I’ll confess I saw this on Oheedoh (apartment therapy’s kids’ edition) but I had to highlight it as well. Studiomama a London-based designer named Nina Tolstrup designs furniture and spaces. I love the Kids’ House (show below). It includes a sleepy area, lego wall, and exterior blackboard wall. I built forts of all kinds as a kid and would love to a the lucky kid who get’s to rule this mini-house. If Joe and I had 1) a kid and 2) more space, I’m sure we’d build something fun like this.
If you’re as intrigued as I was, check out Studiomama’s Beach House as well as her furniture. The pallet chairs are lovely and ironic. The Happy Family chair series is a funny ode to Goldilocks.
If I had wads of cash just lying around our construction project, I’d buy this Tepee. Ever since elementary school, when an Native American man with three thumbs would come to our school and set up his Tepee, I’ve been pining for one. Joe even built a Tepee inspired shower for our brave weddings guests who opted to camp (that’s Kermit Graber, apparently enjoying the lukewarm shower).
In case you’ve got a wad of cash and a hankering for a Tepee, get yours here. I found it via Sally on Apartment Therapy SF, check our her post here.
I hate posting about dwr sales. It’s the ulimate yuppie embarrassment to get up early on a saturday morning, coffee-in-hand to wait in a long line full of other suckers. However, this looks like a colossal sale and probably worth attending. I don’t mind scratches at all, especially when it knocks $2K off the price tag. See you this weekend (Thurs. 8/7 - Sunday, 8/10).
My husband is very opinionated. Especially when it comes to products - any kind of product - from toothbrushes to space ships. Therefore, I (usually) listen when he recommends something and since it’s rare that he does, I thought I’d share it with you.
After hearing me complain for many months about how much I hated winding up our hose to water our plants, Joe went on the hunt for a well made hose reel we could use, well…forever. We really didn’t want to buy a cheap one only to replace it in a few years when the house is finished. He found a great one in no time, made by company in Nebraska called RapidReel. Most importantly, the hose is no longer strewn all over our garage.
Here’s his review:
If you’re in the market for a hose reel, you must buy this one (or one from this manufacturer - they have different configurations).
Yes, it’s more expensive than other hose reels. it will also last forever, and using it is just SO satisfying. Anyone who’s ever used a crappy plastic hose reel that dries out in the sun and cracks apart after one summer knows how dissatisfying products in this category can be.
I’m sometimes critical of product designs. Yes, i know - tough to believe. This is the first product i’ve purchased, assembled, and used in a very long time where i thought to myself that i probably would not change a single thing about the design, choice of materials, or manufacturing processes. Frankly, i’m surprised it’s not significantly more expensive. From what i can tell, it’s a family-owned US company that just decided to do this type of product really, really well. I think they’ve succeeded.
This is the answer we give to everyone who asks us about the house. We’ve been enjoying combing through our stack of 6 years worth of Dwell mags and just taking our time during this phase. Joe even slapped some post-it notes on the wall the other day to help us visualize what we’re thinking on each level - you have to start somewhere. We did finally make our short-list of architects (some lofty, some realistic).
Next steps are to make our list of requirements, as well as put together some pretty formalized plans. Then we should be ready to meet with architects.
I’m blushing. We’re long-time readers of apartment therapy san francisco and were so thrilled to see they picked up our wine box shelves. Thanks, Shayna
Ok, so there’s lots of talk on h&f about backyard sheds. This time I’m serious. Joe sent me this link via apartment therapy SF to a shed on Bowen Island in Vancouver. Well, it’s more than a shed. It’s a hotel-shed and it will set you back $175 a night.
Joe and I are definitely going to build some kind of structure in the backyard; we’ve waffled from super-tiny Readymade magazine’s shed like the one Meredith is building in Seattle to a larger shed that could house guests for the weekend (or perhaps more importantly to house us during the major part of our renovation). Did I mention this shed is technically larger than our current digs? Perhaps I’m recalling how utterly cold our house was last winter but I have to say that shed looks pretty cozy.
Do you think we should spend more $$ (and likely more time during the permitting process) and build a bigger shed or stick with a smaller one? Perhaps we should head up to Vancouver to try it out for size.
Here’s a fun video of the photo shoot for Minneapolis based design/furniture company, Blu Dot. A long lost friend Matthew Rezac designed the catalog and it proves he’s still a rock star designer. Having spent 4 years in Minneapolis, I really enjoyed seeing real Minnesota snow in the video as well as a few familiar faces (was that Dean Otto?).
houseandfig.com is Sarah & Joe Hebenstreit. Joe is a ‘Maker’ in all meanings of the word as well as a Product Design Lead. Sarah spends most of her time photographing very cute kids Sarah Wert Photography. We got hitched in July of 2007 and about a month later found ourselves tearing down walls in our new home. You could say we're newlyweds living in a construction zone.
