Les Rousses

Timo Sarpaneva's cast iron cookware in an awesome kitchen- the best photo from 1977's encyclopediac The New Larousse Gastronomique, a parental Christmas present a few years ago. Brought to mind via Andy's items he's about to not win •here•

Distressed Finnish

Aalice Cooper Alvar Aalto Maash Üpp, from the pages of 

Wary Meyers' Tossed & Found

President Ford Sat Here

Convertible coffee table, from the garage sale of one of President Ford's speechwriters a few years ago in Connecticut. In it's low position it's a 4 ft wide David Hicks-ian coffee table, but then the seats pull out and the legs spring down and it's a regular table. He said many nights they'd all play bridge on it, with White House cards and an ashtray from Air Force One. 

Every year around this time I think about what a perfect Holiday dinner "kid's table" this will make someday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Chaiseburger in our dining room.

Go West, Young People

Reference Library/Stork Bites Man & South Willard join together like a Lego to present Shrimp Shop, which will likely be the coolest shopping experience you'll ever have with your kid. Happening from this Saturday with an opening bash at 2-4pm.

South Willard

8038 W. Third St.

Los Angeles, CA

More info here.

Below, two of our contributions: an old Creative Playthings Magnaforms and little kid-size Birdwell Beach Britches from the Salvation Army in Key Largo. We would have sent more but our own shrimp is due in a month and he'll be bummed enough he missed the Shop without us sending all his neat toys.

Kachelofen

West German WESO ceramic tile stove, from a yard sale. When we finally got it's 440 pounds home and tried to bring it upstairs it crushed the first step, so the next 15 were not in the cards. But when we do finally install it it's going to heat our whole chalet, and we can even cook on it! (see pic). 

What, me worry?

Alfred E. Newman painting found in a Los Angeles garage 10 years ago (photo in situ). Painted by Wanda Witczak, 1969. The notation next to MAD reads, "I did, your highness!".

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Kristin Baybars and the Ostrobogulous

The stuffed animal Ostrobogulous Hedgiwig, by Kristin Baybars, 1964, London, England. Found in an antiques shop in Maine. We thought it would be perfect for the boy's room (although out of reach, lest I find myself asking a baby "why did you rip that tag off? It's been on there for 45 years!"). After a little Googling, we found these days Mrs. Baybars has a pretty nifty miniatures shop in London, whose front window (the pink building below) looks the spitting image of our own front window, what with the miniature house and boat, among many other things. 

Cheers to kindred spirits.

Further Googling revealed a photo of a couple other Ostrobogulouses (Ostroboguli?) from Design Journal, December 1969, uploaded and html'd- along with every page from every issue- by the good people at (VADS (Visual Arts Data Service). I'd never seen this resource before, but it's endless and incredible. 

Happy Halloween!

Lou Dorfsman

Type Chess Set, from Wary Meyers' Tossed & Found. (click to enlarge)

Le French Dresser, ibid.

Lou Dorfsman

Two of my favorite projects from our book, and the man who inspired them. Lou Dorfsman, designer par excellence. Our latest post at AT is about it all, read it here.

Herb Lubalin & John Alcorn

Designed by Herb Lubalin and illustrated by John Alcorn. The type treatment on the cover is great, but the case is awesome. It repeats on the back, then the endpapers are the same but the colors reversed. Two of the greats.

R.I.P. Lawrence Halprin

Land Rover

textiles

Click to enlarge each of these.

top: From a yard sale last weekend, 6'x5' wool patchwork blanket, backed in wool. The woman told us "a girl made it for my husband back in the 70's". It's in perfect condition- probably taken from the back seat of the Volvo wagon directly into storage. She said she'd take the 4 dollars and buy herself a martini.

Middle: Fantastic 8' Turkish runner from an estate sale. The edges are frayed but they can be trimmed and fringe added back on.

Bottom: From the 30's, an awesome crazy-quilting patchwork of denim and twills, with a few odd-shaped pieces within each square. 

Aalvabet

from the type on pgs 34-35 of Tossed & Found

Lynn Chadwick and Lypiatt Park

Our latest guest post at Apartment Therapy documents John Russell's 1963 article for Vogue about British sculptor Lynn Chadwick and his home Lypiatt Park,

"Castle Tomorrow".

style="text-align: center;">Read it here

Willkommen to the Puppenhaus

Having had odd one-of-a-kind handmade dollhouses on the brain since reading Daddytypes' post about the Gerrit Rietveld house, when Linda spotted this "Calif. Modern Doll House" on an auction site we thought we'd query the encyclopediac mind of Daddytypes himself, Greg Allen as to the scoop. If he didn't know anything, we'd assume it was something some Southern Californian dad made his daughter one post-war weekend (or two). But Greg sent word back that this was in fact a Puppenhaus, made in East Germany circa 1960. A quick switch-of-the-gears of our made up provenance had us thinking this was even cooler (colder?). Visit the Puppenhausmuseum for loads of DDR photos. And yes that's a cactus.

Fantastic Mr. Arctic Fox

Older Fjallraven (Swedish for Arctic Fox) jacket/parka from a finished basement/workshop of an estate sale, made in Finland. Fjallraven is a Swedish brand known for scoliosis-preventing backpacks, making things that last, and not exporting much to America, so this is a rare find and strangely poetic that it's in perfect condition. = From the Fjallraven website: "A product that is handed down through generations or sold second-hand has hardly any affect on the environment compared to buying a new product." 

Words to live by.

Kenner Blythe

While going yard saling, flea marketing, or thrifting, John & I always have a mental list of certain things that if we're lucky enough to find them, it makes our day (vintage Dansk items, rare art books, cool 70's pendants), weekend (paintings, silkscreens, art pottery, ), month (Milo Baughman tables, Joe Colombo light), or possibly year (Eames lounge chairs with their matching ottomans, Pierre Paulin chairs). But there are some items that still elude us, making them even more desirable, as the more you can't have something, the more you want it. This is the case with trying to find a 1972 Kenner Blythe doll. I started looking for one about 8 years ago. I had a few (10++) of the reissued Takara Blythe dolls that I would buy at Toy Tokyo when I lived in New York, but to be honest, I would have traded them all for one of the original Kenner Blythe Dolls. It didn't matter that the Kenners usually had cut frizzy hair, chewed feet, rubbed off make-up, scuff marks and broken leg joints. They were the original doll, the muse to the new ones, made the year after I was born and I really, really, wanted one. To make matters worse, the ones that were in somewhat ok condition usually go for $1,000 or up on ebay and I just could never justify spending that kind of money. So began my search, or shall I say obsession with finding one. For years and years I wouldn't pass a box of moldy dolls without rooting through in hopes that she'd be there. I would answer ads that advertised 70's dolls and would end up at a doll collectors house looking at porcelain babies or Malibu Barbies with missing arms. I'd ask friends older sisters (or moms) if they had one stashed in the attic, go to auctions where old toys were advertised, check out the stuffed toy and doll sections at thrift shops, I would even make John sketch what she looked like to flea market vendors in hopes that they had one stashed in a shoe box. But the years passed and I never found one. Since she was only produced for one year, she's a pretty rare find. I didn't give up hope entirely, I stopped being so crazy/obsessive about finding her. Sure, I would still check out doll boxes, but I wouldn't get as upset when she wouldn't be there.
Last Saturday we woke up and I checked Craigslist to see if anything sounded appealing and there was an ad for a moving sale in the town over which included old camping gear, which John loves. As we walked towards the garage there was a box of old baby dolls and there, foot sticking out, was the rare, elusive Kenner Blythe doll. I was dizzy! It was the home owner's old doll from when she was a kid (not her daughters, who's pink & purple Barbie castle almost kept us driving) and I paid a dollar for her. She's still in her original outfit, and in pretty great condition. The feeling of shock, amazement and happiness stayed with me that entire day, and still has not faded, it probably won't for quite some time.

1x2

We wrote another guest post for Apartment Therapy, this time about the easy, gratifying aesthetic solutions 1x2 boards can offer your blank walls. Above is a photo I took behind the Shell Man, in Islamorada Florida earlier this year. The 1x2s are used to ship fragile coral and shells, then thrown away out back. If you're ever looking for wood for a project, check behind places like this, or places that have free pallets, since there could be packing crates there as well.

From top: The 1x2 opening spread from Wary Meyers' Tossed & Found in a NY apartment we did; more 1x2s in another NY apartment we did; Mrs. Mark Hampton's apartment by David Hicks (inspiration); a concept page from WMT&F which includes typographic 1x2 ideas in English, Kanji, and Cyrillic.