The Look For Less

I am currently researching ideas for a new project.  While flipping through the new CB2 catalogue I noticed these pendants:

I immediately thought of Tom Dixon's "Beat Light Fat" pendant, which I've been admiring for years. 

The CB2 price: $250, Tom Dixon's light: $500 for the smaller pendant and about $1000 for the larger version.  The beauty of Tom Dixon's light is in the details.  It has an architectural appeal and the interior is hammered gold.  Its a real beauty.  If you have to save a bit on the budget, I can see the CB2 version working quite nicely as an alternative.  To recreate the gold interior,  apply a bit of gold leaf paper to the interior or even gold spray paint could do the trick.  I might suggest doing something different to the maple wood as well.  A walnut color might work better with the gold interior.  

Key West

My family and I recently came back from a trip to Key West.  Not only was it a refreshing get a way from the winter, it was great to ingest the vernacular of a place that is different in so many ways from the Northeast. The architecture of Key West is often described as mix of Victorian, Bahamian, and New England, and I really think they took the best those three styles had to offer.   We had rain the day we toured many of the neighbordhoods, but I did take a few snapshots of some of the more striking houses before it rained, as well as some pictures from the Audobon House Gallery.  The Gallery sells some original art of James Audubon's works as well as many reprints (which looked as good as the real thing in my opinion!) I would love to design a whole room around the crane picture below!