Interior Design Sense

The flood waters have receded and things are grindingly returning to normal for a lot of us here. The flood survivors face a mammoth clean up job. I feel very petty complaining about the 4 and a half hour return journey I now face each day to get to work (flood damaged train lines). First mud and now a thick dried crust cover everything and the devastation is heartbreaking. I want to run away to this pristine white dream of a boutique hotel in Belgium. A girl’s shopping break? Yes please. And no mud in sight! Sleep in the City via the ever fabulous Studio Anndacht.

If you’d like to send us photos to include in next week’s “pets on furniture” post, please ensure your photos follow our basic rules: First, the pet must be on a piece of furniture. And said piece of furniture must be clearly visible in the photo, so it takes center stage rather than your pet. (Think of it more of a photo of a great piece of furniture that you want to show off…and your pet happens to be sitting on it). And second, the photo must be of decent quality. If it’s dark or fuzzy (from a camera phone) then it may not make the cut. Thanks! (Photos, your name, location and a brief description can be sent to desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.com and PLEASE don’t send me closeups of your pet!)

I have attached a cracker of my VERY over weight cat Horangi (he is on a diet of VERy expensive low cal food but it is impossible to break through his terrible deeply ingrained laziness!) on the coffee table my flatmate whipped up and a large poster by Debbie Carlos.
- Julia (Wanaka, New Zealand)

I’ve attached a couple photos of my girls. The first is of Heidi. She’s a humane society rescue who loves to stretch out on my antique table to watch the geese on the water and catch some rays. The second is Bailey, who is also a rescue. One of her favourite spots is my director’s chair. Usually she’s curled up in a ball sawing logs.
- Wendy

I bought this chair at a yard sale for $25!  It is huge, the leather is soft and worn, and it sucks you right in.  It has become the coveted seat in our living room, especially by my new kitten Mae who sleeps there most of the day.
- Hilary (Philadelphia PA)

If you’d like to send us photos to include in next week’s “pets on furniture” post, please ensure your photos follow our basic rules: First, the pet must be on a piece of furniture. And said piece of furniture must be clearly visible in the photo, so it takes center stage rather than your pet. (Think of it more of a photo of a great piece of furniture that you want to show off…and your pet happens to be sitting on it). And second, the photo must be of decent quality. If it’s dark or fuzzy (from a camera phone) then it may not make the cut. Thanks! (Photos, your name, location and a brief description can be sent to desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.com and PLEASE don’t send me closeups of your pet!)

I finally got round to photographing our whippet Albert on the Bertoia chair that I bought my husband for Christmas a couple of years ago.  It’s never really been my husband’s chair though, Albert staked his claim to it from day one.
- Helen

Thought I’d share these photos of my 2-year old tabby cat, Yoni. In the first one he’s on my Habitat sofa with a Primrose & Plum lambswool throw blanket, and the second is a vintage Danish chair we’ve re-upholstered and re-varnished, with a Roddy & Ginger cushion.
- Katie (London, UK)

I snapped this quick picture of Boomer wrapped in our bedroom curtain. The light coming through the window made for such a pretty glow.
- Kristi

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away a castle awoke from its slumber, shook its traditional roots and decided it wanted to be thoroughly modern. Well almost. A fairytale castle always has to be just a little bit fairytale. I love this modern take on a traditional home. Katrine Martensen-Larsen of KML Design always finds the most wonderful places.

Back one Sunday in August I blogged about a new shop here in Ottawa called Green Light District Design. It’s one of my favourite shops that I must stop in whenever I’m visiting the Byward Market. I’m stoked to have GLDD as one of our new sponsors and thought I’d do another little intro to showcase some of their gorgeous wares. The following photos I took on a trip to the shop (sadly I only had my iPhone with me) when I stopped by to pick up some Christmas gifts for my mom…and of course, a couple things for me.

Think unique and timeless, a cool and contemporary simplicity of design that still retains its soul.

They had the most beautiful saddle leather and iron butterfly chair in a stunning red sitting in the window…

You have no idea how badly I covet the chair below. David and Deborah, the owners, took it down from the window and insisted I try it out. BIG MISTAKE. It’s like SITTING ON A CLOUD. Or what I would think sitting on a cloud would feel like.

This table, the Loves Me, Loves Me Not 8 petal table, is so cute I can’t stand it.

This coat rack almost made it home with me.

I picked up a gorgeous hand-painted table runner and a dinner plate/platter for my mom (haven’t had a chance to get a photo of those) and the following vase (I have one from the same artist).

Below is my current dining table centrepiece. I adore the dishes I have collected so far from this shop, and since I don’t really have open shelving to show them off, I decided to just stack them on a tray on my table. We use them all the time, and I just love how they don’t line up when stacked because each piece is handmade and therefore has subtle differences in shape and pattern.

After the jump are more incredible pieces of furniture I found around Green Light District Design.

Stacey sent us in a reader request I wanted to tackle today and while it’s quite brief, I found it intriguing: “Hi! I’m not sure if you’ve done this one, but I’d love to see kitchen fireplaces…..thanks!” Easy enough request, but I immediately began to wonder how many photos I’d find of kitchens with fireplaces. I think it’s a bit odd to have a fireplace in a kitchen, which tends to be one of the warmest rooms in the house (if you cook that is). Although the more photos I found in my stash the more I thought how fab it would be to have a fireplace to make a kitchen even cosier. I’m sold!

Marie Claire Italy	Sköna hem
Domino	Sköna hem
Per Magnus Persson	Adriano Bacchella
Sköna hem	Hus & Hem

Elle Deco Spain
booli
Hus & Hem

Is it possible to love a house so much you want to leave your husband and run away to it? If so I may just cheat on Kelvin with furniture designer and maker Mark Tuckey‘s house. I have loved it ever since I first saw it in Inside Out a number of years ago and now I stumbled upon it will real estate stalking. Of course Mark and his family have had a number of houses I would gladly leave my husband for and you can why in his press section. A woman cannot be blamed for losing her heart and head over that bathroom. I’m sure I could never afford it so I better stay where I am and just lust after it. Link to the listing here and Mark’s website here. I need to lie down. My heart is fluttering!

I love the name Mixed Pickles for a vintage shop. We heard about a very cool vintage shop of that name though San Francisco based photographer Christina Schmidhofer, who happened to have photographed it. Christina put us in touch with the owners and they provided us with a bit of history:
Mixed Pickles is Sharon Hoyle, Roger Williams and a big pile of really great vintage stuff. Sharon opened the first location in North Berkeley in 1998. Roger wandered into the shop in 2002. They struck up a conversation about 1920′s Jazz musicians, and have been talking ever since. The opportunity for a great new location in their hometown of Oakland presented itself. The new bigger & brighter shop opened as a partnership in December 2010 when the contents of their two homes reached maximum capacity. Favorite things: Salvaged and architectural antiques, advertising signs, furniture with clean lines, and finding new uses for vintage items. We dislike things made of brass, and the color lavender.
(Check out their blog and website for info, particularly their latest finds). The shop looks like a place I could spend a ridiculous amount of time in scouring each and every little square inch. Too bad it’s so far from Ottawa…

I’m easing back in with a photographer we really love at D2I, Joe Schmelzer. (See earlier posts here and here.) Yesterday when things were grim I promised to post something pretty today but Joe doesn’t do pretty. He does pretty fab! Enjoy!

Susanne Schanz is a food and interiors photographer who wanted to share her work with our readers. She sent along some photos from her latest interior shoot and I also grabbed some off of her website. They are so pretty and calming and evoke a sense of naturalism. A beautiful way to end a Wednesday.