heaven...

...also known as ABC Carpet and Home. Eric's band played a show in NYC this Friday so we decided to make a weekend out of it. And ABC Carpet was at the top of my list of places to check out (besides Momofuku for the fried chicken dinner, but we'll talk about that another time). You can easily spend a couple hours at ABC Carpet - its HUGE. It actually takes up 2 buildings, but one was just rugs which we didn't go into. The building that we did visit had six stories of home accessories, furniture, lighting, rugs, etc. There's something for everyone - whether your style is contemporary, traditional or vintage. It really is a one stop shop for all things home...as long as you can afford the prices. Although I did notice that some of the glassware and tableware on the first floor was pretty reasonably priced. I think it was my favorite floor - everything was beautifully displayed and it felt so pretty and romantic. Here are a few of my favorite vignettes:











I loved these pieces. The legs look like carved wood, but they are made completely of metal. They're gorgeous.



How cute is this lamp? Although I feel like I could make something similar out of some vintage materials...

who's groovy, happy, chic and coming to philly?

image via

JONATHAN ADLER!! Well, maybe not the real Jonathan Adler...although I do hope he'll stop by at least once...a Jonathan Adler store will be opening soon and according to Brownstoner, it's taking over Foster's old space in Old City. Philly is seriously lacking in the GOOD contemporary furniture store department (notice emphasis on good). I'm not saying we don't have any, but we definitely don't have many. And it really hurt to see DWR go:( That was a sad day for me.

It's hard not to like Jonathan Adler - his pieces are so fun and funky but they also have really great lines. I've completely fallen for this sofa:



It's very simple and almost minimalist until you get to the tufting. The tufting gives it a more classic look and makes it feel grown up.

Jonathan Adler started out as a potter and his pottery pieces are pretty fantastic. This horse head is probably my favorite:



It would fit in well with my horse collection...especially since I already own one of his other horse pieces:

It's so adorable - actually pretty smalI at about 4" tall. I got it at his store in Miami - it was the first Jonathan Adler store I had ever visited and I loved it so much that I needed to buy something! Does that ever happen to you? I find that it happens to me a fair amount... And I also purchased this cute little tray.

I love the color and it's a handy little holder for my mail and keys.

I'm not sure when the it's set to open, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a grand opening party with a meet and greet with Jonathan Adler himself!

janisak designs

When I found out that Josh, an old classmate of mine from architecture school, started designing/building furniture on the side (he's a fulltime architect) I wasn't that surprised. He has always had an incredible sense of design and man was I jealous of his model making skills in school! The designs are 100% Josh, and except for getting some help with the steel fabrications, the woodwork, finishing and assembly are all completed by him. And he says that it all started because of a mistake:

Sara (Josh's girlfriend) asked me to put a glass top on some old metal legs she had from an old table. I had the glass made and when I got the glass top, I realized I screwed up the fastener hole spacing and had to buy a new piece of glass. Instead of throwing out the piece of glass that I screwed up, I designed and had metal legs built for the screwed up glass and found myself with a new coffee table. Shortly thereafter, one of the neighbors was throwing out all these beautiful old floor joists. I couldn't stand to see them go in the trash, so I took them. With my hunger to make more cool things out of steel, I coupled the two and started making the benches.

The table that started it all...

My favorite pieces are the benches that he's made. They have a rustic appeal but also feel modern and sophisticated. Using mostly reclaimed/salvaged materials, they have a sense of history that is lost in most furniture you find today. And the cool part - Josh was able to find the materials locally, right here in Philly:

I usually scrounge the material, walking around and looking for construction sites and people doing demo, climbing into dumpsters, that type of stuff. All the pallet wood came from the Italian market, a nice, close source. I only go for the solid red oak pallets though, the fir ones usually get so banged up and trashed by the time I get my hands on them. One guy had a stack of big old joists beside his house, he was chainsawing them up and using them for firewood. I stole one later that night because I couldn’t stand to see it burnt up like that. Hopefully he didn’t miss that piece of wood too bad, after all, I turned it into something. Now that people know that I’m into this type of stuff, the wood has been finding me. I like working with old material because they are pretty and sturdy. I always tell Sara, I don’t ever want to buy anything new, they just don’t build stuff the way they used to. We’ve seen it in our short generation, everything has turned plastic. It’s the same with timber, they just don’t grow stuff like this anymore. The long leaf pine forests of the South have been clear cut to dangerous levels. The old growth timbers are jewels. The best way to obtain such species of timber is through recycling, so when I get my hands on something like this, it feels special.

This bench is made entirely out of pallet wood - pretty amazing huh? Who knew pallets could be turned into something so nice?

I really love these two pieces. The metal complements the wood but isn't too fussy that it detracts from it. The beauty of the wood is really able to come across.

Impressive, right? I've actually been lucky enough to collaborate with Josh on a few pieces for a salon I'm working on - hopefully I can share those with you soon. If you have any interest in having a custom piece of furniture made for you or are interested in purchasing any of the pieces shown above - you can either email me or contact Josh directly at jbarch2@comcast.net or 215.923.1115..

images: eric heidel