Color Combo: Blue N Green

I'm really loving the combination of blue and green.  The cool palette of chartreuse, turquoises, and teals, has given me some inspiration.

a cool color palette

It looks great in clothing, jewelry and accessories like these...

Chiffon Wrap Dress by Kay Unger

Sterling Cuff by Ippolita

"Felicite" Slingback from b by Brian Atwood

Then I found this skirt ensemble from the Proenza Schouler Spring 2012 collection and I used it to inspire this room. (I love playing over at Olioboard. I'm still waiting for Pinterest to respond to my request for an invitation. Ha ha.) Turning fashion into interior design is becoming a new fascination so you might just see some more of these. Tell me, what color combination are you feelin' right now?

This post is part of a Fashion Fridays blog hop hosted by Kori of Blonde Episodes.  Check out Fashion Fridays!

Got Midcentury Modern Chairs?

I found these at a cute home accessories store called Tabletop and I thought about just how on-trend the pattern is and all of my friends here in the modern miniature blogosphere.

So you've collected all the Reac Japan Designer Chairs or decorated with as many refinished vintage finds as your life-sized house can hold, but you still haven't satisfied your craving for the modern designer chairs from the mid(20th)century.  What are you ever to do??? From Etsy to Inhabit to SFMOMA, check out this roundup of the iconic silhouettes on everything.

Is this good or bad design?  Does it take away from the original sculptural beauty of these chairs? Which chair is your favorite? Talk to me, let me know. (Note: click through to Olioboard for all the details on the items in the roundup.)

Cork, the Other Wood

Created at http://olioboard.com go there for all the product details.

A renewable resource, the unique qualities of bark from the cork oak tree help make our interiors safer and more livable places.  As a result, cork products continue to proliferate in interior design applications.  We see cork on floors and on the walls.  It's been used to create tables, seating, and storage pieces.  It can even be prepared into a fabric used to cover pillows and lampshades.  It's a superior insulator, heat retardant, impermeable and mold resistant.  The flexibility of this material also makes it very comfortable underfoot.  In short, cork is cool.

Details at http://olioboard.com

So, there was little surprise my search for new spring 2012 fashions yielded designs using cork again and again---right down to the metallic details.

L: Metallic & Patent T-strap Cork Sandal by Jimmy Choo
R: Cork wallpaper in Metallic Gold by Thibault, Natural
Resource Collection

With all this cork-love going on, I couldn't resist doing a round-up of how miniaturists are using cork in their own interiors.  Well, we've created (or repurposed) coffee tables, side tables, message boards, flooring and oversized vases, all in 1:12 scale.

Mini-bloggers counterclockwise from top left: ModernMC, 
ModernMC, TinyFixation, callsmall and callsmall

And sometimes, life imitates art.  So, an oversized cork stopper makes a life-sized table like the table TinyFixation of the blog, Large and in Charge repurposed from a champagne cork in her own dollhouse.

L: 1:12 scale and R: 1:1 scale

I would love to know how others of you use cork in miniature. Here are some of my own favorite cork applications.  I discovered purchased this great product, cork contact paper. It really ups the creativity quotient for the ways cork can be used in our mini-interiors.  If you've used this awesome product, please let me know by leaving a comment. In the room I set up below, you find it everywhere: on the floor, the stools, and the brick wall! Cork...it really is the other white meat wood.

The Genius of Charles & Ray Eames

Image Source: USPS

Back in 2008 on what would have been Charles Eames' 100th birthday, the US Postal Service issued this set of commemorative stamps to honor the husband and wife design team. With 16 different panels, the set demonstrates the breadth of their influence and talents. I bought them immediately thinking I might some how work them into a miniature scene as paintings, like this.

Photograph by Doris Nathanson of Mini Modernista as
seen at A Miniature Obsession blog.

Fast forward to now, they still remain (safely protected) in the bottom of a drawer. I guess I wasn't sure how to display them without destroying the collector value of the stamps. Ugh! You can't have it all, right? Would I really want to sell or trades these stamps? Ah, no! But, they shall remain where they are---waiting to be showcased and appreciated.

 Image Source: (c) 2011 Eames Office

PBS also celebrated this creative couple with the documentary Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter as a part of the American Masters series. It debuted last December but appears not to have an expiration date for streaming on the PBS website (what a treat). I really enjoyed learning about the personal and professional lives of the Eames couple. The film explores the 40 years that their studio, Eames Office thrived with productivity. It also includes archival film footage, photographs, ephemera, and even love letters. I didn't know that Charles was such a womanizer. Perhaps he always needed a new muse?  The film spans from the period shortly after the couple met through the death of Ray Eames.  It was an excellent visual biography so if you haven't done so already, check it out.

Looking for that Gnarly Wood (Part 2)

Recently, I professed to you all my love for the beauty of gnarly woods.  Now I'd like to share a few other reasons, I think live edge pieces work so well in modern design. 1) It's organic. This makes it a nice counterpoint to balance the cooler, modern surfaces like nickel, concrete and marble that so commonly define our living spaces. 2) It's sculptural. Wood definitely has form and texture and sometimes you've just gotta showcase it. 3)  It's massive scale.  Of course, not all live edge pieces are massive in scale but many of them are.  Such large scale furniture is common on the west coast but it's a newer concept for those of us east of the Mississippi.  Obviously, a massive scale works well in urban lofts.  I contend, however, that a carefully chosen piece could also work nicely in the room of a more conventional home.  This is especially the case since open floor plans are so common.

(Image Sources: 1, 3-www.liveedge.com; 2-www.prdminiatures.com)

I think the designers at West Elm might agree with me.  They are carrying in their current inventory a Raw Edge Collection that includes 2 styles of consoles, a coffee table and a side table ranging in price from $249.00 to $499.00 US dollars.  And they also have a brand new piece call a Live Edge Mirror. These options make the furniture scale and the price point for live edge furniture accessible to us all, eh?

(Image Source: westelm.com)

Fnally, the obvious solution to my dilemma (how do I get some gnarly wood into my design life?)---go 1:12!  Which, in some ways, I already have.  Paris of PRDMiniatures custom designed these lovely tables (as well as the calf-hair love seat) for me. 

(Image Source: Paris Renfroe)

But now I'm ready to go all out with something more like these designs. 

The inaugural pieces of  the Micro Collection (sold out) at the Etsy
store, OneFortyThree (Image source: onefortythree.com)

Live edge bench (sold) from PRDMiniatures (Image Source: Paris Renfroe)

So Paris and Logan this is my open letter to request that each of you, please make more.  Because I'm really lovin' that gnarly wood!

Looking for that Gnarly Wood (Part 1)

On a recent trip to San Francisco, while leisurely strolling in and out of shops on Valencia Street, I came upon the most unique studio of eyeglass frames.  My beau was on the hunt for some funky new glasses so we went in.  I proceeded through the space where I discover slabs and slabs of beautiful, beautiful wood!  

I so wish my photo did these slabs justice.  Sadly, it does not.

Then it struck me that I'd scene this style before...my mind registers Paris Renfroe and OneFortyThree.com.  I loved the tiny replicas that I discovered while doing the regular cruising of my favorite blogs.  Yet it wasn't until, I saw this wood 1:1 live and in-person that I soooo got it!  So back to this studio in San Francisco, Anthony Marschak, the founder of Original Timber was so very informative.  He identified species of wood or told me from where the slab was salvaged. In a delusional moment, I began to envision a custom piece in my home, when I was inturrupted by the reality of impossible shipping cost to the east coast and such.


I was so taken by the beauty of the furniture I saw and the use of this design style by miniature craftsmen I admire yet, I didn't even know what to call it.  After doing a bit of research, here's what I learned.  Furniture or accessories that incorporate the natural edge of wood, its burrs or knots or any other imperfections marks of character for that matter are known as Live Edge.  This style was first made famous by George Nakashima in a series he created for Knoll in 1946.  I think the use of this style as a design element has gradually gained in popularity as we as a society have attempted to become more ecologically responsible.  By using salvaged or gnarly woods from trees that have been responsible cut down due to thinning, we are preserving forests of perfectly healthy trees.  This in turn keeps we, the people and our planet perfectly health (but I digress so please forgive me).


The imperfections character can make the slabs delicate for woodworking and provide challenges to the carpenter to completing the necessary form for functional objects such as tables or benches.  But in the following photographs, I have found beautiful solutions demonstrating how craftsmen have done just that.

"Living Again" Bench designed by the late Michael Alexander
(Image Source: michaelalexanderdesigns.com)

A coffee table designed by Jeffery Greene (image source: jefferygreen.com)

A dining/conference table from Original Timber
(Image Source: www.originaltimber.com)

I realize that live edge design is not new but I do believe it has been experiencing a steady emergence in design since the turn of the century. Don't forget to check out Part 2 where I'll indulge my appreciation of this aesthetic just a bit more.