My Apartment - Moving Stuff Around

Nothing makes me happier than putzing around in my apartment. When I bring in something new, it affects everything else, and everything gets moved to accommodate the new piece.

Bringing home a new vase is a wonderful experience. My new vase had been sitting lonely and dusty on a self for a long time, in fact I first wrote about this vase, here. I've been watching this vase for about a year waiting for the price to come down. The first thing I did when I got it home was give it a bath.

Washing a piece of pottery is an incredibly sensual tactile experience. I find washing vases to be meditational. Seeing shine replace what had been dusty brings great joy. I never cease to marvel at the artistry that goes into making pottery. I get so much joy from washing a new piece, that the rest of the pieces get a bath before finding their new location. Even the Buddha.

It seems my love of minimalism and my love of pottery are in dissonance with each other. The way I reconcile this dissonance is to collect pottery of simple forms. No patterns, and of course, white. I continually edit my collection, a small stash stays in the closet for when I want to change things around. And clutter just won't do. To cut down on clutter, I display my pottery vertically.

My brother built this room divider. It needs a little repair because of the building settling. Behind the divider is my office. I hung a curtain because I wanted to block the office from view. I never cease to marvel at the geometric forms.

The amber Buddha head has a place of prominence on the heater, with prayer beads and a couple of my paintings.

My Apartment - Collections

Below I showed the new loot I bought for my apartment. One of the things I bought was a vintage plastic planter. When I bought it, I had specific plans for it. To display my postcard collection.

I have a collection of promotional postcards. They are all very fine examples of graphic art, which I adore. I pick them up at galleries, specialty shops and even off the street. I also have some vintage Buddhist postcards.

Aren't these Bon Bon postcards cute! I bought these at a garage sale for $.10 each. I'm going to frame them.

I have framed a few of my postcards.

Did this myself. Mounted them on graph paper, and the frame was $1.99 at the Salvation Army. Not as good as custom framing, but a lot cheaper. My favorite blue bottle was also purchased at the Salvation Army.

Sometimes I enlarge the postcards before framing them. I'd like to experiment with the Rasterbator.

The new planter holds my post card collection in my office area.

The shelf was found on the curb and is on my long-list-of-DIY-projects-that-I'm-too-lazy-to- do. I'd like to spray paint it white.

Another fine example of graphic art are urban toys. These have become an obsession for me. (As if I needed another obsession!) I have some of my collection on the window sill in my office area. These help tap into my creativity, but I'm not going to buy anymore. I swear! If I need a fix, I can just visit the sites of fellow flickr users who are obsessed by toys. Collecting images takes up less space and costs a lot less!

My Apartment - The Stuff

Ahh, stuff. I always seem to have too much. Even in a small place. I shouldn't have been shopping... but I was. Sometimes I get saturated by all the beautiful things available. I guess it's official, I'm not a minimalist. I feel panic start to set in even admitting this. I have minimalist tendencies, and I think minimalism is a great ideal to strive for, but... like I said I was shopping. I want my apartment to be beautiful, but simple. I love objects and tend to think that I am curator rather than a collector.

Here's how I do it. First, I decide what I want. I wanted a new white vase. One that conforms to a very specific aesthetic. Simple, white, pure form. Second, I look in my stash to see what can leave. That's one of my rules, somethings must leave first to make room. Stuff should always remain dynamic, never static. Hoarding should be avoided. And I have another rule, no storage outside of my apartment. If it cannot fit in my small apartment, I don't need it.

When something leaves I always thank it for serving me. A sparkly glass vase from India was given to a friend who admired it. The white Portuguese vase was sold. I love this vase, but something about its shape was wrong for my current aesthetic. A bag of clothes was donated to the Salvation Army.

Then I shopped - in thrift stores, of course. Here are some items that I did not buy, but I found them tempting!

Flower pillows and yellow mod light from my favorite vintage store. White snail figurine from West Elm. I dig them all, but these would take me in a different route, trying to stick to the plan. I think these would look great in a teenage girl's room. I would love to decorate a room for teenager! Fun!

More tempting stuff I didn't buy.

Bud vases from Hip and Zen.

The things I did buy. If you must buy, this is the right time of year to do it. Everything was on sale!

Blue tea pot, inspired by coffee pot I wrote about below. I love that color! Vintage Haeger vase. I was very excited about this vase, I didn't realize that Haeger had produced textury pieces like this. I had been looking at this vase a long time, but just couldn't bring myself to shell out its original price ($38.00). Vintage plastic planter, two studio pieces and mod vinyl pillow (I have a thing for vinyl). Total of all of this loot: $32.00!

Still on the lookout for a red lamp. I adore this one, just can't remember where I got the picture from. Please contact me if you know its source. Midcentury Jo is skilled enough to make this, but I'm not.

Now comes the fun part. Moving stuff around.

My Apartment - The Sofa

I'd like to make my apartment look like a sensuous den by adding a sectional with lots of pillows. I like the idea of a sectional, because I wouldn't need chairs. Since that is not in the budget, I have to work with what I have. Here is what my sofa looks like:

Fortunately, it is cute, comfortable and sturdy. I bought it a couple of years ago in a vintage store for $200.00. If you don't have much money for a sofa, you are better off going the vintage route. Vintage sofas are built sturdier than new inexpensive sofas and are usually cuter. I love this sofa, but not the color. Since I don't sew, I shopped for slip covers.

Slip covers are costly. And I found them in only three colors: beige, brown or navy blue. So I decided on sheets. This set cost only $19.99 from Target.

It worked out great. It was easy to tuck the sheets in, they are fully washable and I can change the color on a whim.

I ordered silk pillow covers from Oriental Lifestyle. They came all the way from Thailand and were only $27.99 for the pair! Also included was a sweet card wishing me a Happy New Year, and inside it said "With Love." I was touched.

I adore my new pillows and slip cover! I may order more pillows when budget permits.

For now I have a shoji screen hiding my air conditioner. It was way too much of a pain putting it in to take it out for the winter. The screen is also providing draft control. I like throwing the curtains over it during the day. I really want to redo this screen by painting it white and replacing the rice paper with fabric. But I am way too lazy, I can't imagine that I'll ever get to it. For now I'm thinking of just hanging some lights on it.

My Apartment - Color Influences

Influence for the color scheme in my apartment came from the April 2007 Domino Magazine. I absolutely adored the Prada layout. I love the royal blue, orange, pink and violet, with plenty of white. When I saw this cover, I wanted a royal blue sofa badly.

I saw this sofa in a vintage store, and I passed on it. It still haunts me. I first wrote about this sofa here. Just as well I guess, when I win the lottery I'm going to buy a sectional.

Back to the Prada spread. Love those colors with the white walls and white pottery on the mantel. Also love the low scale furnishings with the high ceilings. They used a lot of color here and still achieved simplicity.

Love orange, royal blue, fuchsia and violet together!





I adore this Haviland Laque de Chine coffeepot, teacup and saucer! What a beautiful color.

I was also inspired by this year's Domino Contest winner. Love how she combines cool and warm colors.

Designer Frank Roop provided inspiration in the March 2005 House Beautiful. He is the first designer to make me crave sensual textiles, and Moroccan influence.

I adore that corner sofa!

Since I am on the topic of colors, I had to show this adorable picture of Naomi Campbell for Louis Vuitton that was on yahoo today (link). I adore these colors. This photo may inspire a new painting. Love the saturated colors. Dig that shoe. Dig that dress.

My Apartment

This weekend, I did my favorite thing. I worked on my apartment. Here is what my living area looks like right now. Over the next few days, I'd like to share my apartment and detail how it has evolved.

This is what it looked like in October. I was not happy with this scheme, as I wrote about here. It all started with this rug. I don't really like rugs, but find them necessary to help with the chill. Naturally, I don't want to spend a lot of money on a rug, so I couldn't pass up this cranberry rug at Target. Only $12.99! This scheme just doesn't work. I love the sofa, but not the color.

I Love Prefab or My Virtual Home

I have a confession to make. I love prefab housing. I've never really liked Elizabethan or Tudor homes, they just aren't relevant to our times. I am a purist when it comes to architecture and prefer that ornate or embellished architecture be reserved for temples or churches. I adore lofts and 50s style ranches. I dream of a simple white house in a pure, geometric shape. All the walls and floors would be white. It would be nestled in trees and have lots of windows.

When I discovered the work of architect Rocio Romero, I flipped. Here is my fantasy home. The LVL. I adore it. It's simple, gorgeous and extremely functional. Look at those windows!

I've been so obsessed with this home, that I've even been thinking about how I would decorate it. Since it is so simple, anything would work, except clutter of course.

Here's a mood board for my new home. Since the walls and floors will be white, I will go with simple, low scale pieces. Lots of white with saturated pops thrown in. It would be so fun to accessorize this simple home with pillows, lamps and pottery. The accessories would sit on the floor, as I would keep the scale low. No high bookcases, no dressers. It would be modern and simple, yet beautiful and romantic.

For the living room.















Chill sectional by Stine Engelbrechtsen at apt.com, silk pillows from OrientalLifestyle.com, Hella Jongerius vase to sit on floor, available at Ikea. Lamp and tea tray from Le Souk. Pouf from Tazi Designs.

For the dining room.
Low Chinese or Japanese table. Like this one from Oriental Furniture. Or the one I wrote about here from JTansu. On the table would be this prosperity bowl from Cheryl Williams available at the Artful Home. I've been meaning to devote a post to Cheryl's work it is so lovely. Around the table would be these floor pillows from Target.



For the bedroom.

Global bedding from Target. Silk lamp from Om Gallery.
One of the bedrooms would be my studio. It would be wonderful to paint with the light from those wonderful windows! I would create very simple paintings.

Now, let's get Jetsons for a minute. Wouldn't it be cool of we could decorate entirely with holograms? With just a touch to our laptop, we could change the color, lighting, accessories and even the furniture of our room. We could change it with ease for every mood, and it would be a snap to move. No more spring cleaning, because we wouldn't need stuff. No more filling the landfills with unwanted stuff. We wouldn't even need physical paint. As for the economy, maybe we could pay a small fee to rent an image. I could see Behr offering holographic walls and color, they already provide a virtual service on their site. I'm really still just thinking this through. But one can dream, right?

Maybe you are having a party tonight and you want to change your room. Individual pieces as well as whole rooms could be available. Maybe designers could rent a holographic room. For example, want to live or throw a party in a room designed by Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz? Just click an image on his site. The possibilities are endless.

Last Paintings of 2007

2007 was a prolific year for me in paint, filled with lots of exciting experimentation. I am working on several series at the moment. Here are my last two paintings for 2007, which I completed over the weekend. In this series I will be attempting to tell a story by reconciling the many things that obsess me aesthetically. The first two in this series are 16" x 20" and depict modern prefab homes with funky vegetation and strange weather phenomena. These are done with acrylic and marker on paper. I prefer to paint on canvas, but I am so prolific of late that I keep running out of canvas! Out of necessity, I will be painting on paper more.

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy New Year to everyone who takes the time to read my blog. I can't tell you how much it means to me! I wish everyone peace, love and happiness in 2008 and beyond. Stay tuned as there are big and exciting changes coming in 2008.

Painting done by me as part of an experiment in texture and metallic paint. 18" x 24", acrylic, metallic glaze, marker, glitter on canvas.