Julien Oppenheim is an extraordinary young photographer from Paris, whose photos draw you in regardless of their subjects. They have such an aura of mystery and intrigue, which is heightened by quirkiness of many of the spaces in his portfolio. I think quirkiness is essential in design to heighten the level of interest. Makes for endearing spaces and subsequently, gorgeous photos.

There are chairs, and then there are CHAIRS. There is one chair I have wanted for quite some time, and when I got home from work Friday, there it was in a huge box on my front porch. My first ever bean bag chair! I was as giddy as a schoolgirl let me tell ya. Andrew, the founder of Sumo, had emailed a few days ago and wondered if I would be interested in receiving their Omni chair. And I am SO GLAD he did! It is the coolest thing ever. I chose platinum, which turned out to be the perfect choice. I had the thing in about a zillion positions and each one was super comfy. It’s so big, you can sit and have part of it as a back rest. LOVED that. I chilled out in front of the TV on it in that position and I think it’s up there in terms of comfort level with my newly constructed sofa. I can’t wait to have my little niece over so she can play around on it. Speaking of which, they’re made of rip-proof nylon so my 6 cats nor the niece can do damage. It comes in 10 colours (was kind of hard to choose), several different styles (a gamer, a stool, some that fit multiple people) and FREE SHIPPING!!! Also to note, they are cheaper than other brands. So go on over to their site and seriously, order one for yourselves. They are awesome. Thank you Andrew!!!

Ashe + Leandro is an architecture and interior design firm based in New York City. You may remember their design of actress Jennifer Carpenter’s home that was featured in O at Home magazine last summer. The white background and furnishings made the colourful accessories they used stand out in such an extraordinary way. Eye candy that is energizing and eclectic. Their work is truly memorable.

This is just a quick post to document one of the many MANY things I need to do something about in my house. It’s the front door. I have to say it’s a pretty nifty looking door, and although the inspector I had in here when I was buying the house said I should replace it with a better door (in terms of being better insulated), I cannot bring myself to do that. You don’t find doors like this at Home Depot.

One thing I have to keep in mind is the fact that this door opens right into the living room. So whatever I do to it will have to work with the space. The little windows in the door are unfortunately not glass but plastic, and yellow. Not sure if I should work with that or replace them/cover them up somehow. I found a very inspirational photo here a while back, and can’t get it out of my head. How freaking cute is this door?!

I’d love to hear your ideas on what I could do with this blast from the past door.

I decided a little while ago that my living room sofa was not working for me. It was cute, I’ll give it that. But it was NOT loungey. Definitively not wide enough for my boyfriend and I to sprawl on and watch movies. I’m hoping to find it a new home since I have no other room to put it in. I knew I’d never find a sofa that would suit my needs and my budget so my boyfriend and I built one. Since our carpentry skills are limited, I am quite surprised it turned out as well as it did. We finished building it a few days ago, and I painted it Friday.

Since I wanted something low and loungey, I figured the easiest way to get what I wanted would be to get some cushions, and basically build boxes for them. Instead of buying foam for the cushions, I went to Ikea and bought cushions from one of their sofas where they were sold separately from the frame. There were 4 cushions – 2 for the base and 2 narrower ones for the back. So working with that we built one main base that houses the 2 larger cushions and an individual base for each of the narrower ones. This is the main base before I painted it.

We used rounded fence post toppers (?) for the feet of the main section (I have pieces of furniture pads underneath them in the photos because it weighs a ton and I’m worried it’s going to dent the floor), and casters for the feet of the 2 smaller sections. This way the smaller pieces could be wheeled around the living room to accommodate different seating arrangements. Because I wanted a pile of pillows along the back of the main section and I was concerned they would take up too much space, we built a ledge along the back (which you can see in the third photo) to house the majority of the pillows, leaving ample room for sprawling.

I’ve had a couple of chances to try out the new sofa (I’m on it as I type this) and it’s incredible. It’s so versatile and ridiculously comfortable. I need to make new covers for the seat cushions. I bought the covers from Ikea for them but they are a thick canvas and cat hair sticks to it in an obscene way so I need something more cat friendly. I also just threw on a bunch of pillows for the photos below, but I need to buy fabric for new pillows as well. I’m thinking of sticking with neutrals, with lots of texture, and maybe a couple pillows in jewel toned colours to work with the rest of the living room and kitchen. I’m also considering stenciling the frames, but I have to give that more thought.

Here are some photos I took of the sofa with different placement of the smaller pieces.