Design Freebies

Ok, so one of the reasons why I love Coveiter sooooo much is because she led me to Design Freebies. How fun is this? Design Freebies finds you the fun, cool designs out on the web that have someting free to share with you. Shown above you can create your own pin hole camera, create cute little shops out of paper (a great project for kids) and very cool stationary and much much more. In case you didn't know, many artists use pin hole cameras to create some amazing photos. The photos can end up looking very artistic.

Reupholstered Furniture

I have a new favorite blog. A must read. Coveiter You must check it out for yourself. She posts about fashion, furniture, art, gardening. Everything that's cool. I'm finding a ton of great information off of her site. I think you will too. So, the chairs posted above were posted on Coveiter, but actually come from Spruce. Cool, hip, elegent reupholstered furniture. I enjoy reupholstering, so I find the furniture inspiring. I think what I like most is the fabric choices they have used on each piece of furniture.

Rolleiflex Mini Digital Camera

How cute is this? Not only would this just make a cute necklace, but this mini camera actually works. It is actually a digital camera using the old fashion twin lens reflex. You need to focus and look through the top of the camera in order to take your photo. You can purchase it at urban outfitters for $399.00. I first saw this photo on Darling Dexter.

Painting on a Chair

This is what I had in mind when I was talking about painting on furniture. At the time, I couldn't find a photo to go along with what I was trying to say, but this is perfect. I would love it more in color. I found the photo on Designer's Block. Painted by Sugoigen at Suge!

Key Holder

I thought this was clever. Sol at Pupazzo.org used knife magnets as a storage place to keep her keys near the door. I like it. Magnets are from evasolo.dk

Make or Purchase?

Feeling adventurous? Are you interested in taking on a sewing project? The Victoria and Albert Museum has a free pattern to create your own couture inspired dress under their section of The Golden Age of Couture;Paris and London 1947-1957. You can download a dress pattern or skirt. If you're not feeling so adventurous and love the dresses above, they are created by the very talented Lesley Evers.

Nani Bird

This is a Nani Bird. You can download your own free pattern at Nani Bird. I found the Nani Bird on Arian Armstrong's blog. They even give you step by step instructions on how to create your bird. And if you're feeling creative, they have a call for all artists. They would love to see your design! Be creative and email your design to Josh@nanibird.com.

Keep it Cartesian

Keep it Cartesian came up with this design for a letter holder. I need this! I am always putting outgoing mail on the counter top and next to the light switch. Found at 2modern

Hong Kong International Trade Fair

The BBC posted this in the 'Day in pictures' section. They didn't give additional information other than "Designers in Hong Kong decorate a booth ahead of an international trade fair." A place where people can promote their products and network with others. I like the design.

Eric Inkala

Eric Inkala is another local artist of the twin cities. He has done some collaboration murals with Gabriel Combs. The last image is a mural that Eric and Gabriel worked on together in Tennessee. I couldn't find anything about Eric other than his connection to Gabriel. However, I have seen Eric's work on some of the murals in uptown. Above are some of Eric's paintings. You can see more of Eric's work here.

Gabriel Combs

MNartists.org published an essay by Gabriel Combs. MNartiststs describes the article as this: "Gabe Combs is in and out of trouble with the law, he drinks too much and, now, he's homeless. This Mpls artist is also determined, ultimately, to earn his way with his artwork. In this utterly candid first-person account, Combs offers his story. " Read his essay here. It is sad to see such a talented artist struggle with the law and alcohol. His art is way undervalued right now, so if you are interested in an original piece of his work, it is very affordable. View his blog

Off for now

K, I'm off for the weekend! Have a good one!

Tonia

Karim Rashid

Planning a trip to Athens, Greece anytime soon? Karim Rashid designed his first hotel called the Semiraris Hotel. Although this is his first hotel, Rashid is no rookie when it comes to design. He leads in the fields of product, interior design, fashion, furniture, lighting and art. Photos from Cube Me and more info on Rashid at Swindle.

Sieben and Friends

Josh Spear posted about the addidas campaign celebrating originality. Sieben and Friends made the final chapter's debut. Do you have an interest in video? I find homemade shorts like this to be inspiring. I love the creativity. Click here to see a couple of different shorts by this unique and entertaining Michael Sieben and friends. There are also some free downloads and if you're a fan of the Sieben and Friends, you can pick up a sweatshirt, shoes or t-shirt right off the addidas website. Imagine that. (No, I'm not getting paid for this shameless plug.) Have fun with it and have yourself a great day!

Michael Sieben also has a website of his own. To see his artwork click here.

Dalki Theme Park

Initially, I found out about this cute theme park called Dalki Theme Park at The Cool Hunter, but these great photos are actually from chaemii's blog. The theme park is in Korea and is similar to our version of disneyland.

The COOL Hunter

The COOL Hunter, and do I mean cool. I just happened to be looking for some ideas on kids spaces, places and things and whola! The Cool Hunter makes me want to go back in time. The top two photos are from a bookstore in Beijing called Kids Republic and the photos below that are photos of a school in Denmark.

ISkin Brasil

Check out these iskins from a bunch of artists from Brasil over at iskinbrasil. Very cool indeed. Looks like they are only for blackberries. If you were very clever, you could paint on some contact paper and make a skin for your own phone. I found this cool stuff from Josh Spear's blog.

Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama is obsessed with dots. io9 has a very interesting story about the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama:

"78-year old Yayoi Kusama has had a hallucinatory obsession with dots for as long as she can remember. Throughout the hardships she endured as a child—alleged abuse by her mother, suicidal tendencies—all she saw was dots. Vast fields covered with dots, people wearing polka dots, trees wearing polka dots. Instead of trying to fix her OCD, Kusama decided to embrace it, moving to NYC in her late twenties to meet pen pal Georgia O'Keefe and join the thriving avant garde movement. Today, her signature art can be seen in galleries and museums all over the world.
Kusama herself lives in a mental hospital in Tokyo. It's a personal choice—she feels more comfortable there, and leaves only to go work in her nearby studio and to attend award ceremonies where she's touted for having an amazing brain that yields beautiful dots.
People are fascinated with brains that function differently than that of the average human. Despite being a near-octogenarian, I tend to think that Kusama's brain is actually closer to what humankind's will look like in the future—colorful, orderly, and full of dots."

Zoe Pawlak

I like the bold colors and simplicity of the design that Zoe creates in her artwork. Simply beautiful. You can find her work at Zoe Pawlak.

Glass Dining Room Table Etching

Hows House is a new blog with a lot of cool DIY projects and ideas for your house. Hows House has a posting from Instructables on how to put your own design on a plain glass table. Click here to view the instructables.

All Modern

All Modern has some great furniture. I love the chairs. I am currently interested in looking at the table lamps. I think you can update the look of a room just by making some minor adjustments such as a new lamp. I was most pleasantly surprised to find reasonably priced table lamps at All Modern. These lamps cost relatively the same price as a lamp you would pick up at Target.

K-Fresh Designs

I love when artists share the process of how they create their artwork. Katie, from K-Fresh Designs shows us how she takes photographs of friends and familly, uploads them into photoshop, and then alters the images until she is satisfied. She then moves her image onto canvas and creates beautiful works of art. Wouldn't these paintings make great gifts?

Katie also has some friends that had their dwellings posted on apartment therapy. Her friends have some cutes ideas that you could implement into your own home.

Wooster Collective

Wooster Collective is a great blog. The mission of the site is to "...showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on the streets in cities around the world." I like the method that the artist in the last image created. A collage of photos or images such as the newspaper that was used to create a larger image. Naturally, we've all seen this method before with smaller images of photographs and such, but I think the way the artist created this fox, shows us another method of creating some pretty cool artwork.

Painted Furniture

Painted furniture - you either love it or you hate it. I think painted furniture has a lot of potential. The top image is taken from Danielle Thompson's flickr page. I think you could easily find some images out on the web, download them, cut out the pattern and turn a boring piece of furniture into something new and fun. You could also do something really simple like take a piece of furniture, paint it your favorite color and add a gold or silver trim to the edges. Painted furniture has endless possibilites. Imagine a piece with a painting on it from Jen Renninger. I can see a small child's chair with a collage on the back similar to Colin Johnson's art work, or a white chair with pink flowers from Fifi Flowers.

Treehouse

I have this weird obsession with treehouses. The funny thing is, they've really started becoming popular. It all stems from this dream I had. I often have dreams of very unusual houses. So, I had this dream of being in tree house that was an actual house. And to get from one room to the next you needed to take a wooded bridge amongst the trees. As I was was going from room to room, I ended up in a room with nothing but a pile of shoes from the floor to the ceiling. So, here are some photos of today's treehouses. You can get more details at inhabit and modern design

Until Next Week

Ok, I'm off for the weekend! See you next week!

Tree Refrigerator

Ok, I know this refrigerator is totally ridiculous. It isn't practical and probably wouldn't hold enough food for anyone. Gizmodo is full of design gadgets. So, this fridge thing, got me thinking about what if we could design everything in our house? From the refrigerator, to the sink, the walls, the furniture, everything. Your house would be so unique, so you, almost museum like. It would probably take a lifetime to do and a lifetime of resources none of us have. But it is fun to think about what your house would look like, isn' t it?

Alkemie

Before:
After:

Before:

After:

Alkemie has great before and after photos of reupholstered furniture. It's amazing how you can change an old tattered piece of furniture into something beautiful. There are also a lot of great photos for decorating.

Ruthie Sommers

This room was designed by Ruthie Sommers and I love it!! However, I'm not that crazy about the traditional secretary. The exact opposite reason why the author of The Peak of Chic likes the room. What do you think? Yes or No on the secretary?

Dream Office

I know this photo has been out on the web forever, but I just never get sick of it. I think this is the ultimate office. It's so beautiful. Probably not very practical without a computer, but beautiful. Image from Style Court

Man vs. Nature

Man vs. Nature by Colin Johnson. Wow, this guy is living right here in St. Paul. It makes me want to run out and start clipping my magazines. I wonder how he makes such beautiful collages. You can see more of his work at flickr and his website will lead you to other links of his art work.

Make your Own Picture Frames

I don't really want to endorse Lowes, but they have step by step instructions on how to create your own picture frames so you can create a whole wall full of frames at a fraction of the cost. I think that would be too big of a project for my time these days, but it is something to consider. If anyone wants to give it a try, let us know how it goes. Glenda?

Elsa Mora

Where do I start with this artist? Elsa Mora has her hands into everything! Paper cuts, illustrations, drawings, porcelain, clothing. Did you know you could make such beautiful buttons out of polymer clay? Her website is addictive. Best of all, she frequently has give aways for her readers. Elsita

Vector Art

Are you interested in vector art? Vector Art is a great source with links to brushes, fonts and tutorials like how to create images such as this tree in illustrator from ComuterArts.CO.UK Check it out.

DIY Vinyl Wall Art

Instructables has step by step instructions on how to make your own vinyl wall art. You basically just take contact paper, and cut it out into your own wall design. I think this is a quick and easy way to do something decorative like the Design Amour women, maybe not quite as complex, but something simple.

Cube Bookshelves

I like the idea of using cube bookshelves because you can arrange and create something a little bit different than the traditional set of bookshelves. Although the first set, which came from emmanuelle, is too modern for our home, I think we could do something similar to the last set which came from seletti. WebUrbanist has 20 different and unique bookshelf ideas.

Fifi Flowers

How fun is this? Being an amateur artist, I have so many times struggled with what subject to paint. I've always looked at what others have painted to get my ideas. However, today I have been introduced to a completely new concept. And it probably just shows how little I really know about art, but look what this woman has done. I love how she adds color and fun to everything. I most admire how she has shown us the before and after pictures. It's almost like viewing these photos through her eyes isn't it? Thank you Fifi! Check out her blog at Fifi Flowers

Tub Sofa

This is an interesting piece of furniture. Part of me thinks - I get it, relaxing in the tub. Must be comfortable right? I love the design and the colors are great. But, part of me also thinks, hmmmm maybe a little uncomfortable. Very cute design. Found at reestore

Italian Designers

Ok, so since I am on the topic of reupholstering my new found chair. I thought it would be fun to look at the designs of some chairs and happened to stumble across this genius of a chair. Brilliant simply brilliant. An Italian designer designed these items. See the Bibliochaise chairs and
Piola bookshelves here. Has anyone seen anything interesting in the form of bookshelves? I am shopping for a couple of bookshelves and everything is so boring. Although I love the chairs they would hold enough books. Please let me know if you've seen anything beautiful in a bookshelf.

Chairloom

Do you inspire to recreate? I do all the time. I constantly see 'projects' everywhere. I recently picked up a chair from an estate sale that I am going to reupholster. The chair I picked up is very similar to this pair of green high back chairs. The chair is probably 50 years old, but in excellent condition and with new fabric, should look fairly modern.

I've taken two reupholstery classes and found them to be really fun. So, I'll bring my next project to class and show you the photos when I'm done. Unfortunately, the class moves relatively slow. So, don't plan on seeing the photos anytime soon.

If you can't find the inspiration to recreate yourself, check out this website and you may just change your mind. Chairloom.com. I love the coordination of chair styles and fabric choices the designer uses.