Feelin' the Love

Michelle, you rock! Go girl!

Here's to the next 100 days, and the next 100 and the next 100......

Did you ever want to start over?

I've been following Apartment Therapy's Small Cool contest. This year the entries were very diverse. There was an entry from a trailer, a tent and Buddhist monk's dorm room. I am always more interested in real people's home, and am especially intrigued by the creative uses of small space. And, as my readers know, I am in love with minimalism. Even though my place is not currently looking minimal, I swoon when I see a great minimalist room.

This year my favorite entry was Arzee's Urban Jungle Oasis. Arzee's abode is a mere 295 feet and is aptly named. It is serene, peaceful and done with a carefully restrained hand. Nothing is out of place.

Now, normally the Nelson Marshmallow Sofa is too iconographic for my taste, but somehow it works in this space. Maybe because it's white. Maybe it's the geometry. Or maybe it's because the room is simple. I'm going to pretend the animal rug is not there. My readers know that I do not condone the use of animal rugs, but I am looking at this room as a whole.

I absolutely adore his paintings. Turns out he is the artist, and he has carefully allowed these paintings to evolve. The one over the bench is not complete yet. I would love to follow its evolution. I love the use of large paintings in a small place. It's so much more cohesive to use a few large pieces rather than a grouping of small pieces. I am not a great fan of groupings. I've experimented with them (see previous post here), but I think they tend to look too cluttered. His lighting is too fab, and I want that acrylic coffee table! I adore the way acrylic tables look in a small place.

Arzee is gifted with words as well. He says that he "moved to Manhattan because it is a dense urban jungle saturated with signs, images, graphics, tons and tons of visual noise and I absolutely love that but I also wish to escape it."

And what a great escape he's created. Makes me want to start over. Great job Arzee! Thanks for being an inspiration!

Red!

As I mentioned below, I've been thinking about red lately. Not usually a color I think about, but for some reason it is intriguing me lately. These thoughts have snapped me out of my sleep walk.

No one does red better than Benjamin Noriega Ortiz. I believe this is the most beautiful dining room I've ever seen. It's romantic and lush, yet even with the intensity of the color, remains peaceful. A brilliant use of monotone. Image from Pointclickhome.

A little red goes a long way. Ordinarily, beige decor bores me. But this skillful use of texture, along with small red pops makes this decor sing. Todd Klein's home. Image via Elle Decor, December 2008.

A couple of red flowers in a tall white vase is heaven. Image from CB2.

Another example of a beige decor. This one is livened up with pops of yellow and red. Demi Adeniran's home. Image via the now-defunct Domino magazine, January 2009.

Red and pink also make great accent colors. I dig that lamp! Image from Apartment Therapy.

And dig this sofa. A fine marriage of contemporary and frilly. Mare sofa by Rene Holten. Image via Hive Modern.


Another red dining room. I love the large painting. Red, pink and orange look great together. Tracey Garet via Desire to Inspire.

Normally, I don't like wallpaper. But this one is an exception. I'd love to have a large piece of this framed. Wall paper by Florence Broadhurst for Signature Prints. Image via Elle Decoration, March 2009.

I love the combination of red, pink, orange and fuchsia. And I adore saturated colors. Pastels are a thing of the past for me, and frankly I find them boring now that I have been foraying into the wonderful world of saturation.

So, of course, I had to experiment with these colors in my little apartment.

My new paintings. Each piece is 24" x 30", acrylic on canvas.

A romantic little sitting room in my apartment. The walls of my apartment used to all be fuchsia. I've been painting them white, but there is a small area that I haven't painted yet. Hmm. I kind of like that color.

Blame it on the Red Pop

I've been indulging depression and fatigue lately. Stupid, but true. While laying on the sofa, watching Sigourney Weaver in Aliens for like the millionth time, I spilled the old-fashioned red pop I was drinking. On my white rug. It took me a minute to get something to clean up the spill, I was so fascinated by the color of the stain.

That spill - and the subsequent mess I made with a towel - got me thinking about red. Nothing like color to snap me out of my ennui. Maybe for spring, I'll use some red in my decor. Nothing pastel about this spring. Only saturated colors for me.

Ceramic Pendants

These lovely ceramic pendants are by Michelle Swafford. White, geometric forms, perfect in their simplicity. I want them all!

Blogging - Elle Decoration UK Edition

Elle Decoration UK never ceases to inspire me. The March 2009 issue was no exception. Of course I've been loving pink and orange together for a long time. So when I saw this page I swooned.

Look at that! Fuchsia, orange, red and brown! Hmm, this may be a good color combo for my new brown pillows. Gorgeous.

After seeing these beautiful colors, I just had to put a brush to canvas. I was compelled to experiment with these colors. This is what I came up with. I adore stripes. I mix my own colors, and I wish the pink were just a tad paler.

Here's the painting with my new pillows. Wish the sofa were fuchsia! My living room won't stay this way because I must have yellow. It's so fun to experiment with color, and canvases make it easy. I have a radical idea for the small sofa. Stay tuned.

I want to paint everything

I want to paint everything in my apartment. Chairs, bookcases, pottery, the floor, everything! I want to cover everything in a fresh coat of paint. You've seen my cute little dining table many times. It was assembled from three pieces I found on the curb. This weekend I considered painting it orange. Here's some orange inspiration. Hope you enjoy!

Flickr user BGLewandowski.

Flickr user Kumatora.

Knack Studios. If you love painted and repurposed furniture, then you must check out this site. I am green with envy! That's what I want to do when I grow up.

Flickr user Rodsta.

Flickr user The Shopping Sherpa. I don't remember doll house furniture looking this good when I was a kid!

Flickr user Misty Garrick Miller.

Flickr user Leo Reynolds.





Flickr user fishflix.

Well, dear readers, what do you think? Should I paint my dining room table orange? Maybe I should just paint the top orange and leave the base white?

Pottery Jones

Happy Friday! Have you had a stressful week? I have! How do we do what we do? How do we keep going? Apparently humans are very resilent. Everyone in America is burned out and stressed out. Most are either over-worked or out-of-work. Both states suck!

Let's take a little break from all that stress and contemplate one of my favorite things. Pottery. In fact, the only thing that makes sense to me these days is art. And to those artists who earn a living with their craft, I salute you. You are part of the solution! Because I believe art can and will save the world.

Okay, I know, enough words. Ahh, pottery in simple forms. Nothing better for the senses. Here are a few of my favorites, some have been featured before on this blog. Hope you enjoy.

Sophie Cook. Sophie is probably my favorite contemporary potter. When I win the lottery, the first thing I will do is order one of her vases. Pottery is an incredibly tactile experience, and I long to hold one of these beauties in my hands. I love her work so much, that I would move to the UK to work with her.

Sara Paloma.

Nancy Bauch.

Whitney Smith's pomegranate vase is one of my favorites. And now she has some ethereal works in porcelain. I adore Whitney's blog, an honest account of an artist's life. As an artist myself, many of her entries resonate with me.

Frances Palmer.

If you follow my blog, you already know my decorating philosophy. Accessories make the room. In fact, you can have just an air mattress in the room, as long as you have a silky pillow, a fabulous lamp, a great vase, a beautiful painting. That's all you need to make a room. This week we've looked at lamps, vases and pillows. This weekend will be all about painting. I am planning to pick up a brush this weekend. My day job has been killing my spirit, so I desperately need the canvas, and I guess I will rescind my vow to quit painting.

Happy Friday! Stay tuned, hopefully I will have some new work to show you.