Displaying posts labeled "Colour"

Back in April I blogged about Evan Drew Harrison’s dilemma on what he should do about the decor in his fabulous LA loft. He sent an email promising to send update photos as soon as he finishes up (he mentionned vintage Knoll, Swedish stuff, kilims and other ethnic touches….all of which had me totally intrigued), but the real reason he emailed was to share the former home of his dear friend, Maxime de la Falaise. Maxime passed away of natural causes in April in her Provence home, and she was quite a character. “Maxime made Cruella Deville seem like a pussy cat” Evan told me. She was a “celebrated fashion model and artists’ muse of the mid-20th century who was later a designer, food writer and the matriarch of a three-generation clan of international couture models” said her obituary in the New York Times. At one point during her career she also designed furniture and rugs. Evan loved Maxime’s New York loft she sold in the early 90’s and thought we would love it as well. Her loft is exactly how I imagine my home to be when I reach that age – filled with treasures and textures from years of collecting.

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.

I love revisiting websites where I haven’t dropped in for ages. I love stopping by because I secretly hope the site has been updated. I visited Molly Luetkemeyer’s website recently and I’m blown away. I featured Molly’s interior design work way back in the first couple of weeks of Desire to Inspire but look at her work now! Lashings of OTT glam and goodness. Colour and pattern and vintage and FABULOUS! I had a hard time not posting everything I found…. OK I think I did 😉 Not been to M. Design for awhile? Go now. You’ll overdose on her style!

One of the few rooms in my house that is somewhat finished is my home office. Back in May I posted about painting the floors and the frame of the door. Before I began the kitchen renovation I had managed to complete the space with some revamped furnishings and lots of vintage finds. I think it’s about time I share the progress.

It’s a pretty small room – 10 ft long by 11.5 ft wide, with a 5ft square bathroom in one corner, making the room L-shaped. One part of the L is my office, and the other part is an entrance from the back deck. Here is what it looked like right after I moved in.

It was awful. Pale blue walls, unpainted trim (the entire house had unpainted trim – WHY???), and the hardwood was totally uninspiring. It was a really fun room to redo and since it gets alot of sun I wanted it to be cheerful and bright. First thing I did was paint the floors, trim, walls and ceiling white. My pink laptop should be on the desk in the photos below but it’s a cold room in the winter so I’ve been working on the dining table since the kitchen was completed.

Below is in the left corner as soon as you walk in the room.

I love piles of fabric. I love piles of anything really. Fabric, books, magazines… (the 2 beaded boxes on top of the books hold the ashes of 2 of my cats that have passed away in the last few years)

The desk is an Ikea table top wrapped in vintage retro fabric, and topped with a piece of glass (some photos were taken before the glass was bought). The inspiration board over my desk is made from some trim I found at Home Depot that I spray painted and made into a frame and I nailed a large piece of cork to the wall behind it.

The chair is a vintage Herman Miller Eames that came upholstered in green fabric, that I found at a local antique market for $160. The souvenir pillow cover I found on eBay. It is now in the trash, as Felix, gawd love him, peed all over it. The lamp I found at a local mid-century shop for $40.

Below are some tchotchkes I have on my desk. The grapes I found on eBay, the dog letter holder in Etsy, and the clock I bought several years ago at an antique fair. I write with markers as often as I can.

Next is an armoire I spent alot of time reworking. I found it at a flea market in a town about an hour from here for $159. It was a darkish brown wood (see here), so I dry-brushed it with the
teal paint I used in my dressing room. I removed the door and built shelves for the section that you would ordinarily hang clothes in. I bought some vintage wrapping paper on Etsy and mod-podged it to the shelves. It stores my copier/scanner on the bottom shelf, and behind that is my modem/router and all that fun stuff hidden away. Everything you see is either from eBay, Etsy, local vintage shops and an Asian shop in the Byward Market.

I walk through Chinatown and Little Italy on my way home from work. I stopped in a shop in Chinatown one day, found the pot below and another one, and carried them home (HEAVY!). The yellow Eames shell chair I bought on eBay from the same shop where I bought the green lamp. The curtain fabric I found on Etsy, and since I don’t sew I used that iron-on tape to make a hem and used curtain clips to attach them to the rod. Easy peasy.

Jo had suggested I paint the frame of the back door yellow, and it is one of my favourite touches in the room. When the kitchen was renovated I tore out the only closet on the main floor, so this back corner is where I stash my outerwear. Below is also a photo I took standing against the window, looking into the (new) kitchen. (I haven’t gotten around to painting that little ramp into the office yet).

So that’s my office in its current state. It’s an addition to the house and since it’s not very well insulated, ideally I’d love to tear it down and rebuild it bigger and properly insulated. I may settle for making the powder room smaller, and building a closet where the coat hooks are (it’s currently not wide enough there to have a closet where coats could hang). The powder room is hideous, hence the lack of photos. So there’s still work to do. The list somehow seems to keep growing no matter what I get done…

I came across the website of Sixx Design recently and although Jo blogged about this husband and wife design team some time ago, I realized there were MANY more amazing spaces that hadn’t been included in her post. Such fun hits of colour, awesome modern art and just an all around air of eclecticism. I love it all.