Kitchen Envy

They say the kitchen is the heart of the home, it is also the room that sees some of the highest return on investment for renovators, and churns out the very sustenance we need to live. That's a lot of pressure for one little old room!!

I'm working with a client right now on Long Island who is trying to achieve her "dream" kitchen on a slightly nightmarish budget, but the results are coming along beautifully and she'll be much closer to the dream than ever as construction wraps up this week. As we ruminated over every countertop, hardware, cabinet and backsplash detail, I couldn't help but fantasize a little further about my own future ideal kitchen (which will undoubtedly be on just such a budget). My cost-cutters will include minimal upper cabinets (if any), salvage yard finds, and reclaimed wood counters that I can abuse to my heart's content. But like my client, I pine for lots of white and farmhouse details. Feast your eyes on a few of my favorite inspiration kitchens:

(from House Beautiful)

(found on www.trendey.com)

(from http://seacottage.blogspot.com)

(from a friend who knows the specs of my dream kitchen and how much I love bread, actual source unknown)

(found on Country Living)

(Elle Decor image from Arcadian Lighting's guest post on The Vintage Wren)

(from Natural Home & Garden, also featured in one of my former posts on reclaimed wood)

(from freshhomeideas.com)

(from Remodelista)

(from the Cortizo Decor blog)

Monday Color: Lemon and Aqua

Today's Monday Color combination draws its inspiration from the summer sun blazing in clear blue skies, which we've been fortunate to see a lot of this season. It is also the palette I'm using in an Upper West Side family room set against clean white walls with abundant light wood tones, so a family of five can revel in that that fresh and carefree summer feeling all year long.

Images above:

1. (Very top) Jersey Shore, capturing bright sunshine, warm sand and aqua skies, from bomobob on Etsy.

2. & 3. (Very top) Benjamin Moore's Yellow Raincoat and Tropicana Cabana.

4. A daring yellow and aqua living room found on The Lennoxx

5. Perfectly balanced doses of both colors energize this dining area.

6. A darling nursery bosting fresh bursts of sunshine and aqua.

7. A coastal-inspired bathroom found on southernhospitalityblog.com.

8. Found on The Tomkat Studio and photographed by Laura Winslow, this vibrant partyscape nails today's color combination.

9. Birch Fabric's organic cotton sateen Bubble Stripe in Fresh (available through Fabric Worm).

10. Sparkle Flies Cotton Flannel Hook Rug (available through Layla & Grace).

11. A Star is Born Mousepad from Zazzle.com.

12. A whimsical oversized resin deer head with yellow antlers from White Faux Taxidermy on Etsy.

13. Land of Nod's Now Clip It, Clip it Good Lamp in Aqua (what a name!!).

14. The Filmore Sofa from Thrive Furniture in Sunny.

15. The leather Rhys Chair from Anthropologie in Caribbean Blue (which will be included in aforementioned family room).

16. Prospect (Color: Lake) from the Thom Felicia collection for Calico Corners.

Round-up: White Organic Cotton Sheets

My last purchase of white organic cotton sheets from Target was a good value, but the quality matched the price. "You get what you pay for" I can just hear my mother saying right now. So, I'm in the market for a new set of pure white organic cotton sheets (which I believe every bed should have!) and here's what I've narrowed it down to:

West Elm's Frayed Edge Organic Cotton Sheet Set ($79 Queen Set, on sale)

Loop Organic's White Pleated 300 TC Organic Cotton Sateen Sheet Set ($196 Queen Set)

I've spent many a restful night on The Company Store's Organic Cotton Jersey Sheets; they truly are like sleeping on your favorite T-shirt. ($58 for Queen Flat and Fitted Sheets, $44/Pair of Standard Cases).

Coyuchi's luxurious 300 TC Organic Cotton Sateen Sheets are a splurge, but well worth it (Currently on sale for $84 for Queen Sheets, $30/Pair of Standard Cases)

And last but not least, the Organic 350 TC Sateen Sheet Set from Pottery Barn ($129 for a Queen Set)

Streets to Walls

A client recently asked me to incorporate graffiti into a space I'm designing and my first reaction was "oh boy, how cheesy." Having befriended a graffiti artist or two in my days - both the anonymous law-breaking sort and the gallery-friendly - and being a huge fan of all street art myself, I truly had mixed feelings proceeding with this idea. Earlier in my design career, I did encourage a client to hire an artist I knew to paint some old chairs and the elevator of his loft and everyone loved the appropriately funky results. Regardless of my personal opinions, integrity remains intact when both artist and client are happy about any commission, such as they were in this 2004 project:

As a friend recently started sketching up what I've dubbed "graffiti-inspired signage" whenever I speak about it in my client meetings, I started to see that the results are actually going to be far from cheesy and now I'm really excited. In honor of this internal shift, I decided to sleuth around for other interior graffiti art that I felt was aesthetically pleasing, despite the inherent oxymoron.

California-based Ilan Dei juxtaposes subdued modern furniture with a surprise graffiti piece inside, as found on his blog.

Definitely not something I could live with for more than one night, graffiti artist Tilt was commissioned to do his thing in one of five rooms in France's Au Vieux Panier Hotel that hires different artists to re-do each room annually.

Patterns from Above

Every so often I come across an artist (or pair of artists in this case) whose work is so fresh and inspiring that I have to spread the word. I stumbled across the aerial photography of Brent Yaggi & Sarah Hicks in a recent hunt for a client's walls. My only search criteria was color photography that somehow makes you see the "ordinary" a bit differently, with an abstract essence to boot. Yaggi and Hicks Patterns from Above series fills these specs exactly. According to their website bio, "Brent Yaggi & Sarah Hicks fly 2,000 feet up in a Cessna 172 to capture patterns with their Nikon lenses. They have scoured many parts of North America over the last three years. Brent is from Pennsylvania and Sarah is from England. They will be married in June 2012. They currently live in Denver, CO." Upon further investigation, it looks like this is how they make a commercial living (check out their Aerials By Design site) as well as these beautiful artworks. Some of their work is merely land survey, but much of it forces an enlightening perspective on environmental issues and legal disputes, accidents and agricultural usage. Even though the content is often poignant, the aesthetic results are undeniably beautiful. Here are a few of my favorites:

Grand Prismatic Springs, Yellowstone, WY

Eureka, CA

Salt Lake City, UT

Victoria, TX

Etsy Love: Oh, Little Rabbit

Lord knows I spend enough time on Etsy, scouring its vintage furniture shops for clients, coveting jewelry and trinkets for myself, buying unique gifts for friends, or just seeking inspiration. So it must follow that I bring back my Saturday Etsy Love post; I just can't keep all this good stuff to myself.

In a recent search for organic cotton housewares, I came across Oh, Little Rabbit, an Oregon based couple who illustrates and screen-prints everything from napkins to aprons to onuses by hand. All inks used are water-based and non-toxic, and most items are printed on sustainable materials. Oh, how I love that!

Plus, I'm always smitten with creative couples doing what they love to make a living, as I daydream about what it must be like to churn out these adorable offerings from an idyllic Oregon valley studio, side-by-side with one's beloved. If that isn't the American dream, I don't know what is.

I love this Hand Screen-printed Organic Cotton VW Onesie for all the natural-born hipsters out there.

I've always wanted a house topped with an old weather vane, but until then I can settle for this organic cotton Rooster Weather Vane Tea Towel.

Oh, Little Rabbit's illustration's range from the sweet to the slightly silly, like the cheerful fruit emblazoned on this washable Recycled Cotton Banana Lunch Bag.

I love the iconic mason jars printed on this Large Recycled Cotton Tote, a double-message in plastic reduction and getting back to the basics.

Going for Gold

Today marks the start of the 30th modern Summer Olympics, a tradition that has seen multiple world wars, unthinkable physical achievement and unmatched human spirit, scandal and glory, and spawns commerce, creativity, and globalism like no other event in history. My dad won a gold medal in the 400m hurdle event exactly 60 years ago, a fact which has inspired me ever since I was a young girl (although my goals never involved track shoes, but rather more creative endeavors that have often felt just as out of reach as Olympic qualification). Today's post is a tribute to the Olympic tradition, as I watch the world's best athletes march into a brand new East London stadium to make their mark in history.

Vintage Olympic Bag available on Braderie's Etsy Shop.

Olympic Rings Necklace from BuggleAndBoo on Etsy.

An olympic ring screen print by ZEVS (no longer available).