Oak Street Vintage Plant Pots

Hi All! Well the weekend is upon us and some of you might be looking forward to time in your garden. Ours is going gonzo with zucchinis and the tomatoes are kickin' in. Mr. Monkey tends to the outdoor plants while my job is to tend to the indoor plants. With the remodel I needed to find some house plant pot that would better suit our decor. Wouldn't you know it? Oak Street Vintage saves the day once again. Both of these vintage pots were $15 bucks each - a complete deal as far as I'm concerned! Now I just actually need to get some dirt in them so the plants are not sinking below and looking so very sad. I know that vintage stores are not your usual destinations for plant and gardening supplies but you might check yours out if you're not in the Eugene area. If you are in the Eugene area probably Oak Street Vintage has what your looking for. Happy Friday!

Knoll Handkerchief Stacking Chair

I hope you're all enjoying some great summer days. We're enjoying the benefits of summer in the Willamette Valley, mostly good wine and veggies galore from our garden, other people's gardens, and farmer's markets. This spring we also benefitted from Craigslist! We picked up these Knoll stacking handkerchief chairs in the tiny Oregon town of Azalea! They were red and faded because they had been used as outdoor chairs. But with a little spray paint these puppies cleaned right up and I couldn't be happier with them. They're super comfortable and easy to clean. The Danish table we got from Hawthorne Vintage up in Portland. The other 2 chairs were from St. Vincent's and with some spray paint and new fabric for the seats they cleaned up nicely as well (before pictures below). You can see the Flor tiles that we got from Modern about 3 years ago (past blog posts about Modern and Flor). Before the remodel the Flor tiles were the runner in the hallway but now they help to define our dining area. In the background you can also see how great the floor and door trim turned out thanks to David Schmitz, AIA (Engage Architecture) and Jonathan Plummer (Bunchberry Woodworking)! Having an actual dining room table has me actually looking forward to winter dinners and card games - but I don't want to wish away this sunshine and warmth.  I'm gonna go eat some sun-warmed blackberries that are creeping through from our neighbor's yard now. . .

Frank LLoyd Wright: St. Louis

 The Taste of Wright is happening this weekend at the Gordon House here in Oregon. We won't be able to make it this year. You can see pictures here and here (interior kitchen shots) from our visit last year. But I did make it to a new FLW house this past Spring in St. Louis. I was on my  way to the airport from a work meeting and wouldn't you know there just happened to be an FLW house about 30 minutes from the airport. So close I had to call and see if I could be there for the Sunday afternoon tour before my flight out of town. The tours of the Ebsworth Park Home are by reservation only and they only accept 10 people at a time. Lucky for me they had one spot left on the tour! Here are some pictures I took inside the Kraus House. Technically indoor pictures are not allowed but as long as you used a flash and didn't take the picture in front of the docent it seemed to be just fine. So my interior pictures are blurry and technically do not exist. Got it? (wink wink) The docents were a lovely retired couple. The gentleman had been an architect himself and had met FLW several times which added a very personal touch to the tour. I won't go into detail here because I don't want to get the facts wrong, but the basics are that the house was built on the concept of a parallelogram. The house then is shaped like two parallelograms slid together and many of the angles in the house are quite severe and include nontraditional shapes of drawers and beds. It took about a decade to build because no one in St. Louis had built a house like this before and most builders were nervous about taking on such a project. It sounded as though every single change in the house over the years was approved by Mr. Wright and his apprentices and so it remains a fine example of the Usonian type of home that Mr. Wright created. If you're in the St. Louis area, it's only 10 dollars and is so great to be in such a remarkable and well loved little building. If you're in Oregon this weekend you can go to the Gordon House for the celebration or come to Eugene for the Whitaker Block Party, both of which will be scrumptious summer events!

Curtains: IKEA Saved the Day!

The Final Scene (for now . . .)

I searched and I searched, I drove and I drove and in the end IKEA won and I won.

Crazy gauzy stuff, that is your iron on hemm from IKEA

I made a fold at the desired length, placed the iron on stick-um and folded the fabric over it.

The iron, the fold, and the scissors

The naked window.

The Dignitet from IKEA, cool but best used in a wall stud.

The Dignitet installed, but because it's not in a wall stud it's already pulling away from the wall. Ick.

I was not sure about the blue, I thought it may too much, but it's working for me. 

The whole front wall, Crestview door included.

Rugs: Modern and Inexpensive?

 I've been on a mission for the proper living room rug. I gotta says it's been a challenge. First of all the room is an odd shape. Second, rugs are expensive! And since all our money is blown on the construction there's not much change in the purse to buy the decoratives. So in these pics I've got 2 rugs. The first I really enjoyed when I saw it at IKEA. Enough to go back buy it, place it in our room, realize it was too small and then take it back! The second rug is a little bigger which is good and I love the color but the size is still not ideal. I got it from TJ Maxx for a great price and it is really working in the space right now. I need to get a detail shot of it because it's a rug with ridges and grooves in a cool geometric pattern. The color is also great because it pulls in the Jay Ryan print from the other side of the room seen HERE and here. We still have yet to hang art and I've finally got curtains up (that will be another post). But all in all things are getting put back in their proper places - including my fave Heywood Wakefield Lounger, Ottoman, and the Blue Modernica Eames rocking chair - deep sigh of contentment.

Window and Door Trim: Modern Organic

Life is busy these days so I'll keep it brief. Here's our front door without any trim. After some discussion David Schmitz, AIA directed us to go in a less conventional direction. You can check out the trim on the windows below. We kept it continuous with the hallway doors as well. David plus Jonathan at Bunchberry woodworking built us a new hallway closet door to also keep to look consistent. It was a little extra cost at the end but well worth. This is a design piece that we really didn't think of until the very end. It took a few extra weeks to get it all installed but it's looking great and the trim really makes the whole place feel finished. The trim seems minor but without it the whole remodel would have looked either incomplete or simply an after thought. It was indeed an afterthought but thanks to David's smart thinking it looks like it was always a part of the plan.

Modernica Bar Stools: Eames Wire Chair

Well here they are. . . after many days of going back and forth about whether to buy something inexpensive to just meet the need or to spend the money on that which would fit the space exactly we went for the later. Now having had these lovely Modernica Eames wire bar stools for the last month or so I have to say I'm very happy with that choice. We couldn't really shell out the cash to buy 4-5 of these stools but the two are working for us for right now. Mr. Monkey was adamant about finding bar stools with a full back. He did not want a demi-back bar stool. This substantial stool supports our lounging over dinner and drinks for hours and so let it be known Mr. Monkey was right on this one.

I was so excited I took a picture of the boxes they came in!

As a part of this purchase we debated the wether to wait and find vintage stools. This proved to be challenging because Eames vintage bar stools do not come around very often. We looked at some really gorgeous Danish Teak with black leather bar stools at Oak St. Vintage (they're still there in case you're wondering) but they turned out to be counter height (24 inches or so) and not bar height (30 inches or so) which is what we were looking for. Another more patient furniture lover might have waited and searched for just the right bar stools but once I saw these beauties I knew they would be just right. By the time Fall rolls around we hope to be able to buy two more. I'm still having one debate though. Should I stick with the Eames wire chair or should we add 2 Eames shell chairs in oatmeal with the same legs?