Tag Archives: pinterest

The Random Light

17 Jul

I’ve always loved these pendant lamps.  I saw them recently in the restaurant at the Hotel Valley Ho:

And I have a DIY version on my Pinterest board.

Pinned Image

What I didn’t know was that the original was called the Random Light and was designed by a Dutchman named Bertjan Pot.  (These run anywhere from $600-2400.  Try the DIY one!)  I ran across this video today with him talking about his process and the products.  My favorite by far is the slim table, which he calls ‘a lie’.  Brilliant.  Enjoy!

Watch the video on Vimeo – here. (Via Contemporist)

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The Mother of Invention

30 Aug

Apparently necessity isn’t the mother of invention. I am.

Despite what some of you may think, I am not crafty. At all. In fact, I don’t even really like the idea of being crafty. I am creative. Not crafty. There is a difference. I can envision things and ideas, but I cannot make them. I get other people to make them. (Yes, I can now paint a wall, but I don’t consider that all that crafty.)

Maeve on the other hand is both crafty and creative. The girl never stops. Some days she spends all her time outside painting, creating something near a masterpiece.

This morning for example, she decided she was going to spend her day making an Eiffel Tower out of Popsicle sticks. Huh?

Her other recent creations have been more mid-century modern inspired. When she isn’t scanning Ebay for mid-century things for our home like hairpin table legs, she is dreaming up other MCM creations using regular household objects. For example, she created this pendant lamp from an old light fixture she had in a Chinese lantern and some plain old printer paper.

She also made this Eames inspired clock with the clock mechanism from an old Target wall clock, construction paper and wooden sticks.

And she took my Pinterest challenge seriously, even if I didn’t, but making this succulent planter with a vase she found in the cabinet, rocks from outside and a plant from the garden.  She puts me to shame.

 

And if that weren’t enough, she even has her own Etsy shop, Raindrops. Check out her lovely jewelry. I am so proud of her creative energy and I hope she will follow her bliss always.  The other night we were talking about some of her peers who are starting to get wound up about college choices and making sure they have enough club and philanthropic activity to get themselves into Harvard. I could see her getting stressed out about it and I shared with her one of my favorite posters. I reminded her this is her life and she only gets to do it once. Happiness comes from following your bliss and I am sure she will.

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Colorful Doors

25 Aug

So I can be kind of lame sometimes and not get things done as quickly as I want to.  I posted the Pinterest challenge a while ago with the hopes of completing a DIY project from my Pinterest boards. Let’s be kind and just say the deadline slipped by, shall we?  Not only am I messy, but apparently also a procrastinator. At least I’m a nice person, right?

I finally did it. And all it took was that awesome Yolo paint and the cool colors that inspired me. I like to browse the internet for mid-century modern ideas during which I visit various home decorating and DIY sites. I love the idea of front doors painted in thoughtful colors:  the traditional red and the whimsical yellow (done by my blogging and DIY heroes at Young House Love), even a hot pink version. I even saw the inside of a front door painted daffodil yellow too.

Then I saw it. My inspiration. I have noticed (and likely so have you) that I have an orange and green problem. I may need a color 12 step program. Alas there isn’t one and in the meantime, I indulge my cravings, of which we seem to have daily proof. The image that stopped me short was the inside of a front door painted a lovely bold green. Not Kelly green.  Not forest green. Not lime green. But the perfect celadon-almost-avocado-don’t-really-know-what-to-call-it-green.  All I could think was…I must do this right now.  Right bloody now.

And I did.  At least the first coat. There were some areas on the door that had been scratched up and peeled by the previous owner’s dog. I sanded those down and did a test patch. Paint stuck well, no need for primer or Gripper. I went to work. I taped up the window, the lock and door handle with Frog Tape and started painting. Straight away I knew this was a good move. I also knew I had a home for one of my favorite pieces of artwork, a Parvez Taj piece of Jin, an incarnation of Shiva, using film and UV ink on a stretched canvas.

Maeve offered to do the second coat and I let her, as I was busy arranging other photographs (for a future post!) and she did an excellent job. Now when you enter our home, you have a green door behind you and a green wall before you with Jin in between.  I couldn’t be happier with the results.

While this door isn’t exactly mid-century modern, I have to say we’ve made it fit right in to our lovely home. Someday, we will have a more MCM door, maybe something using one of these kits from Crestview Doors.  And what color should we paint the front part of the door?  Orange, of course!

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Pinterest Game On!

27 Jul

Oh yeah…game on!

You all know how much I love Young House Love. This is only surpassed by my love of Pinterest. (Oh…and right by my husband and family too.  Of course.) For those of you who haven’t checked out either…YOU MUST DO SO NOW! Click above and have your home design world shift forever.

When the two things I love came together yesterday in the Pinterest Challenge, well…it was like the clouds parted and heaven my children sang. I loved the idea of a Pinterest Challenge until I realized it meant I had to make something. Like with my own two hands. Oh dear.

 

While I like the idea of making things, I prefer the idea of other people making things for me. But Sherry and her compatriots have me inspired.  I will make something from my ‘Fun DIY’ Pinterest board this weekend if it kills me.  And it might.

We know it won’t be the DIY mid-century desk…

Or the awesome welded firepit…

I do think that I could handle the dry-erase board…

 

Or the terrariums, which I really really love.

 

If we could find the Eames chair-legs for less than $100, Brett could totally pull off this DIY bench with the wood from the rockery project.

So will you join me in this Pinterest Challenge? The idea is to post your creation on the YHL blog (and hopefully the MCML blog too!) by August 2nd.  I am committing to the two projects above.  I think they are an accessible entry point into this DIY-thang. If you aren’t a Pinterest convert yet, please submit the DIY you are proudest of to share!

And if that weren’t incentive enough, check out this snort-inducing video from Sherry of YHL and her compatriots in crime.  Enjoy!

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Things I love (v1)

29 Jun

Some people have asked me lately where I get inspiration, so I decided to write a post on things I like.  This is basically a laundry list of all the things that fill me with stuff-lust. Besides my obvious personal history with mid-century homes (told here), my first taste of the mid-century drug came from Orla Kiely.

Those who know me well know that I am a recovering Orla addict. I have had an Orla problem and was in desperate need of a 12-step program. (Kate Spade in the late 90s was my gateway drug to Orla. When I find something l love, I am as loyal as spaniel.  That is, until I love something else.) While some of you might not recognize the name, I’ll bet you’d recognize her iconic stem pattern that was her entre into the design world. I love family members that feed this addiction by sending me Orla pencils and notebooks, her latest product extension. (Thank you, Michelle!)

Then she had her fabulously successful line of home products at Target, launching her and her mid-century sensibility into the mainstream. I personally own the pear kitchen canisters and they have pretty much driven my kitchen color decisions. I also buy a new Orla bag every season because her I am completely hooked on her pattern evolution. I usually get them from her ‘Etc.’ collection, which is less expensive and more practical for someone who throws her bag everywhere and spills stuff on and in it like me. I love how cheerful and unexpected the patterns and colors are. Carrying my Orla bag just makes for a good day.

She also makes products with her trademark stem and other patterns for the home:  wallpaper, mugs, towels.  I have a dream of wallpapering one wall of my kitchen in the classic stem pattern, but at $90 a pop for a 33 ft. roll. I may need to give that more thought.

As you can see, while I can gush about my love for Orla all day long, I also like to spread the love around.  Orla was my jumping off point and will always have a special place in my heart. My cousin Michelle, mentioned above as the Orla-addiction feeder, also shares with me the cool mid-century blogs she comes across. Michelle is the only person I know more obsessed with design and cooking blogs than I am and I know that when I get an email from her, it will have a good nugget. The last one she sent me was a blog that featured other mid-century inspired fabrics and patterns: June Craft. How sunny are those fabrics? How cute are those dresses? Almost makes me want to have another little one, but I may have to settle for bribing the older girls to wear those dresses.

Etsy is also a great resource for MCM-inspired products both handmade and vintage. I particularly like their paper prints in MCM style from the Retro Modern Living Shop. (Her blog can also be found here.) And yesterday in the mail, I received an awesome poster from the ReStyle shop on Etsy from, you guessed it, Michelle. I can’t wait to frame this and put it on an image wall next to the soon-to-be-framed fragment of Peanuts wallpaper from Ainsley’s bedroom.

I realize I am going on and on and on because the inspiration out there is almost limitless.  (There may have to be a v2 of this post.) But a few more before I go…

I love color and like considering the MCM options for it. So Design Seeds is one of my favorite spots to go when tackling color questions. The green and orange kitchen is still high on the list of wants and I love this awesome color palette based on a clementine. So much more inspiring than the color strips at the paint shop, yeah? Explore this site based on theme, season, color. Just explore when you have a LOT of time on your hands.

And the final time-suckage inspirational website of all time: Pinterest. It’s a virtual pin-board that lets you grab all the awesomeness that I cataloged here and create a mood-board for practically anything…home, food, architecture, clothing. You name it, you can pin it. The only down-side is the wait for the invite, which is kind of a bummer because when a girl’s gotta something to pin, she’s just got to pin it.

What inspires you?

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