A couple weekends ago, Kyle and I stopped in to Velocity Art & Design, to re-evaluate the Modernica Case Study Daybed (we finally decided it wasn’t big enough, but maybe we could put one in the loft…someday). Anyhow, it just so happened that Amy Ruppel had a showing there that was just about to end. We purchased the piece below (a wax print). I’ve always admired her work and assumed that someday we would just see the right piece and buy it. Looking for artwork is hard, so I’m hoping this strategy continues to work. [The print to the left is a gift from our old neighbor, a bakery photo she took in Paris several years ago.]
Hmm, not sure what Chuck thinks about this new bird lady friend.
One of the most rewarding tasks of recent weeks has been installing the lighting. When we bought our house, it had 4 ceiling lights. Needless to say, an effective lighting design was a top priority (read more about our selections here). We ended up ordering most of our lighting through Seattle Lighting Supply (talk to Sunshine, she’s awesome). It wasn’t intentional, but all of our lighting is from different manufacturers.
For the living room, we’re doing two runs of low-voltage Kable Lites from Techlighting. They provide good general lighting and fit nicely between the exposed joists.
Over the island, we installed a Bruck V/A Linear Chandelier. Bruck is probably better known for their general track lighting, but we loved the idea of a linear light with a central support. On the wall beyond are Utility reach lights from Resolute (one of my favorite lighting companies and they’re local!).
The Bruck lights have a double canopy – a more translucent inner shade and amber color outer shade.
As part of our passive cooling strategy (no A/C here in the PNW), we installed a small fan in our new stairwell. When it’s hot outside (or as it’s been lately, humid?!), we can open the roof window in the loft and turn on the fan to help draw warm air out through the house while pulling cool air up from the basement. We went with another Cirrus fan from Modern Fan Co. (similar to what we have in our bedroom, but shorter blades, a down rod and no light). The blades had to be trimmed just a bit, but it really does help move air vertically through the house [you’re seeing the ridge of the loft beyond].
We still need to find an affordable, ceiling mounted light for the flex room/2nd bedroom as well as a wall sconce for the loft. The problem with lighting is that there are a gazillion options but you have to weed through the 90% that are ugly, ridiculously expensive, or cheaply made to find something decent.
I think the same thing can be said about chairs, but that’s another post.