blue.

New York Magazine did a piece on former Blues Clues host Steven Burns Williamsburg home. Very cool. And I love that it's blue.

apartment update

It's been a while since I gave an apartment update- and there have been some exciting new acquisitions.

1) Henny Ikea Blanket: I first saw this blanket over at The Brick House and new I loved it right away. Even though they don't carry it in the Ikea near Boston- they did have it at the Brooklyn Ikea I visited a few weeks ago. It looks great and is machine washable- which is a must with cats, as you can see.

2) Office Rug: Another Ikea acquisition. I have been holding off on blogging about the office until I file a little better about its progress- and I think its really coming together. Since it functions as an office, TV room, and dining room, we really don't need any other room in the house. Seriously, you could cut off the dining room, guest room, and living room, and we might not notice. As the Dude would, say, the rug "really ties the room together."

3) Lane Dovetail Side Table: We live by the BEST thrift store. I found this Lane Dovetail side table. They had two there, but one was seriously damaged dog chew marks. This one just needs a little refinishing. Despite being consistently sold on ebay for $200, I got this for $15. Thrifty! It might end up going to some friends who have the coffee table, but for now it works great as table in the office. I'll update once its refinished.

shelving

Wow! Loving this shelving. From here.

apartment update

We have done some major rearranging in this place so I thought I'd share.

Bedroom (used to be the office):

Guest room (was guest room but switched furniture):

Office: used to be bedroom, but with all the great built-ins. we thought it would be a better office. It still needs some work though, so I'll post pics later.

Dining room: I found this Lane Highboy at my new favorite thrift store, Boomerang, in Jamaica Plain. After I purchased it I found it on Ebay for 5 times the price. Amazing!

the brick house

I came across this amazing mid-century renovation blog called, The Brick House. Such inspiration! Such envy! Such Taste!

slat bench

apartment update. (well, not really update since its about 2 months over due).

I found a slat bench! craigslist WILL work out... you just have to wait for it. This bench is exactly what I wanted. I knew I could make it work somewhere, and was happy it worked as a coffee table. I was afraid the room would look too crowded, but I think its just right. Now we just need a t.v. I'm getting a little tired of hunching over the tv stand to do anything on the computer. And we have an office just sitting there. This helps explain my pitiful blog record recently.

The great thing about this bench is that it extends! See.....

Here it is pushed together

And here it is extended. very cool in my book.

Apartment Update: Record player

When Aaron was in high school he had a nice little collection of records. Many of them he acquired from my mother who got them from her brother Bill. There's a lot of weird disco, but also a lot of other great albums. When we moved to Boston Aaron's parents drove our things from Illinois to our new place. This provided Aaron's mom the opportunity to bring EVERYTHING Aaron had left in their house from growing up with them. This ranged from a few toys, to old school notes, to some of his brother's yearbooks. Small price to pay for all their help. She also brought the records.

I really like the idea of records. Sure they sound suboptimal, but I think the cracking and popping adds charm. So we began our craigslist hunt for  record player. It took us a while to find the right thing, but when we did- wow the price was right. $35! It seems to work well, we just need a needle before we can test it out. We were going to put it in the dining room, but it looked so nice in the living room, thats where it resides.

I have been loving door sixteen. Obviously I'm not redoing a house, but she has such great taste I'm always inspired. And she has an enviable eames chair collection. Ho Hum.  

I'm in the search for some cool art for the dining and guest room. Any ideas?

Hosting our first party this weekend. Stay tuned.

new chairs

Well I thought it was time for me to start blogging about apartment updates. Things have been coming along so well, and now with the major necessitates covered and me working, progress will be slower. I can now blog along with progress and back track a little as well.

About a week and half ago we came across these two chairs on craigslist (our primary resource for anything from a toaster to furniture). I don't know who made them- but I love them and they look great in the place! $40 a piece- not bad considering our less cool ikea version was $50. They lounge in our living room until further notice. 

dedicated to chairs

I came across a blog dedicated entirely to chairs. As I am in a chair hunt, this was particularly pleasing to me. Take a look here. 

back in business!

Well here I am. Back. After landing in Chicago Aaron and boarded a plane to Boston, and the past week I've been occupied with moving in and looking for work. But I feel like we're finally settling in. I had originally planned on blogging through the whole trip, but since I didn't it seems so hard to go back through and update on what we did. All I can say is that I'm so glad I went. A few favorite destinations included Cinque Terre, Chamonix, the Loire Valley and Paris. I didn't expect to love France as much as I did. Currently I can share a Paris picture, but I'm having a hard time accessing the pictures we loaded to an external hard drive, so I'll try and post more later. 

Our apartment is so big and nice that its been really fun thinking about what to do with it. The first major project was stripping a mid-century danish dining table we got from craigslist. I was so happy to have learned thins new skill! Here it is with some Ikea chairs we bought.

I'll post more about the apartment as we finish each room.

Boston has been really great. Dorchester is a really diverse and pleasant neighborhood (at least our area). Last might we met a neighbor from across the street who moved to her house "as a bride" and has been there 62 years! Amazing. True to form Aaron has started his baking, already making english muffins and a peach tart.

Also, to be real Bostonians, we had a shrimp boil last weekend. So good. I'm excited to start blogging again, what with a new apartment to put together, a nice kitchen to cook in and a new life to start. 

plate shelf

due to our way too large book collection I'm always interested in shelving options. We've been rocking the ikea cube bookcase for a while now and while I still love it, sometimes it looks a little heavy. I'm loving the above plate shelf by nARCHITECTS. very cool. 

tempaper?

Just today I was thinking about how cool it would be to wallpaper, but that it seemed unlikely considering we will be renters for a very long time. I was inspired by these amazing papers from madison and grow. 

Then I came across these really cool temporary papers from tempaper designs. I think its a pretty good idea. Would you do it? 

I'm back!

Wow! We had to take our computer in the the Apple and they had to replace our hard drive. We lost almost all our music, but I'm glad they saved most everything else. It's disconcerting considering we purchased our computer less than a year ago, but oh well. It was under warranty. 

Anyways, its spring, and there is much to be happy about. Graduation is coming up, Europe is just around the corner, and Boston plans are set. I will really miss Chicago and our friends here though. 

Planning for the apartment has been really fun. I've been loving mid-century design lately, and now that I have a palate to place these ideas, things are coming together in my mind. We even already bought a Danish mid-century dining table from craigslist. Yes, we have a dining room! We love to cook and host, so we were hoping for a dining room. 

Well this is sort of rambling. Here are a few images that have been providing recent home inspiration. 

I love the layering here. We have so many books I'm thinking of getting another of the same large ikea bookcase that we have and replicating this in the living room. 

I love this room too.

We don't have dining chairs. Maybe paint random ones? 

picasa!

I'm so excited Caitlin told me about Picasa. I can't stop collaging. I'm sure there are many for features I could be playing with in this free google application, but I love the collage! You can find a few products on my procrastination below. 

Images that  hope to draw from in our new apartment's bedroom

sort of the palate I have going in my europe packing

one crazy collage of our winter NYC trip

the dress and sweater I am wearing as one of Caitlin's bridesmaids. so excited!

justin david cox

Wow! How cool is this poster artist. I definitely wouldn't mind having this Andrew Bird poster. Check out more Justin David Cox posters and photography here. 

Periodic Table of Typefaces

wouldn't it be cool to have this big and framed on the wall. Hmm.... maybe I'll try when we move.