Boontje Oval Table

A tempered glass table by Tord Boontje for MoreSo.

The black top is etched with his intricate designs, the base is made of powder-coated steel.

$5557 at Highbrow Furniture.

Via Apropos Pig.

From Weapons and Airplanes to Furniture

Two interesting design finds:

Furniture and sculpture made from weapons by the Peace Art Project Cambodia.

Via Freshome.

Furniture, accessories, and sculpture made from retired aircraft by Moto Art.

Pre-Made Concrete Sinks

I like the idea of casting my own concrete sink, except for the part where I have to do it myself. Luckily, Crib Candy found two sites that will create and install a concrete sink for you.

Mark Concrete

Absolute Concrete

Nice Patio Set at Wal-Mart

Something I like at Wal-Mart? I was a little confused too. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but the mega-chain and I don't usually agree on the finer points of furniture design. That said, I'm very impressed with the patio furniture on the Wal-Mart site this season. It's nothing ground-breaking, but they've got simple, classic designs at a great price.

I'd have to see them in person to be sure about quality, but at a fraction of the cost of typical outdoor wood furnishings, I might be tempted to take a chance.

I've been online searching for inexpensive patio furniture because here in Dallas, Spring has officially sprung. I posted a few pieces I found yesterday over at Shak in Style.

If you're still shielding yourself from a single-digit wind-chill, don't be jealous. It'll be hot enough in DFW to fry an egg on the sidewalk in about 2 months. (Picture left, Delahey 6-piece wood dining set, $268)

Delahey 4-piece wood chat set, $298

Delahey 6-piece sectional, $498

Davinci 4-piece cushioned wicker chat set, $798

Art of Darkness: Jimmie Martin Furniture

Jimmie Martin has been creating one-of-a-kind furniture with a decadent, urban appeal for Londoners since 2004. The line of punky and playful hand-finished furnishings is finally making its way to the U.S. at the design showroom of Kara Mann, set to open this week in Chicago.

While the company's work is very pricey (thousands of dollars per piece), their site is worth a look just for the sake of inspiration. Most of their furniture features traditional lines paired with very non-traditional finishes. It's something to think about if you have heirloom furniture that you love but that doesn't fit with your style. If you are brave and not a little cavalier, a black painted finished or a screen-printed upholstery fabric can take the formality out of a stodgy, antique silhouette.

Of course, if there's any question about value, you might want to have piece appraised first. I'm fairly sure that this is the sort of thing The Antiques Roadshow's nightmares are made of.

How do I Save this Desk?

I got an e-mail from a reader asking how to rescue this inexpensive desk found on Craig's List. Over all, it looks very shabby and not at all chic. The finish is worn and it appears to have unattractive cylindrical feet which are centered under each end. Not a pretty picture, but not hopeless.

The lines of the desk are simple and modern and I think with a few small changes, and a weekend's worth of elbow-grease, it could be quite attractive.

First, I would ditch the legs. A great solution would be a set of inexpensive pine bun feet. I would use 8 total - 2 on each side, both front and back. This will give the piece a more balanced look. Right now, it is very top heavy on those narrow, centered legs. A great resource for inexpensive bun feet is Vandykes.

Secondly, I would paint the desk with a oil-based or milk paint. It looks like it will need a thorough sanding and a coat of a primer like Kilz to ensure that the old finish doesn't bleed through the paint. A simple dove gray would be very fetching, but the color would depend totally on the room. I know painting with oil is a smelly, hazardous pain, but latex really can't stand up to the wear-and-tear of daily use (goodness knows I've tried), especially if you live in a humid area like Dallas. I haven't tried milk paint yet, but I hear that it provides a less porous finish than latex.

Thirdly, I would get some fun drawer pulls. For a simple piece like this, the contrast of a little frill or whimsy wouldn't hurt. Something like this acanthus bin pull from Charleston Hardware Co. would be great, though, in this case, it would require filling existing drawer-pull holes and drilling new ones.

Happy re-doing!

Free Coffee Tomorrow!

Get a free 12 oz. cup of coffee at Starbucks tomorrow (Thursday) from 10 AM - noon.

This has little to anything to do with home and garden, but free coffee is a very good thing.

Via the Bargainist.

New Features on Modern-Roost

Just wanted to call out a few new features I’ve added to Modern-Roost. First, I am now pulling the RSS feed from Shak in Style into a module on this site. Since I will be writing about decorating there daily I wanted to make it easy to get to new posts. Post titles will appear in the upper right corner of M-R and link directly to the articles on Shak in Style. Hooray for new Blogger!

I have also added the RSS feed for my Bloglines Clip-Blog just under the Archive section on the right. I see so many things in the blogosphere that inspire me each day that I couldn’t possibly do them all justice. The Clip-Blog allows me to post direct links to the items that have inspired me, but I don’t have time to address directly.

Cast Your Own Concrete Sink

My brother is about to renovate the kitchen in his Austin home. The style of the homes there is a casual mix of modern and rustic. As a result, he is leaning towards materials like slate and concrete.

He just sent me a link to the Buddy Rhodes Web site, which features concrete mix and concrete molds for creating your own decorative counter tops and floors.

The company sells 4 different sink molds (this is the work of the oval mold) from $640 - $800. I love the results, but this is work I will have leave to the more adventurous among you.

In the Pink

The Women's Museum in Dallas is hosting an exhibit about the life and work of Dorothy Draper through March 31st. Not only did I miss this fact, I also had no idea that she designed the penthouse of our Stoneleigh Hotel.

In the Pink: The Legendary Life of Dorothy Draper
tickets $5
The Women's Museum: An Institute for the Future
3800 Parry Ave. in Fair Park
214-915-0860
www.thewomensmuseum.org

Impromptu White-Bean Humus

Over the weekend, we hosted an impromptu BBQ - thanks in no small part to the beautiful weather that seems to have arrived to North Texas several weeks early. I need to put together an appetizer quickly with what we had on hand. I ended up making a white-bean humus inspired by a recipe I saw somewhere recently (forgive me, I have forgotten where).

I was pretty nervous about the results, but the dip was a huge success. Here is the recipe:

1 can Canelli beans, drained
1/4 cup low-fat yogurt
1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Food process until smooth and chill for one hour. Serve with crackers, bread, or pita.

Big News: I'm Joining the Shak!

Last week I had a wonderful time guest-blogging for Shak in Style, the decor blog over at Shakadoo. Happily, they liked working with me too and Kristen has asked me to join Shak in Style as a full-fledged blogger. :) I will be posting my decor-related thoughts and ramblings there from now on.

I am so excited to be a part of the Shakadoo team!

But what about Modern Roost? I will still be posting here, though my focus will shift a little. I will be talking more about home-making, gardening and local sales and events for Dallas and Texas.

I very much appreciate everyone who takes the time to stop by Modern-Roost. You guys are the reason I keep writing. So please keep reading here and join me over at Shak in Style too.

Many Thanks,
Sarah

Minimalism + Goth: Can't Wait to See It

I scanned across an aside in AT Chicago that piqued my curiosity this afternoon. Designer Kara Mann (pictured left), has a penthouse which is, "a paean to minimalism with decidedly goth undertones." I'll admit I had to look up paean (song of praise), but once I cleared that up, I was even more interested. The quote goes on to say that most of the rooms in her penthouse are painted brown so dark they're almost black.

I love dark color on the walls. I've experimented for years with a mocha brown in my living room and a charcoal gray in the bedroom and bathroom. We also have an almost-black deep teal in our home-office. I like the colors we chose, but always considered going darker, maybe even to a matte black in our sunnier rooms.

I love the look of minimalism, but I never see minimalist rooms with dark paint. When I redecorate, minimalism was the direction I was planning to head. I'd even been toying with the idea of going white in the living room and I was feeling a little sad about the whole thing.

Luckily, Ms. Mann's home will be featured in the upcoming issue of Metropolitan Home, which I will plan to track-down like a bloodhound. I only hope the style is a interesting as it sounds.

Lemon Sesame Muffins from The Kitchen

These sounds delicious:

Lemon Sesame Muffins
makes 12 generously-sized muffins

2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 c sugar
1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted (1/2 tsp salt)
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons lemon rind (from about five small lemons; squeeze for juice as well)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 c oil
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla

Lemon Syrup
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon rind

Heat the oven to 375ºF. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan with liners or by greasing the cups. Mix the dry ingredients and the lemon rind. In a small bowl beat the milk, oil, egg and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and beat with a whisk just until smooth. Pour into the muffin cups and bake about 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick just comes out clean.

While baking, prepare the lemon syrup. Whisk the lemon juice and sugar together in a small saucepan and boil for about five minutes or until reduced and shiny. Remove from heat and stir in the teaspoon of lemon rind.

When the muffins come out of the oven, immediately poke a couple toothpick holes in each muffin and carefully drizzle the hot syrup over them. Let cool for about 20 minutes in the pan to let the syrup absorb.

The Driftwood Mirror

Riffing on the Cabin Chic theme: The Atlantic Mirror from Devon Driftwood Designs. No price on the site, so you know it's going to hurt.

Cabin Chic

Part modernism, part summer camp: Cabin Chic is popping up everywhere. Inspired by the outdoorsy elegance of this room from Zara Home, I spent a few hours cruising the internet for Cabin Chic inspiration, which I collected for a post over at Shak in Style.

40% off Upholstery at West Elm

Upholstered barstools and chairs from West Elm are now 40% off!

Gardens Inspires in Austin

Over the weekend, I visited my brother in Austin. He's currently redoing his home, which is an amazing modern split-level. His favorite spot for landscaping inspiration is a local store called Gardens. What an amazing place!

The shop and nursery are beautiful in themselves, but the owners also do custom landscaping. Luckily, they have some photo galleries online so that we can admire their work from afar.

I've been pouring over their photos trying to get inspired myself. Around Dallas, our last average day of frost is March 15th. Time to get planting.

All Things Yellow at Anthropologie

I visited my brother in Austin this weekend (more to come on that) and we stopped off at their new Anthropologie downtown. The store is absolutely beautiful, of course. They had some amazing displays, including a huge array of hanging terrariums.

What most caught my eye, is the eruption of yellow in decorative accessories. The store looked like a bed of daffodils, with yellow peaking out from piles of pillows, upholstery motifs, and their new spring rugs.

I've got more on the new yellow trend over at Shak in Style.

All products shown to the right available at Anthropologie.com.

Guest Posting at Shakadoo

Kristen at Shakadoo has very kindly asked me to guest post on their new site for the week. I am very flattered and very excited. I will be posting to their decor blog, Shak in Style. I'll still be posting here, of course. I promise I've got enough to say this week to go around, so please come and visit me on both blogs.