What if you lived in a world where merely uttering a wish made it so? Like, “I wish I had the perfect iPhone case in brown suede with whip stitching.” My good friend and invaluable assistant (as well as crafting impresario), Todd Davis, made that happen. He took up the challenge. along with some scrap leather and poof… The iMoc (a sort of moccasin for your phone). Excuse me while I take this call. It’s the Partridge Family – they want their shoe back.
I respond to the cocktail umbrella as an object (I’m a sucker for a miniature), the fact that you can actually open and close them. But I’m also enamored of the way the paper plays with light. Then there’s the cocktail aspect, of course, which totally appeals to me on a “dessert as drink” level.
This wall treatment is a simple decor idea I came up with for The Land of Nod catalogue. It has impact but isn’t intended to last forever (tho I could see it looking great for a year or more – depending on how gently you dust). Temporary decor can be far more magical than something you’re committing to for the long haul. This concept is remarkably inexpensive and really easy to do. I used umbrellas in a variety of colors and two different sizes. I gently opened each one far enough that it popped slightly inside out. I then snipped the stem with garden sheers flush to the white collar. I balled a small piece of clear butyl tape, stuck it to the bottom of the collar and adhered the umbrella to the wall with enough pressure that it didn’t droop. I like the random overlapping pattern dense enough to obscure most of the wall.
Sometimes everything about a setting is perfect – as is. And simply recognizing this is the genius. This scenario down the street from my house: case in point. Chain me down before I throw a vintage sweater over a chair or slip a yellow Tonka truck into the background. Done.
Photography is light. Clouds control light on a scale surpassed only by the rotation of the earth. Beyond how light plays on the earth, the way light plays within the clouds is awe-inspiring.
These clouds were inspired by the ones hugging the mountains a few miles behind them. I wanted them to feel so close you could touch them and to have this model for our Garnet Hill Kids shoot reach up and do just that. Art director Jen Hannah guided the magic. I created the clouds. (Photo Dani Brubaker)
Thrifting as a verb did not exist when i started at age 8. I’d gleefully join my mother on her volunteer shift at a church thrift store. I was over the moon exploring every inch of the shop – desperate for that rush of finding something I couldn’t believe I’d found like a hand wind 8mm movie camera for fifty cents, a troll doll with rooted hair for a quarter, an aluminum Christmas tree with color wheel light for THREE DOLLARS…
Flash forward an undisclosed number of years to now. Thrifting is trendy and as a result much less fruitful or rewarding. That said, every now and then I’ll score something that evokes that panicky too good to be true feeling – these gorgeous mid century French cook and serve enamel nesting pans are a perfect example. SEVEN DOLLARS!
Driving through the urban sprawl that is the Inland Empire does not inspire confidence that the historic Mission Inn will be architecturally remarkable – which makes the revelation of the Riverside, California landmark nothing short of jaw-dropping. At the risk of sounding like a douche bag, entering the grounds of the hotel from Mission Inn Avenue is a bit like walking through a cheap ugly wardrobe into Narnia (if the Narnia sentence stays in the final version of this story please know my Ambien is not working). Oil paintings of the presidents who’ve stayed there line the lobby. And a stunning chapel boasts radiant floor to ceiling Tiffany stained glass windows. The complex, rambling edifice takes you from Spain to China in one city block. All without a body scan.
Leaving the house offers that defining moment of good hair day or bad. Or as I see it – good face day or not. Either way, the mirror providing the answer has to be a convincing liar OR pretty enough to be an effective distraction. Here are three I’ve designed – each hand crafted of different materials and offering a range of simple organization solutions.
To the query, “Who’s the fairest…?” any one of these arrogant bastards might answer, “Your mirror”.
Before you report me to the Antiques Road Show please know that in some (many) instances – I do not care about the original patina, provenance or even value of an antique. Really. And that’s coming from a gay man. Shocking. Sometimes in order to make something work in a space (like this beautiful table from a distant relative), it needs a tweak.
I prefer to clean and prepare a surface with liquid sandpaper or TSP because I like the texture of the original finish and don’t want to lose the crispness of the carved details by sanding. Plus sanding is a drag. Krylon has an amazing spray tip on their paints that approximates a spray gun. The result is similar to a lacquer finish – no brush strokes. Please wear a respirator when using chemicals/spray paints (even outdoors).
If the kitchen’s the heart of the home – the kitchen table is the soul of the heart… right? A table is as much about its use and its history as it is about the physical piece. I’m realizing that the beauty of my favorite tables is really the memories of sitting around them. Okay, so I’ve got a farmhouse table fetish. I am constantly on the lookout for surfaces to repurpose. Here are a few I fell for during a trip to Northern Italy last summer.
Below I’ve taken a nineteenth century pine panel door which is smooth on one side (whaaat?). I found it at my favorite architectural salvage yard and added simple legs from reclaimed three-quarter inch fir. I’ll complete it with dominoes, a few bottles of red, and half dozen well worn friends.
The directive was kid sized musical instruments in a neutral palette for a shoot at the beach. Each account has it’s “brand look” and my personal challenge is to stay “on brand” without rehashing the same old props. My solution is to rent classic pieces and to make interesting ones. I used a cake pan, slats from old dune fencing and baling wire for this banjo complete with wa-wa bar. I’d be remiss not mentioning you gotta mighty purty mouth.
