I was shopping at fabulous design super-store, Mezzanine today to buy a gift and began drooling over their e15 Big Foot table. Joe Posch (the owner) had to pry me off and throw me a box of tissues. So, in honor of Big Foot, here’s the perfect chair to go with it - Hans. The natural oak chair looks better in real life. It’s cool and comfy.

I love the work of Danish artist Peter Callesen. I’m trying to think of words to describe why. They’re unusual, emotional, and take real skill to produce. That’s about the best I can do. If you’re interested in buying his work, his rep is listed under contacts. Enjoy these three pieces from his Framed A-4 collection.

Running Red Poppies

Holding onto Myself

The Outline of a Skeleton

That’s a skeleton cut out perfectly. I guess he doesn’t drink too much coffee, huh?

I think of Sea Cloth as a fabric resource. But they sell accessories on their site. I’ve been looking around for a tray and came across the one below. Here are some other nice things, too.

Red Tray - 16″ x 22″ retails for $70

Brown 18″ pillow retails for $110

Cute pink waste basket retails for $55

I found a great new (at least for me) blog all about prints and patterns named, appropriately enough, Print & Pattern. The host calls herself “Bowie Style” and she’s from the UK. Give her blog a visit by following this link.

Some of the things I found at Print & Pattern are these bent ply chairs from Urban Outfitters. I think they’re pretty cool and sell for a mere $135.

Bent ply chairs from Urban Outfitters

Ugh. Yesterday I was down for the count with the stomach flu. I’m still feeling a little weak, but will be back on the job this afternoon. There’s always a good side to everything and in this case having the stomach flu for a day means…

…I’ll fit into the dress I’m wearing to a party tomorrow night. It’s not the one above, but you know what I mean. Maybe I won’t need the Spanx.

I found the most fantastic site for T-shirts. They’re really well designed, so it’s not totally off-topic. It’s called Threadless T-Shirts. The site is cool, the designs are great. But best of all, they’re all $15! A little more for hoodies and girlie-style T’s. Here’s the link!

Radios (by Dan Terry)

I love this one. Screw Vintage!

This is called International Translation

Check out these chairs from designer David Irwin. To the left is Elbow Room. Next is the Double Back, then The Dog Bowl version - so dignified! Finally, it looks like a plain, but nicely done regular chair. Which is your favorite?

I love this lamp from young, British designer Paul Andrew Taylor. It’s called Cagelight. Taylor is currently a Designer in Residence at his alma mater, Northumbria University.

I’m co-chairing an annual event here in Detroit called Holiday Mart. Each year, a juried group of vendors from all over the country buy booths and open for business over a long weekend. This year’s event will take place from Friday, October 12th through Sunday, October 14th. If you’re in the Detroit area, mark your calendars and plan to come. Here’s a peek at what we’ll have to offer.

Beautiful bowls, mugs and jars from Black Cat Pottery

Personalized notes, stationary & more from 504 Invites

Handmade purses from Added Drama

The money we raise (more than $70,000 last year!) goes toward sex education programs for teens and is run by Planned Parenthood. The event is held at The Grosse Pointe War Memorial and admission is $5.00. I hope to see you there!

Italian lighting firm, Terzani has opened a US headquarters in Miami. This is excellent news for us Italian design lovers. No more 12 week ship dates. Yippee!

Oh yes, they make beautiful light fixtures like Orten’zia Very Very Gold, pictured above. I really love their lighting. Bellissima!

What a coincidence that today Design Talk devoted space to other creative peoples’ offices.

The office of writer Margaret Drabble, author of the Seven Sisters.

You can read the post by going here. Enjoy! Which one is your favorite?

Today’s design dilemma is my own. This room began its life as simply the room where we kept the good computer. We were going to add a sofa bed somewhere along the line. But life got busy and so did my business. I had been using a tiny room at the back of the house for my office. It worked just fine until it slowly began to fill up with sample books, catalogs and Lord knows what else.

Proof of the saying “The shoemaker’s kids wear no shoes.” Egads, what a mess!

Meanwhile, we never did get that sofa bed because we really didn’t need it. So this room became one of those places you hope no one besides your closest friends will ever see. And even they have to be blindfolded. We used an old dining table for a desk and other odds and ends to house art supplies, etc. As my business grew, I found I really needed a more professional space where I could meet a client or a rep. and keep my paperwork in order. The real problem was that I was so busy working on other peoples’ homes that I had no time for my own. What to do?

I must say, I took these photos halfway through clearing it out.
It wasn’t exactly this bad. But close.

Here’s what I did. I analyzed what was good and what had to go. Carpet? You can’t see from the photo, but it was in bad shape. Bye-bye! I liked the wall color and the family photos were great. Keep those. The blinds were keepers too. Grungy old IKEA shelves that have lived in two houses and were peeling apart? Sayonara! What I really needed was an organized place for files, and current projects so that I could, in turn, organize the old office into a proper sort of sample library. Gotta find that. Oh, and the desk chair was nice, but not as nice as one I had my eye on. My son needed a new desk chair anyway.

My new office. Happy-Happy-Joy-Joy.

I had the carpet torn out and the floor refinished. I covered that with an 8″ x 10″ rug made with FLOR’s Twiggy in taupe. That added a lot of pizazz and the color was the same value as the walls. So it worked. Next, I hopped in the car and headed to IKEA.

See how the red adds so much zip in an otherwise neutral room?

I know some people really don’t like IKEA, but I do. At this point in my life I wouldn’t furnish my living room with it, but for a home office I don’t see how anyone could complain. The design is great and so is the quality. The Vika desk is larger and looks a lot better than the old dining table. I replaced the knobs on an old IKEA filing cabinet and tucked it underneath. Perfection!

I use the top of the cabinets to organize fabrics and paint swatches.

I chose this super-fantastic filing/storage system called Effektiv. You can configure this series in all kinds of ways. So should I need to expand it some day, I can. Best of all, one of the door choices is red. Red is my favorite color, and it brought the room to life. Had a chosen glass, or wood the room wouldn’t have had that special something we’re all searching far and wide for (it’s been a long day).

Finally, I went to my friends at Linear and begged them to sell me their floor sample Catifa chair. They took one look at me sitting in Catifa, knew it was meant to be and handed it over (along with the promise of my next son - hah!).

Now I have a beautiful new office that functions beautifully. I wouldn’t be embarrassed to have a client here. And I’m much more efficient. There’s a saying that goes, “a place for everything and everything in its place.” I like that idea, although all too often it’s only exists in my imagination. But in my new office, it’s a dream come true.

What do you think of this amazing transformation?