shak-shuka

SerpentSea Rugs - Oh My!

By now you know me - I love good lighting and good floor materials. My theory is this: the better you can distract people's attention up or down when they come into your "in-between" designing home, is ideal. I have so far succesfully attracted visitors to do nothing but stare at our beautiful etched ceilings (done by the original home designer, not us - don't get excited!) or the lighting that we installed. Voila! (almost) DIY magic.

Floors, rugs - oh my! My feet were doing a giddy step when I saw these rugs made from recycled rope, reminiscent of a nautical adventure. I saw them on Re-Nest and fell in L-O-V-E! SerpentSea rugs come in a variety of colors and are destined to make it into my home and help distract from the explosion of toys around it, instead I want to hear the "oohs and ahhs" of "where did you get that?! I love it! It's so unique!". I think SerpentSea manages to do something that I don't see that often: make a rug in an eco-friendly way, but also keep it as clean and polished as if it were set only for a design store. Shiver me timbers, I've set sail on the SS SerpentSea!

 

Chilly Weather Home Decor

Crisp crisp autumn weather I love you! It brings together the best of both worlds: a bit of the sunshine of summer and the chilly jacket-worthy feeling of winter. I seriously could not be in more love!

With this change of weather, I feel myself already gravitating towards warmer, toastier fabrics like wool, sheepskin and fleece. This fabric change has even got me thinking about our home, and I saw that the spirited designer Donna Wilson has a new range of woolen items - this drool-worthy kelim rug, zigzag pouffe, and hilarious Bla Bla blanket. I first discovered Donna Wilson's range when I saw her porcelain plates in one of my favorite decor shops and frantically started Googling how to hang plates on the wall. Yes, it might sound Grandma-ish, but it looks so cool! Wilson doesn't forget the youngins in your life, as she has a Make Your Own Monster Kit that I think almost every little boy and girl I know would love!

Must Have: The Dots

Things are picking up around here at Casa Shuka: corners have been filled, chairs have been bought (and broken in by both the child and the dog) and now the walls are crying out "we're naked! please help us by putting something on us!". Who knew walls could be so demanding??!

We have this wall that is a covered fireplace (boohoo - we love fireplaces!) and therefore the wall is really prominent and since it's in the dining room, it's really a focus point. I have debating about trying to make it look like a real fireplace (think a mantel, fake fire wall decals, the works!) but then I thought it might look a bit too cheesy. Then I remembered something that I had seen in Copenhagen and think it might be the solution to my naked-wall-conundrum: Muuto the Dots. Yes, they're Dots, and sure, they can hold things, but I really love the way they occupy the wall as if they were pieces of art and you don't really have to hang things on them, right?! They're made from sustainably-harvested oak, come in packs of 5 or singles, and are available in a natural color, black, or call me crazy - yellow! I'm actually thinking that the yellow might be just the punch our dreary dining room needs, and if we run out of coat rack space, you know where to hang your jacket!

Acapulco Chair that Rocks!

Not sure if it's just me, but I am a BIG rocking fan - by that I don't mean music, I mean I love rocking chairs. This love has become even more intense now that I have a bun in the oven, as I imagine myself feeding the little babe in a chair rocking us both into oblivion. Bliss!

Funny how things work, because this weekend we were headed to a market, passed by a beautiful floral shop that also sold some fun items, including a (gasp!) Acapulco Chair - yes, like the ones that the Kennedy's rocked on back in the day in their resort homes. To be honest, I don't really care about the iconic status of the chair, because once my tush hit that seat, it was a match made in heaven! Part of me didn't want to get out of the chair, while the other half, just, well - couldn't (I'm much heavier these days!). When I got home, I researched and browsed to see if I could find the chair anywhere, and to my amazement I discovered they make a rocking version! Be still my beating (or should I say rocking?!) heart! There are a few places that you can get this chair, but the most eco-friendly option seems to be hailing from a Brooklyn factory - GreenPointWorks - where they make everything locally with local materials. Durable enough to withstand the outdoors, but I am picturing this rocking chair in our bedroom with a nice sheepskin rug on the back for added padding.....don't expect me to get out - EVER!

PS: for those of us in Europe, I discovered this site that does ship (for a fee!) to us

DIY Bedroom Advice

Rather than share an item or find that we discovered, we thought it was best to ask the advice of our experts - YOU! You see, in preparing our house to look somewhat inhabitable, we've run into a problem that we can't seem to figure out: we have a lovely bedroom with a terrace off of it, a decent sized closet, decoration at the ready for all the other walls, but we have this stubborn wall behind our bed that has this strange phone jack/outlet line that we don't know how to remedy. So we're asking for your help, advice, ideas, craftiness to help us resolve this problem, albeit quickly and cheaply if possible (haha). We've thought about a headboard, but not sure if we want to make such a serious investment if we end up hating it. There are a few restrictions (the house nightstands that we love next to the bed) which means it can't be too big, and we had the idea of putting nightstand lights on the wall, but that depends on what we end up doing to cover up that horrible cable/line behind the bed. Please share your ideas about how we can remedy this eye-sore of a problem!

 

Raamtekens: Window Beauty+Function

One of the most striking things about living in the Netherlands (to foreigners or expats) is that the Dutch leave their windows without curtains or blinds to cover themselves, or their homes, up. I heard that it was a demonstations to prove that people had nothing to hide, so passer-byers can easily walk by and take a peek into nearly every Dutch home. And the funniest part is that we're not talking tiny windows that are not at eye-level, we're talking HUGE floor to ceiling windows similar to those you'd find in a store front!

Even though I love Dutch design, I'm a bit more modest and, to be honest, feel like I want to hide a lot of what goes on in my house (most important the constant mess!). Having said that I do have something to hide, we have these lovely eye-level windows in the front of our house that we've been trying to address for a while now. There is a great recycle store here in Rotterdam, called Studio Hergebruik, and in their window I saw the solution: Esther X's Raamtekens. They look like semi-transparent figure-8's, and can be linked together to either create a room divider, or a window screen, just like we were looking for. In the past we've used this horrible foggy-looking cling film to cover the bottom of the windows so people can't see in, but this is a much more stylish and eco-friendly solution (they're made from recycled advertising signs). The toughest part for us was deciding which color/pattern to choose from (there are MANY!) and now we're working on the design part that will fit our window. So far, so good - we'll post pictures once you can't see in the house!!!

Matchbox Lights - Light Me Up Please!

As always, on Mondays you're hearing me whine about what still needs to be done in our DIY-haven. I guess in a way I'm/you're lucky, as I worry more about the design "fluff", while Papa Shuka takes care of the more pressing things, such as broken water boilers, mold, and peeling paint. Yuck! Much more fun to talk about chairs, throw pillows and such....

So as you can imagine this week I've been turning my obsessive design eye to our bedroom. We have a pretty modest sized bedroom, so I don't know how you feel about small rooms, but I really feel that everything in a small room needs to be tiptop-to-die-for-perfect, as there is such limited space I don't want any crap! Having said that, we have some great bedside tables, but above our bed there is a void which needs to be filled by a photograph or something (we'll get to that another week as part of it always has to cover up this horrendous utility plug that's just above our heads!) - but now we really need some night bedside lighting. We don't have that much space left on the wall, so it needs to be something compact and functional: I asked, I found it at Papiermier - this great online shop in Belgium that has me weak in the knees. First of all, I have already filled my shopping cart with these Matchbox Lights that fit my nighttime reading needs to a tea and are made from recycled cardboard and FSC paper (double green yay!). Continuing my snooping around the shop, I was literally drooling when I saw this Recycled Paper Pulp Clock - I mean, really!!? Who would think of something so cool? I surely didn't but I'm glad I ran into Papiermier to solve 2 of my design-y needs (lighting, one more cool clock for the house so Papa Shuka isn't ALWAYS late).

Wooly Sofa Chair Lovin'

We're in the lazy final stages of decorating our home, which means there are empty walls and empty corners just about everywhere. I don't know if it's just us, who gets in this comfort zone with an incomplete-decoated home...please tell me we're not alone!

Lately I've gotten incredibly aggravated by the empty corners which desperately need some sort of sitting-type-thingie. I toyed with the idea of one of those (incredibly uncomfortable but uber-stylish) Eames rocking chairs, but that didn't jive for both me, my tush, or my hubby. Look, look, look and BOOM! Thank goodness for great Dutch magazines like 101 Woonideen that make my lazy-decorating life so much easier! I fell in love with this Woolen Cushion fold-out bed/chair (called "Slaapstoel" in Dutch) from Atelier van Eeden. Made from woolen blankets and sewn together in a few parts with some great details (love the edging), this easily converts from a comfortable sofa-like chair into a bed in a few folds. Not only do I love that it looks different than most of the chairs/seats that I've seen out there, I love that it will serve as double duty once the kids start having sleepovers and we need something low and soft to sleep on! Choose from a pinky-rosey color, or a more minty version that I'm coveting....

ferm LIVING New Collection

So you've heard me say that there is a definite baby boom in the works. And no, I'm not just talking about Hollywood. Babies are popping up around me like little tulips showing their faces around the canals! All of them lovely, but only one of them will rob you of your sleep (I say it with love!).

I'm really pleased that a few of my friends are having boys, and I'm finding that it's a really fun challenge to shop for a baby boy. Girls things can be found quite easily anywhere, but a cool, hip gift for a boy that both kiddo and parents will like isn't that easy. Thankfully the new collection from ferm LIVING fits that bill to a perfectly-fit onesie. Forget pastel blues and boring bears, this collection brings eco-hipness (all items are fairly made and most are from organic fabrics) to another level - I mean, have you ever given a giant snake, octopus mobile or robot to a budding little man? My guess is you haven't.....yet!

(Vegan) Animal Trophy

There are a few walls in our house that are naked, and in desperate need of some interior design TLC. A few of them I'll leave blank, because Papa Shuka really likes the "feel" (because it clearly isn't a reality) of a gallery-like-all-white-space. So I give him a few walls - don't say I don't love him!

I really wanted something a bit different for these walls, as it could really help bring the room together. One room in particular - the dining room - has this huge long standout wall, where a fireplace used to be, which would be perfect for something a bit tongue-in-cheek. Bingo: perusing my new favorite online store for quirky items - the Otherist, I laid eyes on it: a (cardboard) Animal Head trophy! I searched online for other versions, and found that the brand who makes them - Cardboard Safari - does not only make a Stag or Moose, but also Bison, Elephants, Rhinos - so wherever you live and whatever your local animal of choice would be for hunters, here's your answer. Being a vegan, I would NEVER ever think of hanging up the real thing, and these Cardboard Safari goodies do the trick of making a statement (for animal rights and interior decorating-wise) in more ways than one. So glad that I have one less wall to decorate, and knowing that found a new (fake) animal for our home!