Lonny Magazine

We read about Lonny Mag on the blog, Black Eiffel. It's an online decor and fashion mag. David and I loved the masculine look of this New York apartment, owned by Ron Marvin, a former visual merchandiser from William Sonoma Home:

Love the blue-gray wall color and how the colors of the wood and linens pop.


David loves the look of the desk and chair and I loved the grasscloth wallpaper


Again that blue-gray wall!


We love the striped wall (paint not wallpaper) and how even though it's dark, the bathroom looks clean and calming.

photos by Patrick Cline

Dwell in the Possibilities

To quench our insatiable thirst for design, we went to the Dwell show in LA. I got in for free with my student ID, but David had to pay $25 bucks.

The entrance to the Los Angeles Convention Center.


A foam fabric sculpture that you can build yourself to decorate your home - looks cool, but all I can think about is how dusty the thing will get.


Artist on site creating wall murals.


A colorful array of bowls set in wood.


We loved these African woven bowls.


My Tesla boys checking out the orange hot wheels.


My dream green home made by a company in Austin.


It was modern, rustic and exotic.


My modern boys checking out the scene.


Alex future modern tree house - Opa can you build this for us?


Alex admiring the retro fabrics on these floor cushions.


My favorite lamp at the show.

Since we were already in LA we thought we'd hop on to the 110 and take it up to Pasadena.

This was taken at the shops on Colorado Boulevard.

Heaven's Delight

David's Strawberry, Banana, and Chocolate crepe!

David and I are always on the hunt for something new and creative in the OC, so we were thrilled to stumble upon two desert places called Heaven's Delight (Bolsa & Brookurst) and Yummy Yo (Westminster & Brookurst). On my birthday, David took me to Heaven's Delight for breakfast for freshly made crepes. Mylan, the owner and my new friend makes them so delicious you think you've died and gone to heaven.

Another place I ran into was a frozen yogurt joint Yummy Yo - their frozen treat was a little too sweet for my taste buds, but their girlie store design made me feel like I was in a Parisian parlor.


Yummy Yo interior

post by Armilyn

Thomas O’Brien

One of our favorite designers is Thomas O’Brien. He has a clean, masculine style that combines modern and classic styles into a fresh look that appeals to men and women. He has a line of housewares at Target called Vintage Modern as well as very high-end tableware and select furniture at Bloomingdale’s, as well as collections for Hickory Chair, Waterworks, Visual Comfort, and finally his uber-store, Aero, in Soho, NYC. Here is a link to a pdf download about Aero.





images from Apartment Therapy

Here is an interview I found on youtube:



The video appears to be a few years old, as the store looks like the previous location and the apartment with the glass dome was completed some years ago. Here is a link to a pdf from his website that shows you the entire stunning apartment. (About a 1mb download) The wood paneled, circular room is the one with the dome. I would kill for that awesome oak pool table with taupe felt!

by David

Seattle Public Library

Back in 2005, we visited Seattle. One of the things I wanted to see was the brand new Seattle Public Library.

picture from AIA



Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) designed the library. As you can see, the library is very modern, and while the design team later reluctantly admitted to having a "style," Joshua Prince Ramus (former head of OMA’s US office) explains the rationale in this video.

We visited the library on our first day and were lucky enough to get a free public architecture tour.


The librarian desk and Reading Room


Reading in the Reading Room (really)


Overhead view of the Reading Room


Red stairs leading to meeting room level


The Red meeting room level





That chair is made from the same spongy stuff as a Nerf ball


Upper level Mixing Chamber

Unfortunately I couldn’t get accurate pictures of the main part the library, which is the Book Spiral. Essentially following the same principal as a parking garage, the Spiral allows the library to store their collection on one "level" so they don’t have to break up the Dewey Decimal system. In other libraries, because of space, collections usually need to be split. In the Spiral that never will happen.

We loved the openess of the building and the natural light that the glass exterior lets drift in. It was a risky move for the city to go forward with such a modern, almost brutal design, but once you are inside, you forget about that and just enjoy the atmosphere.

More about Seattle soon.

post by David