The outdoors indoors

Ace hotel

Lites & scale

Experimenting with "lowering the ceiling" by adding a string of lights. Tiny lights: there's nothing sadder, tackier or more beautiful.

The oil derrick

Experimenting with what it looks like to add a large-scale piece. It looks OK in the pictures but it's too overscaled in person. I found putting something huge in the middle of a room has to be better rationalized. A TV, for example, looks OK. A bookshelf? Not so much.

stuff I've been looking at

Cheap drawer from Pier 1 looks much better in person. Outdoor chairs from Viva Terra. Lamp from Comfort lighting. Charly Floor fan. Otto floor fan. Custom made iMac stand by Andyblog. Computer stand from DWR.

Round bubble lamp in alcove visualization

design by purchase

cleaner looks and a mexican lamp

Surprisingly cool stuff from Urban Outfitters

anthropologie & schoolhouse chic

As I walked into Anthropologie today I could feel the testosterone slowly drain from my system. Unsurprising considering their mission statement—

Anthropologie offers a one-of-a-kind and compelling shopping experience that makes women feel beautiful, hopeful and connected.

Maybe they should add "poorer." They always have nice stuff but it costs more than it should. What was interesting was their science lab displays. I was surprised that the schoolhouse look had reached even Anthropologie which I thought of as a focal point for rich, white hippie sensibility. But sure enough, the image above—bare lightbulb, lab flasks and medical cabinet—comes from their site.

Doyle dining chair

$249 - $299, Room & Board

Schoolhouse chair

From American Furnishings

LAX Dining chair

From exclusively home $690 for 2 ($345 each)

Round dining table

From American Furnishings

Montage of dining room chairs

stuff from Wisteria

Bathroom shelf and wire shelf

From Pottery barn and CB2

The duh files—small houses fit small things

Every time I think of getting something with scale and weight it never seems to work. I saw this beautiful, heavy school house desk at Sonrisa a few months ago (above). The price was right but after thinking about it, it would have looked too heavy. I find that light and airy modern pieces work best for our place. I think it's not so much the style of our house but its scale that is determining its furnishings.

Miniaturization and white space

Our house is plenty big for two people but I'm realizing it's not big enough to support my ideal vision of space. I like having little pods of messes and things set off against vast amounts of blank space. But like most people I can't afford vast amounts of white space. I wonder if that's part of the Japanese aesthetic. The attraction lies not only in the miniaturization, but in the luxuriant empty spaces enabled by small things.

I like anything linear

From Pottery Barn