I'd Like to Tap That: Smith Tower...Again

Check out this amazing photos essay by our friend  Kyle Johnson who did the piece for Kinfolk Magazine Vol. 3!! Kyle proposed the project and shot the story while Ashley Helvey styled the shoot at the top pyramid part of Smith Tower.

 When the NYT feature of the space came out about 2 years ago,  I wrote a blog post about that space and about how my life won't even compare to the 3 year old kid who's been living there!! But that was the past... now the NEW me, is little bit more optimistic knowing that I'm less than 6 degrees separated from the people who lives there.  I'm getting SO close I can taste it!But seriously though....I'm SUPER excited for Kyle & Ashley that they got to do this (and of course, equally jealous! ) It looked like such a surreal expereince....to hang out in the space, see the view of the city & the water from the 40th floor, while eating a homemade meal by Molly Wizenberg (of Orangette) and Brandon Pettit ( of Delancey)! 

Yah, I know, can it get anymore ridiculous than this? I would very much like to shut the front door on them, too.

Someday....I'll get to a point where I don't have to pay $35+ just to see views like this on a day-to-day bases.

I'd Like to Tap That: Pitched Roof Loft

I think with this amount of light that this loft gets, it maybe not be entirely impossible to actually get me up in the morning...especially during the winter times!!
Actually...I really need this....
You know when people's celings are too high when they start to staple pillows on it.
Sheesh....

Via Philip Karlberg

Almost Finishing Touches

 

Finally! We're at the fun part of the kitchen process where we get to start accessorizing!

We gathered some existing thing we had, along with some material & color samples to compose this pallet.

One of the main element we're most excited about is the idea to integrate copper as an accent color & material which we felt would add the prefect amount of warmth to the overall feel.

We initially had these aluminum knobs...which are fine....but something about it just didn't feel very interesting...or special...

We wanted to use vintage knobs and ended up finding these simple standard 50's copper knobs from Second Use to go with our oak and whitened europly cabinet fronts. It's one of those things where we weren't totally sure if it was going to make everything look too dated or out of place....

But once we put them on, the whole kitchen instantly glowed....it was totally the perfect thing that we we're looking for and everything felt 100 times more special and complete! Who would have thought that something as small as cabinet knobs can make such a big difference!

Here's the special nook for our collection of found glass jars with cork tops we've been collecting (I actually more than what's in the photos). I love how the onions even goes with the whole pallet!

I was especially happy to have found couple of these simple copper light sockets to hang above our island area! I was actually debating on whether to splurge on these brass ones from Restoration Hardware for almost $100 each for a simple light socket!! Good thing we waited, did more research, and ended up finding these similar ones from Grandbrass for only 1/10th of the price! I should take that extra cash I saved and buy some bottles of champagne to celebrate this triumphant score!

...we're getting SO close to the finishing line I can smell it! I'm picturing all our friends & family awaits for us at the end with warm towels & hugs....it's gonna be amazing.....

I'd Like to Tap That: Escher Wooden House

Amazingly understated home from the outside, yet glowingly warm and delightfully playful in the inside. Just looking at the photos reminds me something like an Escher drawing where it keeps my eyes moving around looking eager to discover more.

House K by Yoshichika Takagi (Sapporo, Japan)

Via Sokosokoashiko

Instant Framing

This was the day we've been waiting for since we started designing a steel frame with Nick from Piano Nobile...we're gonna see the frame in our space for the first time!

I was especially excited to wake up this morning and see Nick pull in with his AWESOME Fuso in our drive way with the frame pieces. Seeing the size of the Fuso, I wished we had bigger pieces to move just so we can see the crane in action, too!!

So remember from our previous post with our Google sketchup of our kitchen with a steel frame?...the frame will act as a load bearing structure between our kitchen and living room so we can open the space up and have an island!

so here are some photos of Dylan & Nick dry fitting the pieces in the space for the first time to see how it all looks and fits....nervous?? I AM!!

Ta-da! Instant framing, done!

It was as simple as lining up the pieces, screw in the bolts and voila!  Totally exciting to see what it actually look like in our space!! I was hopping around like a 5 year old filled with excitement when they were doing all this.

Next on the list....we'll ride the Fuso and get the frame powder coated! Yesssss......

Lost in Space

I'm in total awe...

By Esther Stocker

A little progress & serenity in our space...

As we mentioned few weeks before...we've been doing some re-hauling & re-organizing of our space for ourselves and for L&G studio...

Slowly but surely we're making some progress and have moved our bedroom into what was previously our office (or more like our storage)...

It's a smaller space, but I've been loving the idea to downsize our bedroom....keeping it minimal, airy, and peaceful....We painted our room with stock white paint...to replace the previously dingy dirty off white paint....and just changing that, the room felt instantly bigger, brighter and 100 times better!

We kept one side of the wall with the chalk wall from when we painted it for the office....since it'll still be useful for those occasional late night brainstorming sessions we do....plus I didn't' have the heart to erase the adorable messages & drawings by our friends' kids from Japan during the time they stayed with us!!

Then Dylan boxed in the window with soft toned pine boards with a added function as a shallow shelf....so we can incorporate some hanging plants & more plants!... LOVE!!

Then a little added color & pattern from a Ikea area rug for some warmth.Still got few more to add to the space...but overall we're gonna have it pretty paired down...with wood shelving made with cinder blocks and then have ropes & hanging rods to hang my accessories. I like the concept of "organized chaos" and love seeing selective pieces of clothes hung & displayed like that...it makes me appreciate what I have and gets me excited about wearing it...like the my new B&W sweater hanging on the mirror . A recent score at one of the vintage shops by Nationale & Stand Up Comedy in Portland.

This is a rare exception when I wished the whether is slightly colder so I can wear that more often! I've been practically living in it with it being so comfortable to wear!

still work in progress...can't wait to get it done!

A Great Big Mess..For A Great New Start

We've been doing some MAJOR spring cleaning, purging, and re-organizing....and pretty much turning our house upside-down! This was the state of our house shuffling everything around before we had the L&G Spring Vintage Sale! EEEEK!!

Who would have thought that we had this much stuff! (...actually probably everyone else knew except US!) ....we were THIS close on becoming hoarders buried alive...So part of the reason...besides the fact that we had hoarding issues....we also decided to do this purge so we can create a designated working space for L&G!!
This is especially important since Dylan is now OFFICIALLY working on L&G FULL TIME!!
We're gonna take L&G to the next level...make & design more things full time without killing each other!
It's been totally liberating to let go of the things we had. But mostly we're SO excited for all the new changes & the things we'll get to do for ourselves and for L&G!!

Here's what we got planned:

Turn what was previously our bedroom to L&G office:
-Expand our Dansk desk so can be usable on both sides
-Closet will become shipping & supplies area.
-Put a WHOLE wall of shelving with these CHEAP Ikea shelving system.
-Have desk lamps!

Turn what was previously our office/storage to a minimal & cozy bedroom:
-Colors: white, black, natural
-Materials: cheap pine sheets & cynder blocks for shelving, ropes & metal tubes for open hanging racks.
-plants & hanging plants!

Our main source of inspiration for our new spaces...The House Book 1974 by Terence Conran:
This book is one of our favorite go-to book for ideas when we need inspirations for our space...

Love the feel of this photo for our bedroom!!
It would be a total dream come true to have just simple open shelves like this in our office for books, stereo and things...
ahh....more storage ideas...

yah...I'd be perfectly happy if I can just live in this book...

Collected Magazine

This new online lifestyle magazine, Collected, launched this May founded by Krista Schrock and Jessica Comingore.

I love all their well-curated hand picked items. Pretty much.... I just want everything on these pages.



I'd like to Tap That: Layered House

If I believed in heaven, I'd imagine it would something like this place...
Heck, I'll believe in heaven in a heartbeat if I know I can end up in living in space like this...
The house is designed by, and of course, a Japanese architect, Jun Igarashi. 
Read more about it Here.

Via Grijs,
Via Designboom

I'd Like To Tap That: Modern Dream House

I love LOVE every part of this modern house by Linea Studio based in the UK.
There isn't a corner in the house that I don't love....even the dusts in the corner and the smudges on the window....

So, to warn you, there's gonna be a lot of me going "I like this...I like that...and OH-EM-GEEE... I LUV it!" repeatedly through out this post....

To start....
Check... THIS...out!! Look at this staircase with shelves on the side!! SCREAM!
and look at all the cute things on it! (still screaming!)
...SO want open shelves like that for our kitchen so I can display our housewares collection too...

Man....I really would also love a nice open kitchen like that....or to have room for a dinning table instead of sitting on the floor by our coffee table while my feet fall asleep during our dinner...
One thing though...I personally think it might just be a little TOO open. I mean just looking at how much empty space they have on the floor there!
Now...if it was US living there, we'd totally want to take advantage of that empty "wasted" floor space and turn it into a L&G packing & shiping area or something totally awesome like that...
boy...do I like those chairs....
Love the lights, love the floor, love the Finel heart bowl with the plant in it.
I also like the cleverly integrated landing unit and shelves.
Hello...metal flat drawers , giant working desk table with classy chairs, and that whole set of Domus magazines....I like you guys, too.
Clean, simple & nice looking bathroom..I like the simple towel holder pole...oh yes I do.
How fun was that?!
I can do this all day and look at all the photos of this place over & over again....and fantasize about me living there in that house...even as a particle of dust in the corner... 

No rest for the Wary

I know some of these images and Wary Meyer's work has already made it's way around the blogosphere, but I just have to do a bit of reiterating here.

I love the way their spaces feel like the interiors of all the great '70s interior design books - an inspiration of theirs - the warmth, the patterns and textures, the mix-match of styles, old with new, etc. Just when we're starting to reach for the white paint threatening to turn our living room into a clean austere shrine of scandavian influence...Wary's got me thinkin' what if we did a 360 and busted out some wallpaper and pop art prints and went all Rhoda Morgenstein up in the joint?

I'm not really sure if we have the interior decor cojones to do either full-on, but it sure is reassuring that we can be inspired by either. We'll meet somewhere in the middle...as soon as we can figure out how to not make the living room our shipping room.

Check out Wary's blog too to see a sampling of the stuff they find inspiring (they're also one hell of a thrifty duo).

Print Magazine Shall Not Die

This is another exciting project by Meg Mateo Ilasco. Meg & Anh-Minh Le recently launched their quarterly print magazine, Anthology Magazine . It's just loveliness all around! They're only doing a small run of them now, and the last I've heard, they're about to sell out!!

I'm so glad to see actual print magazines coming out versus more web magazines. There's just nothing that compares to actually having the magazines in the hands to flip through the pages.
They even went all out and created this lovely stop motion video making a statement that print is not dead!! I love the cardboard typewriter, which Meg made herself!


I really don't know how she manages to do all this and come out with 2 books (Crafting a Meaningful Home & Creative Inc.) at the same time!!
Gawwwd....can anyone be any more productive?? 

I'd like to Tap That: Office made with Pallets

Check out this post via Design Boom about this cleverly designed office space by A Dutch design firm, most architecture.
They designed the spacing using a bunch of handsome-looking pallets piled up in compelling ways while turning them into functional working spaces, seating, and even a staircase!We've been collecting pallets & wooden crates to fill up our Brite Social Studio space for the fact that they're so readily available and free ...but of course the pallets aren't nearly as nice as the ones you see here.
Pretty ridiculous how even Dutch PALLETS are better and cooler than ours!....sheesh!!
I can only imagine even living like a homeless person there would be pretty amazing...I'd go for that.

I'd like to tap that: Roof Top Pyramid on top of a building

Ok. Never would I even think to consider the top of an office building as a possible place to live and raise kids....let alone the pyramid that's on top of Seattle's Smith Tower building that's been recently shown in the New York Times!!! Screw looking at houses that's meant for living....that's just way too lame and predictable!
I want a house where I get to take elevators that goes up 40+ floors that probably goes straight to the place, have all walls coming in at an angle versus just boring straight walls, and a view that's even better than what the public civilians gets to see from the observation deck only at the 35th floor. But the reality is that I should just give up and accept the fact that I will not end up living anywhere close to a place like this in my life time or next...especially I'm pretty sure that my next life I'm probably just gonna be a fruit fly...And I won't even be able to fly that high to sneak in there and pretend...
Yeah, you know something is not right, when the thought of your entire life doesn't even compare to these kids' life in the first 3 years of after being born....and the best part is...they won't even remember a darn thing in those years.....Man...what a realization....
But on a brighter note...I'm lucky enough to say that I live in the same city as these people! Just awesome.

I'd LIke to Tap That: Eclectically Modern Living Space

Amazing space via Office for Word and Image (OWI)....oh so wonderfully eclectic, airy and dynamic. I love the visual impact of the dark & minimal one-walled-kitchen.... The mix dining chairs collection reminds us a little like ours... looks like we're off to a good start....

I'd like to Tap That...White Cottage

Juli & John, a Toronto based design couple from Kitka Design blog (also runs an incredible design shop, Mjölk) made an 180 degree transformation of a family cottage from a drab and cluttered place and turned it into an incredible open modern and charming cottage with fantastic vintage finds through out.
Looking at this place made me decide that the next house we live in shall be painted all white, open spaced with high ceilings...and right next to the water!
Wait...let me rephrase. The next house we live in shall be THIS place!  Sorry to break the news to you guys, Juli & John, we're gonna have to evict you both.... 
But seriously though...I love everything about this adorable cabin.  I just like how they stayed true to the concept of having a vacation cabin where its a place to getaway from the usual clutter, chaos, and distractions. It's about just having the basics...read old books, listen to old records, play board games, watch the sea, wander around, and not think about anything besides figuring out what to cook for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I much rather think about that kind of things than about all the errands I need to do, when I should avoid traffic, or wondering why the person driving in front has their signal light on when they're not actually turning!
It seem so rare to find ourselves doing actual relaxing activities with all the distractions in the city and our daily routine...and then there's always the need to do computer work at night, too. How did we ever convince ourselves that emailing or blogging in the middle of the night is relaxing?!?  The curse of the interweb!
OOH! OOH! My favorite game! I spy...Kaj Frank enamel bowls, Copco pans and fondue pot, Dansk Jens Quistgaard pepper mill and bowl, Erik Magnussens's red pitcher, Jasper Morrison's coffee maker...oh my!! Ahh..what lovely minimal rooms with just the right amount of simplicity and coziness.
Another reason to have a cabin like this is so I can have cute shoes and take pictures like this.....
Doesn't this make you want to just go and get a cabin somewhere?


I'd like to Tap That...Brooklyn Home

Found this via D*S' sneak peak with Fitzhugh & Lyndsay in their Brooklyn home. It's amazing to see people living in spaces like this in NY. Makes me wonder how they are able to have such an amazing space...perhaps I'm better off not thinking about that stuff....The space feels so crisp and warm at that same time. For the longest time I feel like white is so boring....but I'm starting to realize the reason why people go with white. White...feels so pure, bright, crisp, soothing, and versatile all at the same time! Especially with the use of rustic wood accent through out, their space is anything BUT boring!

I dream of shelf space with a giant ladder like this all the time....
I also like the hint of cleverness such as this rustic sliding barn door for their bathroom. I'm always a little farm-envious, so perhaps just getting a door like that would make me just as happy.

I'd LIke to Tap that...Barn House

This is a barn that's been converted to an amazing house by a Seattle based architecture firm, SHED.
I love the rustic charm of barns in general. The fact that they turned an already wonderful barn into something even more awesome makes me furious!
(only because I'm jealous that someone is living in a space like that...and I'm not. boo on them)
Love the wood siding used for the interior. So nice....


I'd LIke to Tap that...Kitchen w/ Bookshelves

Loving this multifunctional kitchen with integrated bookshelves on the other side. I like how you don't even notice the kitchen right away!
But mostly I love how it really maximizes the storage space!
This mutli-functional live/work loft space is an old diamond cutting and-polishing shop that's been renovated and divided in 19 housing units in in Antwerp. I like how they created space within a space using those light frame and glass walls in keeping a level of transparency throughout.
oh boy! Sliding doors!! We so want do that for our bathroom someday!