Design Files

Will you look at this?  Now I had a pink room all the way through high school, but I have to say this puts mine to shame.  The three shades of coral (helped by the beautiful moldings)  combined with those perfect perfect blown glass lamps and the fabulous 70s dresser (read: flower knobs).  Wow.  Just wow.

Quick gripe though: gah, those nightstands. The pagoda tops with the inward-facing club feet?  Amazing.  That Pepto-Bismol paint color?  Not so much...and it could be so so good! Imagine them lilac, like below:

That would be killer here.  Otherwise A+ on this room!  And the peach storage bench?  I need that in my life, both because it is that great...simple, but great, and because I could use that storage for real.  

What's your favorite part of this room?

Craigslist Bible: 1st Edition

So it's no secret looking through my apartment or this very blog that I have a penchant, dare I even say a knack, for Craigslist (CL as I affectionately call it).  I love trolling CL, it's a like a blog that updates by the minute.  There is no better way to spend a rainy Saturday or a boring Monday-Friday than scrolling through the plethora of treasures that is your local Craigslist.

I read on FastCo. the other day about Curated Craigslist, an NYC-specific blog of just what it sounds like, a curated selection of thew immense NYC chapter of the site.  This is a cop out.  Plain and simple.  The best part of CL is taking your time to unearth the priceless gem you need to fit in your teeny-tiny apartment!  This shit isn't handed to you...and it shouldn't be.  More than half of my joy in refinishing pieces is telling my friends that I found it on CL and for how much (tacky, yes...but it's usually supa cheap so that makes it OK).  See below for what I mean:

Craigslist: $100 (plus a whole heap more for reupholstery)

Table: Craigslist $30, originally Crate&Barrel

Craigslist $40

Chair: Craigslist $125
Gray Nightstand that you can't see how cute it is: Craigslist $30
Indonesian Teak Carved Side Table to the right: Craigslist $10!

Sorry for the god-awful photos but my camera broke and I thought I'd save you all some Instagram-filtered iPhone shots today.  But as you can see, I love the CL!

Craigslist for me is the best way to make your design woes turn into design dreams.

Not enough space? Craigslist

Not enough money? Craigslist

Not enough time? Well if you do it right, Craigslist takes time but it's worth it!

In my next addition of Craigslist Bible, I will give you my own tried and true sleuthing techniques but until then, keep scrolling my friends (and searching, don't forget to use the search option)!

Trip to Trinidad

Sorry again for the radio silence, and unfortunately this will turn into a quick update.  Got back from my first trip to Trinidad with the boy last week (Carnival(!) and family bonding(?)).  And while all that was fun, I found myself especially inspired by some of the architecture I saw around me as I pounded through the sweaty streets for 2 days, wining with strangers and having far too much fun!  

But back to the houses...I just candle handle them! Between the rusted variegated tin roofs, the insane amount of fretwork, the gables and colors (oh the colors!), well I'm just in love.  Half a day of our vacation was spent walking around Woodbrook (a neighborhood in Port-of-Spain and where this style of house is named for) looking for new places to photograph and cooing about, "no, this one, I want this one!"  Maybe one day..

Keep on scrollin' to see what I mean and let me know your fave in the comments!

My favorite!

Another fave, and this one's literally 8 feet wide!

New Apartment

As someone who can still return to my childhood home to this day, I was, until recently, unaware of the joys (and perils) of moving.  Most people probably only think of perils (and I understand why), but I find something truly thought-provoking, like an intricate math equation, about a new space.

Let's first talk perils:

1) Seeing how much shit you actually have, even beyond what you see everyday (I'm thinking the nooks and crannies you open once a year).

2) The realization that you will need to move all of that stuff.

3) Putting out your friends for help with the move or putting your faith and money in movers.

4) UHaul Rentals in Manhattan (if this list had a discernible order, this would certainly be at the top of the worst list)


And now joys:

1) Purging the stuff you realize you no longer need (truly nothing in the world feels better).

2) Working out the new configurations and use of space that's best for you (and whomever you share your home with).

3) The consistent feelings of accomplishment when you a) pack your last box, b) carry up your last load of stuff, c) discover something you've owned forever that solves a problem in your new home, and d) unpack your last box (however long that takes you: no judgment!)


Now, full disclosure: I moved into yet another new apartment on December 1st!  And so far I am absolutely loving it!  It is a 1-bedroom in my same neighborhood of Brooklyn, Crown Heights.  I am still getting things together, but I'll leave you with a few teaser photos before I go (my apologies for the shitty iPhone shots, but it's what I'm working with right now).

Pantone

So the color of the year has been announced and finally Pantone has caught up with my love of purple!  Radiant Orchid is "officially" the color of 2014!

In other mildly related news, after moving this past Sunday (10 hours, 30+ trips walking around the corner from old apartment to new apartment) things are starting to look up in there!  I say mildly related because variations on Radiant Orchid are definitely making an appearance.  Follow me on Instagram (@TheEmilyGershen) to take a sneak peek before I showcase things here!

Mud Cloth in the Making

 

 

So it finally happened.  I finally brought home the mudcloth couch I have been waiting for!  This is truly the most gratifying piece of furniture I have had a hand in, and like my sideboard, I am so lucky that not only did I have my hand in it, but I get to keep it! 

 

 

I couldn't have done it without Colleen over at Timber and Cloth upholstery in Bushwick (please do get in touch with her if you ever have any Brooklyn upholstery needs)! 

 

It's a pretty impressive before and after, no?

This Marble. And this Kitchen.

via

 

Let's do this backwards. 

 

1) This kitchen.  It's pink.  I want one.  You wouldn't even notice the pink cabinets if it weren't for that stupid bubblegum stool.  That wouldn't be in my pink kitchen. 

 

2)White and gray marble.  I love you.  Like, a lot.  At work, all of the secretarys' desk fronts, as well as the attorneys' side tables are in this marble.  The fact that I don't get any marble is probably the biggest injustice I feel I face at work everyday. 

Craigslist Strikes Again!

This week is going well guys.  Like really well.  Let me set this up for you, because maybe this is an odd sort of contentment that is foreign to people who don't derive their sense of self from the newest deal they score on Craigslist.  So I've wanted a cute couch for a really long time.  But not just any cute couch...I want a vintage couch with exposed wood, hand-carved details, structurally sound, seats at least 3, and all for less than $250 or so.  This is tough, let me tell you.  

About a month ago, I'd thought I found one IN LEATHER for $350 (worth it for the leather).  But alas, my CL trigger finger was not speedy enough and a possible gem slipped through my fingers.  But then, in a pre-Labor Day lull at work this week, I came upon this beauty.

 

A little bit Stepford, a little bit Longmeadow Wasp, but I can fix that.  And my aim was good on this one!  For $100(!) I picked up this beauty a few days later on Long Island in a UHAUL.  The things I do for hand-carved legs...

 

So, true to my crazy antique furniture hunting form, my search for a vintage couch has not gone on alone.  Before even having a sofa, I contacted an upholsterer to chat about my eventual, future (one day, maybe) vintage find.  It's extremely similar to buying the wedding dress before finding the fiance, but let's not delve into that too deeply.  

Luckily, my neurotic preemptive upholstering inquiries allowed me to drop off this beauty at Colleen's studio in Bushwick immediately after pick-up.  The fewer times I need to rent a UHAUL the better in my book.  

So now she has the sofa and I have a time crunch to pick out fabric.  But once again, my preemptive upholstery neuroses pay off.  I know what I want, and I now know where to find it!  Google and the New York Times are beautiful, beautiful things.

via

 

I've been looking at this beauty 

on one of my favorite blogs, Brooklyn to West, for the last few months now.  

A girl after my own heart, Ariele stole this bad boy right out from under someone by offering more after they had already paid (conniving, but I like it).

Alright, African mud cloth.  This I can get behind.  Originally I was debating between the black and white seen here or indigo and white which is also easily accessible.  But after considering everyone's favorite blue sideboard, I realized black and white is obviously the way to go.

Now just to find it. In upholstery weight.  At least 10 yards. On the internet, or near New York.  Before actually finding the sofa, this search was not going particularly well.  Not well at all. 

 

Maybe it's the pressure, or maybe good, beautiful things [African Mud Cloth local retailers] come to those who wait, but yesterday I googled perfection.

 

Perfection by way of the New York Times.

via

 

And what little nugget was left specifically for me in the tag of this photo?  Oh, just the address and phone number of a mud cloth importer in Harlem.  I hear it's beautiful there this time of year...

Color Story

So after just about a month (very little of which I've actually spent there), my new little apartment may just be coming along.  My room is pretty much put together but our living space is a hot mess.  I mean, it's my hot mess, so the sideboard looks awesome and my free-to-me, fancy-schmancy navajo rug is anchoring the hell out of the room, but otherwise its bordering on shambles. 

 

First of all, we have no real seating.  This is only a problem if you like to sit...which I do, so it's my problem.  I've got a couple of solutions on the horizons (will I finally reupholster the sofa of my dreams? Maybe, if my fellow CL poster will get back to me.).  But while I wait, I'll leave you with some photos from my long lost trip to Iceland in March. 

 

I was so inspired (and relaxed) by the beautiful hot springs there, especially the color story they create.  Leaving the science out of it, the silica mud at the bottom of the pools cause the normally black lava rock to turn a pristine white.  I don't get it, but I sure do like it!  Between the matte black, glossy white and the crisp blue?  I think I have some ideas for my sofa...

 

 

 

 

 

"Homemade" Pizza

So this post is a little love letter to one of my best bros Adam, currently gallivanting around Eastern Europe like a G.  I visited Adam earlier this year in Denmark where he's been living (soon to return though!).  I'm going to share some photos and stories from my visit ASAP (again, bad blogger) but until then I thought I'd throw my latest cooking adventure at you.

 

 

I absolutely love pizza.  This is not news to anyone.  Bread and melted cheese and anything else: count me in.  Adam and I have made a little ritual of making our own pizzas, drinking sweet brews, and having girl talk (which isn't to diminish his masculinity, but in fact, speaks to what a killer friend he is).  So this is my first "homemade" pizza in Brooklyn, which sort of makes sense, but also confuses me.  Pizza is obviously easily attainable in NYC but I do love making my own so much that it's surprising I took so long. 

 

 

 

Well I had some sprigs (maybe that's the right time for that word?) of basil slowly deteriorating so I decided...pizza!  I use quotation marks around "homemade" for a variety of reasons. 
 

1. I have taken to buying the pizza dough from local pizza shops to seriously cut down on my cook time.  Making your own crust is awesome and delicious, but it also takes at least three hours.  I have a life (read: I'm lazy) so I have no time for that.  In the real world, a ball of dough should cost you $2, but since it's Brooklyn, $5 is what I paid.  A 75% markup seems right (god, NYC is starting to wear on me). 

2. I often buy delicious, bougie sauces rather than making my own.  Again, "I have a life."  This one was Arrabbiata from Michael's of Brooklyn.  I know I'm committing Italian sins with this switch-up but I like some spice and Arrabbiata has just what I'm looking for. 

3. Homemade sometimes (maybe 50 years ago) conjures up the idea that it's cheaper than buying from a store.  For the $5 I spent on the dough, I could have gotten two slices from the pizza shop.  Tag onto that the $20 I spent on sauce and fresh mozzarella?  Well, I'm not doing my wallet any favors.  None whatsoever as a matter of fact.

But the truth is I love love love making pizza; it's stupidly easy and I feel really accomplished. Which I am realizing is half the battle. Sometimes you need to give yourself some easy tasks to check off the proverbial list just so you can feel a little more confident when you tackle the big things (major life decisions). So a tip for all my fellow 20-somethings constantly saddled with big choices; make some pizza. You'll feel better.

 

 

 

So the most fun part of pizza making (besides eating) is making the dough fit the pan.  Pizza dough is this weird indescribable texture which seems to refuse to mold to the shape you desire.  I honestly think it's an active decision on the part of the dough to make my life complicated.  So I have developed a finely-tuned strategy to outsmart an inanimate object.  Some might call it dance, but that would be too kind.

 

If you've ever done this before, you know you can't just press out pizza dough like say, cookie dough.  This shit is obstinate.  The old images of men throwing it up in the air is no joke, but I don't trust myself with that kind of gravity involved so I instead do I little dance and wiggle out the dough in the air while grasping it firmly with both hands.  I'll leave you to paint that image in your heads now.

 

 

 

 

Beautiful, right?  Y'all don't even know until you try it.

 

 



 

 

So the rest is a cake [pizza] walk.  Throw on your sauce of choice and go to town on your toppings.  For this (and most of my pizzas) I chose fresh mozzarella, basil, gorgonzola, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes (in place of fresh since I had them handy) and lots of hot pepper flakes. And maybe 20 minutes at 350 and you're ready for awesomeness in your mouth.

 

You're welcome.

 

(Adam, miss ya bud.  Get home.  Let's make pizza.)

Design Files

On this episode of Design Files, I want to talk about a room that highlights one of my favorite things: kilims.

 

Luckily for me, this season kilims seem to be everyone's favorite thing so I have a plethora of drool-worthy photos to swoon over.  But let's start with this one.

 



http://decor8blog.com/2013/04/17/the-socialite-family/



 

So first of all, as a renter, I was drawn to the fact that this room, though bursting with color, has renter's white walls.  The white sofa, well I'm less into that.  But only because everything I eat manages to hit fabric surfaces before entering my mouth, but perhaps one day I will master the art of eating and can buy white upholstery.

But back to the kilim.  As many of you know, I have a penchant for traditional textiles.  From a $400 shipping bill in Tanzania and a very laborious and overstuffed flight home from Mexico, I am that idiot who buys way too much and then thinks about how they are going to get it back to the other side of the earth.   

Well, let me let you in on a little secret; so yeah, that painful plane trip or DHL bill blows at the time, but for the rest of your life, those textiles are going to make you really really happy.  So buy the damn [kilim, weaving, tapestry, blanket, sweater, khanga, etc ad nauseam] (except I could never throw up over fabrics).  By the way, the most hilarious story I have involves a hand-punched tin picture frame which I wore around my neck entering a Delta flight to avoid the snarky stewardesses and their excessive baggage fees.  Swear to god, that happened.  Like I said, I'm that guy.

OK now seriously, back to the kilim.  I imagine this is from Turkey, though I have been wrong before.  The colors here are beautiful; I am really into hot pink in living rooms right now.  I am holding back because I have design ADD and hot pink is a tough one to come back from when you get tired of it.

  Regardless, here the colors in the rug pick up on the coffee table books and the beautiful framed art on the back right.  Speaking of which, I am very impressed with their pseudo-gallery wall here.  I have decided that the many many pieces I have to be hung are going to wait around another month until I switch apartments.  But I am struggling with how to make divergent pieces with non-matching frames look this put-together.  I will prevail in this difficult situation, but it will take some work.  I have a month to work it out.

Two understated heroes in this room are that kickass floor lamp and the cool, industrial coffee table.  I'm going to do some hunting on that lamp and I'll let you know what I come up with (maybe it's just photo equipment (Jayme?)).  But I'll get back to you on that.  And I know this sounds horrible, but those coffee tables have been a thing for a few years now and you can definitely go and pick one up at your local flea market pretty easily.  Well maybe not your local flea market, but head to Brimfield in July or September and you'll definitely find at least 100.  Doesn't make it any less awesome, I'm just sayin'.

So not my most articulate post, but to sum up: kilims rule, white walls can work, good design makes me (and you) happy.

Like Manna from Heaven...Lemon Squares

Let's start off this post with a little kudos to all fancy-schmancy bloggers out there.  I have a swanky camera and I am not absolutely inept when it comes to using it, and yet these photos look like a baby chimp got loose in someone's kitchen and decided to play Julia Child.  Forgive me.  Let's move on. 

 

So a few weeks ago (I'm falling behind here) I got real domestic and decided that I was going to attempt my all-time favorite dessert, the lemon square.  Like most people, I am very into eating all types of desserts, but my knowledge of preparing them doesn't really go beyond cakes and cookies.  Thus, the lemon square was a big departure for me.  And it was a delicious departure.

 

So here is my baby chimpanzee photographic journey through lemon square prep.  And just so we're clear beforehand, although they are delicious, you may never be able to eat a lemon square again once you see what's in 'em.

 

 

Ingredients (as described by the recipe):

1.5 sticks of butter

1 3/4 and 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for garnish
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon of salt plus a pinch
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon zest
2/3 cup of fresh lemon juice, strained
1/4 cup whole milk

Here's the issue I have with the above list, and what I am assuming all dessert recipes.  I ended up needing almost three full sticks of butter!  THREESTICKSOFBUTTER.  That's crazy!  Crazy good, but crazy.  And I'm pretty sure the person making the recipe knew this, because there is no way the flour mixture you make for the short bread can congeal with only 1.5 sticks, but I think their sneaky trick is to say less than you need so you won't get freaked out by the inevitable three sticks of butter that will soon be congealing itself right to your thighs...but I digress.

 

Alright, so first you take 2 teaspoons of that butter and rub it all over a wax-papered baking pan, like below.  You need to do some fancy wax-papering here, with one sheet running the length of the pan and two sheets running the width (make sure to butter in between the layers so they all stick together!).  You need both so that when you remove post-baking, your lemon squares stay relatively intact.

 

Alright so now that your pan is all set, grab a bowl and mix together the 1 3/4 cups of flour, the confectioners' sugar, the cornstarch and the salt.  Cut the rest of the butter into manageable chunks and get to kneading!  I added the remaining butter as directed by the recipe, but when the butter was all mashed up there was still plenty of flour mixture that was left so I kept adding tablespoons until I got it all.  Inevitably, the grand total came to three sticks of butter...but enough of that.

Once all of the mixture looks sort of doughy, sort of the consistency of play-dough, you are ready for your pan.  Transfer the dough to the pan and press into what will eventually be your delicious, fattening shortbread crust. 

 

Throw that badboy into the fridge for thirty minutes, start preheating your oven to 350 F and bring out the lemons!

 

 

 

Now you are going to combine the eggs, sugar, flour and lemon zest in a bowl and whisk away!  After it's smooth, throw in the lemon juice, milk and a pinch of salt. 

 

Once your oven is all set, bake the crust until it's golden brown (about 20 minutes) and then take it out to cool slightly.  Lower your oven to 325 F, re-stir the lemon mixture and then pour it onto your cooling crust.

 

Bake for another 20 minutes or so, and voila!  Beautiful, delicious (fatty) lemon squares!  But now the real trouble comes in.  How the hell do you get them out?

 

That wax paper bit only goes so far (I didn't want to tell you that earlier)... the consistency of lemon squares rules in your mouth, but perched precariously on buttered wax paper?  Not so much.  After what I consider to be nothing less than a feat of modern physics, I got the lemon squares out in one piece and onto a cooling rack. 

 

 

And the rest is a cake walk (get it, baking humor). 

 

 

 

 

Cut 'em into squares with a clean knife, sprinkle with some more confectioners' sugar and enjoy!  Really, I was pretty impressed with how awesome they were.  I thought the consistency would be much harder to get right, but they were bangin'.

And just to prove to you how really domestic I was feeling, while I was kicking ass with my baking adventure above, I was also making homemade pasta sauce my friend Dana blogged about a few days earlier, seen below.  That too turned out delicious so I was munching like a king for days.  Go check out her recipe here.

Alright everybody, I hope you all want to go out and attempt your own physics-defying,

body-enlarging baking triumphs now! 

Be sure to take some chimp photos and show me in the comments!