Photography is something I've always admired. I like to rescue old family photos from antique stores, appalled at the fact that someone could just toss out the memories. I feel like I'm their salvation, giving them a second lease on life, imagining what their story may have been. What I love most about a photo is its composition, removing the clutter to capture one significant second and all of its details without any of the facts. For me a good photo is one that draws me in and I look at it curiously and ask myself all kinds of questions - that's a great photo.
A few of my favourites:
Once you've found your style, click the browse button and peruse the Sproost catalogue to pick merchandise (sofa, lamp, wallpaper, pillows) that suits your style. Next click the layout button and create a cool mood board with all your favourite finds. It's a blast - give it a try!
Space: Gary Spain
Change is good, right? Well change is coming to ALI.
The NEW ALI blog will be more like a personal journal, focusing on my day to day work with clients and the things we see and do. There will be pictures and videos of projects and project tips and tutorials. And course a live Twitter feed with updates on some of the fun things I see and do while out and about in Vancouver! I'll also be setting up an online shop featuring furnishings and decor I've salvaged and re-finshed.
I'm really looking forward to sharing some of the secret locations I like to shop at, and some of the fabulous places I like to go to, to get inspiration for the spaces I style. Stick with me, because these changes will be happening soon. In the mean time I'll keep you updated with some of the projects I'm working on for the new ALI shop.
Some of my favourite belongings I've found at thrift stores. So I've opted to show you my latest thrift store find - and it's a beauty! A weight scale from Sears Harmony House.
Harmony House was a brand of home furnishings and decor released by Sears in the 1940's. It was an interior decorating scheme made up of 18 harmonizing colours. The palette included colours like: parchment ivory, federal gold, valley rose, jubilee peach and mint green. All colours in the palette we're available in light, medium and dark shades. You would have been able to furnish you entire home in a Harmony House scheme, including appliances, wallpaper, table lamps, clothing hamper, shower curtains and slip covers. It was everything you needed!
Harmony House Weight Scale - $3
If you live with single glazed aluminium framed windows, you might find drafty in the winter and sweltering in the summer. You can either crank the heat or pump the AC. Neither bodes well for environment, or your utilities bill. So what are your options?
Replace your old windows with new high performance windows . At the very least you'll want to use gas filled, double glazed windows with a Low-E coating. The gas fills the space between the two window panes preventing heat loss, while the Low-E coating keeps the warm air in during the winter months, and cool air in during the summer months.
If you don't have the option of new windows, there are alternatives to saving the energy lost through old in-effecient windows.
Buy a Low-E coating film you can apply yourself. Make sure you buy the invisible kind, rather than tinted kind.
Caulk your windows, and place new weather stripping around your doors. Those gaps around your windows and doors let out a ton of heat, by filling the gaps you can cut your loss by 50%
Pull the shades! In the winter months, during the day, leave curtains open and blinds up. This way the sun can warm your space naturally. As the sun sets, trap the heat in by closing your curtains and dropping your shades. Double lined curtains and cel shades make for great window insulators.
Last night my cousin and I spent hours winding our way through Target ...and it was wonderful! I am absolutely smitten with Liberty Of London for Target. The paisley prints, the softs pastels, the clean contrast of black and white. Everything about it evokes charm and sophistication, while Target keeps it inexpensive and fun. Liberty is rather lady like, but slap a dash in any room and you'd have instant charm. The paisley prints evoke memories of the sixties, while the flower prints remind me of my mothers english garden, and all the colour combination are punchy without being over powering.
Interstyle Ceramic & Glass in Burnaby offers some of the most exquisite glass tiles I've seen. Interstyle will source scrap glass to create beautiful recycled glass tiles. The collection includes Aquarius, where crystalline colours are suspended in clear glass. Or Agates, made entirely of recycled glass and polished to form glass pebbles.
Did you know - One ton of glass produced from raw materials creates 384 lbs of mining waste. If 50% of that glass were made using recycled glass, the mining waste would be cut by %75 to only 96 lbs and air pollution would be cut by 20%. Yet 8% of the waste in our landfills is made up of glass. Seeing as glass can be recycled over and over and over again, it is so important that we recycle our glass bottles and jars. You never know where it might end up, a glass tile, a drinking bottle, even a marble!
I really like big letters! They remind me of 1930's theatre marquee letters, changing each individual letter by hand in preparation for a new show. Or what about the signage used outside of 1950's diners, think of LA car hops and girls on roller skates. Maybe I'm just a romantic nostalgist for large letters, a girl can dream.
Urban Outfitter Marquee - $178 US
Etsy Hindsvit - Wood Letter S - $95
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