Displaying posts from September, 2008

Sometimes I am really grateful that I have this blog as a mechanism to help out friends and family. This is one of those times. My friend Jenny told me the other day that she is thinking about taking her cat Binky to the Humane Society. After several expletives, I calmed down and she explained that her allergies are REALLY bad and her doctor told her she shouldn’t even be in the same room with him. She asked around and posted a notice in her building but so far no one is interested in taking Binky. She put some ads up online and not much has happened. I told her to make a video that I could post since her boyfriend is in Europe with their cameras. So if anyone in the Ottawa area is looking for a pet and wants a totally adorable and affectionate kitty named Binky, please email me and I’ll get you Jenny’s contact info. I live just down the street from the Humane Society and it would kill me to drive by knowing Binky is in there. Thanks.

This post is self-serving. I do not have an appropriate dining table for my new kitchen. And I don’t really have alot of time to find one. I doubt I’ll ever find one to my specifications. I may end up building one. Should be interesting as I am NOT a furniture maker by any means. Thought I’d get a bit of inspiration from my dear friend Flickr in the meantime.

m.bibelot	kdkaboom
bumblev	TobiasMik
my pocket	Eastvold Custom
rauchdickson	Eleventh Earl of Mar
franzskinner	Eastvold Custom
Eastvold Custom	carla.marriott
jdabney01	beachhousehawaii
Chrysanth3mum	jeremysavian
LINDEN STREET DESIGN	Graeme Quinn

WINKS – weekend links. Here we list what has come in during the week, things we’ve found and things we think you’ll want to see. If you’d like to see your blog or website featured email us and if we think it fits with our readers we’ll link you. So what’s in this week?

• Sanford Burrows is a new line of modern, luxe, Italian bed linens created out of LA by designer Jill Sanford Burrows. Jill mixes modern aesthetic and design with traditional, Italian linen making. Beautiful, fresh, crisp and modern. Love it!



• It’s on again and already it is just as controversial as last year’s poll. Singapore blog Home Rejuvenation is looking for 10 Most Influential Design Bloggers. This year they’ve teamed up with international design purveyor Wallpaper* to reward 3 lucky voters (picked at random) each with a free 1-year subscription to the print magazine. Details here.



• Two different pattern ways, modernist geometric and stylised organic safari prints, two different colourways and two graphic safari animal rugs. This is the inaugural range of Themselves. Who are Themselves? A new venture from Multistorey, Marcus James and Lulu Roper-Caldbeck. More here.



• New from White Webb, three additions to their Clearly Classic Collection. Oooooh love acrylic furniture and these occasional tables are chic and functional. Where can you find one? Details on White Webb’s design log.
• Back, due to popular demand…. OrangeBeautiful’s Motivate Prints! The first batch sold out in 2 weeks and with the amount of people asking for more, Emily and Laura just had to print a 2nd edition! Available of course from their etsy shop. Loving their “laugh dream love” and “cash money” prints as well!



• Email from Moderndose. “THE QUEEN HAS ARRIVED! NEW for FALL’08. Very Chic. This contemporary Queen wall clock will look great in any room of your home. The modern clock available in black or orange acrylic. Ready to hang.” Old Liz is still hot as are most things Brit punk at the moment. I have a soft spot for these. Add a couple of safety pins and an expletive a la Sex Pistols and I’m sold. (Sorry I’m an old punk.)
• Have you caught the blogger house tours on The Love List yet? Cassandra from coco + kelley, Karen from Alkemie, Chris from stylenorth, Erin from Elements of Style, Michelle of Rubie Green and many more have all photographed their homes for Jessica and she’s sharing them with all of us. Addictive look into the lives of our favourite design bloggers.



• We’ve winked Bond & Bowery before. It’s a source of design, a marketplace of antiques and a gallery of fine art. Ben Spaisman, Bond & Bowery’s President emailed to let us in on a great new service. “The DealerDirect feature enables Bond & Bowery registered users to submit a request for a specific item (or items), that they have been unable to find on our site or elsewhere, to our entire network of dealers. The submissions are posted dynamically in a Craig’s List type format so that Bond & Bowery dealers can browse and respond to any requests that they can fulfill.” Clever idea Ben!

I’m out of time again! Lots more for next week. Have a great weekend!

Funky interiors from French magazine Côté Maison.

So I’ve shown you all my horrible to slightly less horrible kitchen that I will be renovating, and next I thought I’d show you the layout ideas I had for the new kitchen. Here’s a photo to recap what the kitchen looks like currently:

I’ve done a rough drawing of the layout to make it clearer where everything is located. (Sorry but I don’t know how to use software to do this so you’ll have to bear with my lovely drawings).

As you can see, this kitchen is really REALLY badly designed. Or not designed as I see it. And the craftsmanship everywhere is AWFUL. The cabinets are made of solid wood (MDF?) – so the drawers are heavy and are a total pain to open and close. Half of the magnet latches to keep the doors closed are missing. The little built-in china cupboard with glass doors got a serious chuckle from my contractor. He thinks they are bi-fold closet doors made into cabinet doors. The island was made with scraps of tongue and groove paneling and bits of trim, and was initially left unpainted/unstained. There was an ugly square table that was built at the end of the island that I ripped off and tossed the day I moved in, that came with 2 cheap wooden chairs that I also tossed. The cabinet over the island is a pain to get into because you have to lean over the island to see into it. So that’s the cabinets in a nutshell.

For more gory details, check out the rest of this post HERE.