I’m loving the portfolio of Washington, DC based photographer Stacy Zarin Goldberg. Her photos are striking and energetic but what immediately caught my eye is that she clearly loves utilizing her client’s pets when she shoots interiors. SO CUTE!! I also have to mention the funky artwork in the first photo – love the scale but not sure if I want those dudes watching me as I sleep.

Marija is an architect and interior designer from Lithuania who remodeled her apartment last summer and wanted to share it with our readers. The space is only 60 square metres and due to the economic and real estate crisis, her grandiose plans needed to be downsized so she opted to spend only 700 EUR and do the work herself (well, with one visit from an electrician and one from a carpenter) – in six weeks. I am blown away by every single thing she has done to her place and the little touches here and there that came it really special. It’s a spectacular transformation and I am excited to show it to you all. I’ll take you on a tour of Marija’s home room by room, in her words.

The living and the dining room. I peeled away the prior floor sheets and I painted the floor boards in white and ivory colour strips according floor board step – that visually made space wider and brighter; renewed and painted the ceiling; two doors leading to bedrooms were repainted in black chalkboard paint. I also decided to have a ‘window sills’ above the window and two alcoves in opposite wall – now their serves as an exposition space for wooden sculptures  storage space and a curtain-rods holder for curtains to mask the storage in alcoves and decorative curtains beside the window.

The kitchen. In the kitchen, I had to peel off four layers of old vinyl coverings:) The unimpressive back wall of the TV table that did not fit anywhere I covered by the plexiglass cover and applied a wall décor sticker and it has transformed into my favourite kitchen island. The similar sticker appeared on the entrance door and small refrigerator. The rest of the doors of the room were painted black with chalkboard paint to be covered by chalk drawings.

The bedroom. When I started removing the old wallpaper, I found out fragments of previously used paints that seemed to me very attractive. Thus I scrubbed two walls to uncover the previous décor. And decorated the other two walls (which were built in later years and there was no hope to find any interesting decors on them) with diluted cotton and silk wallpaper mass. I also renewed the ceiling and painted the floor boards that were previously covered by carpeting.

A child’s room. In my son’s room I also renewed the floor, the ceiling and the walls, though for wall decoration I’ve chosen a simple method – I painted white the existing brownish rugged wallpaper. Instead of the carpet we used a stencil of a stylized whale while my son got creative and decorated the legs of the old stool in the same manner.

Marija also included some photos of her bathroom, one of her amazing light fixtures and a floor plan.

It’s been quite some time since Jo blogged about New York interior designer Shawn Henderson, who designs “interiors that feel comfortably sophisticated, rich and relaxed, personal and original.” I recently happened upon his website and discovered more classic yet cool spaces that captivated my immediate attention.

P.S. Just wanted to quickly wish my twin sister a very happy birthday. Sis, here’s hoping your life at 35 is a bit less chaotic and stressful and preferably more “normal” than it has been of late.

If you’d like to send us photos to include in next week’s “pets on furniture” post, please ensure your photos follow our 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 (from a camera phone) then it may not make the cut. Thanks! (Photos, your name, location and a brief description can be sent to desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.com and PLEASE don’t send me closeups of your pet!)

“Shiraz curled up on our vintage chair.”
– Sara

“So I know I’ve all ready sent you a picture of chip that you posted, which was soooooooooo cool btw, thank you! But I can’t control myself because my dog is too freaking cute! He actually had no interest in sitting in the diamond chair until we put down the sheep skin, which he apparently thought was just for him! I mean, look how happy he is!!”
– Curt

“Here are our two cats, Marlowe and Cassius, taking up the most regal seats in the house: two carved Chinese rosewood chairs.  I’ve included a close up with Cassius on one of the chairs, ready to receive his humble subjects 🙂”
– JanJan (SF Bay Area)

“Meet Cookie, my little mystery mutt. I adopted her a year ago and she’s the best companion a girl could have. Here she is on one of my David Rowland chairs, which I inherited from my grandfather’s old law office. I got the table for five bucks at a garage sale and painted it white myself. I inherited the Russel Wright pottery on the shelves from my grandmother. Here’s Cookie playing on my bed. The bedding is by DwellStudio for Target, which was a great buy. Since the bedding is patterned and textured, her stray black and white hairs practically blend in! The embroidered piece on the wall is by my friend Jordan of http://hidethegoodscissors.blogspot.com. Lastly, here’s Cookie lounging on the couch. She loves sleeping on the headrest (and pouncing on the back of my head when she wants attention). I’m indefinitely “borrowing” the couch from a friend. It’s a far cry from my dream couch, but it serves its purpose. My grandmother made the needle point pillows and my great aunt crocheted the white blanket.”
– Kathryne

“1) I think Mickey knows he’s gorgeous, he is always up for a photo shoot.
2) Custard is the sweetest little girl ever!”
– Danielle

“Here is a pic of Chloe cat on a classic Pier One wicker chair, beneath my canopied painting tent where I create all summer long.”
– MaryK (Albany, NY)

“Here’s a photo of our little boxer, Lucy from Seattle. She is not on a beautiful piece of furniture….but furniture non-the-less! 🙂”
– Leah

“This is Minx, my adorable Manx cat as a kitten. I was having my house treated by the pest control guys one day and couldn’t leave her at home while it was being done so I took her to my mothers. We made sure to keep the doors closed so she couldn’t lost. At one stage we could not find her anywhere! We searched high and low… and finally found her snoozing on one of the bookcases in the lounge. And to this day she still finds weird places to sleep. Her current favourite is my dressing table.”
– Kate (New Zealand)

“This is our four-year-old Shih-Tzu, Ellie, who rules at our house. Here she is enjoying our custom-designed charcoal velvet sofa. After adjusting her blanket to her liking, she struck a pose saying (undoubtedly with attitude) ‘This is my sofa–I dare you to tell me otherwise!‘”
– Katie (Columbia, SC)

“This is my Labrador who’s named Marron. He is sitting on the copy of “Mae West Lips Sofa” by Dali. We chose these colors for the padding because they fit better with the atmosphere of the room.”
– Marysia Chodzen (Warsaw, Poland)

If you’d like to send us photos to include in next week’s “pets on furniture” post, please ensure your photos follow our 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 (from a camera phone) then it may not make the cut. Thanks! (Photos, your name, location and a brief description can be sent to desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.com and PLEASE don’t send me closeups of your pet!)

“here is my cat Miko on our vintage furniture.”
– Mathilde (Le Mans, France)

“Here’s a pic of my chihuahua, Arlo Guthrie hanging out in the living room.”
– Kara

“Hello, this is my half-Persian cat, Lady. She’s cute, isn’t she?”
– Agata (Poland, Lodz)

“Hi, this is Sasha, my 3-year-old shepherd mix. I adopted her seven months ago, and she just recently discovered this new perch, in what I now call her Watching Chair (old cheap club chair, Pottery Barn slip cover), where she monitors the goings-on outside my window. In the second photo she is on my new Room & Board sofa contemplating my laptop, which she wishes I would move, as this sofa has quickly become her favorite. spot. ever.”
– Jennifer (San Francisco)

“Our furbaby, Charlie, waiting to have his diaper changed – guess he got fed up with the kitty litter…”
– Lauren

“1) Skook on the side chair
2) Gracie the IG and Angus the Monster Kitten
3) Angus in bed, thinking about his next meal”
– Pamela (Albany, NY)

“This is Muchacho, my black mixed labrador. Muchacho is sitting on an armchair which I inherited from my grandparents. Its cushions were at a really bad condition but I could see its potential so I painted it, chose a new fabric and padded it. Both Mucahcho and I are very pleased with the result! I added a “before” picture of the 2-seater sofa (sorry but I didn’t take a “before” picture of the actual armchair Muchacho is sitting on) so you can see the difference.”
– Tammy (Tel Aviv, Israel)

“pictured here are 3 of our 5 little cuties, Lulu (in the shadows) and Apple and Gemma (the terrible twins) playing in the early morning South African winter sunlight……we all can’t wait for the summer sun to come again.”
– Anne-Marie

“This is my new Labrador X Kelpie puppy, Lizzy, on my Bentwood (which clearly needs some TLC!). I picked up the Bentwood for $20 and Lizzy for free – sometimes the greatest things in life cost you (next to) nothing!”
– Maria

“This is Gus — full name Gussie Buddy Lovie — the love of our lives. He’s a three year old brown tabby who lives in Sleepy Hollow, New York. As you can tell, he’s very handsome, and he’s inspired the decor in our (Rebecca Goldberg + John Mato’s) home. Pictured here, we have a vintage trunk and movie theater chairs in front of a Lolita movie poster. Gus likes that we have furniture with character.”
– Rebecca, John + Gus (New York)