The Estate of things

consider having a traditional, antique chair reupholstered in modern fabric like so,

Co-Lab, antique chair with Studio Bon for Schumacher fabric

These antique chairs are easy to find, I see them everywhere and not just at antique stores, sometimes they are abandoned by the side of the road. Its just fun to have some crazy old accent chair in the corner or on a blank wall don’t you think?  

Happy Weekend everybody, doing anything exciting?

Thank you One Kings Lane for introducing me to Zoe Bios Creative. The founders of Zoe Bios Creative, a design house in Silver Lake, CA came from good stock, founders Minh Nguyen is a former Managing Director for Natural Curiosities and Caitlin Dinkins is a former Creative Director for  Stila Cosmetics with illustrations featured from museum to Vogue.

I love the modern, bohemian, soCal vibe that Zoe has going on and plus one of serveral artists they represent is Joseph Knowles, Jr. who has become a fast favorite.

This is the piece I snapped up,

Blaise Delacroix, Rose

Some other favorites, which made it a hard pick–

Buffalo, Joseph Knowles Jr.

Jon Rou, The Beach

Joseph Knowles Jr., charcoal lady

ZBC original, Fuchsia Curves

 Horses, Joseph Knowles Jr.

Here is ZBC at the New York International Gift Fair (we’ll get there one day Mom)

One of my other favorite offerings at ZBC are the dripped olea pots which remind me of antique Italian olive oil pots,

Tell me you don’t love it too. 

I was introduced to Sally Mann’s work through Pinterest, which these days is where I meet with a whole lot of new things that I like.

Sally Mann

This is the photograph that sent me frantically searching,

candy cigarette, 1989

Sally came in to public view with a series of intimate photographs of her three young children, Jessie, Emmett and Virginia shot in Lexington, Virginia. The collection was called Immediate Family and it first appeared in Houk Friedman Gallery in New York and then later in a traveling exhibit at the The Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

From what I’ve seen of the series, the collection explores both the reality and fantastical nature of childhood and the sensuality that Mann saw in her own children all under the age of 10.  In most of the photographs contained in the Immediate Family collection, Mann’s children appear nude and sometimes they are injured, sick (bloody noses, chicken pox, pink eye) or appear exhausted. The nudity and context of some of the photographs sparked some controversy and garnered Sally some press and attention that wasn’t forseen.

After Immediate Family was released, Sally was contacted by a filmmaker named Steven Cantor. Cantor intended on making a documentary short about censorship in our culture but after meeting Sally and seeing the pictures of her children what resulted was Blood Ties, a 1994 documentary about Sally and her family that was ultimately nominated for an Academy Award.

After Blood Ties, Sally continued to create art in collections like Still Time and What Remains. Cantor and Mann remained in contact and in 2004, Cantor released a full length documentary about Sally, her artistic process, her family and the project she was working on that centered around death and decay called What Remains.

After learning more about Sally and her work, naturally I wanted to know what became of the most beloved of subjects–her children. Did they become artists too?

Turns out Lexington, VA, the site of the Mann family homestead, was also home to many acclaimed artists like Cy Twombley. Under Twombley’s tutelage, Jessie Mann also began painting. Emmett joined the Peace Corps for a time and Virginia went to law school.

Jessie Mann today, via Just Say Maux

For me, some of the photographs in Immediate Family at first were too raw, too provocative but then I started to remember childhood, especially a childhood in the rural south. The injuries depicted in these images; blood, scabs, black eyes, bloody noses, insect bites–all of that is par for the course and capturing that on film is a solid dose of realism. When I gave my brother a black eye, I don’t think we would’ve been scarred if my mother would’ve sat him down against a white wall and photographed him. Its the apparent sensuality in some of these images that creates the shock value and what many wrestle with including myself. Some will instantly be dismissive, some will remember skipping stones on the river in the heat of summer. I’m just wondering–Does/Should this art have a place in our world?

A portion of Cantor’s 2nd film about Sally, What Remains.

Some other great resources:

PBS did a feature on Sally in 2003, in their Art of the 21st Century series, Art21

A Dialogue Between Steven Cantor and Sally Mann

The Disturbing Photography of Sally Mann

image via OKL

I couldn’t agree more Nathan. This walnut hammer looks like a part of one of those great textural, masculine vignettes in a Turner, Gambrel or O’Brien design.

Find this unique piece in The Estate of Things Etsy shop. 

After sharing the Rockaway bungalow redo happening on casaCARA’s blog, Betsy posed an interesting question,

 …Sarah, what’s your thought on off-center front doors on a porch like that. I’m sure it’s not worth the cost to move the door, but it always make me wonder.

I love this question simply because I remodeled a house that had an amazing front door that was off center.

This is the house I lived in before Bungalow 404, before the 2007 remodel was complete.

I’ve never shared this house mainly because I renovated it before I really began blogging and I don’t have images that present an accurate before. Interestingly enough, my friends, real estate agents and neighbors loved this house and I just kind of thought it was ok. We had a tag sale when we moved and everything was downstairs in the living room and I kept catching people wandering around upstairs. It sold in 14 days in 2009, what does that tell you—I should’ve increased the price, no…well ok maybe but people just really liked it. Anyway, lets get to the point here.

This house had a grand front door that was at least 7 feet tall but was just left of center and it could not be moved because of the structural and interior layout.

We had to balance things out visually on the exterior… so we added more windows.

The before of the downstairs (sorry no picture) only had one big window to the right of the front door which left a lot of empty space between that window and the front door which emphasized its off center position. To strike the balance that I mentioned, we added a larger, triple bank of windows to the right of the door which drew the eye over to the right instead of to the awkwardly position front door.

So to answer Betsy’s question–if moving a door or window is possible without rebuilding the whole house and there’s no alternative remedy then I say move it!

P.S.-

This is the before and after of the backyard that Dan and I put a lot of weekends, blood, sweat and tears in to turning around.

Before- a nuclear testing site?

After

Those Leyland Cypress lined along the fence grew 4-5 feet in 3 years, that’s why they are such a popular barrier tree.

Sometimes I fall in to this rut –where as vast as the internet is, nothing new seems to come around. It doesn’t last long but it happens.

But recently I was searching things like ”driveway hedge lighting” and “hedge landscape lighting” in Google just to see what I would come across and I discovered casaCARA.

It was clear from the beginning that Cara is a renovation junkie like me and so I kept reading. I didn’t get very far and I settled on Cara’s post about the Rockaway Bungalow. The story of M.’s Rockaway Beach New York bungalow combines some of my favorite things; stories of family and the salvage of an old house. I think Cara has some photos of her visit to M.’s bungalow to be posted soon. I’m looking forward to seeing the progress, I have a special place in my heart for the restoration of the truly dilipadated.

In progress, looks like some new windows are in and the new front door is in.

A new coating of stucco going on the side,

As it turns out Cara is not new to design or renovation, she is a professional writer and editor contributing to Coastal Living, Hamptons Cottages & Gardens, NY Times and Metropolitan Home. And Cara collects old houses…I think I like Cara.

And Cara wants to rent her East Hampton beach cottage for the month of August this summer.

Time to announce not one but two winners for the Novica $50 gift certificate give away.

OK peeps, the random number generator spit out lucky #4 which is,

Danielle, you are the first winner of one of the $50 gift certificates to Novica.

And our 2nd winner is lucky #1 which is,

So Danielle and Haley, please send us an email so we can give you your gift codes and you can get to buying on Novica.

Here are some of my favorite images for the next few minutes,

Let me begin by saying that I’m trippin’ about some mismatched upholstery as evidenced by the following two images,

Gloria Baume, Teen Vogue

and this one,

 NY Times

Celerie Kemble

Dear upstairs bathroom, just b/c you got a new toilet doesn’t mean that I’m done with you and maybe someday I’ll turn you in to this.

Anna Spiro

this is why I planted limelight hydrangeas in my front planting bed cause I’m about to do this,

BHG

Umm, this rug is how do you say….sick. Yeah.

I watched Blue Valentine a couple of weeks ago and it nearly killed my spirit and since then all I see are photographs of Ryan Gosling on Pinterest. A couple of days after I watched the movie my Mom and I were in the Nordstrom shoe dept. and the sales girl looked just like Michelle Williams. Betsy and I discussed it briefly at In and Out Burger and she said it almost ruined her life too.  Almost.

wonder how long it took until they ditched the chevron rug in front of the sink, it seems a little out of sort here, its a little immature?

You’re my butterfly, suga…baby

Unless specifically given, images were sourced from Pinterest

Apartment Therapy is hosting the Homies 2012, where you can nominate and vote for your favorite design blog.

If you like what we do here at TEOT, Betsy and I would of course be honored to have your nomination and/or vote. You can click here to vote.

Pop kisses and sincere tight hugs,

Sarah & Betsy

Many of you design lovers know that there are a lot of great rooms out there that include an exotic or international element. Hammam towels, kilims, morrocan poufs, Senegalese baskets…you get the idea and you’ve probably seen one or all of these in your favorite spaces.

National Geographic created Novica, a retail site offering the consumer access to some great international artisans and those artists access to a global market.

Novica has offered two TEOT readers a $50.00 gift certificate to use for purchase on their site.

To collect on this generous prize all you gotta do is leave a comment and tell us what your favorite international design element is and it doesn’t just have to be an accessory it can be an architectural or design influence. The randomly selected winners will be announced next Tuesday, March 6, 2012, so check back!

I scoped the site and here are some of my favorites,

Blue Rivers rug

Mortal Warming abstract

for some reason I keep envisioning these cotton sling chairs on a lake house deck

Todos Santos chair

Soapstone jars

Sun Princess mirror

In addition to some great stuff for the home, Novica also offers beautiful jewelry and accessories for men and women from all over the world.

cufflinks
mens scarves
womens scarves