I just got home from a busy trip to Connecticut and I have an endless stack of "to-dos" along with a house full of suitcases and boxes. My house is a disaster zone, including my home office and it reminded me of when I first moved in. We looked at around 30 rental properties before we found the house we are in now and the biggest thing on my list was office/studio space. Before we found our house in Underwood Hills, we were close to signing a lease on a small house with a big yard in Cabbagetown. No office space inside meant I needed to get creative outside. Should I rent a studio space down the road or build one on site? Turns out, after a bit of research if found all kinds of amazing options for backyard shed/studios. Today is the kind of day I wish I could hid out in a backyard office and cram out some work without life distracting me! Check out some of the cool studio spaces I discovered a couple years back and some new upgraded offices I just found (while searching for the motivation to get back to reality).
If you have a minute, check out the full article on this Busy Box Studio on Design Sponge. This shed turned studio gave me my first burst of inspiration! I was on eBay and Craigslist daily, trying to find a used shipping container or trailer that I could transform into a workspace.
Here are a few pre-fab structures by a company called kitHAUS. They come in a variety of sizes and they can be used for an office, art studio, sitting room, cabana, ect. Below the pictures of kitHAUS is an English company that builds eco-friendly garden rooms; they would make a beautiful and professional office but sadly I don't think they can transport the factory build structures from Sussex to Atlanta.
Well it has been a long and busy week and I am excite to be spending Christmas with my family in Connecticut! I am looking forward to the festivities to come this weekend and if I owned this thing I would be prying it open at 4:49 on the dot!
Earliery this week I went to Lenox Mall to do a little Christmas shopping. Because I am offering holiday decorating services this year, I was very inthralled by some of the festive retail displays. It was interesting to see which stores were able to express "holiday" while staying true to a retail brand and this seasons trends. Some of the biggest trends represented in the windows were color pallets (warm metallics and bold/neon colors), and geometry in materials and patterns. GAP and JCrew also used a trendy material, MT washi tape. Have a look at some displays that caught my eye.
Anthropologie was probably my favorite because they used the most original materials and colors. The second image below is of "snowballs" made out of plastic spoons, silver tape and a foam spear. Definitely a "why didn't I think of that" moment!
Diesel had a very shinny window display full of disco balls and diamond shaped ornaments. They were one of many retailers using warm metallic shades like copper, gold, champagne and gunmetal as a color pallet. Below Diesel are two more example of this color trend from Burberry and Express.
Lately I've been very impressed with GAP, I feel like their current textiles and patterns have hugely improved from what they've been selling over the last 10 years. The window display they have this season is a clear representation of how on trend they are this year. JOY written in neon yarn creates a geometric pattern, they used MT washi tape across on the walls, and I love the lit up bike and Polaroid-ish trees. All together it says super hipster to me.
The new Free People Store did a great job of staying within their brand identity: soft, vintage and feminine.
The 'Live Colorfully' concept at Kate Spade was clearly expressed in their holiday decor. Streamers, confetti and super-saturated wrapped boxes make for a very festive party season!
You must see this cool and inspiring video 29 ways to stay creative by Tu-Fu Motion Graphics Studio. I love the message, it made me want to start a project (or finish one) as soon as it was over. BUT I was extra impressed with the motion graphics and the fact that the whole video was done in arial font. Check it out and get creative!
I've also got some tips of my own that may help inspire :)
1. Try working somewhere new. Instead of sitting in your usual chair at your usual desk, find a new nook to work in. Change of scenery always feels like a fresh start to me. It doesn't matter how big your home/office is, you can find a new environment (work outside, on the floor by a window, in the bathtub, on your roof)
2. Get a new sketchbook. If I feel like I've been in a creative funk I treat myself to a new sketchbook. I do the same thing with gym clothes, if I've been bad about working out, a new racer back tank top will put some pep in my step. Because of this habit, I buy small notebooks so I don't feel guilty if I can't fill up all the pages and I often go back to old books.
Attached to this idea, I like to buy different shape sketchbooks every now and then. This challenges you to spread across the pages in a different way than your used to.
3. Sketch in pen. This was taught to me at SCAD and while it's very frustrating in the beginning the pay off is worth it. Since I've started to brainstorm and sketch in pen I have become more comfortable with mistakes and confident when I put something down on paper. Without the option to erase you learn to except your mistakes and power through them. A faster pen on paper gives your mind the opportunity to continuously spit out ideas.
4. Pick up a magazine outside of your medium. I am an interior design magazine junkie and always pull a random handful out of my inventory to flip through when I start a project. Lately I've been looking at food, travel, fashion, knitting, even yoga magazines for inspiration. I think you can pull a more abstract idea from these images; a perfume ad turns into a color palette, a knit pattern into a wall treatment, a photograph of a cupcake starts a mood for a room. The more obscure the magazine, the better exercise for your brain!
I hope you're feeling the creative juices flowing. Now go out there and make something!
A while ago I looked into DNA art for my husband and I. There are a few companies that do it but the one I liked the most (and had the fairest prices) was DNA11. The way it works is: you create a DNA sample with their kit by swabbing the inside of your cheek and mailing it in. They capture your one-of-a-kind DNA strand in some sciencey gel, enhance the image and print the pattern. You can choose your color palette and size. They also do couples portraits, like the black and white one below. I hadn't been on the site in a while and I was excited to see all the new products they have now, like the thumb print collection.
They've also got a lot of great ideas for future products, branching out of hanging artwork and in to home products. Sadly, these are not on the market yet, especially the rug below. It would be really sweet in a nursery or kids room. The second image shows an option to sign the bottom corner.
Above is a DNA wallpaper, a little too big of a personal statement for me but hey- to each their own! I can however, get behind the thumbprint bowl below. It's very subtle and abstract but it would make such a thoughtful and personalized gift.
Another company that is using technology to make abstract art is Vapor Sky. As you can see below, these canvases can get pretty big but I'm happy to say the price range is from $199-$800! The first collection is Resonant Decor, based on a memorable sounds. They they take a sound clip you pick and turn it into a waveform and print it in the color palette you choose.
The second collection, Stellar Decor, is really interesting. This one captures the sky above you during an important memory. You send in the location, date and time and they can determine the exact position of the stars you were looking at using fancy astronomy software. Once they create the image, you can add a personal touch with the color palette.
I found the last company on my friends blog, Living Chic Studio. It's called Love Is Art, and it's a little less "high-tech" and a little more sexy then the products above. You order the Love Is Art Kit and they send you black or blue paint, a large plastic protective sheet, a white canvas, two pairs of slippers and a body scrubber. Scoot the furniture aside, roll out the protective plastic and the canvas, pour some paint and make some love! When your masterpiece is dry bring it to a local framer to have it stretched. I love these samples below, they look great and make for a fun dirty little secret. I don't think I have the guts to hang one over my sofa though..
One of my clients is the team at Best Buy's Southeast Territory Office. We worked together during the move into their new office this summer and last week I decked their brand new halls with Best Buy inspired Holiday decor! We had a lot of space to cover and a tight budget to work with, so I embellished low cost items and handmade the rest. I found wrapping recycled boxes to be the biggest bang for the smallest buck.
The garland above was made with ribbon and CD's and it slowly "twinkles" in the breeze. The wreaths are from ikea, I added the Best Buy Tag and a back side made out of CD's
As a lover of all things creative, I've created this blog to inspire and admire crazy good design. I own Kayte Designs, a small interior design firm with a focus in Hospitality, Residential and Office Design. We are based out of Atlanta, GA.
