My mind was captured by writer’s block today, so I decided to take a break and a buncha photos of our home. I filled out a little application and sent them to Apartment Therapy’s House Tours. Maybe they’ll pick us and want to showcase our place to their readers. Maybe they won’t.
In any case, I wanted to share them here. I feel like we put a lot of effort into making this place great, and it hasn’t been easy because our tastes are actually dissimilar when it comes to furnishing. I love color, vintage and cozy. Cameron seems to get into things that are more modern, muted and minimal. In fact, a loft probably would not be my first choice for a home. Everyone always groans but I say it’s too much space. Hence: I <3 cozy.
And yet, I think this place has really come to represent the both of us.
The upstairs office space overlooking the living room is mine, so it’s certainly more colorful and whimsical than the rest of the house. I feel, in a way, like it’s set apart. I love it very much. It’s some sort of luxury to finally have a creative work area in my home.
Cameron’s touches are elsewhere, like in our very minimal bedroom and the dark Shepard Fairey prints hanging in the dining room. The living room, meanwhile, is a blend of both our worlds.
We’re constantly thinking of new additions, improvements or, in my case, projects to convince the other to try. For example, I really want to wallpaper a wall in our guest bedroom (not shown) similar to a room at New York’s Ace Hotel.
It’s fun when you can put creative energy into your home, even better to make it reflect who you are. I’m really proud of what we have accomplished, and I love it here.
UPDATE: You can now see our official Apartment Therapy House Tour!
A friend pointed me to this New York Times article today, and I just had to steal some photos and place them here for posterity and aspiration. This apartment kinda puts the ‘guh’ in ‘gorgeous’ for me.
At a mere 178 square feet, Zach Motl’s Brooklyn apartment is way fantastic. Now, I don’t live in a shack by any means, but I’m envious. And if I was good with maths I could tell you, in shock, just exactly how many times Motl’s space could be replicated and fit into my own loft in Los Angeles. Sweet jiminy… I’d almost trade it for something cozy, antique-strewn and lovely as this. He’s done real good. As much as there is something to be said for staging in photographs, I do believe that Motl lives a neat life very similar to what the pictures portray. He’d have to.
There is nothing wrong with a studio apartment; I’ve had one. It’s certainly about creativity and what you can make of a space that is all your own. And then there’s just general taste, which leads me to want to befriend this dude. I’m so inspired, with books covering almost every surface (in a version of planned chaos) and pockets of color everywhere. Impressed—and jealous, and in love.
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On a romantic reel of black and white The Department of the 4th Dimension (or, Dpt4D) unveils short films dedicated to exploring “the interaction between design and storytelling.” As you can tell from the stills, there’s no shortage of style in the project, the first series of which takes us inside the walls of Venice, California’s beautiful Intelligentsia coffeehouse. It’s impossible not to jones for a cuppa joe after viewing. Dare you.
Intelligentsia, born in Chicago, is easily one of my most favorite coffeehouses in Los Angeles. There are two; the original sits in Silver Lake’s rough-around-the-edges Sunset Junction, while the second is the aesthetically stunning Venice location Dpt4D chose to shoot their videos.
Below the fold, you’ll find videos 1 and 2 in the 3-part series. They roll out in delicious detail, covering the finer points of making a killer ESPRESSO or SYPHON brewed cup of coffee. The third, as yet unreleased, looks to honor the CAPPUCCINO. If I wasn’t having a love affair with coffee before, I certainly am now.
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Once upon a time in a land far, far away, I turned a sweatshirt into a laptop cozy. It was an easy DIY project, a cheap and customizable alternative to the more expensive store-bought laptop sleeves. I used it for a long time, many trips to the coffeehouse or flights to anywhere. Then, this summer, I retired my homemade sleeve and purchased a different one—typewriter style—from the MOMA store. I’m hardly sick of it yet, but if I were, I’d trade up to the new ohmygosh glorious BookBook laptop case.
Maybe I can just have both?
BookBook by Twelve South is an ingenious idea. I’m always game to disguise high tech in an old-fashioned way. These hardback cases come in weathered red or black and look remarkably like something forgotten at the back of the stacks. I’d love to slip my laptop inside, throw it in my bag and go. The pulls on the zippers are even designed to look like bookmarks.
Twelve South makes accessories strictly for Mac, which is just the kind of classicist snobbery that I can appreciate. Creative design is creative. File this one in the WANT section.
It’s the dead of winter, y’all, but you’d never know it while listening to the latest release from Tycho. I’m not a big fan of Christmas music, so I always try to discover instrumental alternatives around the holidays, pleasing background music for wrapping gifts or having drinks. That said, “Coastal Brake” is not holiday music by any expected stretch (unless, maybe, that holiday is the Fourth of July). It’s a foamy visit to the seashore, a saltwater splash for the headphones complete with drippy bleeps, bloops and sighs. I’m having a SoCal Christmas this year; the temperature has dropped some, but there’s still plenty of sun and that’s reason enough for this.
Tycho is Scott Hansen, a San Francisco artist and musician. What’s especially pleasing about his music is that it is always accompanied by stellar visuals. He designs all the posters and packaging to support his releases—with everything damn fit for framed display. There’s clothing, prints, music and lots of other design-y goodness over at the site he runs, ISO50.
