Many of you have probably heard of Jenn Ski and if you haven’t, well, you’re about to. I first saw her work on Etsy after following a trail of other artists I liked. I was immediately enamored with the organic, mid-century inspired designs that find their way in to much of her work. At times it feels like you’re staring at a series of amoebas - all with the most stunning color palettes! If you’re feeling smitten with these quirky little shapes, you’re in luck. Jenn’s work is surprisingly affordable and can be obtained through her website, www.jennski.com, or from her Etsy shop. For exclusive prints, stop by Vitamin D(esign).

About Jenn:

Jenn Ski is an award-winning graphic designer and artist, with a passion for modern and mid-20th century art and design. In her work, she strives to balance these seemingly unrelated forces. The result is artwork that, while beautifully delicate, is incredibly sophisticated and, in one word, cool.

In 2007, she decided to dedicate full-time to her artwork. Jennski.com opened in June of 2007, offering her original pieces, as well as giclée prints of her digital art.

Technorati Tags: Art, Mid Century Modern, Print

Here is a great combination of shelves and wall graphics that would look great in a kids room. Designed by Thorunn Arnadottir this shelf creates a 3D tree by using various shades of green painted on the wall, as well as the abstract shaped shelving. Unfortunately there is no off the shelf solution (pun intended) if you want to make your own, but with a bit of creativity it could turn into a fun little DIY project.
For inspiration check out Thorunn Arnadottir’s site.

One of the things that I am really excited to do in our new kitchen is install our Bocci 22 outlets. I had seen these outlets a long time ago on Apartment Therapy, and loved the look of them. We had one spot in our kitchen that necessitated us putting an outlet in a very visible space, and we wanted to pretty it up a little. A phone call to our local Bocci dealer revealed that these beautiful minimalist outlets weren’t too expensive. We ended up getting single outlets (just one plug) on accident, but I think it will turn out alright. Our price was $16 each, which isn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things. One of the most expensive parts was the tool that you need to be able to remove the outlet part from the box which was $40. I had a chance to do phase 1 of the install last night so I snapped some pics. Everything went pretty smooth, and I can’t wait to see what they look like after the drywaller comes today.

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Congratulations to Wes from South Carolina for their winning entry “The Kitchen that Google Built“. Wes was able to do an amazing job on his kitchen through a lot of hard work and searching out the best deals online. He poured his own concrete countertops and did an amazing job transforming the space. The before and after photo’s truly are amazing.

Second prize goes to “Simple, Modern, Functional“. It was a close race for second, and in the end it came down to just 3 votes separating 2nd place from 3rd. 2nd place winner Summer from Scottsdale did an equally impressive job of transforming her space. She was able to turn her dark south western kitchen into a beautiful open modern kitchen for just 10k.

A special thank you to all those that entered and shared their knowledge on how to redo a modern kitchen on a budget. I know I have definitely gleaned some ideas for our kitchen remodel.

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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!