Before & After: Rast Hack

After taking care of some business online today, I decided to treat myself to a surf of my favorite design blogs and came across this amazing IKEA Rast hack by Kelly of Hello Boudreau via Jenny of Little Green Notebook. I can’t stop looking at the pics! This is, in my opinion, the best Rast hack I’ve seen yet.

Kelly started out with this…

…and ended up with this! Sweet, no?

Check out more pics of Kelly’s project at Hello Boudreau: Ikea Rast Hack. For extra credit check out more of Jenny’s picks for best Rast hacks at the top of her post.

Until next time!

Totally Inspiring Room

The gorgeous masculine glamour of this foyer by Osborn Architects blows my mind!

It’s totally inspiring room… the late night edition! Better late than never, I say, especially when the room is this cool. Ok, so technically it’s an entry and it’s also just a glimpse. Still, isn’t this glimpse tantalizing enough to draw you into the rest of the house? Check out the cool blog Rex Kelly Mid-Century to see more of the house which was done by Osborne Architects! Happy night owling, y’all!

The Drawing Board…

I’m terrible about projects sometimes… You’ll remember how a few weeks ago, I showed you the lamps I bought that I wanted to do the neon + neutral bottle wrap project on? Well, when I went to Lowes to pick up the masons line (neon yellow and pink nylon) and twine to do the project, I didn’t like it! So now, I’ve got to back to the drawing board on that lamp project. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it now. I definitely want to paint it because brown is not a color I’m fond of (even though the brown on my lamp is a dark, glossy chocolate brown and not at all ugly). Since I’m bankrupt for a solid idea for the lamp, I’ve decided to try and do some planning for the desk I bought a while back:

Craig’s List desk.

It needs serious work! At first I thought that I wanted to do a standard white or ivory paint job on it but after seeing this room by Kimberly Ayres design (thank God for Google image search, btw! I actually first saw this picture on a blog without a photo credit and it took me ages to figure out who designed the room).

The main inspiration for my CL desk find is this room by Kimberly Ayres Design.

High gloss mint would look great on my desk, don’t you think? I think it would look awesome. I’ve been gathering paint chips for the perfect shade of mint green. Today I started looking for drawer pulls because I don’t really like the original pulls. I found these at Anthropologie:

Sardinia Knob, $12 each at Anthropologie.com.

I’m hoping to find some decent sized unpolished square brass backplates for the knobs to sit on. I think that’d look nice on the flat edges of the drawers. I’ve also wanted to use some of the metallic fine papers from Paper Source to line the inside of drawers for a while… I’m thinking this marbled gold would look good:

Gold on Natural Marble Fine Paper, $6.50 per sheet at Paper Source.

Well, that’s my wish list for my desk project. I’m hoping to find some inspiration for the lamp project soon as I think I’d like to tackle the smaller project first. Any suggestions for my lamp?

The One That Got Away…

Dining room from Rue magazine (l) and chair currently for sale on Etsy (r).

I bought a desk not long after I returned to the Seattle area. It is a lovely CL find that I fell in love with as soon as I laid eyes on it. It needs some TLC and a nice desk chair to make feel less lonely.

So I searched and searched and somewhere along the way I had the brilliant idea that it needed to be a more modern chair, preferably with a brass finish… And I found this:

"Modern Glam Chair" from Gallivanting Girls on Etsy.

It’s brass. It’s modern. It’s beautiful. It’s also out of my part time job price range at $180. I resign myself to the fact that I’m probably going to be a wish monster galore on this one…

A couple of weeks later, I head over to Rue Magazine and lo, and behold! There is this swank little room with not one but two of those very perfect chairs. They are chrome (and not brass) but still the lovely modernist shape and with better fabric to boot.

Dining space from the February 2012 issue of Rue Magazine.

Someone out there is like me and wants this chair badly. They saw that spread in Rue too… And they can’t get their mind off of the beauty and perfection of those chairs. They want them and they’ve been searching but they can’t find them. Well, at last here it is. Solo, yes… but one is better than none. Grab it while you can. 🙂

Totally Inspiring Room

The library in the home of Jackie Astier via Elle Decor.

My taste is changing… Again! For a while there I was leaning towards the Hollywood glam revival (epitomized by decorator Mary MacDonald). I still like elements of that style: bold patterns, lacquered surfaces, and blingy metals. But, as I mentioned yesterday, part of me loves the relaxed and collected refinement of (personal fave) Thomas O’Brien.

I think today’s room captures a little bit of both. This is the library of stylist Jackie Astier. I love the mix of textures and shine, faux Bois wallpaper and the mirror (a screen?) on the corner table. It looks inviting and comfy… and sexy.
See the rest of the apartment here… and have a great Tuesday everyone! 🙂

Totally Inspiring Room(s)

Sometimes when you’re looking at interiors, you come across a space that speaks to your soul. Perhaps that’s a little melodramatic but I was so entranced by Darcy Miller Nussbaum’s home in the February 2012 issue of Architectural Digest that I’m sure woke the dead with all my oohing and aahing. There is loads more of this winning design by MR Architecture + Decor at Architectural Digest.

Totally Inspiring Room

Better late than never, today’s edition of totally inspiring room is brought to you by the happy, colorful genius of Palmer Weiss. The mix of new, old, color, playfulness, and unstudied elegance is just right. This is another room I could walk into without changing a thing.

Happy belated Tuesday, all. See you tomorrow… hopefully much earlier!

Best of the Week

I save a lot of things while I’m surfing, a lot of which I don’t post because I’ve thought I might be spamming you all with it. But going forward, if it’s ok with you all, I’ll be sharing more instead of less. Because if I think something is awesome enough to save, well, maybe you will too. 🙂

Hyphae Lamp by Nervous System @Etsy, $600.

“Minted” pulls & knobs in satin brass by Sumner Street @ Lowe’s, $5 – $8.

Upcycled flooring of wood shipping pallets by Arctic Plank, price on request.

Marble Tray @ Restoration Hardware, $125 – $155. (Thanks to Camille Moore for sharing this on Twitter while I was writing up my post!)

Designer Visions 2011. A trio of showhouses take their inspiration from the movies:

Jed Johnson Associates for House Beautiful – Factory Girl.

Carrier & Co. for Town & Country – Igby Goes Down.

Thomas O’Brien for Veranda – Someone To Watch Over Me.

My favorite is Thomas O’Brien’s design but they are all amazing and have a wealth of ideas in them. You can learn more about it at Designer Visions Online.

I hope you’re having a great Friday and have good things planned for your weekend. I’ll be working but making the most of it! Have a great weekend, everyone!

PS Sorry for the lateness of the post but just when I was almost finished my whole thing froze. I had to reboot and lost half the post… hope it was worth the wait. Ciao… for now!

Faringdon Lamp

I’m in love with brass lamps right now. The cool thing is that brass is coming back into fashion, so we’re seeing more and more offerings that are chic.

Take Vaughan Design’s Faringdon Lamp: it is a perfect example of putting a stylish twist on a classic silhouette. It is shapely, elegant, and modern. I’d love to have one on my desk! The Faringdon is available in brass, polished nickel, and dark bronze.

Have an amazing Monday!

Rustic Elegance

I am totally in love with gray right now and I’ve always been a fan of mixing luxe items with rustic or industrial pieces. So, today I bring you some of my favorite recent finds in gray, both industrial and luxurious.

From top left: Foothill Wool Rug, $700-$1500 – Decorarugs.com; Bubbled Beverage Dispenser, $298 – Anthropologie; Spool side table, $199 – Crate & Barrel; Wood Alphabet by Bookhou At Home, $50 – Etsy; Piecrust Dinnerware in Cloud, $12-$20 – Anthropologie; Bachelor’s Steel & Wood Cabinet, $1245 – Clayton Gray Home; Ceramic Stallion, $99 – Z Gallerie.