to decorate / {deal alert} canvas home dauville at madewell

Image source (for the last photo): Canvas Home

I didn’t expect to find Canvas (the home store) items at Madewell, but then, J.Crew and Madewell have been beefing up their home sections. I came across their Dauville collection last year – it’s delightful for those who fancy gold or silver! I have a small bowl and pebble dish which I use to hold baubles or lip products on the bathroom counter.

Madewell has three items on sale: the gold bud vase, gold small pebble dish, and silver medium pebble dish. All are under $16 and ship free with code SALEONSALE through Monday night. You can find more Dauville at Bloomies (which is also running a promotion).

If you fancy more Madewell and have an Amex, get another $20 statement credit for a purchase over $125 through the end of March. This does work on giftcards!

to decorate / purging inside the apartment

Petit Bateau mouse, Muji CD player

I love Craigslist. I found a roommate, apartments, couch, a CB2 acrylic console table, an IKEA floor mirror that IKEA itself refuses to deliver, Domino magazine back issues, etc. I also flipped tickets, said couch (pre-BB days) accidentally for 200%, a new Tumi suitcase, etc. Tastes change and I love how your trash can be someone else’s treasure (the proverb sounds better in Chinese). I haven’t come across any psychos or creatures yet. I do always google and Facebook search the buyer or seller. There is a part of me that is still pretty trusting. Apartment Therapy recently ran this post on used furniture and the comments make my skin crawl! You have to always trust your gut. My ex-roommate went to some extremes to conceal her identity which were hilarious (to me anyways) when conducting transactions.

I’d already done a round on Chilewich tiles, picture frames, and some superfluous furniture on Craigslist. Since I take pretty good care of most of my things, in most instances I came close to breaking even. Let’s face it – it’s usually easier for someone to carry something away rather than have to dispose of it yourself.

Recently, I finally got rid of an deluxe air mattress that I slept on for most of August and my tufted headboard (pictured above). I say finally because there were naturally low ball offers or non-committal folks. Luckily I had time to wait for the right buyer to come along. I have fond memories of stalking this headboard online (it kept on going out of stock) and carrying it and the accompanying bedframe up 7 flights of stairs by myself. After 6.5 years, there was barely any wear but it no longer went with my new bedroom layout. I was happy to recoup 50% of my “investment”. Not bad, eh? Now, it’s back to the drawing board… I am craving a white iron headboard like this, but I might go with nothing.

to decorate / 25% off cozamia

If you fancied anything from Cozamia, that I mentioned here, they have a 25% discount that technically ended yesterday, but is still up on their third party print fulfillment(?) website, imagekind. The discount is also good for anything on imagekind.

Image source: Cozamia.

to decorate / wall art

I work well on deadlines. Well, it’s not much of a choice when you just have too much going on, especially with work. (My life is not my own.) I probably wouldn’t have anything on my wall if it weren’t for a scheduled housewarming party. I remember my friend C helping me as I was nailing everything up an hour before the party!

I’d framed a few photos I’d taken earlier in the summer  in Prague, Brugge, Paris, London, and Dubrovnik — I had crazy traveling schedule that summer! Prints were from a printing shop around the corner and frames are from IKEA. The Ribba to be exact. Not all sizes are shown online. I ended up getting Ribba frames for almost all of my prints/photos. I recently bought two prints from etsy to refresh the frames.

I also have the gorgeous and intricate Tord Boontje Until Dawn curtain in white hanging in one corner of my room. At $145, I didn’t quite jump to buy it, but I happened to see it on clearance a few months earlier at a Taipei boutique department store (in The Mall on Dunghwa S Rd). I think it was 75% off and since it was the same amount of effort to hand-carry one home from Taipei as it was to carry two, I bought two, eBayed one, and broke even.

Moving on to prints I’ve bought and framed, but have yet to break out the hammer and nails, or have yet to mat and frame:

.: For Like Ever :.

I was an avid reader of the now deceased Domino magazine and this poster has made its rounds on the design blogs as well. They printed tons more — the first one I got was accidentally thrown out by the cleaning lady and then it sold out on website. I ended up finding it at another boutique. At 24″ by 36″, this isn’t the easiest print to frame. Thanks to my laziness, I never got around to getting a quote from a frame shop and picked up a Ribba on my recent trip to IKEA for mission PS Sinka. I’d grabbed a few extra frames because I didn’t have cellphone reception in the showroom and most of the warehouse. I might do a custom mat due to its size. Not sure yet…

Image source: Domino mag.