design can be fun....

I always love it when I can finally put a name to a room that I've seen all over blogland...

Case in point, Summer Thornton. I posted the picture below ages ago, but I didn't actually know who the designer was (probably the biggest problem in the blogging community) until today! How sad!

Anyways, I was browsing her portfolio and really like her approach to design....in her own words "Summer Thornton Design was established to make the design process unpretentious, fun, and fresh. Mixing high and low, rough and polished, classic and irreverent, her designs utilize contrast to engage the senses"

....How can you not like that mission statement?? I love designers that take the more untraditional "interior design" route and make design accessible and most importantly, fun!

I think it's great that good design is becoming more obtainable these days. Whether it's through blogs, designers, stylists, magazines, etc, people are sharing resources and ideas and the design world is becoming less mysterious. Besides, was it ever fair that only the wealthy could have designer homes?

I think not!

Anyways, on to more images of Summer Thornton's fun and original take on design (except for Kelly Wearstler's Imperial Trellis.....I kid, I kid, there was a time when it wasn't overused!)

Summer Thornton Design

missing the pest....

I know I've mentioned it before on my blog, but I lived in Budapest, Hungary for 6 months in 2008. I lived on the Pest side (the "s" in Hungarian is pronounced "sh", unless it's followed by a "z", in that case it sounds like "s"). Budapest should actually be pronounced as "Budapesht"....and that is probably the only Hungarian lesson I can give you because it's a VERY difficult language to learn. I only know basic phrases, and most importantly, how to ask for a beer, using my thumbs-up signal to mean 1. 

Anyways, to get to the point, I miss Budapest! I had an amazing semester there and was able to travel all over central Europe, and I really just miss traveling! I've been having some serious Budapest withdrawals so I cannot wait to go back in May with my sister who is in Barcelona right now. I also seriously need to re-take a TON of pictures that I lost from my semester abroad when my computer crashed--that was a very sad day.

I was reading Made by Girl's post today which featured the beautiful home of Hungarian blogger Noémi. After clicking through to her blog I found a few cool Hungarian design sites, I only wish I could actually read them! I did, however, find some beautiful Hungarian interiors that I thought I would share....

Otthon.hu

And now for a treat {mostly for me}, my only remaining photos of my Budapest apartment via Facebook....

Please excuse the mess, these were taken when we fist moved in (January 2008). We rented this apartment through a vacation rental agency so all the furniture was already there...

Our living room, you can see one of my roommates on the couch!

I miss those high ceilings and tall doors...

View into one of the bedrooms

This was my room for the first couple of months, we switched around a lot...

Our tiny kitchen, it actually doesn't look that tiny in this picture but it was really narrow.

Our apartment building.

Our beautiful courtyard!

i'm alive!

Sooooo, after almost a three month hiatus from blogging, I'M BACK! 

For any of my readers who are still around, I swear a won't completely abandon this blog again!

Like most people, I just got really busy around the holidays, and since then I just got too used to not blogging. I was also feeling a bit uninspired with lots of things recently.....I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do exactly, but I think I finally have an idea....

In other news, I'm planning a month long trip to Europe! My younger sister is studying abroad in Barcelona right now, and since I am super jealous of her {even though I already studied abroad in Budapest, yes I want to go again!} I am going to visit her and travel with her for a month in May! I. Cannot. Wait. So far, were planning to go to Paris, Budapest--of course!, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, and possibly Milan to visit our Italian exchange student my family hosted last year. I've already been to all of these cities, except Paris, but since my computer crashed and I lost ALL of my pictures I want to go back and replace them....plus, those were my favorite cities!

Anyways, on to the pretty stuff.....I thought I would give you a design overdose to make up {or try to....} for my extra long blogging break....

all of the above...Jessica Helgerson Interior Design

skona hem