Yokoo Gibraan
Her shop:
Her other shop:
Please watch:
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Or maybe I need to shrink my collections. Or maybe I just need a shrink! Here is my vision:
I am now ready to receive this space!
Also with some room to work on projects, if you don't mind. Every day I think of a new design I want to implement for a chandelier, a textile, furniture…
Waiting.
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This is a San Francisco Family home interior design job that I did (Part 1 here).
Before & After shots; click on the photos for enlargements.
Corner of living room with TV, toys, wreath, & pink walls:
Same corner with bookcase and a reading wingback:
Living Room Mantle Before:
Mantle After:
Living Room Bay Windows Before:
Bay Windows After:
Sofa Wall Before (note black exercise machine on right). Button-back sofa reupholstery quote was prohibitively high. You'll see the solution below:
Sofa Wall After:
Clients needed living room to double as guest a space, the sofa converts to a full bed:
Asian details. I seperated the panels of an antique silk screen ($20) for more interest, the green wall frames each panel:
Took readymade curtains ($25/pair) and added a custom border to the hem; painted a $5 ginger jar ceramic lamp a bold peacock blue, shows off the lines against the green walls:
Part 3 HERE
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Listening to his guitar teacher:
Hot days in Roma:
Curry on a hot day in Trastevere:
At the Villa:
Best friend:
Harvesting:
Peace:
From his garden:
With Italian cowboys:
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Okay. This is a draft of a post from October 24, 2010. I never completed it as you'll see. I have a weird block about follow-through once I've completed an interior design job, I never get around to posting the documentation. I'm too much like a locmotive, moving forward, on to the next job, not looking back. But I had an incredibly lovely long chat with my dear friend Scott this morning — a fellow blogger and designer whom I've communicated with by email for years and exchanged gifts by mail, but had never ever heard his voice until this morning! — and he urged me to post some of my work. So I'll begin by sharing this snippet of a post.
Here is a Victorian flat in San Francisco that I designed, on an incredibly low budget I might add. The home is a rental and the job had a lot of constraints. The landlord would not allow me do any of the following: tear up the sad 1980s dusty rose wall-to-wall carpeting to reveal the hardwood floors, paint the somber fireplace bricks, or to paint the cheesy 1980s oak kitchen cupboards. I really was dreaming of working with the original Victorian architecture and returning the place to its former glory. I'm pleased with the changes within the limitations. Click on any of the photos for a larger view.
Living room before:
Besides the dusty rose carpeting you can see that the living room walls were a whisper of pink. Might have been nice for a little girl's room in the 80s, but not for grown-up sophisticated San Francisco living. Which reminds me, "Those toys gotta go." The country hutch in the corner, sold on craig's List, had no place in this scheme. We kept the client's lovely wing back chairs but couldn't work with the period sofa. It needed reupholstering and with the button-back the cost was prohibitive.
The walls were painted in what we came to call "The Queen's Green", as both the client and I were in love with the color of the queen mum's room at Balmoral Castle.
Continued HERE
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I was watching Down By Law the other night, for the umpteenth time, and I thought of something while looking at John Lurie (Jack in the film). He walks a line between being ugly and totally beautiful.
It occurred to me that this dynamic, this dual perception, happens frequently when I'm browsing at a thrift shop, "Is this really ugly or is it unbelievably beautiful?" I've learned that when this question pops into my head to not deny it: buy it! If I hesitate and don't buy it, it's the kind of item that will haunt me later.
Exhibit A, a pair of big ass lamps:
They are made out of plaster that's been re-painted bright algae green. They have a combined weight that's greater than my own:
Red cords from Goodwill in Petaluma, little bolero sweater from Salvation Army in Santa Cruz.
The best part, the total cost of the lamps — $10
(found at the Eureka Rescue Mission thrift shop)
Woohoo! I may get some different shades for them. This was just a trial run to see how I felt about them.
(Note: I realize that I need to get my warehouse/warehome organized.)
And the verdict is…I still think they're both ugly and beautiful. From now on I will call this the John Lurie Effect. I think I'll go play the piano now. Happy Valentine's Day!
P.S. My son Jesse shares the same birthday as John Lurie. For a period of time, between 2 and 3 years old, he asked me to play the video for Down By Law regularly. He was mesmerized by it.
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Is it unreasonable to be celebrating my blog anniversary when I've been so terribly absent…and without any excuses?! Life is so much busier now than it was seven years ago. And not necessarily in a good way. How did I ever have time to post as much as I did 'in the old days'. I haven't been able to get my hands on an app for psychic-blog-composing, "Why doesn't this computer know what I'm thinking without me typing it?" It's like having two husbands. heh.
So here's my real excuse: I have been much more interested in doing creative things with my hands, thrifting, reading, hiking and visiting with live people. No offense to any of you 'virtual' people. I'd be happy to meet some time for tea!
Not to forget the barn conversion project I'm in the midst of. That is a big focus. I am documenting it well, taking photos, just not having the time to upload them! Maybe I just need to manage my time better. Oh here we go, blog as therapy. Thinking out loud to diagnose the error of my ways, "Aha! I've got it. Time management." Yeah right.
So I read that the seventh anniversary for weddings is symbolized with copper and wool. Did you know that…….. "a copper pendant was found in northern Iraq that dates to 8700 BC" and "raising sheep for wool production was one of the earliest industries in the ancient world. By 3500 to 3000 BC sheep rearing was a major industry"? Boy do I feel lazy. Primitive people were making copper jewelry and wool clothes and I'm complaining, with all of the tools available today, that I can't get things done. Perspective is everything!
Wish me luck with my new "time management" scheme. Maybe I should first buy a wristwatch. Ciao for now!
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Since returning from life in Italy I have taken on a big project: convereting a barn to a house…while living in it! It didn't seem like such a bad idea when we moved in in the summertime, but now that the cold and damp is here (we're in the redwoods) I realize just how difficult it is to do simple things, like painting the rooms. The temperature is so low in this barn that the paint takes ages to dry. Just the same it's been a fun creative process, taking an empty shell and getting to decide which part will be the kitchen, which will be the bedrooms and so on. It reminds me so much of building forts in the yard when I was little, making something out of what's at hand: salvage, found objects and hand-me-downs.
My bedroom area was just sort of thrown together when we moved in and I put most of my effort into making the kitchen and office functional. Yesterday while I was having my morning coffee it occurred to me that part of the reason I was feeling so cold in here is that most of the walls are white. That can work in a space filled with sun and natural light. This place is not. I stared at the wall behind my bed trying to decide what color I'd like it to be. I decided that even though it's too cold to paint right now I desperately needed to warm-up that sleeping 'nook' temporarily.
Before:
After:
Wooden boxes from Florence, India & Greece; 1940s handpainted silk lampshade:
On the bed: vintage India print spread & vintage chinoiserie pillow; on the wall: 1920s silk brocade spread & my original embroidery art:
I'll be documneting the process here: Barn ProjectNow, when Marcel is an adult and someone asks him, "Were you raised in a barn?" He can say, "Yes!"
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Author Joan Didion once said she believed in using the good silver every day, because "every day is all there is." It's in that spirit I'd like to embolden you to take some creative liberty and adorn yourself, any day, not just the holidays.
header from Carla S. Foxe's Facebook pageThe Art of Adornment, that's the name of Carla S. Fox's Etsy shop.
How to define Carla…she's a jewelry designer, a milliner, or more acurately a Facinator , and I would say an embellisher. But her work transcends those terms. Her necklaces, cuffs, neckpieces and hats are works of sculptural art, like a cross between Coco Chanel and Dale Chihuly — elegant and nostalgic, playful and fantastical.
She creates dazzling assemblage pieces using found and discovered materials fabric scraps, antique buttons, bits of vintage jewelry, leaves and feathers.
"I seek out the unusual, the discarded, the overlooked. I see beauty
where it may not currently exist, but I'll coax it out and give it new
life."
I'll finish with this dreamy creamy bridal headpiece. Happy EVERY day everyone!
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Here are the instructions for my wall sculptures posted HERE.
Start with a funky hardcover book:
Remove the pages from the boards (the front and back cover) by cutting through the end papers (the paper that's glued to the boards):
Divide the pages into sections by marking them with a pencil. I've done three sections of equal size, but you could do whatever size you like and as many sections as you like. If you chose to do six sections then your final sculptures would have a more shallow projection from the wall. You could do different sizes allowing for varying depths of projection coming off the wall as well:
With your utility knife cut down through the pages using your pencil lines as a guide. It takes time, slicing through the pages little-by-little. You could also use scissors if it's easier:
Once you've cut through all of the pages you will then cut through the glued backing paper at the 'spine' to separate the sections:
Fold each of the pages in half, tucking the leading edge in towards the 'spine' of the section. Continue doing this until all of the pages have been folded:
On my first attempt I used a large book (maybe 400 pages) and found that after all of the folding was done the pages were too tight to have a good end result. To remedy that I cut down through the 'spine' and made two folded parts from one. This allowed me to add one more feature to the look whereby I folded every-other page in again so that it were half the size of the others. This gave the final piece a more textured and interesting effect:
Here you can see how the pages of the section right are fuller than I wanted and the section on the left is one that comes from having cut a full section in two. I wanted the final pieces to 'breathe', not be so dense and compact. You could play around with it and see what you come up with…experiment!
Look HERE for my Altered Book Art – Lesson #1 on making a vase.
So Sylvie 