Fabrics from Finland

Marimekko just released their new fall fabrics and here are some of my favorites:

Light Bench

This has to be the coolest bench ever. If money were no object I'd have at least one of these in my apartment. The bench changes colors. check out their website by clicking on the picture (it's in German).

Architecture Inspiration

I am a huge fan of architecture. I wanted to be an architect, began studying it and then quickly dropped it when I realized the amount of math involved and the fact that I'd be spending the first 30 years of my career designing sprinkler systems. My love for the art form has never died however, and I think that a lot of my inspiration springs from architecture and the designs of my favorite architects. Interior design and architecture are always in conversation with one another and the majority of architects also do interior design - therefore, I think I will begin to do some posts about my favorite buildings here in New York.

For the first in this new series, I present to you my number one favorite building in New York City: The Seagram Building.

Designed in 1958, by my favorite architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Seagram building was definately a structure before its time. It's located at 53rd and Park and was the first building in New York to use a glass curtain for an exterior wall. Van der Rohe pioneered the idea of moving the load bearing walls of a structure from the outside (as masonary had done) to the core of the building (using reinforced steel) therefore allowing facades made entirely of glass, as foreseen by the visionaries of Modern Movement, like Mies himself. Between the windows, there are vertical decorative bronze I-profiled beams attached to the mullions to emphasize the vertical rise of the facade. Van der Rohe personally stated that this was his only building in the United States which met exactly his European standards.

Crafty Crafts

I love a good craft project. Check this site out for all of these fun figures that can be made!
http://www.cubeecraft.com/

God is in the Details

I really do believe in having wonderful little flourishes of detail in an apartment. Look at this great painting on the ceiling. It's as if the dove is delivering the glittering chandelier as a gift from Heaven.

Terrorist Teapot!

Gun for a Rose

On my birthday, my cousin gave me an awesome ceramic hand pistol that serves as a single flower vase and can be mounted to the wall. I wanted to paint a frame for it. Below you can see my project and how it turned out. I wanted to go with a modern hunting theme, even though this isn't a hunting gun. I also liked the way the antlers picked up on the motif of the barren tree. Tell me what you think. My roommate wasn't too wild about it.

Finished Tree Mural and Bedroom Update

Below, you can see pictures of the finished tree in the dinning area and some updates on my bedroom mural.

Some More Inspirational Images

More Postcard Framing

I picked these up at the Stockholm Museum of Contemporary Art. The titles are "Stockholm at Night," "Monday Morning in Stockholm," and "Ciao! From Chilly Stockholm."I bought some nice deep frames with matts and put these up in the foyer. I just love them.

Living Room

Hallway

I found a great book on the painting "The Coronation of Napoleon" by David. The book had endless pages of beautiful color reproductions and detail shots of the painting. I have this insanely long hallway in the apartment and I was inspired to cut out the pages, frame 16 of them and hang them in the hallway. I like the idea of one giant painting being cut up and shown in smaller segments, displaying them as if they were individual paintings and forcing the viewer to focus in on the details. It's a great way to have people look at a well known painting in a new way. What's great as well is that they still work as one larger piece and will fill the hallway nicely.

Bedroom Mural

Here are some more pictures on the progress of my bedroom mural.

In A Dream World

In a dream world, this is what my apartment would look like. I LOVE the communist and Soviet inspired art all over the house. I love the politcal integration into the decorating.

Bathroom

This is the beginning of my bathroom decor. I have collected a lot of postcards from my travels and I have recieved so many great ones from friends around the world. I wanted to display them in a fun way. I think the bathroom is a great place to get whimisical. It offers a small space to provide some breathing room for your overall apartment decorating scheme.

Bedroom Mural

So I have started painting the mural in my bedroom. I decided to go with palm trees to remind me of my hometown of Miami. When I'm freezing in the middle of January I hope these trees will help me think warm sunny thoughts. Here's the first of what will soon be several. (The mess in the foreground belongs to my beautiful friend who is visiting me from Stockholm, she is actually leavign today and she will be missed!)

Bedroom Inspiration

Since I finally got a bed, I have been inspired to get working on my bedroom. Here are some photos I've been looking at, Obviously I want to create some sort of canopy. I have also been toying with the idea of just tufting the entire wall behind my bed in fabric. Let me know what you think!