Educated by Rita

I've been an admirer of Rita Konig since I first saw her apartment in Bright Young Things London and her cute little book Domestic Bliss but recently it seems like she's everywhere!

She has her blog, Girl About Town, on Domino and now you can tour her apartment in New York on their website as well. All the Best has a great profile of Rita this week as well.

For those who don't know, Rita is the daughter of renowned British interior designer Nina Campbell. Her London flat is pictured below. I love the pale turquoise walls that would certainly cheer me up on a grey and dreary London day.

Nina Campbell also has a full line of products available on her web site including a few things I've seen in Rita's apartment like colorful match strikers and file boxes. She also has a collection of fabrics, wallpapers, rugs and carpets.

The wallpaper below in Rita's New York apartment looks like it might be Nina Campbell. But hey, if my mother had a fabulous line of products, I'd hit her up for some too!

Photos by Francesco Lagnese and Angela Moore

wall mirror art

katie sends in her arty wall decor of 9 malma mirrors. a quick and easy way to decorate a wall.

"7 painted chocolate, 2 painted ice blue. i am cheap and live in an apartment so instead of going about doing this mirror in the proper way using nails and some 2x1, i tore up an ikea under-the-bed box and used the thin veneer and duct tape as a method of fastening the mirrors together. it took all of an hour once i settled on the layout and it's been up on my wall for over a year and half with no problems at all."

[added 27 May 2008]

patti's version
she spray painted them and screwed them together.

Closet Confidential

So what's a girl to do on a rainy Sunday in the city when her plans to go to the beach for the weekend have been cancelled? I decided some serious closet cleaning was in order. This is the time of year when the fall clothes are starting to arrive in stores and I get tired of my summer wardrobe and it got me thinking about those whose closets I envy.

Although I have a big closet compared to most in NYC, I think Aerin Lauder's closet/dressing room/office is bigger than my entire apartment!

Not only is her closet huge and ridiculously organized, look at those jeans, and I thought I was anal, but it is lined in ridiculously expensive hand painted wallpaper from Gracie. It is beautiful though and apparently very popular, Tory Burch also has it in her entry foyer.

Vivre owner Eva Jeanbart-Lorenzotti's closet that has been featured in Domino among others, is a bit more reasonable in size but no less well organized. I love the mirrored doors on her eveningwear closet. It's a great idea for less worn items.

Sally Perrin's closet in LA that was recently featured in Bazaar looks more lived in and less styled to death. I love all the personal items and photos on her dresser.

Photos by Anders Overgaard, ?, and Dewey Nicks.

frame up clock

a cute clock from maria, using the ribba frame, a kort art card and an alarm clock.

first, cut a hole in the backing wood of the ribba frame and attach the clock to it. then, puncture a small hole in the kort art card for the clock needles and you're set.

see more instructions for the ribba clock.

other clock hacks:
> bamboo dish clock
> time bomb clock
> rusch clock's new face
> international analog clock

ikeahacker forums - now hosted at ikeafans

early last month, i pulled the plug on the ikeahacker forums due to spam and time commitments. but hey, when it's a good thing, you can't keep it down.

susan from ikeafans.com wrote me a few days ago and suggested a collaboration. i jumped onboard immediately because ikeafans is a wonderful community, moderated by people who know their ikea.

so it is with much glee that i'm announcing this ... the ikeahacker forum is BACK!

all the answers you've been aching for - the right way to cut a lack shelf, replace a kitchen door hinge, dismantle a malm bed, find the right sized nuts and bolts - you now have a pool of over 17,000 ikeafans to help you figure it out.

feel free to post questions, exchange ideas, preview your hacks in progress. DulcineaK, otherwise known as the answer chick, will be moderating the forum. i will pop in and chime in my 2 cents whenever i can.

click here to get to the forum page. you will need to register to be part of the community. go join. it's as toasty as a cinnamon roll in there.

hugs to susan and james for making this possible!

need a wooden deck for your balcony?

i love mattias' idea for his balcony flooring. so simple yet effective.

"i have used gorm shelfs as floor decking for my balcony. i just added an extra beam in the middle of every shelf. of course some treatment oil is recommended, but it's still a rather cheap and easy way to get a nice balcony floor."

home photography backdrop

shannon, who takes lots of photos at home, has a great idea for a permanent system to hang photo backdrops.

"i began with the deka curtain wire kit from ikea. i mounted the end units to the top of our entertainment center and strung the wire across. luckily it was exactly the right length.

i then attached the clips that came with the kit and i can hang any color backdrop that i want for an in home photo session.

you don't even notice that the wire is there unless we point it out to you."

see shannon's home photography backdrop.

Mix it up!

I'm not sure which is worse, my obsession with House and Garden or my obsession with Domino. I think Domino edges out H and G because they have more photo galleries on their website.

These photos are from their editor Tori Mellott's apartment and I love what she's done with a bland little studio and how she's mixed tradional and modern elements. This is a similar vibe to my apartment and my favorite designs always have a mix of different elements. Designers who stick to one style bore me. Good thing the designer I work for knows how to mix it up!

Photos by Annie Schlechter

diy a captain's bed

a wonderful find on apartment therapy. killorn sent in instructions for a captain's bed that not only looks great but has loads of storage.

before

after

she built a platform for her bed and then cleverly used a lack shelving unit on casters to give the illusion of a built-in. pull out the lack shelf to access additional storage.

see instructions on killorn's captain's bed.

ikea shower curtain dress

melissa is back at the sewing machine. she gained a bit of fame here with her pillowcase skirt (one of the top 10 hacks for 2006) and now she sashays in with a dress made from tanja shower curtain fabric (can't find the link on ikea website).

"the tanja shower curtain stayed in my fabric stash ever since, just waiting for the perfect project, which presented itself in the form of this Burda WOF 60s dress from the may 2007 issue. it turned out to be the perfect fabric for this dress!"

see more of melissa's ikea shower curtain dress.

bonde sideboard

michael turned a book case on its side and hey, you've got a sideboard.

"we were looking to finish off our living room set with the bonde sideboard, but at almost $400 we figured out a creative alternative. we bought this used bonde book case online with glass door for only $90, turned it on its side and attached some legs from an old ikea coffee table we were anxious to get rid of and viola! we also to plan on putting some small spotlights inside."

Red Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight

I spent this past weekend in Southampton and the old adage "red sky at night, sailor's delight" really is true. We saw the most amazing sunset Saturday night and on Sunday the weather was just gorgeous!

I need to work harder so I can afford a beach house on Meadow Lane with a view this spectacular!

Photos by Moi

crafty trash bag holder

tons of yarn. plenty of eager crocheters and knitters. how do you keep them from becoming a tangled mess?

adora tipped me on this great use of the rationell plastic bag dispenser at maker faire [via such sweet hands]. just stuff the containers with yarn with the center pull tails snaking through the holes for eager needles.

further down the post, there is also a suggestion to close the open end and trap a cat toy inside to provide bored cats a challenge. what fun a trash bag holder can be.

hol computer case

update! (13/2/08) link to daniel's page updated.

***

the ikea hol storage cube is turning out to be a firm favourite when it comes to building computers into furniture. here's one from daniel.

more pictures of daniel's hol computer.

other hol hacks:
> barbex's smart tv recorder
> hide a sub woofer in this hol

got one too? show us your version.
> andi's

> patrik's

lee's ikea basement studio hacks

lee sent me photos of his basement studio and i thought i went to ikea hacker heaven.

the table is a severed drafting table top with what i think are vika curry legs.

the beauty on the left is an alex drawer unit, originally with casters but lee matched it perfectly to an herman miller aluminum group base he cut down. the one of the right is an ikea bas shadow box finished in black stain with a sheet of eames office stationary as backdrop.

and the skinny hairpin legs look gorgeous on the ikea attityd (can't find it on ikea website).

lastly, the ikea ps cart with a the larger top shelf to accommodate the monitor and speakers. and please note the speakers! from the front, you'll probably not notice that they are made from ikea planters! (discontinued, i think)

you must hop over to lee's site for details of his ikea basement studio hacks, while i wipe the drool off my face.

a floating charging station

a charging station that lifts all the wires and cables off the floor and displays all your gadgets at the same time. a neat idea!

hans of sweden needed a new place for his phone and all sorts of rechargeable stuff. the old solution gathered a lot of dust, was low and took up a lot of floor-estate in his hallway.

the old solution

"after going thru most parts of the ikea catalogue i finaly found a solution. it's a billy cd-shelf insert for its bookcases, it's a discontinued product but i managed to get one. since it's meant to be inserted into a bookshelf all edges are raw so i painted them in the same color as the wall.


i also drilled out some bricks out of a piece of wood so that i could get a space between the shelf and the wall - very useful for hiding cables, the bricks are also painted in the same color as the wall. i'm very pleased with the result. i might even add lights to the back of it to really make it hover."