Gift guide

I came across this gift guide I art directed and helped produce while I was at my previous job. It was for the Winter 2007 gift guide for Canadian Family Magazine.
Now that I'm expecting a boy I'm paying more attention to anything child-related. It was so awesome working on this gift guide and I'm really proud of how it turned out.

Dining Room

This is what the dining room in my new house looks like. Don't be startled. This is the previous owner's furniture. She was in the middle of moving that's why it's so messy.
I have big dreams for this room. First of all I'm painting this room a very light gray.
We also bought a new dining table and chairs from Pavilion. I'm planning to put a banquette on one side and single Parsons chairs on the other. We also got a matching credenza.
Here are some shots:





Eventually I would like it to look something modern like this:

Kitchen makeover

These were 2 snapshots of our kitchen in our new house that I took in our last house viewing.
It's not a bad kitchen, but I would definitely like to change the countertop and put in a backsplash.
We are already changing the range hood to a stainless steel Vent-a-Hood range hood and also putting a new slide-in range + a new microwave, but that's costing us a small fortune.
So a new countertop will have to wait.
If I had my way I would gut the whole kitchen, but it's a perfectly fine kitchen and I think I can live with it.
I'm thinking of putting white quartz countertops possibly with white subway tile backsplash.

Here are my inspirations:

This kitchen sort of has the same colouring and I love the sleek look of the countertop with the marble backsplash


A close-up shot of the kitchen


This kitchen has totally different cabinetry, but I'm liking the backsplash and the countertop



What would look awesome as an accessory would be the Daub & Bauble collection of home cleaning products. I'm especially loving the dish detergent in Sorrento Lemon and Ginger.

Currently diggin…

Jay Shapiro, a Skateboarder and Musician, and girlfriend, Interior Designer Claire Bigbie's Victorian house in San Francisco.







I love their quirky sense of style.

Photos by Timothy Griffith for The New York Times