Displaying posts from April, 2014

The Line Hotel, Koreatown, Los Angeles. Hip and happening, housed in a mid-century building designed by Daniel Mann Johnson + Mendenhall in 1964. Restored, renovated and re-imagined with interiors by Sean Knibb. Raw, repurposed and rockin’.

A mix of contemporary and classic. Interiors layered with pattern and texture. Splashes of colour against warm neutrals. Quality not quantity. Practical luxury and functional beauty. Elegant and personal. Love this home by Washington DC interior designer Marika Meyer.

At the Ottawa Antique Show my husband and I were told by a fellow vendor that we should take a drive to Almonte, a town about 50 KM west of Ottawa. Jeff and I thought we had visited just about every town nearby as we love exploring and antiquing, but somehow we had never ended up in Almonte. Saturday morning we hopped in the car with some Tim’s coffee and steeped tea and headed to this quaint town…and fell in love. It was gorgeous. Almonte is a former mill town (coincidentally, the main road is called Mill Street) with the Mississippi River running through it. Had I known how beautiful it was and how much fun I would have shopping there, I would have brought a camera and planned a blog post. Since I ended up scoring some amazing finds in almost every shop we visited I decided to do a blog post despite only having had my iPhone on hand. 

One of my favourite stores was Tin Barn Market – an ever-evolving shop concept that brings together a stylishly eclectic mix of vintage, salvage, handmade objects and handpicked items deserving of a second chance. It is owned by Errin Stone & Vicki Veenstra (it was nice chatting with you Vicki!) and if farmhouse/industrial/rustic style is your thing then you would love this place.

Of course, we picked up a few things here 😉 – a vintage steel medicine cabinet (our current antique wooden one is WAY too small), vintage hangers, a pendant light cord and house numbers for a mailbox my husband is apparently going to build.

I wish I had of taken photos in some of the other shops but it wasn’t until one of our last stops in Tin Barn Market that I realized this trip was blog worthy. 🙁 Next time. I do have photos of my purchases I snapped when we got home. (I’ll have to get take more once everything is displayed around the house).

Our first stop was in a really cool shop called Hello Yellow – a one-of-a-kind little shop stocked to the gills with (cheerfully) made goods from paper products to bath & body, fashion accessories and home decor. Owner Emily was really sweet and she stocks some really fabulous handmade goodies (ie. Bookhou!). This is what we ended up purchasing:

cute straws, wasabi tape, a soy candle from Quebec, fluro gift tags, a toque for the hubby, and an awesome 8×10 print

Next was a beautiful and very well curated art gallery that had me gasping in delight every 5 seconds. General Fine Craft is owned by Chandler Swain and Richard Skrobecki (both recognized studio potters) and is a gallery exhibiting and selling the work of highly skilled, innovative makers. The bright, open space is designed to showcase functional and non-functional fine craft and art from artists working in Ontario and Quebec. It took me a while to narrow down my choices…

The mug was my husband’s choice – by Leta Cormier. He’s drinking a coffee out of it right now. 🙂 Next to that is an ebonized and oiled red oak candlestick by John Ward. Then I chose a super cute bud vase by Michael Doxey, and a bowl by Don Cormier. 

bud vase detail 🙂

The Almonte Antique Market is a 2 story building that had so much vintage/antique goodness. I could have spent hours in there. Here is what I found.

I KNOW, I was trying to sell my coloured West German pottery, but this aqua coloured vase in my favourite pattern was such a great price I could not resist.

In an antique shop on the main drag whose name I am not sure of because we can’t find the receipt, I found a gorgeous old frame (the photo freaks me out so I will be covering it up hopefully with the print I bought in Hello Yellow) and yet another West German vase, which again was a great price so I had to scoop it up. At least this one is neutral colours. 🙂

And lastly, we stopped at Gilligallou – ‘an oasis for birders’ and bought a plastic bird feeder to put in a window and torture our cats.

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, if the photo is too dark or unfocused then it may not make the cut. Photos, your name, location and a brief description can be sent to kim[at]desiretoinspire[dot]net and PLEASE don’t send closeups of your pet! Thanks!

This is our 9 months old Bengal cat Nim. She’s lying on my favourite vintage seafoam coloured fiberglass Eames chair. For me this is a perfect combination 🙂
– kenderfrau (Belgium)

Last year you featured my little dog Suzy, sadly she passed on. We were not going to get another dog, however fate intervened and while vacationing in Portugal we found this little dog abandoned in very poor shape. Her name is Bica (Lisbon talk for espresso) Oh, and she loves modern furniture!
– David

Puss thinks ‘Pets on Furniture’ is a social networking page. It’s hard to get him off our favourite chair.
– Ole & Genevieve (Victoria, BC)

Max posing on his mid century modern chair, David Bowie wall art in the background.
– Cherie

Please find enclosed a photo of my black smoke cat Siri from a Spanish animal shelter. She loves her/my Ligne roset TOGO Sofa from the 60ies. She has a good taste I guess 🙂
– Patricia (Cologne, Germany)

Here are three shots of our beloved Kodi, who passed last year, enjoying some of his favourite perches in our home, Caribou Hill.
– Karen (St. John’s, NL)

I scored a set of these amazing vintage chairs on craigslist recently. Our farm cats, Peaches and Seashell didn’t take long to make them their own! 
– Danielle

I’m Anastasia – a new reader from Chelyabinsk, Russia and also the owner of two beautiful cats who LOVE the scarse furniture in our new apartament (just moved in haven’t fully furnished it).
1 – My boy Myshkin loves to lie on top of this armchair and act as a neck cushion for my husband
2 – here he is on the sofa keeping an eye on my photo equipment.
3 – My girl Sophie is a a bean bag cat
4 – And here they are together in armchairs
– Anastasia

Second stalking for today. A delightful terrace in Redfern in inner city Sydney. You can tell I have a soft spot for the inner suburbs of the harbour city. The house is once again unassuming from the street but bright, fun and fresh inside. Favourites? The exposed brick in the dining room, the bathroom and the view down the staircase. What I really want is a cup of tea at that dining room table… and a good gossip with the owner. Link here while it lasts.