DWELL HOME TOUR

November 12th, 2012

I headed westward to San Diego this past weekend to traipse through strangers homes and quickly snap photos of all their modern modernism. Photographing interiors during events like this always turns into an awkward creepy shuffling experiment in social timing to avoid photographing random tour attendees, which I’m happy to do because I’m a fucking nice person. Nothing is worse than ending up in the background of some strangers photo looking all wild-eyed and barely passing as human.

Sorry strangers, that’s how I look for everywhere. I ruin your photo memories.

Of course taking photos in any sort of tour situation requires the ability to radiate powerful creep energy that gently shuffles people out of the cameras frame. Lucky for you guys, I’m creepy and made a few DHTSD12 photos happen. *I abbreviated Dwell Home Tours San Diego 2012 to save time because I respect you.

You’re welcome.

Hot Tip Time: To be modern at home you will need some wood, hot rolled steel, concrete poured or formed, drought tolerant stuff, decomposed granite, feather grass, fescue, plywood, pavers, succulents, cacti, a couple gabion walls, bathrooms that are off limits, no screens, ocean views, assorted rocks or pebbles, giant windows, vintage furniture and a shit ton of money. Coolio, now everyone get right on that.

I’m clearly jealous because my landscaping is made of dirt and sadness.

Some day? Something might happen to the exterior. Well, that’s if the local ‘pros’ would stop setting the fence on fire and being terrible at doing anything, ever. Also, it might help moral and motivation to keep improving the exterior and landscaping if certain dirtbags stopped stealing stuff off the porch.

YEAH. YOU. I know who you are.

Bring back my vintage bullet planter + cactus and Acapulco chairs you cowardly dicks. I hope that giant cactus tore up your stupid face you weirdos. Oh, and FYI, the cat hoarder neighbors gross cats peed all over that, so enjoy it you turds. It took me eight months to find those chairs and months of nurturing the crap out of that cactus.

I don’t nurture anything! I never even had a chance to post about the chairs! This is madness.

Looks like we’ve veered wildly off topic. Sorry.

Blah blah, the Dwell tours pumped me up to tackle outdoor projects, blah blah the next morning its discovered that some  scummy dickbags crept around the house and stole a few outdoor pieces we’d invested a good bit of time and funds into. This pretty much killed all project excitement and I freak out on instagram and at my neighbors. So now it feels silly to throw a bunch of energy and funds into landscaping a house in this crappy town that will ultimately have things snatched or trashed by idiots, get covered in feral cat pee or continue to host the nightly cat orgy.

You win, Hemet. Dirt bag is the new modern.

Just guessing that being full of rage might make me cloudy in terms of reasoned thoughts, but I’m stuck wondering at what point do we give up and quit? I mean, quit working on this general house fixing up project? Do folks just go screw this, it ain’t worth it and stop?

I’m no good at breaking up, even with a house. I miss my chairs.

 

 

Ugh. My cactus and chairs boo hoo, I’m such a tool. There’s Sandy and real problems that matter so I’m donating Red Cross style here so I feel like less of a tool. The real charity is for my feelings.

Oh! Also, a nod to the surprising number of unrelated people complaining about the lack of foul language around here – I made the effort. YOU’RE WELCOME.

HEADBOARD 2.0

November 1st, 2012

Ages ago I tried to deal with the great headboard shortage of the guest bedroom by getting a cushy queen sized Ace style pillow  headboard fabricated from vintage fire tarp, shredded foam and starry-eyed dreams. As discussed previously, the end product wasn’t exactly what was hoped for and rather than the perfectly formed comfy headboard I’d hoped for, there was instead a sadly saggy and overly deep lump of crap.

Sometimes things don’t work out.

Learning curved.

Anyways, the main issue with version 1.0 was that the shredded foam settled and began bulging out the entire form into a rotund beanbag style lump. So, to resolve that kink, I decided to reduce the headboards depth from 12″ to 6″ and had a solid piece of upholstery foam cut to fit and then stuffed inside.

Version 2.0 is firm and proud. No more sad shapeless lump with that solid 5″ thick foam form stuffed up in there.

FYI, that thick custom cut foam was kind of pricey at $98, but I tried to consolidate costs by having my local auto upholstery guy order the material as well as resew the upholstery form so it would fit snugly around the foam.

BEFORE

(12″ deep and saggy Version 1.0)

AFTER

(6″ deep and firm Version 2.0)

Version 2.0 is generally better and so much closer to the original design.

I’m just not sure if I’m loving it.

After living with it for a bit, some kinks have developed that need addressing. Simple changes like a softer fabric, smaller scale and wall mount would be a start. I’m just about fed up with the bed frames willy-nilly wandering and constant need for repositioning.

Version 3.0 might be heading in this general direction.

I spotted this skinny gray beauty at Anonymous Architects Eels Nest House during a photo shoot and haven’t been able to get it out of my head. Oh, so no big deal, but conveniently enough my master bedroom still totally needs a headboard.

Looks like version 3.0 is a go.

Well, you know. Eventually.

ANIMAL PRINT SHOP NURSERY + GIVEAWAY

October 25th, 2012

I recently had a great time designing a couple nurseries for The Animal Print Shop Nursery Project, which were all photographed by the awesome Laure Joliet. This first space was deemed the Fun Lux room, you know, for that baby who loves a little bit of bling and glam without sacrificing comfort. Babies enjoy comfort, or so I hear.

Anyways, the exciting news is that The Animal Print Shop is launching this first nursery with a big giveaway to help one lucky winner create a stylish room for their new kiddo. But what can you win, you say? These three items featured in my nursery design:

BOOM.

$1,000 Gift Card to The Animal Print Shop

Rove Concepts Womb Chair

Oeuf Sparrow Crib

Those are some nice things, yo! And I know, because I picked them out for the room. So, if you need a bit of help pulling together a pretty space for your new little wee one on the way, make sure to click over and ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE!

Thanks everyone.