Decoding Houndstooth

Paisley, Argyle, Houndstooth, Plaid, Fishbone: Have you ever wondered what characteristics of a pattern make it indistinguishable from other patterns? 


According to Wikipedia Houndstooth "is a duotone textile pattern, characterized by broken checks or abstract four-pointed shapes, often in black and white, although other colors are used". It originated in Scotland and consist of alternating bands of four dark and four light threads. Its used in various textile versions from home decor to fashion. 


Let's decode this mysterious alternating band concept:
First, block out the solid squares from the striped squares.

Secondly, Find stripes within the squares.

Next, Mimic squares by placing a row of black squares then white squares horizontally. In between each solid square should be a striped square. These are alternated.

Finally, copy and paste striped bands half way in between above and below so that in the striped squares, there are five threads: black then white then black then white then finally again black. 

Here are a few examples of products that use the Houndstooth pattern in interesting and bold ways.

This is a Marc Jacobs dress that the character Blair Waldorf wore on Gossip Girl. I have no idea if this dress is still in stores but I do love the large pattern and color combination. I found it on Cool Spotters.

These chairs are fantastic. They may be a bit bold for my tiny Manhattan apartment, but I can see them in light, airy, minimalist home office adding a perfect amount of pizzazz to the space. The are the perfect combination of modern graphics and 19th century furniture. I found them on 1stdibs.com. 

This screen is by a designer named Courtney Skott and can be found on her website: Courtney Skott. 

Detachable Cork trivets found at vivavi.com

For a more "do-it-yourself" wall application, these decals from Modern Wall Graphics are perfect.

EazyWallz also makes large format wall stickers (for all you apartment dwellers who can't install wallpaper, like myself).

Coney Island and 15°

I am a really lucky person. I live in NYC and on any given weekday, I can go to Coney Island for an architectural site visit (work related of course), take some photos of the site, take some photos of not-the-site, and be completely blown away with a collection of photos that depicts the essence of an empty amusement park on freezing cold day with gorgeous long shadows and deep blue skies. I really like this Coney Island collection; it was worth bearing 15° for.

You can see more pictures on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimberlypayne/sets/72157610855205003/

image from westland.net

Make-Over for My Old Dresser

After 10 years of using my grandmother's dresser, I decided to give it a little face lift. I removed all the hardware (which I kept for nostalgic purposes). I lightly sanded the gloss finish off. I painted the dresser with two coats of semi-gloss black paint. The new hardware was purchased from two different stores. For the knobs, I found two unique knobs with a font type from Anthropologie.  The pulls are from Restoration Hardware.

Here are some pictures before the make-over:

Here are the AFTER shots!

3D Entrance for new project

As I was working on a 3D image of an entrance for a new project, I realized that wire frame images can be just as interesting as rendered images. They may not translate the architecture as clear, but the wire frame images have a unique composition. Its flat but very graphic & I like it.

Construction Photos

Construction photos from previous job site (2007-2008)