Industrial Revolution

I enjoyed Karly's post on rough and tumble agrarian chic immensely, possibly because it might be the perfect foil for my new obsession: industrial chic. I know, we should stop using the word chic because it has the aura of class, and we all know that Klassy = Sarracuda t-shirts. If I once again employ the transitive property A=B and B=C, therefore A=C, then we can agree that chic is a very bad word indeed. Special brownie points and a gold star to anyone who can think of a better word than chic, but which also sounds good with agrarian and industrial. "Bravura" is not an acceptable submission. It might help if I showed you some pictures, right?

Industrial light fixtures have been de rigeur in the kitchen since stainless took over as the metal of choice. The oversized pendant lights on the left evoke 30s/40s elegance in a thoroughly modern kitchen, while the (tiny picture of the) green wall-mounted beasties on the right from Desire to Inspire's fab site are a little more turn of the 20th century.

Actually, get ready to see a lot of pics from Desire to Inspire because Kim is remodeling her own kitchen and she and I share similar taste in fixtures, including articulated lamps like the ones I posted about recently.

The Style Files also showcases some great kitchens, including this very simple one with gargantuan pendant lights:

Speaking of lights with titanic proportions, check out this baby from CB2:

She is very sexy, no? Like a polished fusilage or jet afterburner, whatever those things are. Too bad that rug is KILLING me. Too small, too red, too marled. Actually, I like marled things... I just had to add one more insult for a little bit of tertiary symmetry.

Time for some retail therapy:

Pendants and sconces and a SCISSOR lamp, oh my! All from Pottery Barn -- seriously -- except for the bottom left one, which is from Restoration Hardware.

I have a rabid scissor lamp fetish... start snatching them up where you can because people are getting fizzy over them on Ebay. I kind of think either super sleek or super crazy, like this funky green pair from Radio Guy:

Radio Guy has some awesome fixtures (plus a ton of really weird masks and mannequins) in a more turn of the century vein, and I can definitely get down with some old school shizz, like these cage lights from Rewire.

Hotness! These are from 1915-1920, and Rewire says they're shown with Edison bulbs. Can you even buy those anymore??? (Totally unnecessary aside: maybe they should be called Tesla bulbs, since Edison was such a damn dirty thief...) Whereas the 30s/40s sleek chrome fixtures would be fabulous with more rustic materials, I think these antique fixtures need a more modern backdrop to give them bite.

Par example, check out this hot number via Desire to Inspire:

Perfect combination of all that is good: bare natural materials in conjunction with clean hard lines, and to accessorize: THE MOST AMAZING LAMP EVER (check check and checkmate).

Bongiorno, I am the the most amazing lamp EVER, designed by maestro Mariano Fortuny in 1907. Yes, that Mariano Fortuny. I may be over 100 years old, but I look as fresh as a newborn babe, and I represent all that is holy and good in the lighting universe. As a matter of fact, even though I was originally designed with theatrical and photographic industries (wink, wink!) in mind, I am so hot that no one would dare think of hiding me behind a curtain. Because I'm hot. And Italian. And expensive. And did I mention hot?

There's no topping that. But I shall press on bravely.

Some more inspiring images via Desire to Inspire, soon to be followed by a veritable onslaught of retail lighting goodness.

Floor lamps that aren't as cool as the Fortuny, but we can't all be gazillionaires: Clockwise from the top left we have Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn (!), Chiasso (that hunk of steel is over 6 feet tall), and Pottery Barn (again!!).

And for those of us that aren't even thousandaires (thanks, Reaganomics!), even Ikea has some good lights with game:

Wouldn't it be cool if that sconce were really that big? Like four feet tall? Wouldn't it also be cool if it took a regular bulb instead of a halogen one???

You all know by now that I'm partial to brass and gold, but maybe I'll take my cue from fashion and mix and match metals with abandon.

All lamps from Circa Lighting, which is fast becoming a favorite, except for the top right, which is from CB2 (another perennial provider).

Even Sundance is busting out with goodies, like this Luminary Lamp. Yeah. Sundance

Stay tuned for my next post on Friday, where I fully intend to cover industrial furnishings that are totally unrelated to lighting. Because in my world, there are only two categories: lighting and not lighting. In the meantime, try not to get too overwhelmed by all of the choices out there and end up like this guy:

Electricity is dangerous, and something tells me he may want to step away from the wires.

(via pan-dan)

agrarian chic

The latest issue of Vogue Living Australia proclaimed that  "farmers will become the new elite."  My knee jerk reaction was adverse, which is a sure fire sign that a trend is-a-comin (oh, yes, all you Wearstler Bravura Modernism haters, mark my words, you will love it soon enough).  I also just think that I didn't like the word elite.  Not to sound like a jerk. Once I thought about it, I realized, that, yes, of course!  Farming and all things rural are about to be SO HOT.   Here's my list of why it's about to rule with an intermittent slideshow.  Enjoy:

1.  I hate the thought of it.  A trend is never born from something you live indifferent to for years then suddenly MUST HAVE ALL THE TIME.  No, a trend is generally something that you've hated for a while but are suddenly able to see in a new light.  One extreme begets another.

(scanned from vogue living australia)

2.  We've been chasing around all things tribal and ethnic for the last 4 years, as much as I hate to see this day come, it just may be time to move on.  We need the exact opposite (another trend pre-req) you can't get further away from tribal beading then with a good old fashioned milk-maid icon.

Farm, by Studio Job

3.  Part of what we loved about the tribal / ethnic thing was the handmade nature of the trend, with the economy in shambles, the environment going to hell in a hand-basket and an increased awareness of our food's history, the idea of sourcing your own food / clothing / furniture is only going to become more desirable.  Voila: farming is la perfect next big thing.  

City Farm by Etsy user Soop

4. One word:  Grunge.  You know it, I know it, we all knew it 15 years ago.  Grunge has died, Grunge has risen, Grunge will come again.  Those plaids will fall in line with the whole farm thing all too well.  And you know what the grunge kids love?  matching.

various designers from NY fashion week fall '08

5.  No one can afford to travel anymore, we need to make staying home and driving biking through the countryside look cool, or, even better: ironic.

Indigo Farm Pop Up Shop at Fred Segal Man in Santa Monica

6.  I really can't wait to see an over-reaching hipster in overalls.  

tattooed pig at Artfarm

7.  Do you see how many of these companies even use farm in their name or for their line?  I guess everyone is sick of studio and salon.  I'm down with that.  

The Farm Life Display by Veuve Cliequot at Maison et Objet

8.  All these dang flags that keep popping up everywhere are just adding fuel to the barn fire:

Paul Costello Photography

9.  Do you see how smug and excited people get when they've brought their own bags to the grocery store and they spot some looser with plastic?  Now, imagine that person gets to shop green at EVERY KIND OF STORE.  Green is here to stay.  

(don't get me wrong, I think it's a good thing, but I can live without the condescension)

Now, every trend has it's limits and I'm certainly not suggesting that we run buck wild through the pastures buying up every wooden goose in a bonnet we can get our hands on.  May God strike me down if I ever so much as contemplate a country kitchen motif.  Alls I'm sayin is, you may want to buy a flannel and toss a couple of milk jugs up on your window sill.

We Are the World

I know, I know. The map trend has already made a few laps around the proverbial block, but all of the sudden it seems urgent to know where Georgia is in proximity to Russia, to know with certainty that Iraq and Pakistan DO NOT share a border, and to be able to draw a giant geopolitical flow chart that shows the connections among all of the countries currently fueling the global economy (hint: America is not one of them). So, for those of us who cannot see Russia from our back porches, I present a day of international geography as viewed from a domestic perspective. Hopefully we'll all learn something, myself included. Because I may or may not be able to identify all 50 states in their correct positions. Although I do know where Alaska is.

First up, this gorgeous map from the desk of At Home At Home. I'm pretty sure I have no idea what landmass is depicted there. I could cheat and look it up, but... that would be cheating. For now I shall bask in my ignorance until someone enlightens me. Anyone? Anyone? Buelllllllerr?

Perhaps if I slept in this room decorated by Flickr user kbreebo, I would already know with certainty that the unidentified landmass is _____ ? Well, at least her lucky son will grow up with the kind of intellectual acumen that I might also have acquired if only I hadn't slept through geography class. Although geography class in a Texas public school consists largely of identifying Texas on a map. Well, and maybe Arkansas, because you must be able to pinpoint with laserlike accuracy the position of your true mortal enemy.

Look! It's Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Mali, Niger, Chad, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran (you know, the "I" country that DOES share a border with Pakistan). It's probably a miracle that I can even read (I'm talking to you, Texas High School), but these digitally printed map tiles seen on Remodelista have nice, big print.

On the other hand, these delicate butterflies made from vintage maps seen on Imagesurgery could be problematic...

Squiggles and colors and dots, oh my! I can't identify a single thing here. Ok... I am identifying some lust. I want a swarm of these gorgeous specimens to fill The Hole behind my couch, and maybe I could put a magnifying glass and atlas below the frame in the vain hope that I could (or would even bother to) edumacate myself. Oh beauty, thou art a gloriously distracting trollop.

This amazing vignette by Steven Sclaroff poses a similar set of problems, chief among them the incontiguous arrangement of map parts. How am I supposed to track the Bridge to Nowhere when nothing is linear???

I suppose I could make my own map table, like this one photographed by Caroline Burghardt.

That way I could just hunker down with my studies and let my tush be cushioned by a fabulous Persian rug. Now where was Iran again...?

Or I could park my tush elsewhere and sit for a spell.

It's probably pretty important that I know where Saudi Arabia is, and after I finish with business, I can plan with pleasure my trip to South Africa where I shall visit the fabulous Heather at Elle Decor SA. Thanks, Apartment Therapy!

Wait! I think I may have learned something today...

The images in these paper clothes meticulously crafted from maps by Elisabeth LECOURT look suspiciously like the UK. Now, my geographic knowledge is probably up to average for the average American student, but I can't settle for mere mediocrity.

Battleship napkins and badass world map RUGS from Thorsten van Elten will ensure that I continue to broaden my cartographic repertoire. Soon, I'll be able to recite all 7 continents. That is, if we don't continue to confuse Sunni with Shia, ignite WWIII and get bombed back to Pangea first.

I'll just pretend (for now) that won't happen, and in the meantime I'll use these placemats to work my way towards a more detailed knowledge of our world's highways and byways.

Who am I kidding? I don't even think I could catch a bus to 6th street in Austin. I once spent three hours riding the bus around Hawaii because I couldn't figure out where to get off. The driver finally kicked me off at the end of his shift when we arrived at the central bus terminal, which was nowhere even remotely close to my destination. Did I mention that my sense of direction is ridiculously, unfathomably bad?

I can't let my inherent lack of aptitude get me down, though. I'll keep my nose to the grindstone and my eyes on the prize with these recycled map bowls by Liz Grotyohann.

And with this nifty wall sized world map clock by Johannes Wohnseifer, I'll be able to see that while night falls and study time is over for me, the sun also rises on the opposite of the world for others, like Miss Raina over in New Zealand.

Here's to hoping that the children of tomorrow will be better studies of the world than I was yesterday. Although today I have learned that I may want a giant map for The Hole on my wall, and that's something.