I like furniture like this Blue Dot Bonnie sofa and Clyde loveseat…in a showroom or on the pages of a magazine, that is. It’s fun to imagine buying a thoroughly modern house and decorating with futuristic furnishings, but I’ve always gravitated toward a countryish aesthetic because the associated furniture tends to look comfortable and inviting. Whether or not it is…that’s an entirely different story.

For all I know, this sofa is a dream to sit on, but it simply does not make me want to “take a load off.” When confronted with seating like this, I tend to park myself on the very edge and sit up very straight. It almost looks as if it belongs in the lobby of a rather nice hotel where it’s understood that while people do need to sit down, they won’t be sitting down very long.

I look at this sofa and can’t help but wonder: When does design trump comfort? Does it ever?

I’ve heard that one’s office ought to be light and inviting and airy, but I come from the school of thought that says that offices should really be rather stuffy and dignified and almost a little manly. While the majority of my house is decorated in cool, welcoming color schemes, my home office is red. When I say red, I mean redredred as in the deep, vivid red of a Macoun apple. The room is furthermore furnished with dark, antique furniture.

All in all, it’s a space custom designed to stress people out, but I thrive in it, which just goes to show you that you needn’t always listen to decorators and color theorists. If it works for you, it works for you, and that’s all that you really need to know.

My intense workspace is, however, not entirely finished. There’s the issue of lighting, for one — I’m thankful for my windows because all I have is one floor lamp next to my desk and the little lamp that illuminates my sewing machine. I am most definitely in the marker for some form of overhead lighting. I’m also looking for something to hold my music books and sewing books, and perhaps also a bit more for the walls and windows.

What follows is a froufrou wishlist that may inspire, if you (like me) are into all things black, white, and red (er, plus yellow and bronze) all over.

Lighting? Check!

Window decor? Check!

Something to hold books-in-use? Check!

And something to hold books not in use? Double check!

This is just too cool not to share, even though there’s a goodly chance you’ve already seen it on Metafilter or Gizmodo on in the NYT, where the story originated.

Now, I love puzzles — even when I can’t solve the razzafrackin things — and if I had the money, I’d spend millions of dollars to have architectural designer Eric Clough hide all manner of brain-twisters in my house, just like he did for Steven B. Klinsky and Maureen Sherry.

…some of that furniture and some of those walls conceal secrets — messages, games and treasures — that make up a Rube Goldberg maze of systems and contraptions…The apartment even comes with its own book, part of which is a fictional narrative that recalls “The Da Vinci Code”…It has its own soundtrack, too, with contributions by Kate Fenner, a young Canadian singer and songwriter…

It started during the design process, when Klinsky asked that a poem he had written for and about his family be lodged in a wall somewhere and Sherry suggested hiding it, “like a time capsule.” That sent Clough into a frenzy in which he immersed himself in code books and cipher books, and then reached out to the sort of furniture makers who specialize in hidden closets.

All of that was tied into gizmos Mr. Clough, Ms. Bensko and others in their office hid in the apartment — without telling the clients — in a way that is almost too complicated to explain. Designing and producing the apartment’s hidden features, however, including its book and music, took four years, said Mr. Clough, who absorbed much of the cost in terms of his own billable hours, and relied on the generosity of more than 40 friends and artisans who became captivated by the project.

[The mystery] remained largely unnoticed by its inhabitants for quite some time after they moved in, in May of 2006. Then one night four months later, Cavan Klinsky, who is now 11, had a friend over. The boy was lying on the floor in Cavan’s bedroom, staring at dozens of letters that had been cut into the radiator grille. They seemed random — FDYDQ, for example. But all of a sudden the friend leapt up with a shriek, Ms. Sherry said, having realized that they were actually a cipher (a Caesar Shift cipher, to be precise), and that Cavan’s name was the first word.

Once the family received their first real clue via mail, they were dogged about solving it. That’s actually the part of this interesting tale that bothers me most — all of that work went into making this unique apartment, and the mystery was solved something like two weeks later if the article is to be believed.

Give me a puzzle house that lasts a decade! Why, oh, why don’t I have all the money in the world with which to build it?

Whoa, what is it with me and drinks lately? First the margarita pitcher post, then the bar-on-a-wall post, and now this! If you haven’t already guessed, it’s still hot here on the east coast, and it just so happens that a cool beverage is an easy way to beat the heat. How one keeps said beverage cool is a matter of personal preference.

Here are four options you may or may not fancy:

Am I the only one who thinks these look vaguely dirty? Just count yourself lucky that the ice boobies mold was all sold out. I know, you’re crushed, as was I. Apparently ice kebobs add “a cOoOol touch” to your summertime parties…what does that even mean? Is there a ghost in the ice?

(more…)

How’s this for a slick little set-up? A certain Leah and her husband Will created this chill kitchenside bar using a bunch of bits of shelving. That’s actually all I know — were the pieces meant to be used this way? Beats me!

Who cares? It works, and it’s replicable. You want to talk about an easy DIY project? Hit up Target, score some shelving, and line up your booze. Voila! Your liquor is conveniently out of the way, and you can brag to your peeps that you have built yourself a bar in your closet-sized apartment.

Ah, summertime, when a young gal’s thoughts turn to margarita parties. Or is that just me? As soon as the weather gets warm — or, as is the case in my neck of the woods, horribly and unbearably hot — visions of backyard parties start dancing in my head. Sure, I could just line any old container with a trash bag and fill it up with ice to keep the beers cold, but where’s the fun in that?

I thought that my parties were poised to be colorized when I happened upon the MacBeth Collection, a set of fun storage solutions designed by Margaret Josephs.

Then I decided to check out the prices, thinking that a tub couldn’t possibly be that expensive. Boy was I wrong! Seventy-five bucks for a container slightly less than two feet wide? Seventy bucks for a pitcher?! I don’t care how stylish they are — I’d rather earmark that money for some nice tequila.

The site’s About Us page reads:

The MacBeth Collection has spread its custom-designed creations to almost every home product and accessory including: storage bins, baby pails, picture frames, flower vases, umbrella holders, clip boards, etc. – all with the mission of transforming the mundane into a stylish expression of personal style.

For now, I think I’ll express my personal style by getting a few metal tubs from the Home Depot and decorating them myself.

Funny thing about New England…winter morphs directly into summer. Last week, I was wearing sweaters to keep the chill at bay. Now I’m wearing hardly anything in a futile attempt to keep heat stroke at bay.

I’m discovering that I am woefully unprepared to face the summertime. My lovely new home does not have central a.c., and we do not by any stretch of the imagination have enough fans. We need more, like this swanky art deco-inspired desk fan from Horchow.

Is it any wonder, I ask you, that I am browsing fans like they are pictures of my favorite celebs?

I tagged this post with “DIY” but I’ll have you know that I have absolutely no idea how to create a stencil or make wall panels. I can stretch a canvas, but I would need to consult an expert when it comes to printing something on one.

Too bad that the crafty gal who whipped up these wonderful Doctor Who wall panels didn’t post instructions! I’m crying tiny tears right now out of abject jealousy.

A certain taerowyn crafted these for a fellow crafter during some sort of Doctor Who/Torchwood maillove swapfest. In her own words:

Basically, it’s nine 6′x6′ canvases that can hang in any way. I envision this kind of 3×3 grid, but you could do it as a border near the ceiling, or hang in a pattern of less than nine and then swap them out depending on your mood etc.

I only wish I had intercepted the USPS package so these would be mine, all mine.

I like things that surprise me, and this predilection applies not only to stuff for the home, but to art as well.

What’s grand is that stuff for the home and art are sometimes overlapping categories. Sadly too much art for the home can be lumped into a mass of terrible Thomas Kinkaide-esque prints in plastic frames and too many people think of “real art” as something that hangs in museums and costs millions of dollars. All I can say is, “So not true.”

The awesome prints above were created by one Elsita and can be purchased in her Etsy store. What’s surprising about her prints is that they look like normal pretty pictures until you realize that a girl’s jacket is sprouting, it’s snowing noses, and ohmigosh those bunnies have been impaled with knitting needles! The best part? It’s art, it’s funky, and it’s affordable.

Once you’ve had a bit of a looksee at Elsita’s store, go check out Elsita’s blog to learn a bit about her life, her art, and her other projects because it’s cool to see into her world.

When I was but a wee lass, I remember being absolutely scandalized by a light switch cover my father’s friends had in their bathroom. It was in the shape of a flasher with his trademark trench. Apparently, said flasher didn’t find waiting around in the dark terribly exciting, but when one flipped on the light, whoa. Hopefully, you get the picture and I don’t need to explain it further. For those who remain perplexed, here is a similar light switch cover.

It is because I can picture that one tiny home accessory so clearly after all these years that I will never buy anything remotely like this:

I don’t want my future children coming home from college for a Christmas visit and saying, “Mom, do you remember those sick coat hooks you and dad had when I was a kid? Well, those freaked us the hell out.”