While I am not usually a fan of wicker style chairs, I have to admit the the new ANGE chair from Ikea is pretty good looking. Based around a black steel frame, twisted paper provides a seating surface similar to rattan, only softer. The twisted paper also brings a “green” element to the chair also, since it is possibly recyclable at end of life. Priced at $129 each, its certainly not the cheapest chair available from Ikea, but compared to the competition it’s still a pretty good deal.
Available from Ikea for $129.

Here is a good example of how to make a small space seem much larger.

Here are a couple Craigslist finds for you locals. Some are better than others.
First an Ikea Poang chair with ottoman for only $25. You almost can’t go wrong there. It says that it is re-upholstered in medium moss green, which sounds pretty nice. Unfortunately no pictures.
A little more upscale, and expensive is this barely used Mies Leather day bed. I’m no Mies expert, so I’m not sure if it’s a knock off or not, but this is definitely a classic modern piece that would look great in just about any house. Price is $900.
Last is a olive sofa set. I’m not too crazy about the color, but the couch has some nice simple lines. They are less than a year old, so they are in good shape. Asking price is $950, but since they are moving in three days it’s negotiable. Included is a couch, love seat, chair and two ottomans. That’s a lot of couch.

I’ve never been a big fan of carpet, so even though our new house has some fairly decent carpet, one of the first things we did was to tear it all out. We knew that underneath there were hardwood floors (red oak) but we didn’t know what condition they would be in. Unfortunately when we got them uncovered we found a couple of spots that were in pretty rough shape. We were planning on just doing a nice dark stain, but depending on how they turn out after sanding we may have to fall back on our backup plan of painting them. I have a feeling though that we may just end up staining them, and getting a rug to cover the real bad spots. We hope to sand the floors this weekend, so we’ll see…
We also went ahead and tore out all the baseboard and casings around the doors, and for the past two weeks I have been mudding and sanding them smooth. It should be a much cleaner look.

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I’ve been a big fan of Ready Made for awhile now, but have never really gotten around to subscribing. Truth is, I’m too much of a cheap skate and I am always looking to get things for free. I was active on their forums for a while, but that didn’t quite cut it for me. Well it looks like I just got my way. Ready Made now has a completely digital version online, and it’s completely free. I can handle that price. What’s more, the online software is actually quite nice. I have had some digital subscriptions before through Zino, and whatever Ready Made is using seems to be a big improvement over those. This month there is a great article on Prefab Within Reach that looks at several prefab projects from $6,000 and up. Definitely worth checking out.
Check out the online free version of Ready Made here.

Ok, I know that some of you have been anxious to see some pics of our new home. These pictures are actually from our inspection, and not of the best quality, but it should give you an idea. Nothing too exciting about the home architecturally. Because of the landscaping and a fence you really can’t see the shape of the house at all. There is a basic floor plan after the jump. The garage is a flat roof, and the main building has a very low pitched roof that is tar and gravel. The exterior cladding is blue aluminum, which we don’t love. The whole home is made of 50’s cinder block that has a 4″ x 24″ profile. The are quite a few whole interior walls that are just painted block. Eventually we would like to redo the exterior cladding, but that is a way down the road. The yard is all native plants, no grass. We have two huge black walnut tree’s in our back yard which we love.
Our first project is to rip out all the carpet in the upstairs and uncover the Oak floor. Rip off the base and case, and paint everything white. We are right in the middle of it right now, and I’ll be updating you soon. I’ll also see if I can’t get some better pictures over the weekend.

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I love DIY projects, especially when you are able to get a high end look for an affordable price. Somehow it seems that a lot of those involve Ikea somehow. This one is no different. John and Kristie wanted a nice looking pendant chandelier for their dining room table, but they didn’t want to spend a lot of cash. The budget was around $300 which isn’t much considering the size of a pendant they wanted. With a little ingenuity and some KRYSSBO lamps from Ikea they were able to make a very nice pendant chandelier. They were also nice enough to share their project over at instructables so that others can do it as well.
Check out instructables for full DIY instructions and more pictures.

My wife is a wonderful cook, so bringing leftovers to work always sounds better than hitting up the old cafeteria. Soups have been a challenge in the past though, as we don’t really have a great soup thermos. I came across this great thermos from plastica over at Popgadget, and it looks like it might be just the thing I need. It keeps your food hot for 12 hours, or cold for 20, holds 3.5 cups and even comes with it’s own spoon that locks into the handle. What more could you need?
Available from Plastica for $30

Local readers probably already caught wind of this; a seven story condo made of orange shipping containers dubbed “City Center Lofts” is planned for construction in downtown Salt Lake City. I’ve always been interested in shipping container construction for it’s affordability, and I am eager to see if in this project it will transfer that affordability to the end user. My guess is probably not. Still with radiant heat expansive windows and a great downtown location, this could still be one cool place to live. More than anything it’s interesting to see modern architecture and design become more accepted in such a conservative state. The container building is designer by container pro Adam Kalkin, and backed financially by Adam Price, a lawyer and developer.
For more information check out the article in the Salt Lake Tribune

City Center Lofts Website

Flor has been expanding their collection of carpet squares in leaps and bounds lately. I noticed that they now have a Martha Stewart line, as well as a Disney line. While neither of those two sound too appealing to me, the idea of an Alexander Girard line does. Although Alexander Girard has and extensive range of iconic patterns, it seems like they are focusing on his famous suns from the La Fonda Del Sol restaurant. These brightly colored sun faces with their bold patterns may be a little much for most rooms in my home, but they may fit in perfectly in a nursery. What do you think, would you be interested?
If your are interested, you can sign up now for a special introductory offer and more details at Flor’s website.