Stretchy McSpandertron

You all know I love animal furniture and if it were up to me (rather than my bank account) my entire home would be filled with creepy animal finds.  I would not be ashamed at all to put a horse lamp on top of a crab table and set it all right next to this whippet bench:

well, assuming all of the animal pieces worked with my color scheme.  Otherwise it would just be a downright embarrassing travesty.  The Whippet bench has been designed to fulfill all of my wildest dreams and fantasies by Radi Designers.  Almost everything I found on the bench or the design firm was in French and, despite my 3 years of high school language lessons, I didn't pick up on any of it as the site never mentioned where the library was or asked me to pass the fork.  I did recall enough of my latin roots to figure out that they also have this resin version in a limited edition of 30 pups:

would it be tacky to have the 4 color whippet inside and the blue one in my yard?  What If I had a giant version of this bench and I turned it into my house?  Still OK?

The stretched out whippet reminded me of this elongated bench I fell in love with a few months ago:

to be continued / bench, by Julien Carretero Design Studio

What if instead of filling my house with animals I filled it with stretched out things?  I find this polyurethane piece particularly exciting for it's texture and imperfections.  According to the designer: "each layer is casted on top of the one casted before following the exact outline of it. Because of the imperfection of the cast, the object slowly mutates and start designing itself." I'm sure work like that is easy and cheap and totally within my budget, right?  houses full I tell ya, houses full.

Keeping in the stretched out theme:

Working Wave Seating, designed and fabricated by Susan Wood

I have another picture of this bench with a girl sitting on it that actually makes the stretch more exaggerated.  I decided not to post that one because she was wearing the lamest brown turtleneck sweater and mom jeans.  I know I'm getting off track (surprise) but how can someone spend so much time and detail creating such a beautifully designed piece only to photograph it next to a girl with a scrunchie?  Isn't a designer's vision supposed to be complete?  (back on track) the bent plywood bench is still welcome in my home any day, my well dressed friends can sit on it.

Won't You Take Me To Shantytown?

People, I am tired. It was a boozy week (+ end) full of birthdays, house parties and the death of our beloved cat, Poop Log (RIP, little buddy, and yes, that really was his name). So maybe I'm still a little delirious, or maybe cardboard furniture is kind of... awesome. Sure it's cheap and tacky, but recycling is good, right? And occasionally it can be very modern material-centric, like Frank Gehry's quintessential cardboard chair:

Or cardboard can go for baroque like Giles Miller's wardrobe and grandfather clock over at UK-based Farm Designs. Check out the cute mustache handles:

Miller also produces seating that belies its humble origins:

The one on the right looks kind of painful, like sitting on the flying buttresses of a Spanish cathedral, but lefty has potential. He reminds me of the Togo sofas from Ligne Roset but comes a little closer to fitting into my furniture budget (which has recently been restricted to about $100 for a sofa off Craigslist). At $1500 it's still a pricey piece, especially considering that it's made of material usually functioning as wrapping paper for whatever it is you're actually buying.

Of course, the craft conscious legions have realized that cardboard is a great material for DIYers. The corrugated form is super strong, but it's still easy to cut with -- what else? -- a box cutter. The good folks at Designboom have several projects that you can do yourself:

And taking it 500 steps further are the Cartonnistes over at Instructables:

That desk does not look even remotely like cardboard and I love the idea that anyone could make furniture cheaply! Cardboard is so very democratic. Usually I'm all about wood, but have you ever tried to make anything out of wood? It's hard. Really hard. Plus I need all ten digits to type.

If you don't feel capable of starting from scratch, you can always order cardboard Legos from Bloxes and build yourself an entire Hooverville:

Is it just me or do those people seriously need to get to work??? Or maybe I'm just jealous that no job of mine has ever allowed me to to build a giant cardboard giraffe.

Really, though, all of my cardboard dreams will probably amount to little more than this:

Sitting on the street, drinking a beer while chilling on my sweet cardboard chair, hopefully without an orange bar over my eyes.

Eat your heart out, Claes Oldenbourg.

pantone 380c

Ok, so I think I got all of the dutch nonsense out of my system yesterday and now I can get back to the task at hand:  waxing poetic about my newest most favoritest shade of yellow: clean, crisp, neon lemony-ish!  (NOT warm murky school bus macaroni).  

clockwise from top left: chair by jens fager;  Kevätjuhla mug by Miina Äkkijyrkkä for Marimekko;  Astor Ceramic Canister by Wandrlust;  Trollsta sideboard by Ikea

I just hung a fantastic vintage door on a barn-door track in my living room, I thought I wanted to paint it lime, yet every swatch I looked at just looked so, um, tired.  Then I realized, ah ha!!  I don't want lime, I want lemon.  How could I have been so silly?  I'm obsessed now.  I had a bit of a hard time finding the perfect shade for this post, I had to sift through LOTS of macaroni yellows.  yuck.  But here are more good ones:

The world's dreamiest fridge from Smeg;   Fishnet wallpaper available at Walnut;  Mod Square Porcelain Dish from Etsy seller Shoshonasnow

Actually, those Etsy kids were all over the lemon yellow:

Chair Yellow Watercolor by midcenturyjo; 6oz tea cup by circaceramics;  Lemon Rings Linen Coasters by Megan Burch;  Specimins table napkin by skinnylaminx

One of the reasons I want to paint my door yellow is because it's going to open to my black, white and lemon bedroom.  I REALLY REALLY want a bold, graphic lemon bedspread.  Here are some textiles I found with my color mixed in:

Mauste duvet by Pia Holm for Marimekko, Blossom Velvet Box pillow at Urban Outfitters; Warbler Green Pillow by Salvor Fauna available at wandrlust; Toile Lemon Rug by Madeline Weinrib Atelier

As a general rule, I can not afford Madeline Weinrib, here are some other possible textiles for my bedroom:

Flower Mess bedspread by Ferm Living;  Rainbow Jungle Tapestry available at Urban Outfitters;  Pine Dish Towel also by Ferm Living

I am almost in love with the flower mess bedspread, I'm a little worried that it might end up being the wrong shade of yellow in person.  The Rainbow Jungle Tapestry bedspread is cute but I almost can't order it by default... seriously, it has the 3 worst words ever in the title.  And, I know, I know, that is a dish towel, not a bed linen, perhaps I could use it to make a throw or something?

And to see the yellow in a room:

first 2 images courtesy of Desire to Inspire

bottom image courtesy of Lazzarini Pickering Architecture

So, after all this fuss I bet you're thinking that this door of mine better be pretty special.  Well, here it is:

I know, I know, the cream looks perfect in this picture, and, why would I want to paint it yellow?  I'm going to be moving things around and adding new stuff.  It's going to look great when it's done.  promise.  I'll share pictures.  On another note, how do you like my stencil wall?  I'll give you a how to on that as soon as I muster the strength to type it all out.

So, what does everyone say?  Are we loving the yellow?