craigslist rescue

i love craigslist. from the 'best of' to the apartments to the free stuff to the unique antique finds, i love it all. i'm even occasionally entertained by the scams. i mean really - nigerian missionaries, wire me the money, and then i'll send you the keys to an apartment you won't get to see - entertaining, so long as you are able to distinguish scam from truth. but i digress.

i like to look through craigslist and plot how i would rescue a piece of furniture. right now i don't have room to bring any more furniture into the house (i just got rid of 200 books and they're still overflowing). but someday....someday there will be an extra room for furniture rescues. maybe i'll even sell them. maybe i'll love them too much to give them away. maybe i'll put them back on craigslist. who knows. in the meantime i'll rescue them in my head and on my blog.

today i found this sad looking brass lamp:

there's no reason to throw this away, and no reason to not give it a little tlc. a very wise woman (love you mom) always reminds me that there's nothing a coat of paint can't do. (same woman who reminds me that it's just paint, you can always do it over, and it's just hair it will grow.)

for this lamp, i would scrub it clean and use this shade of ivory for the pole:

i would use this shade from anthropologie to finish it off: 

the other piece i found today that i really, really, REALLY want to rescue (pleaseeeee mom???) is this:

i would (after cleaning, sanding, priming) use a gray/purple color like this one (which ties in nicely to with the lamp shade):

i would also consider distressing the paint once it's dried. for the hardware, i would use something similar to these drawer pulls from anthro:

and it would all be seriously fabulous.

how would you rescue these pieces from craigslist?

holy crap.

so i usually title my posts with a quote. this one i will attribute to myself (now, instead of the end of the posting like i usually do) because it was my very first reaction when i saw this house.

i was peeking at urban grace's blog today (i just love erika, don't you?!) and stumbled on was smacked in the face with pictures of a house her friend had seen on two ellie, who had posted the pictures from b-metro magazine (birmingham, alabama) - which two ellie found through tracery's blog, who happened to design the interior of this house.

whew. i never thought i'd be able to explain that.

and then on top of that you can add the home owner's blog 11 bonita  - which you have to visit promptly after these pictures, and on tracery and b-metro. and you have to because once you fall in love with the pictures you are about to see (because jenna lyons' house just wasn't tempting enough today) you are inevitably going to want more. and this, my friends, will give you more.

oh-em-gee.

i like to pair something a little too sweet and sugary with something more tailored

so while i was meandering in casa sugar's 'coveted crib' section, i happened across this house.

how do i love thee - let me count the ways.

the house is that of jenna lyons - the creative director of j crew. if you don't know me, all you need to know is that i would love to look like i just fell out of the j crew catalogue. the styling and marketing of the brand is impeccable, mostly because i simply adore layers.

if you don't know who jenna lyons is, but love j crew, you need to know who she is. i remember the first time i saw an interview with her in a magazine (which magazine, i don't recall) i tore out the page because 1. i loved her and 2. i loved her style and 3. because i had figured out who the genius is behind my second most favorite store (my number one fav)

so here is the first lady of fashion's brooklyn town house. prepare yourself to fall in love.

(if the pictures are a little fuzzy, check out living etc's spread)

jenna and her artist-husband, vincent mazeau, and their little boy spent 2 years restoring their brownstone from the late 1800s...but really this fabulous house needs no introduction.

there's also a great interview with jenna lyons, check it out here, here, here and here.

then go here and sign up to be on the mailing list to get the ever stylish 'jenna's picks' right in your inbox.

*quote by jenna lyons