With all the post holiday sales starting up it's a great time to get online and do some shopping. CB2 currently has things up to 50% off. I noticed all of their Christmas ornaments are about half off, so if there is something you wish you would have gotten for your tree, here is your chance.
They also have quite a bit of furniture on sale like this Track Sofa for only $799. Thats a pretty great looking sofa for a reasonable price. The Peekaboo Spark Bunching Table is another great deal at 50% off. The thick molded acrylic side table has black graphic bursts underprinted on the sides to add a nice touch to the simple design.
More sales at CB2.
Since I won't be posting on Monday or Tuesday of next week I though I would post a link for anyone looking to kill some time during the Holidays. Grace over at Designsponge has been doing a great job compiling all sorts of different guides that are very complete. Product guides include pictures prices and a brief description. I could spend a lot of time sorting through all the great info she has put together.
Check out the Designsponge Guides.
I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from Grassrootsmodern!
Pictured to the left is our tall scraggly crooked Christmas tree that we love. It stands almost 12 feet tall and was hand picked and cut by my little family. We got all the red decorations from Ikea in the "as is" section for $3. There were actually a lot more in the bag that we just didn't use.
Last year we had a big dilemma trying to figure out if we were going to buy a real tree or a fake one, and which was actually better for the environment. We ended up buying one from a local tree farm, and felt good about supporting a local business. This year a friend reminded me that for only $10 you can buy a tag to go into the national forest and cut your own. I checked out the info page on cache national forest, and it turns out that by cutting your own tree you are actually encouraging good tree management in the forest. Who knew that we could save money, have a great time, and help out the forest all at the same time. Continue reading for some pics of our adventure.
We have been doing a lot of shopping at Ikea lately thanks to our 20% cash back sofa credit. We bought two KNAPPA pendant lights for our front room, and last night I put one together and hung it. It comes with a plug end, but I cut the cord and hard wired it into the ceiling. I have to say that at $25 the KNAPPA looks 10 times more expensive than it really is. It totally transformed the look of the room, although admittedly the bare bulb hanging from the ceiling wasn't doing much for the ambiance. Not only does it look great, but it was fun to put together too. I think it actually gives you a little bit more appreciation for the light having put it together yourself.
Available from Ikea for $25.
With our construction updates settling down some of you may be feeling a absence of affordable modern construction conversation. Luckily Grassrootsmodern isn't the only site out there determined to build an affordable modern home. The folks over at 100khouse.com are determined to build a house in Philly for under 100k. Sounds ambitious, but if you consider a thousand square foot home at 100 square foot it starts to sound pretty doable. They are currently in the design phase, but it looks like they are well on their way to meeting their goal.
Check out 100khouse.com
Some times it's the little things that are hard to find. A prime example is a coat hook. Seems like it should be easy to find an inexpensive nice looking coat hook right? Well not as easy as it sounds. David M from Seattle looked all over until he found this Duet Hook for the entry way of his house. The design is simple and unobtrusive, and at $5 the price is right. To make things even better, looks like they are made by a local company called Three By Three who has all sorts of other goodies. Modern, affordable and local, looks like a winner to me.Available from Tiny Living for $5.
Thanks to David M for the tip!
Well yesterday was our last day in NYC. We didn't get everything done that we wanted to (thanks for all the great suggestions) but we did get a lot of it done. Picture posts straight from the iPhone were courtesy of iPhoneslide.com It's a handy service, but posting times were totally erratic. Some posts took almost 24 hours to get up, so sorry about the delay.
Saturday we visited the new Muji store in SoHo. Of course I absolutely loved everything in there. I was surprised a bit by the prices though. Some things were pretty affordable, and others definitely were not. I ended up leaving with an assortment of kitchen goods for a decent price.
Someone asked me what the best part of the whole trip was, and to be honest I can't really pin it down to one thing. I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to pin New York down. It's really the conglomerate of things that makes it so great. We had wonderful food from Little Italy, Little Brasil (which is quite little) and the favorite next to our friends house, Georges Pizza, not to mention lots of great street food along the way. A special thanks goes out to Jon and Emily for letting us crash their great pad for a week and showing us around. We'll be back.
Inside Muji
posted from iPhoneSlide.com
Today we went to MoMA and it was absolutely amazing. It was incredible to see all that great art up close and personal. Being the ID/Furniture geek that I am my favorite part was the design exhibition that featured my favorites like the classic Eames leg splint and chairs shown above. They also had some temporary exhibits of Seurat and Puryear which were very impressive.
posted from iPhoneSlide.comToday was our first full day in New York. We arrived early in the morning after a sleepless night on the plane. In the spirit of being affordable we road the A train for around an hour (instead of just getting a cab) to our friends apt in Washington Heights. We caught an hour or two of sleep and got back on the subway headed for Central Park. The weather was cold but nice and the park was absolutely beautiful. We stopped by the Apple store while we were in the area, and I have to admit I was a little disapointed. Maybe it was just that it seemed so small after Central Park. Tomorrow we plan on going to MoMA and maybe SoHo.
We are leaving to New York City tonight to visit some good friends. We are quite excited, as none of us have been to the big apple before. We have all sorts of things that we want to do and places we want to see, including the Apple Store and SoHo. We will only be there for a few days, (until Sunday) so we won't have a ton of time. So the question for all you seasoned travelers:
If you had one day to spend in New York City, what would you do?
I love wooden toys, especially ones that force you to have a little bit of an imagination. The little bean race car from Nest is just abstract enough to capture the imagination of any kid. It's not just made of wood either. It's green wood, and I'm not talking about the color. Each toy is made from local maple that is sustainably harvested and then they are finished off with a non-toxic yet durable finish. It is available in 4 different colors and sells for $22.
Available from Nest for $22.
In keeping with the holiday spirit I thought I would finish the week off with one more Christmas post. This one comes via treehugger. Designed by Australian Designer Buro North, the "X-Mas Tree" is the first contemporary artificial Christmas tree I have ever seen. Instead of trying to make it look like a real tree, Buro focused on making it look good. What a novel idea. This mod little tree is made of plywood and CNC routed. Not only does it look good, but it's good for the environment as well. Buro has done an entire LCA analysis and states that his tree is 80% more green than a traditional Christmas tree. This flat packed beauty is available in three sizes and prices.
Small $69 AUS - 400mm ($60 USD 16")
Med $229 AUS - 930mm ($201 USD 36")
Large $1619 AUS - 2300mm ($1425 USD 90")
Available directly from Buro North
Making your Christmas tree look just as modern as the rest of your house just got a little bit easier. CB2 has some great modern Christmas tree ornaments this year at a great price. Most of them are priced between $2-$4 with the one big exception being the 8" disco ball looking one which is $20. For the price of that one ugly disco ball you could get ten tasteful little decorations to spread around your tree. I think my personal favorite is clear peace dove priced at $4. We have about 10 small glass globes that we put on our tree every year, and we love them.
Available from CB2 from $2 - $4.
OK do it yourselfers, get out your favorite scissors and construction paper, it's time to get going. Everyone knows that the best kind of affordable is the free kind. Here are two great projects that you can do that will cost you almost nothing. I found the pop up Christmas card on Curbly but it is originally from wikiHow. It has great instructions on how to make your very own card that is just begging to be decorated.
The 3D paper snowflake is via wikiHow as well and has to be one of the best homemade snowflakes I have ever seen. WikiHow has a ton of other holiday related DIY projects too.
DIY Pop Up Christmas card instructions.
DIY 3D paper snowflake instructions.
With the Holidays coming up, its time to start thinking about getting gifts for your loved ones, and how to wrap them up. Gift Tags make a great addition to any present. Of course I think the best ones are the ones you make yourself, but if you are looking for something easier, check out these great Letterpressed Gift Tags from Moda Muse. Designed by Lara Cameron these great 4 x 2 tags are a great finishing touch to any gift. Each pack includes 8 gift tags.Available at Moda Muse for $11.
So we finally went ahead and bought a sofa. It has been over two years since we got rid of our old couch in anticipation of purchasing a new one. We got the KRAMFORS from Ikea as part of their 20% back sofa sale. 20% back isn't quite the same as 20% off, but we figured we would be spending more money at Ikea soon anyway, so it's pretty close. For those of you who aren't quick with the math, we got a $279 gift card for buying our little sectional, which makes it a great deal for only $1,119. The build quality is quite good, but as with all Ikea goods there was a little bit of DIY to get it assembled. The chaise and the love seat connect together with a clamp on the bottom to make them so they don't slide apart when you sit on them. The seat is quite deep and it's almost a little awkward to sit on without a cushion behind you. That said, if you are not trying to sit all proper, and snuggle up on it during a movie it is quite comfortable.
Available from Ikea for $1,119.
When I think of Thomas Paul, I think pillows, but there is much more to the name than that. Thomas Paul also does rugs, lighting, bags and plates, just to name a few. These great Artifacts Dinner Plates are new to Elsewares, and are a great example of the bold eclectic designs of Thomas Paul put to melamine. In fact, they are almost too good to eat on, and would probably look equally as good on the wall. The classic design follows the emerging trend of "Lux Modern" and puts a print you would expect to see on some fine china on inexpensive durable melamine. Did I say inexpensive? Well maybe not too inexpensive. A set of four will still run you $36, which isn't bad, but it isn't cheap either.
Available from Elsewares - $36 for a set four.
Happy turkey day! I'm out of town and away from the computer for the rest of the week (thank goodness for the iPhone) so I will not be posting again until Monday. In the mean time if you are looking to kill some time while your turkey hangover wears off, check out our archives, our blogroll, and sponsors. I hope to be adding to the blogroll over the next few days, so stay tuned.
I have to be honest, bow platform beds aren't exactly my favorite style of platform, but the price on this one seemed to good not to share. From Simplyplatformbeds.com comes this metal bow platform bed for only $330 (for a full sized). Compared to most of the prices I see for this style of bed, that is a steal. The bed is made of chromed steel and looks like it would be quite sturdy. For an extra $300 you can get a thin mattress with a microsuede cover and a couple of pillows as shown in the picture.Available from Simply Platform Beds for $330.
With all the post holiday sales starting up it's a great time to get online and do some shopping. CB2 currently has things up to 50% off. I noticed all of their Christmas ornaments are about half off, so if there is something you wish you would have gotten for your tree, here is your chance.
They also have quite a bit of furniture on sale like this Track Sofa for only $799. Thats a pretty great looking sofa for a reasonable price. The Peekaboo Spark Bunching Table is another great deal at 50% off. The thick molded acrylic side table has black graphic bursts underprinted on the sides to add a nice touch to the simple design.
More sales at CB2. 
