Bookcases, Bookshelves

Disclaimer: I am writing this under the influence of one of those cold-y, flu-y, woozy-type sicknesses that one gets in the winter.  I will strive for coherence.

In picking out furniture and decor, the eternal struggle of mine seems to be between my two great loves: Art vs. Books.  I have a lot of art.  I like to hang that art on the walls.  I also have a lot of books.  I go thin the ranks every so often, but I am the type of reader who revisits books as if they are old friends, and I cannot tell you how often I have gone to locate a book to reread and discovered that my foolish past self had thought me done with it and donated it.  So I am a reluctant giver-away of books.  Ergo: I have hundreds of books.

Many of the larger art books (of which there are quite a few--I am an art historian, after all) have found second lives stacked and used as bedside tables.  But the rest--hardbacks and paperbacks large and small--are stashed all over the house.  A couple hundred live in a trunk in the garage.  I've done this because I was trying to avoid being the person with lots of bookshelves and room for nothing else.  However, I have decided to heck with this, I am going to own my book habit.  I was partially inspired by shots of the Eames house from Eames: the Architect and the Painter, which I finally watched this weekend.  I love their shelves!

I'm on the hunt for shelves.  I'm not looking for anything fancy, just your basic bookstore-type shelves.  Nothing terribly ornamental.  To be clear: I'm not looking to create pretty, curated examples of interior design, just a place to put books.  I'm really loving open-backed shelves, too, if for no other reason than their much easier to dust, and much lighter to move.  Here are some other examples that have caught my eye:

If you can tear your gaze from Matt Bomer's chest, go ahead and check out those shelves.  I LOVE those shelves.  (Here is a Bomer-less shot.)

Greg Wooten's living room, as photographed by Todd Selby.  These are wall-mounted, obviously, which is an option that's a bit more permanent than I'd like at the moment, but I love the simplicity and the arrangement.

Ideally, I'd like something out of the Ikea box if possible, without breaking my very meager bank.  Very likely an impossible project, but I'll be giving it a try!

Ottoman Hunting

So I have this chair.  It belonged to my grandmother, and in West Virginia it became Vista's favoured perch.  However, it now lives in the same room as her bed, so she doesn't use it much (also, I tend to pile clothes on it).  However, I would like to use it.  Specifically, I would like to read in it.  It can be tricky to find places in this house to settle in with a book, and I'm a needs-silence sort of reader.  I usually end up in bed, but lately that's been giving my back fits.  So, I would like to use my red velvet chair.  This, naturally, has led to a mad search for an ottoman.  How's a girl supposed to read with her feet on the ground?

Here are some options I've dug up.  I'm leaning towards the CB2 knit pouf, but man, that yellow Moroccan fellow is pretty great, too.  What do you think?

Sources:

Mustard Moroccan Leather Pouf - Furbish
knitted pool pouf  | CB2
Lind Ottomans - Room & Board
Handmade Kilim Puff Ottoman  | Overstock.com
Uzbeki Suzani Ottoman - Found Object

porter chair love

These chairs would be very happy in my home.  Really, I'd take just one of them.  Porter chairs forever.

how to describe furniture on craigslist

I'd been Craigslist hunting for a new dog crate (my dog was apparently fathered by some sort of Hulk-ish hellbeast) this afternoon when my friend Amy pointed me in the direction of this fantastic graphic.  If you actually know anything about furniture and have then attempted to find some on Craigslist, you know what we're saying.

By Lunchbreath

ps: if you or anyone you know in the DC/NoVa area is in possession of a large, plastic-sided dog crate, please let me know!  Alternately, I have a 50-lb dog who can bend metal and break down doors: call the Army.

canopy

Remember these?  Still love 'em.

photo by James Merrell who you should expect to see lots more of as I've fallen in love with his stuff.

dutch alcove

If we have another dreary, rainy day like Sunday soon, I might break into this fellow's house just to curl up in that bed and wait it out.  Doesn't it look so deliciously cozy?

from the NYT via Jo

number 7

The reason for this photo is twofold.  First, because I put those maps up at 3 am Sunday night and damnit I'm happy with them.  Second, to show off my desk (the acquisition of which was #7 on the list).  It's a bit small, but I'm kind of in love with it.  Not bad for a $50 craisgslist find (even if I did have to drive through a tropical storm to get it).  The wall calendar was a cheap-o Walmart buy, and I sort of hate it, but it serves its purpose and thus it stays, for now.

maude

As you might recall, finding a desk is number 7 on the list, and it's something I'd been hoping to resolve before the semester starts. I've had some near misses on Craig's List, but so far, no luck. However, I am so in love with Maude, the newest creation from knack.Isn't she a beauty? Sadly, she's a bit beyond my price range (which is to say, in neither thrift store nor dumpster), so I will content myself with staring at her longingly.

candy apple red

Just a bit of eye candy this morning. How gorgeous is this vanity in that candy apple red? Yum, yum.

via Oh Joy!

starck gnomes

I wasn't planning on doing a piece of the week this week because I am more stressed than I can every recall being and pretty much despise decorative arts at the moment. However, tonight was our very last lecture class in Survey of Decorative Arts, which means that I'm done with the "basic" overview. I really, really enjoyed both semesters of this class and am truly sad to see it done. So your piece of the week is the final slide we looked at tonight: Philippe Starck's gnome tables for Kartell (they each have names--I think the one on the left is Attila--but I am too bloody tired to look them up).

I can't imagine filling my house with these fellows, but just one sounds rather delightful.

iconic beauties

Because I missed last week, you get a twofer this week! Your piece(s) of the week(s) are Harry Bertoia's Asymmetric Chaise and Eero Saarinen's Womb Chair.Not only are these gorgeous iconic pieces, they are also two of the most comfortable seats my behind has had the fortune to grace. The Womb Chair now comes in a few different sizes--the Knoll showroom in DC had them grouped like this when I was there in December. Don't they make the sweetest little family?I wish I had the energy to write more, but I've got four papers due next week and am trying to stay focused! Buona sera, interwebs.

operation porch swing

Dear Mom,

THIS is what I mean:

from tinalee56, via sfgirlbybay

See the comfy? Wrought iron benches, no matter how many cushions you put on them, are not comfy.

Love,
Kelly

PS: I think as long as we avoid THIS at all costs, we should be in the clear.
PPS: I would also accept THIS or THIS.
PPPS: And yes, I know I'll be gone all summer, but come on. Everyone would benefit here.

an irishwoman in Paris

Sorry this is late, but this was a week of news! I registered for my Fall 2009 classes (already?? you might be asking, and yes, that was my reaction as well), I was accepted into a summer program I applied for, AND was offered a full scholarship for it! So, it's been good, oh yes.

We're in the midst of looking at the Art Deco movement in one of my classes, and I could not be happier. This piece comes from that.This unique sofa was designed and constructed by Eileen Gray in 1919-20. It is in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, although it is not currently on display due to the VMFA's current expansion. In fact, none of the 19th and 20th Century decorative arts are on display during all of this, a state of affairs which causes me great sadness, as the VMFA's collection of Art Nouveau and Art Deco pieces is fantastic. Anyway.

Eileen Gray was a fascinating figure. Irish by birth, she lived in Paris for most of her life. Beginning in 1907, she was taught the art of Japanese lacquer by Seizo Sugawara, a master of the craft. Lacquer is a difficult, labor-intensive process at which Gray excelled, as evidenced by this sofa as well as her screens. Although many Art Deco artists looked to exotic cultures for inspiration, few suceeded so well as Gray with this sofa, inspired by the Polynesian dugout canoes (canoes made from a single tree).

Below is an image of Gray's apartment in the Rue de Lota in Paris. Can't you just see a beautiful woman in a silky, slinky dress draped across it? She wouldn't be doing anything--woman like her never do, you know--but she would look gorgeous.

elephant house end table

The piece of the week this week is not only late (midterms, sorry!), it is also truly odd. And awesome. It comes to you courtesy of Elephant House: Or, The Home of Edward Gorey by Kevin McDermott. As I've mentioned before, I'm kind of a big Edward Gorey fan. So when I spotted this book, it immediately went on my mental list of I MUST HAVE EET. I put it off, but a recent tax return convinced me to splurge a bit. It came in the mail this week and I read it immediately.I found so very much to love in Gorey's home (from the collection of finials to the hidden room to the 25,000 books), but this table took the cake. I'm sure you're thinking that it resembles something other than a table, yes? Well, when Gorey first moved into the house in Yarmouth, MA, he discovered an upstairs toilet with a decidedly pachedermal shape. He got rid of the bathroom, but couldn't part with the toilet, so, naturally, he turned it into an end table. It is also most likely the thing which gave the house its name, Elephant House.

Hope your week was amazing and the weekend even more so!

ps: be sure to pipe up if you've been the Cape May!

sleeping porches

It's been so warm here the past few days (hard to believe only a week ago we had 6 inches of snow on the ground!) that I've been sleeping with my windows open, one of my favourite things to do. My room in the house I grew up in was over the garage and had two outside walls, meaning that it was freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer, so anything I could do to get a breeze in there, I did. As a result, I can't imagine not sleeping with my windows open when it's warm. The dogs love it because they can see, hear, and small everything while still lying comfortably on the bed, and I love the fresh air and the sounds of night. It makes me think I'm on a sleeping porch.
Sleeping porches had been common in the South for years (due to the great heat during the summer), but became popular elsewhere at the turn of the century, often in bungalow houses (most famously in the Gamble House). Health experts touted fresh air as a cure all for all sorts of afflictions, but most commonly for tuberculosis, which was the leading cause of death at the time.

photo source

Sleeping porches were usually on the second floor and often on corners of the house to take advantage of crosswinds.

A swinging bed--how lovely would this be in the breeze?

photo source

photo source

Unless otherwise noted, photos gleaned from Google searches. Some information found here.

want

This is the greatest design innovation I have seen in a good long while. It's also the ideal bedside table for me. I have hundreds of paperbacks, and I tend to reread parts of different ones every night, meaning that the area next to my bed is a kind of terrible no man's land of books. But the Pelican Bedside Table by Marc Venot makes discarded paperbacks look good! I love the bright blue on the inside, too. Bravo, Mr. Venot!

via Double Takes

shabby chic bed

The Piece of the Week this week is this wooden canopy bed from Shabby Chic. I spotted this beauty in the March issue of House Beautiful and fell in love. I've always wanted a canopy bed, but have never had a space which I felt was big enough to accommodate one. I love the rugged simplicity of this one, and imagine that it would look as lovely draped in fabric, wrapped in fairy lights, or left plain. The stuff of dreams.

gasps

A couple things made me catch my breath this week. It shouldn't come as a surprise that the first was a door and the second was a chair. I am what I am.The first was this fantastic pressed leather door in the home of Lisa Borgnes Giramonti, found via i suwannee. I especially love the plate. The whole thing is so very Peacock Room.The second is this gorgeous chair, from the home of Jacques Grange, featured today on The Selby. I'm desperate to know who made it. I'd guess Belgian art nouveau, Horta or Van de Velde, but I'd love to know for sure.

You might recall this past summer I participated in a Swap facilitated by i suwannee. Well, my swap buddy Anne and I had such fun we decided to another one, all by ourselves. This time the theme is winter. The wheels are turning already!

making a shell chair

In the midst of studying for finals, I came across this fantastic 1970 video about the making of an Eames shell chair. I love it!



via swissmiss

FLW

My whole life, I've known of a couple Frank Lloyd Wright houses in this area, overlooking the Potomac. They were mystical places in my mind, surrounded by trees, shrouded from view. Recently, I visited the Pope-Leighey House (which used to be in Falls Church), but I've never seen a FLW house in situ. If the house in this article is any example, they're breathtaking.Gorgeous (and yeah, okay, the Papa Bear chair helps). via ATDC