If I were to show you a photo of my bedroom you just might question my ability to work for Design Public. I have one of the smallest bedrooms known to man…a room we now refer to as a shoebox rather than bedroom…and in our shoebox one misplaced item creates a bona fide tornado scene. I have grand visions with how I want to Read the rest of this entry »

When the new Blu Dot catalogs come out each year I always try to imagine what sort of spaces they are using for the photo shoots (I am a photo dork). Are they in a studio? Are they in a home? What streets are they in? Oh, and of course, where is the lighting coming from and what sort of photo setup might they be using (ok, a major photo dork). We get a great glimpse of what they had to work with this year with their video outtakes from the shoot, but Antoi spotted even more insight. She noticed the same Son of a Bench catalog scene as what is featured in the home tour in Metropolitan Home’s November issue…

See the before (from the photo shoot):

And the after (in the Metropolitan Home article):

I could totally get sucked in and spend a few hours trying to find more common photos from the catalog and home tour. Gotta work, Ali. Gotta work!

Robbie and Patti Soskin…your home is BEAUTIFUL!

• Images from Blu Dot and Metropolitan Home

Whoa, nelly! Boy do we have a treat in store today…Kelly Osborne (no, not Kelly Osbourne) from See Jane Work has kindly shared with us some incredible images of her home. Yes, you will feel like she ripped pages out of a magazine and sent us scanned copies. But, no! This is actually her home. I would like the bathtub and the twelve chickens and the entire kitchen and the living room and the dining room, might as well through in the kids while we’re at it!

Name: Kelly Osborne

Where do you live? Thousand Oaks, CA

What do you do? VP, Public Relations & Marketing at See Jane Work

DP Purchase/s: Wow, where do I begin. This is just the stuff that shows up in the pictures…Amenity Home fabric stretch print, Mod Mom Toy Box, Lights Up! Deco Pendant Lamp, Lights Up! Floor Lamp, Blu Dot Barbarella Console Table

What’s your favorite DP product and why? Definitely the Mod Mom Toy Box – it’s such a beautiful piece. I wish she would do larger pieces like buffets or coffee tables. It’s furniture that’s also art. My kids keep their Lego’s on one side and extra train tracks on the other.

How would you describe your design style? Modern Martha. I like to mix modern with Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve ever been curious about the brains behind Blu Dot and maybe what life is like in Minneapolis…a really good time to go check both of them out would be next week around Wednesday the 24th, say 7:00pm-ish, at the Minnesota History Center, 3M Auditorium. Blu Dot founders Maurice Blanks and John Christakos will be giving a lecture titled: “There’s no “I” in design.” The premise of the lecture: “focus on what’s really important: collaboration, camaraderie, and clarity of form.” The talk will be an introduction to the exhibition at the College of Visual Arts featuring Blu Dot’s designs, furniture, concepts, and personality, starting September 25th and ending October 18th.

I just hope one of them arrives to the lecture in a squirrel costume.

The full scoop:

Wednesday, September 24, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Minnesota History Center, 3M Auditorium
345 Kellogg Boulevard, Saint Paul
Register at http://minnesota.aiga.org

If I were (corrected: thanks Adam!) off to college I would…seriously think about where you plan to sit your tush. Although a new desk chair or couch may not be at the top of your “college dorm necessities” list…it could be the one piece of dorm furniture that no one else would think of which could then automatically make your room the preferred social spot. Think about it!

When I got to college our desks were supplied with hard and uber-ugly chairs. Not sure how I endured the couple of years of dorm room living looking at such things…let alone sitting on them. We also had the courage to loft our beds and purchase a $30 grandma looking couch from Goodwill which in hindsight was probably so full of germs or bugs I am surprised my roommate and I didn’t come down with odd diseases.

Granted, the majority of college students are not made of money, but I have a few ideas that can keep you away from pained rumps and a Grandma Mable inspired dorm room while also being something you’d actually want to keep after the school year is over…

#1: A Blu Dot Real Good Chair. Imagine going to school with your chair in a little box (a moving space saver!) and assembling the goods in front of your new found friends. They will be mystified and in awe with the process and even more so by the chair.

#2 and #3: Poofs and cubes. Rather than a desky-desk chair maybe a poof or cube is more your style… Read the rest of this entry »