Martin Thönen Prints

A few Sundays ago Adam and I were out for an afternoon walk and we stumbled upon a gallery with some beautiful woodcut prints. It’s rare for shops to be open on Sunday so we were puzzled yet delighted to find an open viewing and prints for sale. Adam and I were immediately drawn to Bernese artists Martin Thönen’s organic woodcuts, many of them featuring scenes of vineyards and other landscapes.

While debating which prints to get the sweet woman organizing the open house suggested that we instead just buy a 2014 calendar, which features thirteen original prints, all signed by the artist. We really wanted four prints to fill up the space behind the couch and a quick run through the numbers suggested that this was a the most economical option. For reference, here is the space we were trying to fill:

 

 

 

 

The couch is 277 centimeters (or ~109 inches) wide and we wanted art that made a big impact, space wise. This means that the 5 Franc world map would have to go because I think it would have looked too awkward to have two large scale situations happening in the same small room. Plus, I think we always knew that map was temporary.

So, we bought the calendar of prints and planned to mat and frame them exactly as the gallery had done. I went to a local frame store and ordered four identical mats before heading to the DIY store to pick up four silver frames. I certainly didn’t go to math college so this is a rough sum, but by buying the prints in the calendar and picking up our own frames and mats I’m pretty sure we saved around 700 Francs. It’s a pretty significant savings, methinks.

On Thursday night Adam and I convened in the living room for a fun night of measuring, marking and hammering! Just kidding. I did tell him that I loved him before we even started, just to remind him that what would be said over the next hour and a half was in no way a true reflection of my feelings for him. I don’t want to go into the graphic details, but let’s just say the colorful language was no match for the unique measuring and hammering that occurred behind these pictures. I can’t really talk about the math that happened and didn’t happen because I don’t really believe in the productivity of unnecessarily reopening painful wounds. The pictures are up and that’s what really matters : )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think we made a good call with these prints and really like them in the space. The pillows on the couch are no longer working for me and I think I will put the black and white checked ones in our guest room and see if I feel better. I’m also thinking the shelves are fully loaded at this point and might benefit from a little editing. Although when I mentioned to my aunt that I thought this room now was carrying a lot of information she said there was no such thing as “too much information” and that “more is better…less is boring!”

We also need to figure out what will happen on the now-blank wall where the map was. I’m thinking a long horizontal mirror perhaps? Thoughts?

 

Something that could bounce in some light from out here:

 

As I think you can tell from these photos (and every other one on the blog), it’s pretty dark in here during the winter so we could use a little help brightening it up.

Also, here’s the wall opposite the couch that is still waiting for a little attention:

 

 

 

We have a couple new plants and cords over on stage left, all of which are thriving thankfully. I like the asymmetry of the “For Like Ever” poster and am now trying to figure out how to fill out the rest of the wall. I really like the look of the picture below but think a similar setup might compete too aggressively with its facing wall:

 

 

Oh goodness, what to do with it all. As I said on Friday (in so many words), what’s the rush? It would be great to slow down and think a little harder about it all and I’m really glad Adam and I didn’t jump at a temporary solution for above the couch because I’m very pleased with what we have now. So I suppose that could be a lesson for the rest of the apartment.

For now I turn my concerns to the guest room because my parents are coming in March for a week and it’s a disaster zone. We found a bed last week and picked it up yesterday so I’m happy to report that they will at least have something to sleep on. Here’s a sneak peek at the room:

 

I know, I know! What a cheap shot (pun intended). But I did take a ton of pictures of it the other day so once we flesh it out a bit more I’ll put them up in all their glory.

I’d love any feedback you have! What are you thoughts on the prints? What are you decorating in your place? Also, the light was so great last Friday because we actually saw the son for longer than 5.5 minutes and was so eager to take pictures. Looking through them I’m pretty disappointed in how they turned out–they’re so gray! Any ideas as to why that’s happening? Maybe I just need to get to know my camera and editing software better. Ugh.

(gallery wall image via Mor til MERNEE)

Who are you, Friday?

You know when you signed people’s yearbooks in high school and filled in the blank pages with hard truths like “HAKAS” and “I always wanted to kiss you but that would be crazy right HAHA”? Wait, that might have been an over-share. Anyway, one of my personal favorites was “never change!” both as a giver and a receiver. It was a way to hold on to high school and youth for like ever and a secret vow to not leave the other person behind.

Grizzled and wizened by age I now know this to be absurd. What if we never changed?! I would still be wearing platform flip flops from Express and insisting that a platter of chicken fingers and fries was a good idea for lunch. Every day. Not. Good. A riff on an oft-repeated maxim, to be sure, but one that is important nonetheless: change is vital and necessary for our survival. Otherwise, who are we benefiting?

While it may appear shallow, I like the above photo’s message, in that our (hopefully) regular transformations become a part of our story and manifest themselves throughout our home. To be clear, I’m not about to put up my collection of Twilight books on the shelf to show that I too once exercised horrible taste in books. But what about similarly embarrassing photos of my youth, brace-face and all? Surely those have a place in every home, because let me tell you the pain that headgear inflicted on me was real. Real! Setting up our apartment has been fast and furious and all the sudden I feel like we should have taken things more slowly. That’s not to say I don’t like it, because I really, really do. It’s very comfortable and a true reflection of our taste, but maybe we didn’t need to buy the million and one things we did.

Maybe while we’re living here in Switzerland the above dictum won’t hold as true as it would if, say, we were living in Kansas City, or even Charleston still. But, I like the idea of slow, purposeful design that allows your home to become a collection of items that represent you, not a seasonal trend. What does your home say about you?

 

In accordance with today’s post, I have a fun art reveal to share next week. In the meantime, here are a few links from around the web:

Something really cool about Kansas City.

And something really terrifying about Kansas City. (to note, verrückt means “crazy” in German)

10 Italian Food Rules You’ve Been Breaking.

Maybe the perfect summer sandal?

What a pretty top.

You guys, I’m calling it (along with the rest of the literary world): this book is going to be huge this year. I just bought it and can’t wait to start reading it!

The world’s top hotels.

I’m not a big fan of lentils but Deb is making them look sexy. Or at least really comforting and delicious.

Okay, Matt, you’ve been heard. I just bought this print for the apartment. Light and bright enough for you?

Yet more art: a fun DIY that I think might be cool in our guest room.

“This show’s actually pretty fun and entertaining if you ignore how damaging it could be to our perceptions of gender in society.”

Birds being awesome.

What are you up to this weekend? We’re going to dinner tomorrow night with friends and picking up a new guest bed on Sunday. I might try to make it to book club after that if there’s time. Obviously your mind was just blown. Take some time to come down from that high.

I hope that you get up to something equally as thrilling!

image via

Fiddle Leaf

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five weeks later and our fiddle leaf plant is still alive! They can be quite fussy (one homeowner actually confessed to singing to hers at night), but this little figgy must feel right at home.

Can’t say the same for the umbrella tree that is ironically making it rain in the living room with its leaves…

New Shelves

 

 

One week after we moved in this is what our living room looked like. We had just gotten the sofa delivered and the shelving system was freshly assembled. We weren’t sure about whether or not we would put a rug in here because I liked the openness without it, but it wasn’t a done deal.

What was fully decided on, however, was that a change must be made to the shelves. I didn’t like the glass shelves included in the IKEA set because I thought they looked a little flimsy and insubstantial. I knew I wanted wood shelves to give the room more warmth and masculinity.

We decorated the shelves as they were because we knew (because we are who we are) it would take a while for the project to come to fruition. Here’s what the shelves looked like with the glass (please excuse the dark iphone photo):

Not bad, but not my favorite. We decided to go with a walnut stain, and you may remember that I didn’t like the results so much. Turns out I just needed to let the look sink in, as it were, and it eventually grew on me. I also figured out that with the open-grain pine we had selected, two coats of stain worked best. After giving each piece a good sand with a 120-grit and then 240-grit (thanks Adam!) we put on one coat of stain and let it sit for 10 minutes before wiping it off. I repeated the process, staining lightly with a 240-grit paper before giving each shelf another coat. I then added two coats of polyurethane and let it dry overnight. The whole process took almost two weeks, but that includes four days in Paris. We can also thank the weather and minimal daylight for the prolonged timeline. I could only do the project on our balcony and by the time the first coat would dry it would already be dark out. And freezing.

That’s all to say that I am so happy with the final results. For fun, here is what the room looked like the day we moved in:

And from the other direction. Here I am eating dinner the first night (why, yes, I am wearing hiking socks…) :

 

Do people ever not eat pizza and beer the night they move in somewhere?

And here is the room now:

 

I’m so pleased with how the room has come together. The above photo is so dark, but the winter sun visits us for a brief half hour and then disappears. And that’s only when it isn’t devastatingly foggy. It’s a little sad. Hopefully you get the idea though.

There are so many nice layers and colors in here and I am thrilled with the rug. It was an online forum purchase and it only cost around $50 and a little leg work from Adam. The colors are so great and it adds needed warmth to the room and brings the furniture together, to boot. I’m still very happy with the sofa, although the more I look at these pillows the less I think the blue fits in… I’ll organize them another time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dark wood, I think, helps tremendously and I’m feeling better about the whole room. The items on the shelves are always up for discussion and I think once we start traveling more they will feel a little more authentic.

We are still working on putting together a gallery wall of sorts over the sofa (at this rate, hopefully before the end of 2014) and of course continue to layer, or nest, if you prefer : )

So what do you think?! Have you ever attempted an IKEA hack? Is your living room also a never-ending process?

 

Hang Ups

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few walls are sporting some fancy new clothes over here. We’re far from done but also far from where we started. A few additions like a cork board (painted a sassy color and now collecting friends’ save-the-dates and a picture from our wedding), new prints from Etsy, and a favorite poster contribute to the welcome feeling of coziness.

Introducing: Koromiko

With a tagline that reads “handmade design for home and life” you might wonder how this small company can survive in today’s microproduced-obsessed market culture. Etsy is flourishing, Brooklyn and every artist there is killing it (and taking a hipster beating while they’re at it), and it seems everyone wants a one-of-kind if only to say this one, no really, this one is one of a kind.

But Koromiko, to me, feels different. Their prices fall in a comfortable moderate range and nearly all the products look approachable, beautiful, and functional. I first heard about them through sfgirlbybay and have been looking at the collection ever since. As I mentioned last week, we are on the cusp of holiday shopping and I can already think of a few gifts from their site that my loved ones would enjoy. Also, let’s be clear, my birthday is in just over a month and I kind of need the above scarf to be mine.

 

Koromiko curates a specialized collection of treasures to “support and promote independent designers producing handmade, authentically sustainable, craft + design objects.” Their environmental consciousness is rivaled by their commitment to give 5% of proceeds to a program that supports art in the community. Based in Dallas, Texas, the company ships across the country and to many international destinations.

When I think about decorating our apartment I desire handcrafted, special pieces like these to help it not look so brand new and soulless. So many of the items in the collection add personality and whimsy, two things all this Ikea furniture could use to soften up.

 

So, see something you like?

Hold Me, Friday

It’s unfortunate that I cannot write and listen to music because I would love to be jamming to my latest purchase– HAIM, Days Are Gone. It’s always been this way though, which obviously made grad school a barrel of fun: hours upon hours of my sitting in my room in silence, guzzling tea while reading back my paragraphs out loud and curling up on the floor as I became increasingly overwhelmed. Dark times.

In other news, this is what I unpacked on Wednesday:

 

Following a pretty handy tutorial it then looked like this:

 

And as of this morning it looks like this:

 

 

As you can see we still have Ikea bags circling around here like tumbleweeds, but at least we have a much-needed kitchen cart (obviously missing the top that is currently absorbing a couple layers of wood oil). I couldn’t be more ready to put it together and bring it inside. I need to give it one more coat because the glossy paint shows every brush stroke and two coats just isn’t enough. I really like the bright and poppy fire red, which I also think looks like salsa red, or earlier in the project, what-the-hell-were-you-thinking red, and think it will add a unique splash of color in our otherwise mostly neutral apartment. I have to say, though, listening to Tina Fey and David Sedaris throughout made the project a true pleasure.

 

Other recent additions to the apartment include an immersion blender, an appliance about which I have been talking for almost two full years. Why I never just got the dang thing is so far beyond me, but now that I have it I can’t stop thinking of ways to use it. Last night I made squash soup (so seriously good on a chilly, drizzly night) and this weekend I hope to make tomato soup. I think we should try these fancy grilled cheese sammies on the side.

Foggy days have settled in semi-permanently around these hills and lower temperatures are bound to follow. I need a new puffy coat and think any one from Zara will do. I recently learned there is a store here in Bern, which conveniently allays my fear that I would have to go to Zurich every time I needed a fix. One more point for “Slow Bern.”

Chillier temperatures mean that the holidays are soon to come. The other night I accidentally tuned Pandora to the Christmas station and listened to a few songs before realizing it was still September and no time for “Silent Night.” I’ve already started thinking of Christmas ideas for family, however, and think that a few pieces (like this and this) from Noonday Collection will be perfect. My sweet friend Claire’s sister-in-law works with the company, whose profits support women working in countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.

For now, though, we are surrounded by pumpkins and gourds at the supermarket and on the local seasonal menus. This McSweeney’s article (which I originally saw on Hither and Thither) made me laugh out loud. Bear in mind, it’s not for those who disagree with colorful language.

I really love this beach print of Kiawah Island, South Carolina by Olivia Rae James. She is a stellar photographer and I dare you to go through her work and not wish for at least a few of her images.

Along with HAIM’s sparkling tracks I can’t stop listening to this song:

 

What are you up to this weekend? We have taken day trips the last three Sundays and are looking forward to just hanging out around here and hopefully doing some reading on the sofa.

New Digs

I’m currently sitting on our new sofa, and dang, it is serious business. It’s big and amazing and I’m almost afraid it’s too big and then I look at how many pillows it can hold and I feel good about it again.

This is not a design blog so I feel OK with showing you some very, very premature pictures of the new place. I was reading a blog post yesterday on which the girl was apologizing for not telling her virtual readership about the break-up she went through with her boyfriend several months prior. She jadedly commented that “bloggers live real lives too” and it’s not all Instagrammed selfies with Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice lattes and lengthy diatribes on how excited we all are that it’s fall so now we can layer! It gave me some serious sads thinking about pressure bloggers put on themselves to look a certain way and exude a specific strength and composure. I suppose the fact that I have a category devoted to “sweat” and regularly talk about gross things like the time I found a cockroach in my sandwich kind of put me in a different league. And that is more than fine with me.

 

 

 

That mess was all to say that I’d like to share some early photos of the apartment and not feel bad about it. We’ve been here exactly one week and I’m happy with how things have turned out so far. We have definitely had our share of “were we on drugs when we bought this?” moments, most notably when we assembled the dining room. I talked Adam into getting a natural wood table and lucite chairs, though he did pick out the rug. I was going for a high-low feeling in there and it just ended up feeling more bipolar than eclectic. And the faux brick floors? I can’t. As we sat the table immediately after flipping it over we were already talking about how to sell it and get a new one. While I think we have come to like it a bit more, curtains and artwork will no doubt help it feel more complete and together. The plants were a start. (Let’s please not talk about how I put cacti on a table that receives no direct sunlight. I’m working through it).

I feel a sort of paralysis when I think about really decorating and finding special pieces to fill in the many gaps that surround the place. Looking at a vase yesterday I thought, This is a great vase, but this vase will determine the rest of the design scheme and what if I don’t like it?! ::puts it down and walks empty-handed from the store:: It’s a lot of pressure to put on one little artifact. I just can’t seem to make up my mind on what I really want. But, some decisions have been made and I’m sure taking it in baby steps will help. Less drama, more decorating.

We are going to a flea market this weekend and I am hoping to score big. We are really riding high on the Ikea Showroom concept here and I’d like to put an end to that soon. So, without more rambling and ridiculousness, a few pictures*:

 

 

^^ is everyone into the casual lighting fixture we have going on in here?? New one to go up someday…

 

 

^^I feel the best about this room. I love that we have a giganto bed and that my desk is not in there. That’s the first time that’s happened in my whole life.

*Places purposefully left of the tour include the kitchen, bathroom and guest room/office for varying reasons. The guest room mostly because it is a collection of suitcases that need to be unpacked and an astronomical amount of broken down cardboard that looks like this:

They will not collect your cardboard unless it is sensibly organized and tied up in twine. It makes it far easier for them to clean up but much more difficult for you to keep your sanity as you break it down and fold it up.

Treasures

Adam and I snagged a couple of pieces from an Asian emporium in Savannah that was moving to a smaller store. His treasure is a Japanese screen, dating from the 1880s, with beautiful carvings and handsomely worn facade. My first beauty is a tall vase carved out of mango wood. There’s no place for it in my tiny apartment so Adam is politely playing host.

 

 

 

I also bought a sweet ceramic horse that originally hails from Thailand. I have always felt a little bummed that I didn’t buy more pieces while in Thailand, but betwixt my four pairs of shorts, six shirts, and seven pairs of undies there just wasn’t any room in the backpack. It feels a little like I’m making up for that with this gem, but it’s not quite the same as buying in the country. He’s saddled up nicely on my bookshelf though.

 

A Few Photos

The transition to committed iPhone user is nearly complete. The most lengthy aspect of the switch has involved the use of the state-of-the-art camera. I more or less cannot stop using it. I’ve been taking pictures of all sorts of nonsense and I can’t say I don’t love it. In this bunch of photos (all taken within the last week) there’s both a picture of my food and a “selfie.” Where will it end? Apparently it won’t because it’s only just beginning.

Here are a few images that made the cut.

 

I resumed work at the magazine this week. Here’s my fetching first day back at work ensemble.

Snacks and beer at Two Boroughs Larder on a rainy Thursday night.

Adam begged me to buy this vest, but I just couldn’t make the commitment. The hat was a bonus.

Saturday we headed to the beach. What else are you supposed to do when it’s 75 degrees and sunny in January?

Drinks with Adam’s roommate and friends at the band new Rarebit

I was so pumped to get Adam this poster for Christmas. He finally hung it this weekend and methinks it looks great!