Austin Home Tour on Apartment Therapy

Truth be told, I generally don't read articles that I have to click through to in my feed reader, which usually means that I only read the first half of an Apartment Therapy post (or just look at the pretty pictures). But I was stuck on one particularly pretty picture.

Sure, the dog's super cute, but the painting is what got me obsessed. I liked it, and in the back of my mind I knew who did it, in fact I was pretty sure I owned some of his work myself, but I just couldn't place the name. So I clicked through to read the article and home tour in hopes that the author would mention the artist. And boy am I glad I did.

They don't mention the artist of the painting, but they do have a list of artists/art work in the home. I'm 99% sure that painting is a Jay Ryan. And I was right in thinking I own a print of his, "Running with Scissors" is in our guest bedroom.

I got to meet Jay and pick up a print at Flatstock Austin a few years ago.

Beyond that, I found out that the home belongs to an artist I enjoy, Clay Ferguson (FERG) and that he lives in Austin, which I didn't know before reading the article.

And as I was flipping through the photos of the home tour I realized, I know this house, it's only a few blocks from mine. And then I remember, I've shopped a garage sale at this house. Not sure if it was the Ferguson's garage sale or if it was before they moved it, but those are the kinds of things that make me love Austin. It's packed with interesting people and you never know how or when you're going to stumble upon them.

Broyhill Sculptra Desk Drawer Variation

I happened upon Furnish Me Vintage's images for a Scupltra desk they had for sale and noticed something different than my Broyhill Scupltra desk, the left side drawer on their's transforms into a small table. Whereas mine is just one solid drawer connected with dovetail joints, meaning there's no way to unfold it into a small side table. It's interesting to see a variation like this within the line, I wonder which version came first.

Austin Estate Sale: 8917 Sam Carter Dr.

A collection of antique and vintage items, home and holiday decor and salvage items. Check out their flickr gallery for more pictures.

Here are the details:
8917 Sam Carter Dr.
Austin, TX 78736
May 28: 7:30am-12pm

Mid-Century Packaging Design

There's been a trend happening in packaging design, going back to the look your brand had in the 50s — or just having a mid-century inspired design if your brand wasn't around then. The Wall Street Journal has an article about the whole phenomenon. The interesting part of it is, if you're looking to get your mid-century home looking truly authentic — down to the finest detail, like a laundry detergent bottle — now you can.

Cheap Mid-Century Modern Furniture: Baxton Studio

A manufacturer's name keeps popping up in my mid-century design circles: Baxton Studio. And I can see why, they seem to make knock offs of some rather famous mid-century furniture designs, with a much smaller price tag.

The question with things like this is always, "What's the quality like?" I've never sat on/seen any Baxton Studio furniture, but they are carried by some major American department stores. In some respects, that leads me to believe that there's a certain level of quality. But my guess is that you're probably getting what you pay for.

That being said, not everyone needs to own an original Eames. And I've got more than one knock off piece in my place that I'm perfectly happy with.

The only real information I could find about Baxton Stuido comes from their less-than-substantial website:

Baxton Studios is a Chicago based division of Wholesale Inteirors, Inc. The Baxton Studios line of furniture was designed to be high quality, have the ability to with stand shipping across the United States and to have a modern feel. We stock around 450 different furniture products at a time and very rapidly change our product line to suit the current styles.

Anyone out there in blog land have experience with Baxton Studio? Was the furniture of decent quality? How do they compare to the originals?