Tomorrow is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. While I am certainly not the type to stand in line all night just to get a deal on a DVD player, I am always a big fan of a good sale. If you know of any smoking hot deals, or scored on some sweet goodies for you home share with us here in the comments.

Read more

We’ve been watching the classifieds for a while now to see if we could get any good deals on some of our kitchen appliances. We finally had some good luck the other day when we stumbled across this Siemens Avant Garde hood for only $450. It’s 36″ wide and normal prices are well above $1,000, so we feel like we got a pretty sweet deal. I actually really like the minimalist shape of it too.
We have drywallers coming in tonight to patch up the whole kitchen, hopefully they will be done by this weekend. We will probably start painting and putting in our Roppe rubber flooring sometime next week. Things are finally starting to come together.
One of the last things on the list is to order our countertops. We decided to go with laboratory counters from Trespa. At a quoted price of $15 a square plus fabrication, you just can’t beat the price.

I ran across Alexei Vella’s retro-styled illustrations the other day and was really impressed. His work takes inspiration not only from vintage comics and cartoons, but anything from pop art to pulp posters. Vella’s work, often filled with social or political commentary, displays a certain wit and intelligence that I find irresistible.

From his website:

Alexei Vella specializes in creating images that are both striking and complex, sensual yet undeniably intellectually involving. In order to achieve this unique look, Vella employs a complex colour palette, an eclectic application of graphics and texture, and a sophisticated use of antiquated surfaces. Appropriating the colloquial iconography of popular retro forms to an emboldened modern sensibility, Vella’s work has achieved international recognition appearing in a variety of exhibitions and print.

To see more of Alexei’s work, go to www.alexeivella.com.

Technorati Tags: Art, Mid Century Modern

In high school I used to work at a small local toy store. We carried a lot of great products, but one of my favorites were the wooden trains by Brio. It looks like Brio is good at more than trains. If these simple wooden cribs are made as well as their other products, they are sure to be bomber. It would be interesting to compare the build quality with some of Ikea’s budget cribs. The bad news is that it doesn’t look like these cribs are sold at any US retailers. At £170 including mattress, it seems like it would be a pretty great value.

Available from Panik Design for £170.00.

Anybody know a US retailer?

I never cease to be amazed at how much people will spend on their pets. While I admit that These Creatures pet bowls are pretty nifty, the $125 price tag seems a little insane for a piece of metal. What I did find interesting about this picture though is the countertop and backsplash. It is 100% identical to the stuff I just pulled out of our kitchen, right down to the boomerangs and metal trim.

The update on our little remodel. Rough electrical is 90%, I may actually finish it tonight, and we are getting bids on drywall. Hopefully we should be able to start painting and doing flooring the weekend after Thanksgiving. If all goes well we should be all finished up by Christmas easy. Say goodbye to boomerangs and hello to ABSTRAKT white.

Via Design-Milk

There is officially one week left to vote for your favorite affordable modern kitchen. So far it has been a pretty tight race with The Kitchen that Google built getting an early lead, then falling behind, and now surging back into the lead. Second place has been a tight race between Simple, Modern, Functional and Mid-Century Mod-ification. Ditching the Drywall is still not out of the picture either with a strong fourth place currently. Remember you can only vote once, so make it count.

Vote Here!

We started the week off with affordable modern doors, and we are ending it that way too. Shannnon Walker was mentioned in Monday’s post as an affordable alternative to some of the more expensive “modern” doors available. New to the door industry, Shannon created a orange and stainless door for their modern bungalow remodel. Since then she has been designing and selling doors to people looking for a less expensive alternative. Most prices range between $800 and $1,200 depending on the number of windows. She is working on a website (doorplay.net) but it isn’t ready yet. In the meantime, check out her blog.

Pics of her remodel after the jump.

Read more

While I am a big fan of stark white, I also love it when there is a little color thrown in the mix. These white bone china storage jars seem to get it just about right. Each Cammeo jar is held together with a colorful elastic band that ads a healthy splash of color to the white container. Designed by Louise Campbell for Kahler, I am having a hard time finding anyone stateside that carries them. Anyone know of something similar available in the states?

Available (I think) from Kahler.

This beautiful stroller was designed in the 50’s by Giordani. It’s an absolute work of art as far as I am concerned. They sure don’t make them like they used to.

Found at Factory20.com

Thanks Minervao!