All I think about is wallpaper

It's really such a shame that we rent because I have such a love affair with wallpaper! If I had my way I'd basically cover every wall, surface and ceiling with wallpaper.

Especially this hand-screened wallpaper by British artist extraordinaire Lizzie (not Lilly!) Allen. Allen was featured at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair here in New York a few weeks ago and I think her work is just swell. How could I not? She has worked with both Osborne & Little AND Paul Smith!

My favorite is 'London City Gents', which would be so great in a breakfast nook or reading corner.

Please visit Lizzie's website to see the full London Collection and read about her adventures in the UK, Middle East and New York!

Images: Lizzie Allen via Apartment Therapy

Kitchen Blues (and peaches)

My least favorite aspect of our new apartment is the backsplash in the kitchen. The tiles are cream with peach colored trees painted on them. They look as if they belong in the bathroom of a 70-year-old woman who owns a pekingese and a special drawer for potpourri. Seriously. It was almost a deal-breaker for me. It was even worse than the no-closet situation. (We'll get to that problem later.)

A few weeks ago, the blogs were abuzz when Victoria Smith of SFByBay fame was featured in the Better Homes & Gardens interest publication Do It Yourself. Victoria's charming San Francisco Apartment. You may remember that I died over her living room a few months ago. Now I am dying over her back splash. It's not very bold and it doesn't make a big statement, but Smith's decision to use laminated paper in her kitchen has changed my life. It's all I can think about. I have already logged about two hours on the Kate's Paperie website trying to locate the perfect paper to cover those peach painting from hell. Now all I have to do is convince my roommate...

Harder said than done!

Image: Do It Yourself via Poppytalk

Bright Idea

I have proclaimed my love of chalkboard paint on numerous occasions but that is so last month. I have moved on to IDEA PAINT. Idea Paint is whiteboard paint. That's right. You heard me. (er, read me.) White. Board. Paint. Not dark like chalkboard paint! No messy chalk dust to clean up! Infinite marker color options! Erasable!

I'm in.

If I didn't rent my apartment, I'd cover my entire door and let people write all over it- inside and out.

Image: IdeaPaint via Poppytalk and Design Hole

Dum Dum DaDum

I spend roughly 39% of my day planning my wedding(s). I have various themes in mind. Several wedding dresses already designed in my head. Various color schemes and their corresponding centerpieces and venue decorations. I know which rehearsal dinner would match which ceremony and already have varying degrees of bridesmaids and attendants picked out.

For someone who is single, I definitely spend waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time planning my nuptials!

Nevertheless, this is pretty much exactly what I envision for wedding option 3, wherein I wear a long while jersey dress with a black sash and crazy colored feathers in my hair and the ten minute ceremony gives way to a giant dance party and everyone carries multi-colored balloons over into a huge field where we have a picnic on jewel-toned gingham blankets.

Falling Garden is the creation of Gerda Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger and was part of the Venice Biennial in 2003. Check out their website to sample some of their other amazing work including my fave Soul Warmer at the Abbey Library of St. Gaul, 2005.


Images: Gerna Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger

Tied Down

As with any new apartment, there are a lot of decisions Hanna and I have to make. So far, we have been pretty good at meeting half way. For example, I wanted a 'grown up couch' whereas Hanna was happy with couches that, to me, looked like they belong in a dorm room. Our compromise? IKEA. Thank god for IKEA and their ability to design affordable furniture that (most of the time) looks more expensive than it is.

Our new couch will come with a black slipcover. Now. Our walls are bright blue. The floors are a dark mahogany. We are about to add a black couch. Crazy you say? No. GENIUS!

I lie.

Challenging to say the least! We have already invested in some translucent white curtains with a faint leaf pattern on them but we need to seriously consider our accessories. What we hang on the walls as well as pillows, throws, lamps and rugs will make or break the room.

That's why I'm sorta upset that I love this pillow so much. It would look terrible on a dark couch! And yet I adore it. It feels glamorous and slightly gothic, even though it's only tie-dye. Perhaps it could find a home on our arm chair that has yet to be reupholstered? Otherwise, I might have to seriously rethink my bedroom plans.

Image: Urban Outfitters

Better than my blanket forts!

I'd better hurry up and make a lot of money because I fully intend to buy every one of my friends this amazing willow playhouse as soon as they start procreating. (ick.)

The talented Judith Needham creates these whimsical houses out of natural english willow. I love them because they remind me of both a castle and the shire. I would be temped to own one myself but I am afraid my jerk cat would tear it apart just like my wicker hamper.

Check out Judith's website for more information on the benefits of using willow.

Image: Judith Needham via {frolic!} and Small Magazine

It's a theme!

Yesterday I posted about an Alice in Wonderland themed bedroom and today we're on to rabbit shaped trash cans! In an effort to promote city-wide cleanliness AND increase their already off the charts cool-factor, the Super Contemporary Commissions Show will install these receptacles around Covent Garden and Holland Park. The five-foot bunnies are designed by Paul Smith and their ears light up when trash is thrown in.

This is yet another reason why I should just drop everything and move to London.

Ps. I want Paul Smith to design my wedding.

That is all.

Image: WWD via Fashionista

Mellow Yellow

I am deep into a yellow phase right now. I love yellow like whoa. When I was in high school, I painted my room yellow and then promptly filled it with red and blue accessories. When my friends came over, they would marvel at how brave I was- choosing primary colors for my bedroom as opposed to the pastel paired with brown look that was au courant.

These days I am into a fresher, crisper yellow. A bright shade paired with black, white, grey, navy and fuchsia. More sophisticated than the primary colors of my youth but more plucky and modern than a grandmother's 'canary yellow kitchen' which supposedly represents her funky taste.

I found this on Design is Mine today and am already trying to figure out where I can find such a large frame. I love how clean the yellow and white looks. I am also gaga over the wallpaper. It's so easy to overpower a whole room with a bold print but this tones it down quite a bit. It also helps that the print itself is quite delicate. I could see this working well in a dining room with a nice wood table and a deep barrel pendant lamp. It would also be cute to hang two matching panels in a corner with a low bookcase and a comfy armchair.

Image: Design is Mine

Come Sail Away

Usually I am wary of mobiles and sculptures that hang from the ceiling because sometimes they seems rahther childlike but then I saw these ridiculously awesome hanging ships and now I must have one STAT!

Artist Ann Wood lives and works in Parks Slope (holla!) and uses found objects and recycled materials. Her DIY project, featured on DesignSponge this morning, is already bookmarked as a future project for our new apartment!

I want these ships for several reasons:
1) They are colorful but not TOO colorful
2) They are delicate but also kind of badass in that 'I'm made of recycled materials but ALSO remind you of pirates sort of way)
3) They could hang perfectly from a hook in my ceiling that is actually for a hanging plant that would die in about a week and then dry up, forgotten in the corner until we move out of the apartment years from now.

Check out Ann's website to see some of her other work and read her blog!

Images: Ann Wood via Design Sponge

Stamp of Approval

Since the Keep Calm & Carry On Poster clearly won't work for me, this would be a fabulous alternative that is bold yet simple!

Image: Decorno

Next up: hookah-smoking caterpillar!

As they so cleverly pointed out over a Poppytalk, this room is a delightful nod to Alice in Wonderland. Therefore, I am totally obsessed with it. FACT: For Halloween, I was the Queen of Hearts. FACT: I was also the white rabbit in the school play in 4th grade. FACT: I watch The Office way too much....

(hehe)

Anyhoo, I wouldn't actually have the guts to have this chandelier in my bedroom and the bedspread looks sorta uncomfortable but nevertheless, I die. I adore the vanity and the arm chair and lord knows I am a sucker for black picture frames!

This is the exact room I would have wanted when I was, say, eight. I would have dressed up in my mother's old bridesmaid dresses and spent hours sitting in front of the mirror speaking in a fake British accent.

FACT: Occasionally, I still spend hours sitting in front of the mirror speaking in a fake British accent...

Image: Chatelaine Magazine via Poppytalk