Hey! Who loves a sale?

It’s Spring and Mother’s Day is coming up and taxes are over so why not have a sale? I’m offering 25% off on everything in the CAMP SHOP with the code SAVE25. There are some new weaving’s and I’m looking at maybe adding some vintage turquoise jewelry if anyone’s interested in that sort of thing.

I’ve been trying to weave some different shapes and sizes to fit in all those odd nooks and crannies around the house. I know above my fireplace is a strangely laid out spot and I’ve been making some horizontal weaving’s specifically for areas like that. Is the horizontal layout of interest? I kind of enjoy doing them even though my looms aren’t really made for it.

Anyway, head on over to the CAMP SHOP if you feel like it and enter code SAVE25 at checkout to save 25% on anything in the shop that strikes your fancy. As always, there is free US shipping on everything and you can contact me for reasonable international shipping quotes.

I’m always on the hunt for a good gray duvet and had been using a discontinued gray linen one from MUJI for a good long while. But the need is always strong and when I saw the IKEA ÄNGSLILJA I was intrigued but cautious.

I wanted to check it out in person before ordering it online and made the trek to Ikea and was pleasantly surprised. I liked it a ton more in real life than the Ikea promo photos and grabbed myself the queen duvet.

I’ve had it for some time now and can say its impressed me for Ikea textiles and the price is pretty great for the quality. I do hate the crappy plastic snaps on the bottom and would have preferred a zipper, but I do like the material and the sewn edge detail. So, all in all if you’re on the hunt for an affordable gray duvet, this IKEA ÄNGSLILJA ain’t a bad option.

*It’s also Bea approved.

Hello from the dead.

This is still a blog right? Right. Sort of. Kind of.

Not much has been happening around the house, but I’ll try and update about a few random things. Like what? Well maybe you recall my obsession with all things vintage fiber art.

Anyway.

I took up weaving awhile ago and have been obsessed with it. If you’ve followed along on my Instagram you might have noticed.

I’ve been inspired by the texture, scale and palette of the mid century weavers whose work I admire and collected and gather a lot of my material from thrift stores and vintage sources. I prefer weaving with natural and utilitarian materials and like the limited nature of using vintage dye lots

I’ve been weaving all sorts of different sizes and shapes, from very small mini weaving’s to monumental pieces and I’m interested in going even larger and trying out new methods of weaving besides the frame loom.

So, I taught myself weaving through online tutorials and good old trial and lots and lots of failure. It took a long time before I felt comfortable and now I’m beyond obsessed with the actual practice and all the techniques and materials that go along with it. It reminds me a lot of being in art school and painting and how obsessive I would get with paint and technique – but this has been so much more fun and freeing in a certain way. I love the texture and abstract nature and the distinct feel of the fiber.

This may have been a bit of a weird topic to return to the blog on, but its been the main thing I’ve been doing for the last long while and the one thing I’m really in love with. The house is officially overrun with fibers, both vintage and new, and there’s no sign of that stopping.

So, like revealing anything creative you’ve been working on out into the larger internet world I sure hope this isn’t a total disaster. I know they aren’t about the house but I love doing them and it’s been going pretty well. If you’d like to see more, I have some pieces available in the CAMP Provisions Shop

I also have been doing some commission work and have a few spots open if there is a particular size or colorway you’re interested in. Just drop me an email to get details.

So HELLO again. Maybe a landscape update is due.

Hello stranger.

It feels like forever since we last chatted, but I’m so glad we have a chance to catch up. Hmmm? Whats new?

BOOM.

Landscape.

WE FINALLY DID THIS SHIT.

After years of procrastination, a few false starts and multiple plans, we finally got it together enough to rip out the grass (aka weeds) and put in something low maintenance and much more drought friendly. In case you hadn’t heard, California is basically drying up and turning to dust and is desperate for people to conserve what little water is left. We applied for a residential turf removal rebate through SoCal Water$mart which is a super great program. It was easy to apply and we ended up receiving $2 a square foot to install a California friendly landscape. If you’re in SoCal, do it. Then you’ll enjoy felling superior and judging every neighbor who still has grass while you have a sweet new landscape and a nice check from the government because of it.

So lets time travel to those long ago days of 2011-ish to see what the landscape was looking like…

BEFORE

Blah.

Screw you weedy problematic grass. You were the worst and such a pain in the ass to rip out by hand. I never want to look at another action hoe again.

What did things look like during the whole landscaping process? Basically? Horrible.

This is about the only photo I have during the process. It took us about four months to rip out the grass, level the yard and plant the first few tiny plants. Since we were doing this DIY style and only a few sections at a time, for many many months it looked like the crazy random cactus dirt yard and neighbors gave us the stink eye or would bring by a random pity cactus or two. I swore I had a plan! These things take time!

We ended up doing everything ourselves and as low cost as possible, like hand shoveling 15 tons of DG that we would buy and transport in our truck  one half load at a time or grabbing any sizable rock that we saw on the side of the road in a dirt field. FYI – rocks are crazy heavy and those nice big landscape boulders are crazy expensive to buy and get delivered – so the size of the rocks throughout the landscape represent the maximum amount we could physically lift.

Rocks. You bastards.

Overall things stayed terrible looking for the next six months as we added more plants plus our “found” rocks and section by section of a finishing layer of “Palm Springs Gold” decomposed granite (aka DG).

About a year later and here things are.

The plants are still growing and haven’t reached their mature sizes and we’ve been adding a few plants or propagate succulents here and there to start the process of filling things in. We still need to install the walkway from the front door to the street/mailbox, so excuse the random looking empty area in the middle. I’m working on it. You know…this thing is a process?

Well, the above Palo Verde was basically a stick with three leaves when we bought it from a landscape guy for $20. We planned on planting three Desert Museum Palo Verdes to create an overall sparse canopy in front of the house, but turns out its surprisingly hard to find these locally and they would range in price from $60 to over $400. So this scraggly boy grew up and turned out not to be a Desert Museum. Whoops. But we do have two DM’s we found at an out of the way Home Depot which hopefully all will blend in well together.

Hedgehog Agave, found at the most shameful of all places, WalMart, for $6. I love these things and couldn’t find them anywhere else and ended up buying their entire stock of like seven plants. I want more and now they are a ghost who never gets restocked. Gone but not forgotten.

Those before mentioned Desert Museum Palo Verde’s had their first bloom. So pretty.

Get bigger you jerks.

Artichoke Agave, it combines my two favorite things – artichokes and indestructible plants.  It grows soooooo slow, but we randomly found a few at Lowes in the houseplant section for $17. I keep looking for more but they are always pretty pricey when I find them.

Mexican Feather Grass, oh no! People hate it because it is invasive, people love it because it looks amazing and needs very little water or maintenance. I’m on the love side for my local environment and found it actually very difficult to get established. Its so dry and hot here that the little baby grasses we would plant tended to shrivel up into crispy brown tumbleweeds. FYI – Lowes has a great dead plant return policy. We used it liberally.

It’s been about a year and some are still randomly small. I don’t know why since plants are a frustrating mystery. I keep hoping some seedlings might pop up in our neighbors random weed & trash yards, but so far no luck. We can’t even get them to grow little volunteers in our yard. I guess if your climate is less of a hard baked waterless hellhole like mine, these things might be pretty invasive.

Yes, there are so very many Blue Agave’s scattered throughout. We found this local wholesale nursery that the guys at the DG yard told us about, it has no name, its all cash and it has lots of Agaves for $10. I’ve found that these do really well in our terrible soil and horrible climate. They hurt to plant and will give you a poke once in awhile, but they are super low maintenance and now survive on rainwater. One problem is that they make tons of babies. I pull some of the babies off and plant them, some I put in pots, and some I throw into our compost.

Maybe we will make tequila with them some day.

We have more feather grass along the driveway to help soften things up and disguise the ugly fence. Its the one thing the neighbors seem to approve of. Otherwise, everyone seems to disapprove or are pretty weary of all the cactus everywhere. I kind of enjoy threatening looking plants, less random weirdos wander up to the house and kids don’t ride their bikes across our front yard as much as they used to.

So yeah.

We finally did something with the yard.

We also fixed up the side yard, but have a few projects to finish back there that I’ll post about later. It will take some time for things to fill in and we still have to add the steps for the walkway and some more plants, but the landscape is basically installed. I decided to go for a more asymmetric and natural desert scape planting style to balance and soften all the hard geometric lines of the house. We kept the cost way down by doing it ourselves over a longer timeline and sourcing out affordable small plants and materials. We ended up spending about $1500 to landscape over 3000 sq.ft of our property and with the turf removal rebate came out way ahead of covering the cost for the entire project.

At first we watered the plants a few times a week to help get them established, but now, around a year later, we only need to water once a month during the hottest parts of the summer and then not at all during the rest of the year. I’m really happy with how easy everything is to maintain and am looking forward to see how it all will grow out and eventually mature (which is going to take forever).

FYI – cactus grows real slow even if you’re not real patient.

One problematic quirk of this ‘ol brick house which isn’t always apparent despite some bold ugliness and a real talent for causing deep boiling frustration inside me. Hey wait, is it that awkward looking ceiling medallion?

Nope.

Well, sort of.

Nightmare. Electrical. Ceiling. Boxes.

Roughly carved into every ceiling, these 14″ square holes of wires and chaos forever need to be concealed when installing any hardwired light fixture around the house. Lacking any sort of clever or modern option to cover these monster holes, I’ve always grabbed the cheapest and least gaudy ceiling medallion available. Afterwards I’ve tried to ignore how much I hate them and the way they look. Stupid medallions.

So, after five years of endless light fixture swapping, hoarding and medallion tolerating all I wanted was to be free of clutter and simplify down to the basics. This need to minimize down to the simplest base of form and function was how I eventually built the Simple Light. So now that the simple light is being installed throughout the house We need a simple medallion to match. So?

DIY TIME.

DIY MINIMALIST CEILING MEDALLION

Simply a minimal plywood circle for covering up your holes, you know, modernly.

MATERIALS

Drill + Wood Drill Bit
Tape Measure
Pen / Pencil
16″ Birch Plywood Disc
ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape

HOW TO

1. Find and mark the center of the circle. (Here is a guide)

* I used 12″ strips of ScotchBlue Painter’s Tapeto figure out the center points (aka 6″) of the two sides of the circle. Using that 6″ mark as a guide, I taped two straight lines across the middle of the circle. Where the two tape lines cross is the center point!

2. Drill a center hole through the plywood disc that is large enough to easily accommodate lamp wire or your particular light fixture.

* TIP: apply ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape over the spot you plan to drill through and then drill through the tape. The tape makes it easy to drill a clean smooth edge hole and will stop any splintering.

3. Depending on how your fixture installs, thread the lamp wire or fixture body through the new smooth drilled hole.

4. Install it all up!

I ended up taking the white lamp down and installed a brass one. Why? ‘Cause I’m fickle. I don’t know.

Depending on your fixture and how it installs, you can attach this medallion like most others. I installed these lights per their normal method, but added the medallion by threading the pipe nipple through the center hole and then twisting it into the fixture bracket until everything was tight and flush.

Overall? DIY Medallion? Success.

Modern, minimal, easy and super cheap to do. Simplify covering up ugly holes without making a big fuss about it. So, heads up other lamps around the house, looks like its updated medallion time for you crazy weirdos.

This post is a collaboration with ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape. To join the creative community, visit the ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape Facebook Page, tweet us via th ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape Twitter Page or get inspired by the ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape Pinterest Page.

Howdy strangers.

No excuses. No explanations. No blogging.

Mostly there’s been nothing interesting house project-wise to share with everyone, so I’ve made an effort to quell the rampant onslaught of self promotion type posts that were piling up around here and boring folks. Lacking for much else content-wise, summer conveniently looked like a good time to log off to focus on work and all sorts of things that remain dully unbloggable.

FYI, Google Reader shut down like a jerk and destroyed the only way I kept abreast of things. So I’ve assumed everyone has stopped blogging.

As of now?

Things are busy and chug-chug-chugging along. The house is full of boxes stacked on top of towers of more boxes stuffed with some other boxes. Sometimes I run into a small herd of roaming dogs in the chaos. Mostly everything looks like crap all the time. I need a work space, i need some help, this website needs a gut overhaul and maybe we need to find a new house.

NBD.

So hello again.

I’ve got some diy and other posts lined up for the future and maybe they are good? Who knows, I’m pretty rusty at this crap. Also, I need to catch up on wee bit of self promotion here and there. Apologies in advance. Like now.

Sorry.

Hey.

A limited batch of leather + brass hex pulls as well as a few of the new white Simple Light are now available in the CAMP shop. They’re really nice. Just like your face.

I recently got to team back up with The Animal Print Shop to design a bright and cozy nursery for photographers Max and Margaux Wanger and their adorably spunky new baby boy Dash. This marks the second addition to The Animal Print Nursery Project (previous nursery is right over here) and was inspired by this equally spunky and newly released Baby Elephant print as well as the Wanger’s modern style and charming vintage Los Angeles home.

I bet a pretty cool baby kicks it here.

Design-wise, this wee little room had a bit of a quirky layout that was super tight on space but packed full of great vintage architectural details. I wanted the nurseries layout to be functional for the family and baby Dash’s day to day baby needs, but also adaptable enough to eventually smoothly transition as Dash gets older and his needs change. Big basics like the changing table / floating dresser, beautiful rocker and wall shelving are minimally modern enough to remain looking stylishly age appropriate for years to come but are currently a perfect and functional backdrop for the rest of the rooms cheeky and unexpectedly colorful accessories that any baby, that enjoys style and bright unique handmade things, thoroughly adores.

Speaking of.

Perhaps you’d like to know what’s what and where to get some of the pieces seen here in this nursery for your own stylish baby? Well, lucky duck, look below for sources on the pieces I picked up to design out Dash’s stylish digs:

SOURCES

1. Crib and Changing Tray: Ouef
2.Chartreuse Tassel Garland: The Minimalist
3. Baby Elephant Art (available in 5 sizes–here in 30″x40″): The Animal Print Shop
4. Neon Edge Blanket: The Minimalist 
5. Circle Pillow: The Minimalist
6. Brass Swing Arm Lamp: OneFortyThree
7. Whale Pillow: Ferm Living
8. Rocking Chair: OneFortyThree
9. Floating Storage: See Fauxdenza DIY here (we used 24″ depth)
10. Sheets: Little Auggie
11. Curtains (hand stamped with black triangle pattern): Ikea 
12. Eames hang-it-all with a yellow paint update.

*Other accessories include a custom made wood facet mobile by OneFortyThree, leather and brass cabinet pulls from CAMP, Ikea picture ledges, white MODIKIN eames elephant and faux sheepskin rug via ebay.

BABY ELEPHANT, yo.

Extra thanks abound to Max and Margaux for trusting me with the design of someplace special for such an important little guy, The Minimalist, Oeuf, OneFortyThree for their incredible product contributions and endless support, but especially to Sharon Montrose and The Animal Print Shop for always making magic happen.

Hey there. What. Up.

Short story? Things got busy and the house and blog suffered some major neglect. Hiatuses happen or whatever. Now slowly I’m reintegrating into interwebbing and thought a nice way to kick off and refresh some of my old time renovation vigor and determination was to show off a smattering of this incredible renovation project & blog happening in Finland.

I mean.

Quit it now with all your modernist architecture and good things.

Anyways, a few weeks back I received a super sweet and undeservedly flattering email from longtime Brick House reader Pekka Kumpula (Finnish industrial designer/modernism fan/vintage collector) and his partner Minna (plus their adorable dachshund and baby girl) that included a few teaser images of their 1960’s modernist home renovation project and a link to Olive Green Window, their blog that chronicles it all. The blog also has a few great vintage restoration tips and tutorials along with all sorts of modernist furniture eye candy. So obviously go check it out to see more of this sassy home and then quickly mark their blog as one of your new go-to favorite things.

Oh, and all the Cherner. Come to me.

Hey now. Look at that updated living room.

As mentioned earlier I’ve been working on a painting project with Sherwin-Williams for National Painting Week. Most of the time my taste and the house leans towards a pretty predictably neutral (aka browntown), so when it came time to add a bit of orange to the mix I wanted it to be BOLDLY orange and therefore decided on Sherwin Williams ‘Raucous Orange‘.

DIY ART  |   MINIMALIST PAINTED FRAME

Art ain’t easy, but hey, at least this project is.

Materials

– Basic White Frame  >  these are from Target, but Ikea and many others have similar options.

– Paint  >  as mentioned this is Sherwin Williams ‘Raucous Orange‘

– Art  >  I used a couple black & white minimalism inspired pieces I printed out at home.

– Sponge Brush / Fine Paint Brush

– Painters Tape

On the mantel is a larger framed piece painted symmetrically about 3/4 of the way around while the smaller framed piece leaned on the fauxdenza is painted asymmetrically for an unexpected hit of color.

How To

– Decide where the painted detail begins and ends on the frame.

– Wrap a piece of painters tape straightly and evenly around the front and side of the frame.

– Use a sponge brush / fine paint brush to apply paint evenly on the front and side of the frame.

– Do a few coats for even coverage.

– Remove the tape and call it a day.

Hey now. A bit of graphic color makes a difference.

I’ve been messing around with a bunch of DIY art type projects and it’s been difficult to get something going that doesn’t look too ‘DIY’ or actually adds to a space in a positive way. The addition of some unexpected color and an unusual composition painted onto the frame turned out to be a nice twist to an old idea and keeps things modern amongst all the vintage. Minimal and bold, easy and budget friendly art for anyone who – like me – is also stuck in browntown. Color it up!

Check out some more orange themed paint action over at Design Crush and look out for some red/pink projects tomorrow on  Vintage Revivals & Style By Emily Henderson. Paint it up!

*This post sponsored by Sherwin-Williams. All photos and words are my own, yo.

Last year I partnered up with Sherwin-Williams to create a paint dipped + yellow themed project for their National Painting Week campaign. What project was that again? Here it is. Right over here.

Recently I’ve started to aggressively worry over random finishing details around the house like art and planters; probably since those things feel more manageable than say gutting and remodeling our awful bathrooms. So for this years SWNPW project I’ve been thinking about color details and unexpected product combos that make things that look great but are way more affordable than updating the kitchen or doing the landscaping.

Oh, you silly endless remodeling projects. How you haunt me.

Thursday I’ll post a couple DIY and orange themed ideas that might include something like *DIYing an architectural pottery style planter to replace the vintage planter + giant cactus stolen from your front porch (*Previewed and pictured above in some early experimental stage of ‘what if I added this to that and it did that or something’).

More details + more DIY later this week, yo.