Before & After: Super Sweet Vintage Milking Stool

I got this great vintage milking stool from the Scout Pop-Up shop a few weekends ago, and fell in love. I am 5'4 and can barely reach any of my high cabinets, and was tired of dragging dining chairs over to the kitchen, crawling onto the counter or asking for my husband's assistance--so I was in the market for a step stool. I know this one doesn't look that sturdy, but it definitely holds me very well (and that's all that matters, right?)


It was in need of a good coat of paint, so I grabbed some Krylon Dual Paint + Primer spray paint in Mandarin and went to town. The full "how-to" will be on Apartment Therapy on Thursday, but I wanted you guys to get a sneak peek beforehand. I love it!

An Office Project We're Loving: Studio Swine

Nothing pleases me more than clean, aesthetically simple spaces. I go through days where I'm pretty sure the only thing that's stopping me from throwing out all of my possessions is that I remember how much money I have invested in them over the years, and continue on with my precious clutter. But one day--I would love to have a space just like this one, where my projects would have no distractions, and clean lines would surround me.


I recently stumbled on Studio Swine when I was researching Kickstarter projects and just fell in love with their work (their now defunct Kickstarter was underfunded, which makes me so sad--I wish I had seen it before the countdown was over). Based in London, Studio Swine is a collaboration between Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves. This particular project is an office space commissioned by a film company, and is a small workspace for two to three people:

"The office is tiled in marble and decorated in a palette of light grey and white punctuated with bright, highly patterned marmoleum to create a utilitarian work space with pop elements. The floating desk maximizes the sense of openness whilst the pegboard and folding desks keep the space flexible to changing requirements." -Studio Swine

I noticed that they also have an upcoming SHOP, and I'm dying to see what pieces will be in there. What do you think? I feel like a cup of coffee and a pencil is all I would need to be creative in such a seamless space.


All images via Studio Swine

Andie's Office Makeover // Part 2

I thought I'd include an update of my old office makeover. Since introducing all of my Assemble Studio goodies, the office has had to change just a bit, and while we're still building up our official studio space, I'm quite happy in my space!


1. Our "It Makes Toast" graphic from the Assemble studio wall. I think it fits quite well in its new home.

2. Bakers twine, galore! We use this to wrap up every Assemble order. White butcher paper + baker's twine + sticker.

3. A Yellow Owl Workshop trophy that I bought from our collection. Makes me happy to look at!

4. Our open/closed sign. Always open for business!

5. My glass head that Christian wishes I would get rid of. Never!!

6. The famed Assemble Vintage Cursive Typewriter--this inspired our colors, style and is a treasured piece of my typewriter collection.

7. A sweet Lisa Congdon Print to remind me of "Comfort and Ease." (All of Lisa's prints are on sale in our shop right now).

Repost from Neatloaf: White Danish Christmas

Today, we're busy cooking up our Private Press Party for tonight's soft release of our Assemble Crafty Kits! We didn't have time to write up an entry, so we pulled a favorite from our old blog, Neatloaf. Enjoy!

Are you a fan of "Red & Green Christmas" or "White Christmas?" I don't know why I have compartmentalized Christmas into those two categories, but I have my entire life, and each is not without its charms. Keep in mind, I have completely made these up on my own and your idea of Christmas may be meshed. I just hope you don't have a blue one...

To me, Red & Green Christmas includes Charlie Brown, big fat colored lights, lit up plastic Santas, candy canes and bright wrapping paper. White Christmas has It's a Wonderful Life (in French), white twinkle lights, spritz cookies, brown paper packages and candlelight. I am a fan of the white Christmas, myself, and I found quite possibly the most beautiful and simplistic pictorial definition of my holiday dream. On the cute blog, From the Right Bank, I found this gorgeous Danish home, all decorated for Christmas. If you can take your eyes off of the beautiful, wooden floors for one moment, take a look at it's holiday charm. Love!






Photos from Lantliv via From the Right Bank

Merry, Merry!

Apartment Therapy: Are you Overstyled?

A few of you may know, but I write freelance for Apartment Therapy twice a week. Usually my posts are a mix of styling or great products but today I decided to do something a bit different. If you are an Apartment Therapy reader, you know that the commenters tend to be a bit brutal. I wanted to discuss that along with the idea of "overstyling" or "propping" your home. I feel like my home is anything but propped, but I tend to get overzealous comments to the contrary. Below is the text to the post, and click over to the Apartment Therapy post to read the comments. I'd love to know what you think here, too!

This Friday: Art Work and Designs by Piano Nobile

Images via Piano Nobile
I can't think of a better artist to kick off our Fall art and shopping season. Local designers, Piano Nobile, will be gracing Assemble Gallery & Studio with their work throughout the month of October and into the beginning of November, starting up on Friday night (October 12th) from 6-9pm. Perfect graphic housewares like lampshades, trays and tea towels, plus brand new art work in their show, Paint to Print.

"Paint to Print [is] a group of new drawings, paintings, and prints that trace the process of our textiles to their beginnings as drawings [...] Exploring a variety of materials, from sumi ink to oil sticks to high resolution digital scans, these pieces illuminate the stages of development of a drawing to its final three-dimensional form. Spontaneous, quirky, and a little bit messy, these drawings spark our studio practice and ignite our conversations. Also on display: our fall collection of textiles, lighting, and home goods, as well as R&L notebooks featuring our fabric!" -Piano Nobile

Honestly, if I were you I would come early because I may have purchased all of their work by the end of the night, myself. This stuff is special. Wine, snacks and general merriment as well! We hope to see you there!!

Home Office Area Makeover

With all of this business of closing our shop doors and going online, I had a pretty hard time seeing myself working in the "office" area that we used to have. White walls with some cute things hanging, but overall drab.

For all those lap-toppers out there, do you find that you just end up in front of the TV with your computer? Then work and play are immediately melded into one and there is no division from work time and non-work time (something I have a LOT of trouble managing). Now that I'll be working at home starting in January, I found that I needed to solve this problem--and fast.

We were lovingly gifted a beautiful, new Mac desktop for our wedding present by Christian's parents, so that pushed me in the direction of making my office space classy enough for such a lovely new toy. The desk is built in, so unless I want to get out my jack hammer, it's going to have to stay until I can go in a different direction. Hence, my office area makeover!


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