Displaying posts from October, 2012

… they are so beautiful. Inspiration today comes from the stellar portfolio of food and lifestyle photographer Brett Stevens. OMG! The colour, the pure saturated colour and don’t get me started on the lighting, the composition, the angles. It’s official. I have a new photographer crush and these shots are of… food vignettes. Beating heart, short of breath, slightly feverish and not a wide angle room shot in sight. Can a table full of tomatoes be sexy? Can a bowl of cake mix make me weak at the knees? Can I smear that blue all over my body like a woad warrior? Dreaming of colours and textures, mixing and marrying for new room inspirations. Beauty is everywhere and today it is here captured through the lens of Brett Stevens.

As I mentioned yesterday, I am a new fan of Spanish interior designer María Lladó. She seems to love jewel tone colours mostly on accent walls and in accessories, and she brings together such a variety of styles of furniture (most of which looks vintage). In the end her spaces seem effortless, fun and casual. She makes me forget how much I love neutral decor. 🙂

If you’d like to send me photos to include in next week’s “pets on furniture” post, please ensure your photos follow my basic rules: First, the pet must be on a piece of furniture. And said piece of furniture must be clearly visible in the photo, so it takes center stage rather than your pet. Think of it more of a photo of a great piece of furniture that you want to show off…and your pet happens to be sitting on it. And second, the photo must be of decent quality. If it’s dark or fuzzy then it may not make the cut. Photos, your name, location and a brief description can be sent to desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.comand PLEASE don’t send closeups of your pet! Thanks!

I am a contributor and photographer for Apartment Therapy and I took this photo of Cutler during one of my house tour photoshoots. He has pretty much taken over this iconic Gaetano Pesce Up Chair and his owners have given up. He is so cute that he gets away with everything. Cutler you are the best!
Marcia Prentice (Los Angeles, California)

Chubby on the fridge, probably waiting for me to stop bugging him so he can take a bite out of that plant.
– Doug (San Francisco, CA)

I found these teak mid century chairs on Craigslist. They had white vinyl covers and I had them reupholstered at Spruce with Thomas Paul Plume fabric in chartreuse. Those chairs make me giddy every time I look at them and I thought they deserved a bright and happy color! I think Maggie (miniature Labradoodle) and Fern (Havanese) agree, they are always on “their” chairs.
– Alejandra & Ben (photos by Suzi)

Elvis (photo 5), is a stray whose life has been tough. Forgotten by somebody when she moved away, he was nastily bitten by her Yorkshire (who seemed to be as hooked on drugs as this “lady” was). He consequently auto-amputated his tail and when he arrived at my home he was almost mad with pain. I could only cure him by slipping tablets in his food as he was too wild. But with lots of love and care, Elvis is now part of my furry gang. This is his personal penthouse…in my garage…with plenty of blankets and soft cushions (he likes to be on his own). Clementine (photo 2) arrived this summer so skinny…she was also “forgotten”… Chat (photo 1) is a mystery cat and has chosen to stay with us. Petit Coeur (photo 4), Miss (photo 3) and Lipton (photo 3) are my “official” pets, having left the same house 12 years ago because unhappy.
– Maria (Switzerland)

1 – Casper sitting on an Ikea armchair, made cosy with an arctic fox fur and a Brora cashmere blanket
2 – Casper sleeping on a sofa from sofa.com (covered in their ‘rose’ house viscose linen), with a Johnstons of Elgin checked blanket.
– Catherine (London)

This is our 3 year old Alaskan Malamute, Koda, on his favorite love seat in our home in San Francisco, CA.
– Erin

*******A plea for help…..
 A cat rescue organization here in Ottawa called Country Cat Sanctuary is looking for some help. They didn’t ask me to blog this, but they have helped me in the past with costs for vet bills of some of my former stray cats and I feel like I should help (besides the donation I made the other day). In their care, among many others, is a 3 year old cat named Olive. 

Here’s the explanation of Olive’s troubles from their Facebook page: her immune system decided that her teeth is something it should fight against and her gums and all the way down her throat is all inflamed to the point of being raw.She has great difficulty eating and swallowing due to pain. Having her on antibiotics does not even make a dent in her discomfort we have to bite bullet and do an oral surgery and take all her pearly whites out. For those of you outside of Canada, you may not be aware of how ridiculously expensive veterinarian care is in this country. For example, my 20 year old cat had to get a few of his remaining teeth pulled about a month ago, and it cost about $800. Olive’s surgery will be very expensive, so I thought I would try and help by mentioning it here. If any of you can spare a few dollars, please visit this site https://www.canadahelps.org/Admin/MCHome.aspx and follow the instructions – the organization’s name is COUNTRY CAT SANCTUARY or you can use their number 822788279RR0001. In the message section please put that it is for “OLIVE”. Thanks guys. 🙂

Fresh and bright and white and wow. Love this home office/creative space by Jesse Moyer of Jette Creative. A clean, simple aesthetic that marries the past and the present, vintage and modern.

A tiny house big on style, mighty where it counts. A small footprint, big use of re-use. Reclaiming, recycling, reinventing but definitely not rehashing. Fresh green design capped off with the freshest of new roofs, moss and green ferns. Jessica Helgerson‘s family home in Sauvie Island, just north of Portland, Oregon. Photography by Lincoln Barbour.