OLD BRAND NEW

SUNDAY WITH BEATRICE

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Sun, 27 May 2012 18:47:00 +0000

WEEKEND JUKEBOX | BEACH HOUSE

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Sun, 27 May 2012 18:46:00 +0000

MARGARET

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:42:00 +0000

I caught up with the hilarious Margaret yesterday about wedding stuff and her upcoming trip to Israel. We inhaled some sweets at Jones on 3rd. Isn't her new wood cube necklace from Homako just lovely?! Want. Now!

I've been away working on new stuff for the shop. Still ironing out the kinks. The shop's been dormant for months so I can't wait to have goodies in it again. It's gonna be a long weekend of work for me. Have a fun weekend!

And how do you feel about this NY TIMES article regarding over styling or over propping? I can't help but feel like they're talking about me. Eek!

Featured // iGNANT // Hello, Splendor design duel

FLEETING MOMENTS

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:23:00 +0000

SUNDAY WITH BEATRICE

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Sun, 20 May 2012 08:31:00 +0000

INFINITY BEGINS

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:17:00 +0000

Over the weekend, us LA bunnies got a head start on summer. My sweetest girlfriend, JenLi hosted her first infinity splash of the year at her aunty's. She's the silly one prancing around in my rainbow Birkies. You might remember this jaw-dropping place from not too long ago over here. It's freaken amazing and I still can't seem to articulate the overwhelming feeling I get when I'm there. It's like I'm swimming in one of David Hockney's paintings. It was a much needed r&r with old and new friends. There will be more of these crazy shots once summer rolls along, that's if I don't move to New York! More on that later.

SUNDAY WITH BEATRICE

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Sun, 13 May 2012 20:35:00 +0000

Bea's mother is somewhere out there beneath the bright sunlight.

FRIDAYGRAM

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:50:00 +0000

I had a black & white week on instagram. You can find me @dabito.

If you're in LA this weekend, go check out this fun musical called EDGES. It will definitely lift your spirits up. It's exactly what I needed last weekend after some mishappenings. Thanks to my squirrel friend, Joseph for taking me to it!

Watched Paris, Je T'aime again last weekend and that last short directed by Alexander Payne featuring Margo Martindale is still my favorite. I also can't stop singing "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye."

I'm so happy you guys enjoyed Helen + Garson's home. Thanks for all the lovely comments. More tours to come!

That's it about it. Rose Bowl flea market on Sunday, guyals! Have a sweet weekend!

HELEN + GARSON'S HERTFORDSHIRE HOME

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:29:00 +0000

Photography by Garson Byer and Helen Yuet Ling Pang

This beautiful Hertfordshire home belongs to Helen and Garson. I met the talented Helen Yuet Ling Pang through Instagram (@foodieguide). And I'm often scrolling and drooling over her delicious instagram photos around two in the morning before going to bed. When she posted a few photos of her home, my jaw dropped so I couldn't resist asking her to do a home tour for Old Brand New. I love everything about their refined aesthetic. I love the textured wallpaper. The huge windows are ridiculously gorgeous. And don't even get me started on all their covetable teak pieces. Everything in their home feels carefully chosen and cherished. Their home is serene and exudes good feng shui. All photos are by Garson and Helen, taken with a Leica M8.2. Their photos make me feel like I was actually there hopping around the house with them and their two darling cats, Molly and Benny.

Anyway, let's roll along to their delightful story. Take it away, Helen! —

We moved a few years ago from leafy Highgate in north London to this beautiful, unique house in a medieval market town outside London. We chose the house, rather than the town, because of the attached lake, secluded location and unusual architectural features. It's just one of a few houses built in 1974 around a small lake which used to be a fishing club, so there are still many giant carp lurking in the water. Hardly anyone in the town knows about these houses as we are on a small private road and delivery people are always confused because the only way to enter the front of the house is via the lake! The entrance is through our back garden, so it's a sort of 'back to front' house. There are quirky rules in the house deeds, such as using only one fishing rod per household at any one time, one rowing boat per household at any one time, and having to maintain a minimum of 22 ducks on the lake. Every spring, we hope for plenty of ducklings!

The living room has wooden ceiling beams and an exposed brick wall with a small fireplace, making it very cosy in the winter. There are still a few original features, including beautiful textured wallpaper in the living room, a little gas heater, wooden wall panelling and the staircase leading up to the main bedroom. We already had some Mid-Century Modern Danish teak furniture, which looked even better in this house. Since moving here, we have bought more pieces, including a vintage teak planter where we grow herbs. We've collected more bits and pieces on our travels, and I like to display a few things around the house, such as a ceramic carafe and tea cups set from Spin Ceramics, Beijing, a vintage clock from Panjiayuan Market, Beijing, a Japanese condiments set from J Period in Omotesando Hills, Tokyo and my favourite Gotland curly sheepskin from Gothenburg, Sweden.

We're lucky to have one home office each, and our styles are quite different. Garson is a collector and so he likes to display his jazz and Brazilian vinyl and CDs, whereas I like to organise my books in a certain way. Our cats Benny and Molly also enjoy living here (Benny was born two doors down and his family still live there!). There's plenty of space for them to play outside, and indoors they have their favourite sleeping spaces, rotating between all the rooms. It's a lovely home for entertaining, particularly in the summer time when we can eat outside in the garden and have a barbecue. It's probably the best home I've ever lived in and our neighbours must feel the same way as they have lived here ever since the houses were built!

I'm a film examiner at the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) (which celebrates its centenary this year and is the equivalent of the MPAA). I love watching films, so it's ideal. I also wrote a food blog, World Foodie Guide, for a couple of years, but stopped when it became too time consuming, expensive and fattening! My husband does all the cooking at home but once in a while I'll try something out in the kitchen. As he's mostly vegetarian and eats fish only occasionally, I don't usually eat meat unless I go to a restaurant, but as a result, my diet is much healthier, and all I have to do is wash the dishes...

I always feel I'm on holiday when I'm at home and can spend days here without ever wanting to leave.

●△△

Now that's my kind of vacation! A really sweet thank you to Helen and Garson for inviting all of us into their handsome home.

FLEETING MOMENTS

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:31:00 +0000

I finally took out the Olympus Trip 35 for a play date. It's a fun little camera. I got the film developed at this Flintstones-age looking photo shop I drive by all the time on Beverly Blvd. Not the best scans and not as cheap as I would like, but it was done in an hour.

And I have something really exciting to share with you all tomorrow. It'll be an exclusive home tour from a new pal of mine from the UK featuring some fierce felines. It's gah-mazing so I can't wait!

SUNDAY WITH BEATRICE

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:42:00 +0000

Beatrice knows that summer is just around the corner so she's been a little shedding monster around here. We just helped her brush off ten pounds of hair and now, she is ready to take summer by the beach balls!

WEEKEND JUKEBOX | CHROMATICS

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Sat, 05 May 2012 19:41:00 +0000

Chromatics' new record Kill For Love is seriously to kill for. All seventeen tracks are weekend jukebox worthy, perfect for driving aimlessly alone in the city in the cool summer nights or with a surreptitious, summer lover. Oh hey! This is haunting cover of Neil Young's "Into the Black."

VSCO CAM

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:18:00 +0000

Top three photos from iPhone 4 using VSCO Cam filter 4 and 5

VSCO Cam is a new iPhone app from Visual Supply Co (VSCO) and it's my new favorite thing. It's a scaled down iPhone version of their film presets for Lightroom which I highly recommend getting as well. I use it for all my digital photos.

I got VSCO Cam over the weekend after seeing a good number of people using it on Instagram. There are 10 filters to choose from. Three black & white and the other seven has different colors & contrasts. And if you really want to go more into processing, you can add more grain if you like, bump up the saturation, temperature and more. It's like a mini Lightroom on your iPhone! I love it. It gives the photos a subtle, film-like quality to it. So far, my favorite filters are 1, 4, and 5. The only gripe I have with this app is I wish there was a way to select a batch of photos to import instead of one photo at a time. Otherwise, best 99 cents spent!

Left : Raw photo / Right : VSCO CAM filter 4

And check this out, I even tried it on a photo from my Canon Rebel w/ 50mm f/1.4 lens. If you want a quick and cheap way to edit your photos from your digital cameras, here's a trick you can use. Email the photo to yourself. Open and save it from your iPhone. Then, import it into your VSCO Cam app. Apply the filter you want and bam! So easy and so much better, right? Robot Lilliput is juicier now. You can email it back to yourself and then upload it to your blog or website and done. Try it and tell me what you think!

SUNDAY WITH BEATRICE

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 18:47:00 +0000

WEEKEND JUKEBOX | COCTEAU TWINS

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 19:55:00 +0000

KITCHEN CONCOCTIONS : GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:26:00 +0000

Grilled french onions, grilled cheddar and havarti cheeses, with a hidden poached egg. I'm eating this all weekend. Enjoy, guyals!

CHICKEN COOP

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:55:00 +0000

I wonder what happened to the chickens I used to have running around in our backyard when I was 12. I remember vividly that the roosters were very vicious. They came after me every morning when I left for school. I had to use a stick to whack those bastards away. I still remember my favorite one was called Brownie. Poor Brownie probably got mawed by a cat or something. Anyway, these photos were taken from my friend, Meredyth's home. She has a chicken coop with nine chickens. Each of them has a fun name. My favorite of them all is Olivia Newton-John. What a diva.

THE COLOR RUN

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:38:00 +0000

The Color Run was so much fun! There were people of all ages, kids, babies in strollers, and even dogs getting all colorful. We called ourselves Team Bunnies. We hopped and skipped the entire way. 5k is nothing so we didn't even break a sweat. I'll definitely do it again. Check their site to see if it's happening in your city! And isn't that doggy with the goggles just about the cutest thing ever?

SUNDAY WITH BEATRICE

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 12:44:00 +0000

HAPPY FRIDAY!

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:47:00 +0000

Last weekend I went to Disneyland for the first time in 11 years and I had a blast. I went with my childhood friend and we celebrated our birthdays together. Disneyland is still a very happy place. I finally got to see California Adventure and World of Color which was amazing! And speaking of color, I'm doing the Color Run on Sunday. It's gonna be crazy fun. I can't wait to take tons of colorful photos to share with you. And that's all. I wanna thank you for the home tour love on Apartment Therapy. You're too sweet. Have a super weekend!

OLD BRAND NEW on APARTMENT THERAPY

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:43:00 +0000

Photo by Marcia Prentice

Hey guys! I'm so excited to share with you all my home tour on Apartment Therapy! AT has been a huge inspiration for me since 2004, so I'm beyond thrilled to have my home featured with the other awesome home dwellers and vintage vultures! Thanks, Marcia for the awesome photos!

HARP CHAIR

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:40:00 +0000

This is happening, guys! The harp chair I've been drooling over forever is finally mine! Well, it actually belongs to a lovely friend but he's getting ready to move to the east. Since he knows how much I love sculptural pieces, he wants me to keep it for him till he returns, which I'm counting on never! *evil laughs* The chair is from Anthropologie from a few years ago. It's obviously a ripoff of Jørgen Høvelskov's Harp Chair from the 60s. It's still gorgeous and it's surprisingly more comfortable than it looks. It's like half harp and half praying mantis which is perfect for all my plants. My living room is now complete!

SUNDAY WITH BEATRICE

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 14:57:00 +0000

WEEKEND JUKEBOX | RUFUS WAINWRIGHT

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 20:13:00 +0000

HAPPY FRIDAY FINDS!

noreply@blogger.com (OLD BRAND NEW) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 07:48:00 +0000

New lamp in the bedroom. Also found a basket for a dollar. My home is almost home tour ready!

Man, I'm so bummed I can't make it to Coachella. The line up is wicked awesome this year. Mazzy Star! Dangit! I've been to Coachella twice and it was a wonderful experience being surrounded by all that great sound. It's way more mellow than what people think.

Alright, that's it. Have a fabulous weekend, my vintage vultures!

+ Splendid photography blog, Hong-an Tran
+ Happy Birthday, Jennifer! Love my Aries babies.
+ Beautiful home designed by Architect Bo Cederlöf