Brad + Kendra

I love the way black is used in this home.

Check out the black shag rug, aged wood floors, Jonathan Adler Dora Maar Muse vase in black, and gorgeous wallpaper. There are several different variations of black, gray, gold, pink, and white in this single image and they all come together so well.

I want this top sheet. I usually think sconces look awkard in most setups - but isn't this perfect!

Mm black cabinets!

Very dramatic custom molding that is only possible with such high ceilings and open layout. What a great space!

House tour and photos: AT + slideshow

So I start free-working here very soon. Pretty excited, but I suspect there will be lots o' dem chillins coming in and out.

Light well as outdoor shower

I came across this picture of an outdoor shower, also in an SF Victorian. It's almost exactly like our light well (see post below) but with rather nicer hardwood floors and walls and color and French doors. I suppose if you stand on ours as it rains... it's easily an outdoor shower that saves water? But mm French doors!

Even so, I like our container garden/secret reading/tanning alcove much more!

Photo: Sunset Magazine

Another reason why I love our attic

There's a little courtyardish area in the attic that opens up to the sky. It is ah.. peninsula-ed... by windows and a glass door. But the way things are positioned, no one can see you! The attic is still being worked on and no one else is ever up there. Tan! It has become my favorite place in the house to read/be and is complete with little spider friendses and the occasional scary crow. Also, very importantly, decent wireless signal up there!

Want to get a little Persian rug to cover the metal grating, but this old wool runner works.



You can actually crawl atop the roof from here.


Is it too much to lean this poster of Nice against the wall? I love that it's washed off-white and want to maintain how clean it feels, although it would be awesome to stick a big-leafed podophyllum or similar in the right corner to hide that unsightly pipe.


I can't wait to be out here every sunny moment of summer!

der Vatertag

The last several Sundays have been really entertaining - driving around the City with my parents, spending half an hour in each neighborhood to check out open houses. 1 to 5. You should do this even when not in the market for buying. Fantastic way to get ideas, get inspired, and as I was discussing with Lillian and Tim, to critique the hell out of other people via their homes :)
I am just curious to see how other people live.

My parents usually have a list of addresses to check out, but I've noticed that it's always rather disorganized/not kept together/composed of a bajillion post-its.

So for Father's Day, I made my dad a half-page notebook to organize his open house lists. It's a folded booklet of graphing paper, two inside-cover pockets, and a fold-out map of San Francisco's districts/neighborhoods. For the cover, I copied some of his hand-drafted blueprints (for this house, actually) and pasted it onto a harder cover (the back of the Chuck Mangione "Bellavia" cover...again. I never waste!) Elastic through the back and looped around the front. Kind of moleskine-y, but you know, with glue ripples. I need a wider flat brush to more evenly distribute glue. It's not a particularly pretty notebook, but it's very practical and very sturdily made. I think he likes it.


I definitely prefer the Ork poster, but it's not nearly as user-friendly. Maybe for my dorm room next school year...


Happy D-Day pwahahha!



By the way, I'm reminded of the first season of Secret Diary of a Call Girl (don't hate!) when Hannah and Ben go to an open house incognito as young, wealthy, first-time buyers and fuck around with the agent/the piano. How fun. Yet another reason why occupied spaces are more entertaining than vacant ones (which, yes, generously leave it all up to your well-tuned design-mind, but lends very little to your imaginative tongue).

Faber & Faber 80th

For it's 80th Anniversary, Faber & Faber re-released six of its poetry classics. The book covers were designed by Mariam Rosenbloom and illustrated by six artists. The heavy lines from block printing remind me of the old The Hobbit cover.


You know very well that we all judge books by their covers. So what beautiful covers! I'm really liking the monochromatic/black+white with one other "pantone," as printmaking snobs like to say about their "colours."

John Betjeman illustrated by Joe McLaren

W. B. Yeats illustrated by Nick Morley

T. S. Eliot illustrated by Claire Curtis

The other three:
Sylvia Plath (who went to Smith!) - i by Peter Lawrence
Ted Hughes - i by Mark Hearld
W. H. Auden - i by Paul Catherall


On books, I finally finished The Idiot and am excited to start on The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, much to Tim and Willy's hurrahs and Lillian's blehs. But maybe I should just read HP or Bridget Jones like my childish/trashy self wants to. "There and back again..."
Any good reads for you?

Photos via FaceOut Books (so good!)

SUHCUHRRITY!

I flipped out a security envelope! Have you noticed how awesome some of the patterns are? I'm definitely saving the next few that I get to repurpose (sort of).

I think the chartreuse made it all look v childish. But whutevuh, I do wut I want!

I couldn't find any Elmer's or the good gluestick, so I made some rice glue! There are a billion dead ancestors smiling down on me at the moment :)

Some other possibilities:

Photos: Paper Valise, Eco Monster, Lena Corwin, Craft a Green World, Papercrave, Weddings and Cookies

For Bon Qui Qui :)

For Rm. 207?

Dearest Roommate,

Should we get bored next year...

Wan make a studded headboard for Superbed?! Piece of scrap wood/particle board, some fabric, and nails:


Or cover our bookcase w fabric/wallpaper?


And should the birch planter stay around and not function as makeup container?


Whatchuthinksucka?

DABs forever!
-emock

Photos: Decor8, Design Sponge, Decor8

the freestanding bath

I've been having a lot of fun going to open houses with my parents on Sunday afternoons. We were checking out a single-family home (I think on Sanchez St.) bordering Noe Valley/the Mission. Oh lord, best old boys' club bathroom ever! White hexagonal floor tiles with black border, cherry wainscoting, cherry-framed mirror and cabinet, pedestal sink, walls in a dark grayish blue (as to BM Newburyport Blue), little white phalaenopsis, and a grand cast iron clawed bath tub with original brass fixtures and brushed black sides. Mmm!

Have consequently been thinking of/wishing I had a clawed or freestanding bath tub.

I love everything about this space, minus the rug, so much pink, and silver fixtures.

A generally very shapely bathroom:

Greens:

If you know a spoiled little girl who has her own bathroom:

Love the floorboards, alcoves, and the rolly tray! It would also work nicely as a bar...or double as a bar...

In Tiffany blue:

Photos: Marvimon, Living Etc, L Etc, L Etc, Country Homes & Interiors, L Etc, CH&I, Ideal Homes, 25 Beautiful Homes, L Etc, L Etc, Michael Smith, L Etc, L Etc, L Etc, The City Sage, Alexa Chung via Listal

the farmhouse/apron sink

So fresh and so clean!

In soapstone:

In the bathroom:

In stainless steel:

In teak:

In hammered copper:

Photos: Tigerweet, urbanorganickitchen, Michael Smith, House Beautiful, HB, Craig Kettle via HB, Apartment Therapy, Graham's Cottage, Patty and Chris, P&C, William Garvey, aaagoldy