behalf of the three other people in the office with me today, I want to thank all of our guest bloggers who have been with us for the past couple weeks. Your stories about children and design have made me almost want to have kids of my own.

Almost.

We already have some great ideas in the works for ‘Baby Blogapalooza ‘06′, and until then you can always read through the archives in our Baby Blogapalooza category.

So next week we are going to shift gears a little bit here at Design Public. OK, a lot. Actually, a massive gear shift, say from reverse to fifth. . .

Next week, all week, is “Pledge Week” at Design Public!

That’s right, we’re going back to college, my friends. Keg stands, food fights, rush, football, the whole nine yards. As ‘Baby’ winds down, we’ve been gearing up around the office by giving each other wedgies and smashing beer cans into our foreheads. Get ready for fab dorm room decor, easy first apartment decorating tips and tricks, and a great new category devoted to a class we’ve all signed up for, Design 101.

So if you or anyone you know is college-bound this fall, check back Monday — class is in session!

Pierre writes MetroDad. In his words, “Ever since I found out my wife was pregnant with our daughter, I’ve spent countless nights contemplating how to raise a beautiful, kind, intelligent, well-adjusted child in New York City. And also trying to figure out how to do that while retaining our hedonistic lifestyle.”

One of the more fascinating developments in human behavior that has resulted since Al Gore invented the internet is the vast spread of websites allowing people to anonymously confess their deepest and darkest secrets. Maybe you’ve seen some of these. Two of the more popular sites where you can witness this interesting phenomenon are Post Secret and Group Hug.

Me? I’ve never been one to confess anything anonymously. I’ve always felt that, aside from opposable thumbs and the ability to masturbate, the one thing that truly separates people from animals is our ability to take great pride in our mistakes, indiscretions or failings. That’s why, on my site, I’ve confessed to doing everything from drinking my wife’s breast milk to getting high with the dog.

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Chris Ford writes Modern Day Dad, a resource for stay-at-home dads. He includes the dad stuff I’ve found that’s cool, that works for the baby (or doesn’t work), as well as his own personal experiences.

There are two facts that, when you are preparing for a new baby, become painfully apparent. The most obvious is that this is something brand new. Not just new as in “Um, why did I trade my life that I’m perfectly happy with for a new one that I know absolutely nothing about?”, but also new as in a fresh start. It’s like you’re given this project completely from the beginning, and it’s up to you to make it as cool as possible.

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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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Stefania Butler writes a lot about Portland on her blog, CityMama. She used to write about San Francisco. No matter where she is, she writes about her kids.

My baby sleeps in the crib that I slept in when I was a baby. “It’s not safe,” a friend said. “It’s so old. It can’t possibly be safe. I wouldn’t risk it,” said another. But I do. I have. Twice, even. This is the second of my babies to sleep in the crib of my infanthood.

I have never doubted for one minute the integrity of the crib. My grandfather, a landscape architect and hobbyist furniture designer, envisioned that crib especially for me. How could a piece of furniture, lovingly designed by a grandfather for his granddaughter be anything but safe?

The crib is the same honey-brown hue of my older daughter’s Korean-Italian-Irish skin, and the exact color of my baby daughter’s eyes. (She has the Irish genes and will live in SPF 45.) It is smooth and cool and satiny to the touch. It’s made of rosewood, a tropical hardwood that smells faintly sweet and spicy at the same time. Like my girls, I used to teeth on it, so I distinctly remember its clove-y taste.

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Cooper and Emily are two moms with six kids between them. They live in different states (Pennsylvania and New York) and have known each other forever, so, naturally, they started a blog, Been There.

When Drew asked us to contribute to the ‘Baby Blogapalooza’ and talk about design and kids, it struck us both that when it comes to all things décor, kids have immediate and definite preferences, which appear to be formed early on. When you are a kid, who you are - your identity - is defined, in good part, by your favorite color, right?

And, if you want to wear pants under a dress every, single day, or Spiderman boxer shorts, a red cape and dark green socks, well, then, why not? Your design sense is all about what is comfortable and what makes you feel good.

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Laid Off Dad. The layoff was long, and demoralizing, and laden with stress and penury. But it also gave him 15 months of hands-on parenting that he’d never trade.

A design blog for parents is a daunting paradox, since interior design and small children go together like Purim and pork chops. If you have young kids and/or geriatric pets, you don’t have many design options. On one end of the limited spectrum, you can do as my aunt did and create a tasteful, pristine living space that no one was allowed to do any “living” in. On the other, you can give into the chaos and [literally] let the chips fall where they may.

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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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Melissa Summers writes to Suburban Bliss, a blog about, well, Suburban Bliss. She first sent us the following post, then retracted it explaining, “I sent this and then realized this has nothing to do with the topic. I guess I didn’t realize it earlier because designing a house with [my husband] Logan is a little like designing a house with a child.” Ta-da — there’s the tie-in.

My sister in law has exquisite taste and she pretty much makes the design decisions in the house she and my brother share. She once asked my brother what color he thought would be good in the dining room. He replied, “Anything but yellow.” The dining room is yellow.

They told us that story over dinner one night and I stared at them and at my husband and I wondered, why the hell I married an artist. There are no simple design decisions in my house, rather there are complex design battles.

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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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