I’m seeing a lot more white-on-white with white interiors these days and a lot more shops full of furniture to help people achieve this striking look. Brocade Home, a division of Restoration Hardware, is one such retailer.

I like, I like, but it would never, ever work for me, what with five variously colored cats, a husband who makes not infrequent oopsies, and a baby on the way. I clean enough as it is — I don’t feel like dooming myself to a life of endless dust rags and mops. I will, however, happily come over to your white-on-white house and bask in the starkness.

I lust after vintage kitchen gadgets, as my family well knows. Occasionally, said gadgets even come in handy, like the other day when I finally got fed up with the hand mixer that has five speeds only if ultra fast, mega fast, insanely fast, speed of light, and spraying batter everywhere are actual speeds. My old hand-cranked egg beater saved the day, and the modern hand mixer was tossed into the box destined for the Goodwill.

Speaking of batter, I am currently drooling over all of the vintage cake carriers on eBay. Luckily, they tend to be relatively inexpensive as vintage kitchen gadgets go. In case you’re thinking that they’re pretty, but useless, these babies are great for those of us who like to bake for parties and have suffered the humiliation of driving 20 miles under the speed limit with our hazards on because there was a cake on the passenger side floor. The best cake carriers are multi-tiered — carry a cake and a pie! — and spring-loaded for safety. The heavier the cake, the stronger the seal, so you don’t have to worry about nasty accidents.

Fantasizing about the perfect kitchen is a hobby of mine. Mine is small, so inevitably I picture something very open, very airy, and rustic without being too Little House On the Prairie. I do not live on a working farm or in a French chalet, and I don’t want to cop those looks in their entirety. In much the same way a fireplace would look out of place in my living room, a huge scarred table or a deep copper sink would look pretty ridiculous in my kitchen. C’est la vie!

So what do I do? I look for bits and pieces of homey goodness I can incorporate into my decor until that day comes I can afford to have contractors gut and rebuild my cozy little cottage.

Small spaces with even smaller amounts of storage are not a problem when you use shelving creatively. These reclaimed peroba wall shelves don’t take up too much room, but they clear some countertop real estate.

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Molla Space, a Los Angeles based design collective, may be my new favorite shop. Their mission is varied — they want to advance the art of living, provide a platform for designers from all over the globe, aaaaaaand they’re dedicated to finding artful lifestyle implements that embody both form and function.

I’ll call the prices reasonable — the rhino, for instance, costs $40 with a portion of the proceeds is donated to the Japan Committee for IUCN, while a set of three By The Lake cups and saucers costs $18. That’s a downright steal for beautiful and well-designed products for the home.

The weather where I live has been nice…deceptively nice, in fact. Is this what they call Indian Summer, when it’s t-shirt weather in the middle of October? Whatever you want to call it, we’re suddenly enjoying strolling weather…croquet weather…picnic weather! Who cares if sweatshirts become a necessity once the sun begins to set? My grandparents eat out-of-doors until the trees are utterly naked!

Studio LX has four pages of fancy picnic baskets so those of us who have already retired our patio furniture for the winter can still dine outside when the weather gods decide to bless us with a day that is less than frigid. My favorites are the baskets on the upper left and the bottom right, but if none of the baskets above tickle your fancy, there are tons more to choose from.

Before you can play with baby, you get to play with all of futurebaby’s stuff, and before you start playing with futurebaby’s stuff, you have to pick it out. Window shopping is particularly satisfying when you have a bun in the oven, as it’s not all that often that one has a chance to buy a whole new set of furniture. Here’s what I am looking at today:

The Argington Sahara Crib converts to a toddler bed and a twin bed without missing a beat. As an added incentive, the birch wood in this crib is harvested from birch wood from sustainable managed forests.

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As if those sappy, hotel room wall worthy Thomas Kinkade paintings weren’t enough, we can no see first hand what happens when a giant ice man comes and devours an entire Kinkade village.

Oh, the horror! The horror!

Kilims, if you didn’t know, are flat tapestry-woven rugs produced in parts of the Middle East. Geometric patterns are the norm, with diamonds and octagons predominating, and lighter colored kilims are more common, though modern-day weavers are getting bolder in their color and pattern choices.

Unlike more expensive collector’s rugs — specifically sought-after pile rugs — kilim tend to be reasonably priced. This particular 3′x5′ rug is only $30 and shipping is free, though it is being sold via eBay so let the buyer beware.

Does this look right to you? Did I assemble my new bookshelves correctly? I kid, I kid. These crazy creations are products of the twisted minds at Studio Proxy.

The Prince of Siam is crafted from plywood, oil, and semi-transparent white varnish. As much as it looks like one, it is not an Ikea hack.

This one, however, is.

Low Waist — the brainchild of Roman LindeBaum and Rüdiger Otte — speaks to “functional and aesthetic stereotypes of modern mass production.” Or so I’m told.

I do believe that as fun as these pieces would be to have around the house, they would begin to drive me seriously crazy once I got sick of the wasted bits of space.

One of my new favorite blogs is LittleDiggs, which was pointed out to me by my good friend Sterlingspider. This particular blog is devoted to small spaces, i.e., houses and apartments that are about 500 sq. ft. or smaller, and the accessories that help people live comfortably in dwellings of this size.

One diminutive house featured on the site was designed by Japanese architect Makoto Koizum in 1952 and measures in at a mere 538 sq. ft.

The reason for its tiny size is that after World War II, the housing corporation of Japan would only provide loans to build homes that were no larger than 50 square meters.

If you had the means to build a bigger home, you were perceived as being wealthy and not in need of a loan.

The Masuzawa house was dubbed “the minimum house,” but Makoto Koizumi, who reintroduced the house to the current Japanese market, said this is a misnomer.

“It should be called the maximum house,” he said. “Despite its small space, Masuzawa-san’s creativity made the house seem open and spacious.”

I think I’d feel comfortable in this house if I was single or didn’t have five cats and a baby on the way. Then again, I’m surrounded by a great deal of unused space in my current house, and who’s to say that I actually need all that room?

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