If you have been living under a rock, prepare yourself. I'm about to blow your mind. Salt Lake City now has a West Elm! It is kind of cool seeing Salt Lake City starting to act like a real city. It is sort of like being proud of your kid sister when she finally makes it into high school and doesn't act like a total dork. 

West Elm is not dorky at all, in fact it is pretty amazing. I had the chance to hang out with the kind folks from West Elm over the last couple of days and talk to them about what they are doing different, and I have to say I'm quite impressed. The number one thing is their focus on local. Something arguably hard for a nation wide chain to do. In SLC they have teamed up with Craft Lake City who has curated a group of four local Etsy shops that will have their products featured in the City Creek West Elm store. They have a solid lineup to start things off and will be featuring the following…

Stacey Foster (Fletcher & Fox)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/FletcherandFox

Lisa Steadman Photography

http://www.etsy.com/shop/diemdesign

Say hello Shop

http://www.etsy.com/shop/sayhelloshop

Sycamore Press

http://www.etsy.com/shop/sycamorestreetpress

Here are a few shots I took from their open house party they had last night…

Smilebooth was amazing… 

The amazing Elizabeth of Fleur de Sel fame.

Looking for full sized photos? Check my Flickr page.

Lately I've been really enamored with facets and geometry. With that in mind, I'm going to go ahead and declare that this Large Block Clock by Such + Such is amazing. Each clock is made from North American hard maple and is individually numbered. 

Large Block Clock by Such + Such $219

Best Made threw the whole internet into a tizzy when they first released their equally beautiful and functional axes. At least I assume they are functional. Chances are if you are going to take one into the woods to let your inner Paul Bunyan out, you might want to keep that pretty thing protected while in transit. Enter the new Best Made Canvas Axe Case. 

Coincidently, if you'r not looking to drop a bunch of money on a Best Made Axe, check out my friend Chris's tutorial on how to make your own DIY painted axes.

Best Made Canvas Axe Case $110

Just a quick shout out today for micklish. I posted about them a few months ago, and I'm totally stoked to see them on Fab today.  This is really the heart of indie manufacturing in the US today. One guy designing and making beautiful products. Support your local designer and go buy some stuff on Fab.

micklish on Fab

While you're at it, like them on FB too. 

It's been a little while since I posted about Toast's iPhone covers. Since then it seems like there has been plenty of competition in the area. Well it looks like they are stepping up the game once again, this time with the iPad. I really love this look. Huge props for the subtle relief on the sides so that they form to the case better. Part of me almost feels like this is the way the iPad should have come from Apple. Of course this is one of those things where real life experience can make it or break it, so if you get a chance to see one of these in the wild, let us know. Available in walnut or white washed ash. 

Toast iPad cover $45

I've always been a fan of quilts ever since I was a kid. For one Christmas I remember the only thing I wanted was to have my mom make me a nice heavy quilt. Lucky for me she delivered, unlucky for me I picked out a black and forest green flannel. Flash forward 20 years and my mom and I are still talking about quilts. Luckily our taste has evolved and there are some amazing modern quilts out there. If you haven't seen the work of Barbara Perrino you are seriously missing out. She was nice enough to recently send some pictures of her latest work my way.  Check them out below.

b/perrino quilts

I'm always interested to see what takes off on Kickstarter, and what doesn't. The Jack planter above seems like something that should be super successful. It's playing to the MCM vibe, filling a market that is relatively untapped (outdoor modern planters) and is reasonably priced. What's more, the campaign seems very transparent in that the majority of the money is going straight to the people actually building the things.  Last and not least, they only need $6,200 to be funded. That's not much for a kickstarter campaign.  Sadly so far it has only received $1,400 of funding and it only has 7 days left. 

Love it? Support it. 

If you don't think it should be funded, let us know why in the comments. 

Jack planter

Everyone loves Best Made. Sure at first it was all pretty axes, but now they have branched out quite a bit. Their latest release is this Duck Canvas Utility Tray. So what say you? Another home run?

Available in a small 6.5" (d) or large 10" (d).

Best Made Duck Canvas Utility Tray $26 - $32

There are a few constants in my life lately, namely I'm in love with brass, and I'm a sucker for bottle openers. Obviously I fell in love with this one.

Hand carved from wax, these brass bottle openers are left unfinished to allow a unique patina to develop over the facets and textures in each handle. The wide opening allows the head to land firmly on the top of any bottle. 

I own a few brass bottle openers (told you I'm a sucker) and one of my favorite things about them is the weight. I have a feeling this one wouldn't disappoint either. 

Bottle Opener from Fort Standard $73

A few weeks ago I went to the Park City Arts Festival. For some reason arts festivals always sound exciting and interesting but inevitably end up having the exact same things I saw the year before.  Really, how many different booths do we need for wooden cutting boards made out of different types of wood?

The one shinning star that did stand out was Robert Siegel's ceramics. Sure they weren't totally original, we've seen similar designs from Pigeon Toe ceramics and others, but amongst all the other booths it was a beautiful thing to see. Make sure you check out his Kauai collection shown above as well as his standard line. 

All of his prices are very reasonable for a hand made product.

Robert Siegel Ceramics

Here is a Kickstarter project that was destined for success from day one. First off it's designed by one of my favorite designers Eric Pfeiffer. Second, it holds wine, which everyone loves. Third, it looks great. The fantastic photos that accompany it don't hurt at all either. The STACT modular wine rack is made of aluminum and your choice of wood, and is a modular system that can grow and move with you. It puts your bottles on display, and equally important, close at hand. 

The Kickstarter project still has 28 days to go and has already doubled the funding it needs to get off the ground.  Mark my words folks, this is your chance to get it for a great deal. After this I bet it will still be produced but prices will go up.

STACT modular wine rack, starting at $95.

I stumbled across these three affordable modern side tables on Overstock.com today and figured they were worth sharing. As is always the case, you get what you pay for, but at least your not paying much. The Dyer End Table (above) has a great simple wire base and a "engineered wood" top with a  basswood veneer. The consensus in the reviews seem to back up the fact that it's solid. If the top doesn't age well, hit up your local stone yard for a marble remnant. 

Dyer End Table $60

The Triplet Round Glass Top with Tripod Base end table (talk getting literal with the names) is also a looker. The chrome and glass give it a much more contemporary look than the Dyer above. Again the reviews are almost all positive with most of them making comments on how sturdy it was. Again at $60 the price is right.

TRGTWTB end table $60

I'm not sure whether it's better to describe Vanessa Gade's work as wearable sculpture or jewelry, but either way I'm in love. She combines simple materials and simple shapes to make breathtakingly beautiful pieces of art. This year at Dwell On Design she introduced her new FORME line which explores more organic geometric shapes. She draws inspiration from her surroundings, everything from flagstone pathways to the overlapping power lines of the MUNI train in San Francisco. 

A special thanks to Vanessa for sending me a beautiful necklace (above) for my girlfriend*. 

Vanessa Gade

I've mentioned before my infatuation with bags, but did I admit I love shoes too? A year ago I bought these great Allen Edmonds that I absolutely adore. The natural coloring on them is what won me over. Well last week I decided it was time to retire my Nau messenger bag and get something a little smaller to carry to work everyday. I've been wanting a good quality leather satchel for years, so I took it as a sign from the gods that I had just gotten a 30% off code at Bonobos and they had the BillyKirk School boy satchel in stock. The hefty price tag and a bad review almost discouraged me from pulling the trigger, but ultimately I decided it was just too irresistible. I've only had the bag for about a week now, but I'm absolutely ecstatic about it. The quality seems superb, the leather is beautiful and soft, and it happens to match my shoes almost perfectly. I snapped the above instagram picture in the elevator the other day when I first noticed it. 

Billy Kirk School Boy Satchel $365

On the other end of the financial spectrum, right before I went to New York last week I picked up this little duffel made by a local company Springbar. They usually make heavy duty waterproof canvas tents, and this Basic Duffel is made out of the same waterproof canvas. Basic is a great word to describe it too. It's pretty much a no frills duffel, it doesn't even have a shoulder strap. The canvas is amazing though. It's a great blue/green/gray color, totally waterproof, and strong as hell. Oh, and the $17 price tag is pretty sweet too. 

Basic canvas duffel $17

So a few people asked about the clothes rack I made for the Evo Conference a few weeks ago. While it's a pretty straight forward project I figured I would do a little write up in case anyone else is interested.  First and for most I should give a shout out to Patch Davis a used-to-be-local friend of mine. I first saw a very similar design in his shop 6 months ago, so credit goes to him. And now for the how to….

The basic idea is to get a large rustic beam and use it as a heavy base for a free standing clothes rack. You will need the following:

Wooden Beam

Black gas pipe

Drill

Drill bit

For this specific project I wanted to make two decent sized "cups" to hold T Pins for the real world Pinterest pin boards they had, so I used a hole saw and hammer and chisel for that part. It's totally optional, but it is a nice touch, and a good place to put some random items.

Probably the hardest part was sourcing the wood. This particular piece was approximately 8" x 14" and just under 4' long. You will probably have the best luck looking for something from an architectural salvage place, or if you are lucky a local saw mill. The rougher the better.

Once you have your wood, and it's cut down to length (I had to use a bow saw) all you need to do is drill holes for your gas pipe. I was aiming for around 54" of clear space so for the vertical pieces I bought one 10' piece of pipe and had Home Depot cut it in half. The horizontal bar was a pre-cut (and threaded) 36" pipe. I used two 90 degree angles to hook it all together. I think the pipe comes in 1/2" or 3/4". I like the look of the 3/4" better.

To drill the holes into the wood I bought a 1 1/8" flat bit. 1 1/16" would have been a tighter fit, but they didn't have it. Hook all your pipes together, measure the distance center line to center line, and then lay it out where you want it on the log. Drill the holes nice and deep, say 4" (or as long as the bit is) and then just slide the pipes in. Walla, you have a clothes rack. 

As I mentioned above, there are some small touches that make it look a bit better. The "cups" I just used a 3" hole saw, then used a hammer and chisel to clean the holes up. I also mounted some scrap 3/4" wood I had laying around on the bottom of the beam. I set it back 3" or so from all the sides so you wouldn't see it. The result was a nice little shadow line all the way around the bottom.

Total cost? About $60 for the pipe and drill bit plus whatever you pay for the wood. 

Questions? Comments?

I'm finally ready to admit my vacation is over and get back to the grind. I have a whole bunch of great content coming up from personal projects to great independent designers and even a dash of fashion. To make sure you don't miss anything, make sure you subscribe to our "newsletter" to get a fresh daily helping of design in your inbox. I use mailchimp, so unsubscribing and setting preferences is super easy.

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"toast" icon by Zyneth

Braun Toaster (HC1 I believe) picture at MoMA found here. 

I'm currently wrapping up a week long vacation (two more days in Cape Cod) in which I got to spend a few days in one of my favorite cities, New York. While there I did all the usuals, walked the High Line, dinner and drinks in Brooklyn (thanks Do or Dine!) amazing corn on the cob from Cafe Habana, and of course a little shopping in SoHo.

One of the best surprises was finally stumbling upon Bobby Berk Home, and the amazing Bobby Berk himself. Bobby Berk Home was a long time advertiser on Grassrootsmodern, but it's surprising how easy it is to abstract a person or place which you have no personal relationship with. I've heard great things about him from fellow bloggers Capree and Jaime and I have been Facebook friends with Bobby for a while so I knew his face. When I saw his shop I popped my head in and asked if he was around. Unfortunately he wasn't. After looking around his fantastically curated store, I was heading out just as he was coming into the store. Thankfully I recognized his face and had a chance to introduce myself and my girlfriend to him. I can now confirm that all the rumors are true. He's an amazingly nice guy, and has a great shop. If you ever find yourself around any of his 4 stores, make sure you stop and take a look. If you are in SoHo, don't be shy, ask if he's around. Oh, and of course you can check out his stores website (20% off Gus Modern this week!)

Thanks Bobby! It was great meeting you finally. 

Photo by Donny Tsang - New York Times.

So yesterday I had a chance to get back up to the Canyons to take some better pictures of the suite. The picture above is probably my favorite of the bunch. It's always great when you get to put two Eames Lounge chairs in a space. The Cush rug from BluDot is pretty great too.

Doing the design in the suite I had two big challenges. First to make it not look like just another Park City rustic hotel room. This was actually pretty hard to do. Above are two pictures that show what the space looked like when we started. The top one is from the exact same view as the first Eames Lounge picture. Which do you like better?

To start we did a lot of taking things out. All of the furniture was removed from the room as were the cushions on the built in benches. Curtains were taken down, doors were removed etc. We even took down some light fixtures. Stripping everything out made the space so much better. There was still a lot of rustic feeling in the form of knotty pine woodwork that I could get rid of, but I had a plan for that. Now I just had to fill the space up with something that looked good. That brings us to the second problem.

Everything I put in the room had to be eco conscious. Everything. Ebay has a little primer for buying green that became my mantra.

#1 Buy Pre Owned - The greenest product is the one that already exists. 

#2 Resource Saving - Do more with less.

#3 Sustainable - Materials Matter

Luckily I had some good guidance in this area from Zem of Ecofabulous. I generally think of myself as an eco aware guy but it's absolutely amazing how much more she knew about everything green. It was very educational for sure.  

So without delay, here is the rest of the suite, and what went into it.

Entering into the suite there was a big ugly closet that greeted everyone. I took care of it by covering it with a large white board and some Urbio containers full of succulents. Not only did Urbio just win best accessory at Dwell on Design, it's also made of recycled plastic (#3). To top it off Beau, one of the designers, is an incredibly nice guy.

Also in the front entryway was a little niche that needed to be filled up. I used a Way Basics shelf here (and in several other places in the suite) because it's super affordable and made of 99% recycled material (#3). I filled it up with items I found at local thrift stores (#1).

Around the corner there is a short hall that looks into the kitchenette which is just off the main room. It's not the best looking kitchen so I gave it a little shield with a GORGEOUS rosewood Eames screen (#1) and a flower arrangement.

The main room is dominated by two vintage Eames Lounge chairs (#1) a small tulip style side table (#1) sitting on a wool Cush rug by BluDot (#3).

The wood benches needed some sort of padding on them because we removed the horrible looking pads there were on them. I covered two of them with 1" thick felt  (#3) held in place with a rug pad. The felt is actually made of wool and recycled synthetic content (like recycled bottles). Pillows are fantastically eco friendly and come from Inhabit (#3). 

The other two benches were covered with wool Flokati rugs (#3) held in place by a rug pad. Lots more pillows from Inhabit (#3) too.

Also in the main room were two Way Basics shelves side by side that I filled up with vintage pieces (#1) and succulents. 

My favorite part of the shelf unit is a fantastic pair of white wooden clogs (#1) lit from above by the  Pablo Clamp Lamp (#2)(#3).

Speaking of lamps, I didn't get a good photo of it, but the Moooi Miyake table lamp (#2)(#3) is pretty fantastic as well although I do wish it put out a bit more light.

Perhaps my favorite piece in the room were the 6 Coventry Stools by Studio Dunn (#3). The are a nice little bit of eye candy for the room and they provide flexible seating or a convenient place to set a drink. Also a huge thank you goes out to the guys from Studio Dunn who built these 6 stools and shipped them to Utah with just a week or two of heads up. 

The last seating area is the dining table built in bench. Unfortunately I couldn't remove those cushions, but I was surprised that they didn't look as horrible as I thought they would. In front of the bench is a vintage Brown Saltman coffee table by John Keal (#1) lit from above by a Claudo pendant by Cerno (#2). The wall behind the bench was covered with raw Wall Tiles by Inabit (#3).

There were two good outdoor patios that I filled up with vintage Bertoia chairs (#1) a vintage teak bar cart (#1) Emeco 111 Navy chairs (#3) and Tom Dixon Offcut stool (#3).

Last but certainly not least was the green fashion room. I designed three literal Pinterest pin boards for attendees to use. The idea is they pick out outfits from the clothes in the room, pin them to the board, and share them on Pinterest. The person with the outfit that gets the most pins wins and iPad. You should be able to see all the outfits by looking for the ebaygreenstyled hashtag on Pinterest. 

Also in the room is the reclaimed clothes rack I designed. A few people have asked for more info on it, and I'll give a better DIY on how to make your own next week. 

I finally broke down and bought a Nest thermostat a few days ago. I can honestly say that it's the first time in a long time that my expectations have been exceeded across the board with a new purchase. That's not to say that I had low expectations either. I had seen the Nest in friends homes, and I knew it was good looking. I wasn't expecting it to be so well thought out from beginning to end though. First off I ordered it from Apple.com and received it like 2 days later. Next came the installation which was super easy, the thing even comes with it's own multi tip screw driver. Setup continued to be a cinch, getting it connected to my wireless network and controlling it from my phone took all of 10 minutes to do. I honestly don't have anything bad to say about it at all. 

Who else has a Nest? What's your favorite thing about it?

Nest

I posted a while ago about the Bexar leather tote I got hooked up with. I'm still in love with the bag and grab it for my go to tote. Well if you've been on the fence, now is your chance to get your own. Bexar is having a 25% off sale on everything on their website. Good through July 5th.

Bexar