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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I was perusing the photos I’d marked as “faves” in flickr last night and came across this one from flickr member patia.  The color combination was fresh and at once familiar, so I started to flip through all of my sticky note-laden magazines to find more examples of deep indigo blue and bright lime green.  I thought I’d share them with you:

from House Beautiful (I love the unexpectected use of indigo grasscloth in a few of these):

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Yesterday I forgot to mention that Vanessa De Vargas of Turquoise in L.A. is now offering E-decorating services to her repertoire. This meansanyone from anywhere can simply email Vanessa pictures of their decorating dilemmas and receive her help over the web. These consultations include “furniture placement, wall and furniture color ideas, where to buy and what products and artists to purchase from.” For more information, please go to the Turquoise website to contact Vanessa. Did I fail to mention awhile back that Vanessa is now blogging for decor8? Be sure to check her out there as well!

photo from turquoise-la.com

I love slideshow-ing through eyewash designs’ photos over at flickr.  WARNING:  Do not go check out her flickr account unless you can afford to burn some serious time.  You will be spending a long time there once you are sucked in!  Anyway, here’s a recent favorite:

eyewash design is Alane Golden, a true renaissance woman who also has a fabulous blog right here.   Thanks Alane!

Spring is just around the corner so now is the time to start thinking about outdoor living. With the warm welcome of sunny days ahead, let me introduce the Zen Outdoor Bench by Aric Mayer and Marni Saling of Aidan Olive. The Zen Outdoor Bench is beautifully crafted using local materials, local builders, and local facilities. Enjoy the Q&A!

I am very curious about both of your previous experiences or “past lives”…

Aric, you appear to be a man of many artistic talents. I noticed that you have worked with all sorts of mediums such as paint, wood, film, photography…you even learned how to build your own tools! How has your artistic background impacted your designs and business practices? How would you describe your design style/philosophy?

AM: It seems that what I work in comes first from a personal need to be in that medium. Then I start at the beginning and strip the materials back to their basics. With painting for a while I went all the way back to Vasari’s notes and made all my own paint and ground from scratch, (more…)

“‘Decorating as such doesn’t interest me. It’s a question of mixing things, of making associations between periods, color, objects - like an installation for living.’” - Francois Halard.

Halard’s dwellings in Arles and Manhattan were featured in the February 2008 issue of Vogue. His astute attitude towards design, his mastery of mixing, and his expert photographer’s eye are apparent throughout. Here are a few examples:

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I am pleased to introduce the newest baby and kid furniture line to be added to our site: Spot on Square. Co-founders, Bob and Nicole Springer bring a clean and calm collection to the scene, keeping unnecessary noise away from your child’s treasured space.

The Hiya series, a nickname given to Bob and Nicole’s son by his twin sister, conveys a childlike sense of purity, simplicity and sustainability. Enjoy!

Where did the name Spot on Square come from?

Our son was drawing on the driveway with chalk. He had drawn a square with a circle in it. When I asked him about it he referred to as the spot in the square. Nicole and I thought this was great graphically and began to think about how we could use it. After a bit of thought we came up with Spot On Square. We felt that this was a good fit being a bit of a play on words yet it was quite playful at the same time.

Bob, you appear to have quite an extensive industrial design background. Tell us about your experiences and how has it evolved into to starting Spot on Square? How about being a father, how has this played a role?

I had the opportunity as an undergrad student to be an understudy to an eccentric Finnish designer named Stefan Lindfors. During this time I worked on a number of furniture projects and gained a love for furniture design. My time since has been primarily in a corporate environment. (more…)

Remember the other day when I was raving about the vintage wallpaper in the eating nook of a Metropolitan Home kitchen? As I continued on my magazine recycling purge, I found some more. This dining room, designed by Bunny Williams and featured in O: Oprah at Home magazine features a large framed piece of vintage wallpaper as well.

I turned to eBay, sure I would find something inspiring to share with you, but there is so much ugly listed under “vintage wallpaper” that I could not go on looking past a few pages of it. Then I got enraged by all of the “Panton Eames Era”keyword spamming and quit. Finding vintage wallpaper fit for a modern room is tough! the only one I found at all fun was this one:

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Lately I’ve been a bit bored with design, in the sense that I’ve felt oversaturated with it. I read too many design blogs, I receive too many design magazines, I have too many gorgeous design books. At least that’s how I was feeling before the holidays. Now that we are into boring January and I’m laid up with a headcold, I’ve been able to peruse all my glossies at my leisure without guilt, enjoying and studying the beautiful spaces (BTW, I stopped counting at 6 hand or foot sculptures and countless Suzanis - in fact, it became a challenge to find an issue without a suzani in it).

Sometimes a space just jumps out at you as just right. Although everyone and their brother seems to have a Saarinen tulip table and these wonderful chairs from DWR, this eating area is just right. I love the colors, the funky, unique, vintage-looking light fixture , and the amazing framed piece of vintage wallpaper framed from floor-to ceiling. How great to pull up a crazy modern paisley upholstered bench up to the round table. They shot is styled to casual-looking perfection. Bravo and thanks to Metropolitan Home, photographer John Ellis and Interior Designer Sasha Emerson!
photograph from Metropolitan Home Dec 07, photographed by John Ellis.

Hey All!  I’m still journeying back from Boston but wanted to do a drive-by with this lovely loft slideshow that just popped up in the Fresh New Spaces flickr group.  I especially love the kitchen island and coffee table and would love to know the story behind them.  Thanks to flickr and Fresh New Spaces member somethings hiding in here for sharing with us!