This week’s flickr fave comes from flickr member hindsvik. Antique stores have been chock full of card catalogs ever since computer monitor have become the main storage for the Dewey Decimal System. It’s kind of sad really, that today’s kids will never have the experience of flipping through index cards and actually understanding alphabetical order, but the good news is, they make for great home decor items. I love the contrast of these two colors and styles of card catalogs here – it works like a sculpture. This is the epitome of “vintage modern” style!

You can check out Hindsvik’s blog here and get the look with help from their etsy shop.

How would you use a unit like this? What would you store in it?

Ahh, Spring. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining and the weather is prefect for sitting out on your deck or patio. If you’re like me, still using those butterfly camp chairs to enjoy the outdoors, it might be time for an upgrade. Luckily our newest designer, Kartell, has you covered! Be the envy of all of your neighbors with the Kartell Dr. NA Table and matching Dr. NO Chairs. Available in a variety of mix-and-matchable colors and made to withstand the weather, they are a perfect fit for your modern outdoor space.

View the entire Kartell line on Design Public.

Some of you may have been as stunned as I was when Eileen Gray’s Dragon Chair went for $28 million at the Yves Saint Laurent auction a year ago. While I find this figure rather ridiculous, I glean a lot of inspiration from my latest book acquisition, EILEEN GRAY. I’m also seeing some of the roots of Kelly Wearstler’s latest Bravura Modern phase (I’ve been trying to understand that since that Domino with her pool house in it came out). Now I am starting to see it everywhere!

You are probably more familiar with the Eileen Gray side table. They use it on practically every episode of HGTV’s The Stagers (I love that show, Canadian accents are the greatest, eh?):

My latest inspirations have come from her early play with geometry, namely the squares and rectangles she seemed to embrace before she got into curves. The following are from her lacquer phase:

Her Bilboquet Table: I love those Jenga-like legs!:

This woman was rocking tassels on her Lotus Table before Jonathan Adler’s parents, maybe even his grandparents, were even born:

You know, this post is going to get to darn long. I think I’ll stop here before Monday is over and continue showing you some treats from the fabulous Ms. Gray next Monday!

Dragon Chair image via Unbeige

Side Table image via amazon

All other images via EILEEN GRAY: Design and Architecture, published by TASCHEN

We are totally digging the designs over at dylan gold this week. Everything they make forces you to think “Hmmph, check out that little twist” or “Ha! That’s clever!” or “Why didn’t I think of that?” However, the piece that gives us the environmentally friendly happy glow is the one that reuses waste pieces of wood and puts them together into a beautiful piece of furniture. The Wasted #1 and Wasted #2 coffee tables are modern and clean, yet they pulled together from a patchwork of scraps, which is very apparent. It’s a great dichotomy. I also like the idea that each one they make will be dictated by which pieces they collect, and thus will be unique. There’s nothing like having a piece of furniture that no one else will ever have.

Wasted #2

Wasted #2

Wasted #1

Wasted #1

What makes it green? Materials may vary, but those shown are Europly, Marine ply, exotic and domestic hardwoods – scrap pieces that would otherwise have wound up in a landfill.
It is coated in water-based polyurethane.

For more information on where to buy and to see the entire collection, click here.

The newest addition to the DP family: Mod Mom Furniture. Mod Mom, aka Kiersten Hathcock, personally designs and builds all of her modern, mid-century inspired children’s furniture from her home garage.

Personally, I think it is hard to beat beautiful handmade furniture built by a mom with a power saw.

Enjoy the Q&A!

We know a little bit about your story…ex-TV network marketing executive turned stay-at-home mom turned self-taught furniture designer/builder. I absolutely love that you went for the power tools rather than the sewing machine or knitting needles. Now we want the full scoop. How did Mod Mom Furniture really get off the ground?

Mod Mom Furniture really came out of me needing two things: 1.) Another source of income (since we lost my salary) and 2.) An outlet to channel all the drive and creativity that surprisingly didn’t go away when I decided to stay home with the kids (then 6-months and 4-years). After leaving the corporate world, I took freelance marketing jobs and even nannied to help make ends meet but also be home with the kids. During that time, in 2005, I rekindled my love for woodworking while building a tiki bar and luau tables with a friend for my husband’s birthday party. I had forgotten how much fun it was to build and started to really think about how I could turn it into a business.

I started very slowly building toy bins and selling them to friends (who were kind enough not to point out the flaws because they wanted to be Read the rest of this entry »