shout out

speacial thanks to Alec at Apartment Therapy (LA) and Holly at Decor8 for linking our post about the Walmart lamp we found- welcome to all new faxu bois lovers to our humble site! please check out our archives to see other woody-nutty-ness- Check out my post at happymundane for more Walmart developments! would love to hear what you think!

SBIG: restaurant china + underwear

Its So Bad It's Good friday! this antique plate set was from some old restaurant... at first glance, we think its pretty bad.. but then after awhile... its kinda cute. reminds me of something out of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' house. i can only imagine what might have been served on it.

and on a completely random note, ever-clever and cheeky (pun intended) underwear maker Ginch Gonch has a set of "woodies" underwear. They're sold out on their website, but a simple google search shows they are still available through other stores. Due to the ....uh.... "sensitive" nature of underwear. i will only post links. Click on them only if you are interested...(and i know you are!) (NOTE- images are could mildy be not safe for work) Available for men and women.

Rattan Coat Hanger

How cool is this rattan coat hanger! Looks like we are reinventing rattan. I think I've been taking rattan for granted because I grew up with so much of it, but no longer! For those that are interested, Rattan, a.k.a Berchemia Scandens, is a rope-like climbing plant that can grow to be up to 600 feet long! Its outer skins are strong and removed and woven. Like many over-harvested trees, it's not abundant as it used to be, so cherish it! Find it here.

Gail Taylor

Beautiful copper panels by Gail Taylor can can add a rustic but modern texture to any room.

Wordplay

Elijah
Evan Rachel
Natalie
Harrelson
Holly
Tiger

hmm, are you seeing a pattern? :)

walmart table lamp

Walmart has been making a big push lately to modernize their home furnishings department- This month's Domino mag has a full spread ad for their new bedding- i always do a drive-by now whenever i go there, ever since i had to do a project for my parentals, and i've been pretty impressed with where they're going. they obviously still have a long way to go, but I think this table lamp is a step in the right direction- I'm not sure exactly what "paper wood-like veneer" means. so i'm going out on a limb and including it within the its(k)notwood criteria of not being real wood- and since its an online item only, i can't run over and check it out in person- so take the leap of faith with me and lets admire it for the $22.82 that it is-

Stark Stump

Fellow woodnut Alexa, reminded us about Philippe Stark's "Saint Esprit" stool, that goes with those popular gnome ones that have been around for awhile- you can get them here- or here- (thanks Alexa!)

By the way, Alexa had a question we're going to throw out to you guys for help- has anyone seen Faux Bois upholstery fabric? let us know in the comments!

Lou Wine Bar

Last Friday night was spent having yummy after dinner drinks at Lou, a super cozy wine bar newly opened on Vine and Melrose. That's our dear friend David on the right. For all you pattern lovers, this is the place for us! Designed by a member of the famed kitchy design group Memphis (anti-establishment style of the 80's), we get a plethora of patterns on every surface - loving the curtains which happen to also create a pink and black wall of flowers from the outside. It is IKW noteworthy because of the their use of the ever so beautiful Cole and Sons 'The Woods' white and silver metallic wallpaper; AND this may be stretching it, but it is also noteworthy for the woodsy/ smokey flavor of the third of the white wine sampler I had....

Lou is located in Hollywood:724 N Vine St.Los Angeles CA 90038

PS. For dinner nearby, I would highly recommend Mario's Peruvian food (Japanese run) across the street on the other side of melrose. The shrimp fried rice and seafood are AMAZING.

Correction 4-12-06
The interior for Lou was not designed by a member of Memphis, but by Barbara Bestor the LA architect who used it for the inspiration. Fabulous!

Piacenza and Robex

Piacenza is an italian company that makes these trés chic plastic bowls- we saw their yummy collection at the Chicago Home show. At first glance, the outside really looks like wood veneer, but its actually just the technique they incorporate into the texture of the plastic- the actual process they make the bowls is pretty hi-tech (involving fusing of several layers of synthetic films)- but i won't bore you with the details- just enjoy the beauty that is Piacenza.... i have a bowl from them i purchased awhile ago, that i bought at Plastica , but their latest collection has newer shapes-

Interestingly, Robex, is another italian company that makes very simliar looking products - in fact, fellow woodnut Enrique sent me a pic of a bowl that he has from Robex (he put pretty oranges in it), that looks identical to the Piacenza one i have (from Plastica)-

Regardless of which company you prefer, in our Its(k)notwood eyes, they are all good.
both of them have gorgeous products that are a must have for any home! you can purchase Piacenza here- and Robex here-

Mariah DeMarco

our fellow woodnut Joy from Scrapalicio gave us a tip to these super cute handmade cards by Mariah DeMarco- check them out at her site-

SBIG: "woody" cars

When i first saw the Chrystler PT Cruiser, i thought it was a fun design, with hommage to old school surfer wagons, and i even loved the "woody" kit that they offered- i always enjoy when something modern has a classic "edge" to it- well, i guess now even if you don't have a PT, you can get yourself some "wood" for your car- behold the glorious website, PTwoody.com- they are amazing. they have wood kits for so many different makes of car- Got a new beetle? no prob- they got a wood kit for you- Scion? - there you go...- mini cooper? they got ya covered. Hummer? oh yes- even a hummer can have nice faux wood panelling!and theres tons more!!! i admit, i kind of feel there's something sorta... wrong about a beetle with woodgrain siding... but at the same time... i can't help but feel its kinda of... completely fantastic? too bad they can't cover the whole car. now that would be the shizzle fo' sho. but i guess nothing beats the classic.....(le sigh....)

Brett Westfall tee

LA local, Brett Westfall is an artist/designer who last year collaborated with Comme des Garcons' Rei Kawakubo- He's selling two tees on uber styling Hint Mag's online shop- according to Hintmag, they are "subtly combining art and politics, the high quality unisex shirts make a statement without being preachy- just the thing for spring" get it here-

chocolate goodness

I was so delighted to see a woodgrain chocolate piano in the assortment of chocolates my house guests presented this past weekend. They are from Martine's Chocolates in New York City. Apparently, you can take a chocolate tour of 6 chocolate shops around Manhattan. Martine's was their clear favorite.

On the same note, we are reminded of Tobias Wong's chocolate wood, a bar of chocolate with a woodgrain texture. Yummy.

Oly

As seen in this month's Elle Decor, was this lovely mirror by Oly.
i first saw Oly at their large booth at the NYIGift fair this past January, but didn't realize how many faux bois things they carry- a quick looksee through their website shows a sampling of their expansive collection-
I really like the the lamp that has the little bird detail- granted their pieces are a bit pricey- but they are quite lovely- you can purchase a few over at Koo de Kir.

branch candles

Elder Branch resin candlesticks by Lars Bolander, as seen in this the April 06 Elle Decor-
they look so sexy against the white wallpaper and gloss black table....

shelterrific

special shout out goes to the kind folks at shelterrific for mentioning our humble blog and linking us! we were fans of the former Budget Living mag, and am glad to see some of their talents continue on!

marble magnets

as seen on etsy, these wonderful marble magnets, which are entitled "wood you be mine", are designed by Nichole (nikki74992). The set 0f 20 is only $6.50 (hurry!)

chi-town 4: Santino!

In a mad rush to catch up with work last week, we forgot to post our Chicago celebrity siting of no other than Santino Rice from this past season's Project Runway!! We spotted him at Filter, a cafe in the Wicker Park area, after our visit to Sprout Home. He passed our table on his way to the bathroom and came towards me first. He is TALL and tried so hard to stay undetected by lowering his head, but his hat, beard and just over all tall guy vibe just gave it away. "OMG," I said to Jon, "I think Santino just passed us (!)" For the next eight minutes we waited. Jon wasn't convinced because he only saw his back side. And when he came out, it was him. We decided not to bother him and just take a few stealth shots. We confirmed his visit to Chicago via his personal website. Love me a good celeb siting!

SBIG: Super Home Mart

After much anticipation, this new shop called Super Home Mart in LA's Chinatown has opened! Oh my, it is literally filled with all things Made in China!! Everything you can imagine from toothpicks, sponge holders, melamine plates, to fountains and Starck-ish chairs can be found there. It's gianormous. I had no doubts they had faux woodgrain which we found in the home furninshings section and which all happen to be made of ceramic. The wood stumps adorned with animals are just SBIG. The beautiful bottom vases are ceramic painted to look like wood and are mostly priced under 10 dollars! This will be the secret source for many party planners for sure. No website, but Super Home Mart is very near the Acuna-Hansen Gallery and the other Chinatown galleries right below the Empress Pavilion at the Bamboo Plaza. Here's the address:

Super Home Mart
988 N. Hill Street #101 Los Angeles, CA 90012
Tel: 213-628-8898
Fax: 213-628-8828
HoursOpen Daily 10am - 8pm

chi-town3: michael aram

While in chicago, also stopped at the Marshall Fields store. Being from So-Cali, we don't have any Marshall Fields, so it's always nice to peruse if we see one. Plus i like the old-school 50's scripty logo they have- anyways- ventured through the Houswares department, and we saw these beautiful twig flatware and branch candleholders by Michael Aram. We also saw a great cheese tray too (as seen above) Now, i know Michael Aram's work has been around for awhile, but i didn't realize the scope of it- After coming back, we checked out his website and found he is a big faux bois lover- he has several fetching pieces- including the branch vases we blogged about awhile back from Gumps(didn't know he did them!) we saw those at Marshall Fields, and they are much larger in person and that made me want them even more!!- and this "enchanted forest table"- that comes in oxidized copper (oooh....pretty...) and polished aluminum. there so many more that we don't have room to show- so just go check them out for yourself at his online shop-

chi-town2: sprout home

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Sprout Home, which we first heard about from designsponge a while ago- we've visited the website several times and oogled at their fine selection of goodies- so when we had the opportunity to actually go to chicago- we had to make it a priority- Sprout Home is kinda out of the way from where we started out- (we started in Wicker Park) and the walk was kind of long- but very nice and there's tons of little shops along the way- (however, don't go on a monday, like we did, cuz so many cute shops we wanted to check out were closed...sad) but once we found it- it was well worth the trek- So much lovely-ness there and integrated with a wonderful selection of live plants. A few faux-wood things we found were: this great little box by Deep Boxes- you open it up and it has a forest print and a small mirror bottom with words screened on it, and this beautiful little twig notepad- they also carry a good selection of eggpress cards, that Em posted about before- I ended up buying a cool little planter/pot from ASA designs, that i will post on happymundane-
anyways- if you get a chance to go in person- SproutHome is definitely a must see. (and shop!)

chi-town + d*s

Currently on a quick trip to the wonderful town of Chicago, checking out the International Homes and Housewares show- Em and I have had a few great faux bois moments here, (and even a minor celebrity sighting!) We'll be blogging a few of our finds over the next couple days, but we first just wanted to post a super big thank you to Designsponge for mentioning us in her D*S Mini Trends feature about faux bois! (yay!) Her feature also includes this great set of stools by Courtney skott- More soon...

Bryce Floor Lamp

Super special thanks to our fellow woodnut Gregg who tipped us to this great modern floor lamp that has a woodgrain fabric shade- available online only at Target.com (thanks Gregg!)

UPDATE: Gregg let us know that they also have a table lamp version too!

SBIG #3: Art?

Let me preface this post by saying, I like to think that our goal here at IKW is to just show this whole phenomenon of faux wood, so here is another side... My personal reaction -- "HUH!?" But that's just me. Another thought.. it takes trial and error to get a masterpiece, right? I've certainly been there. Props.

links: Untitled Wallpaper Drawing, 1992; DALE KEOGH'S GALLERY

homage: 70's clocks

Before hi tech i-pod customed alarm clocks, we had the "Westlock Drowse", yes the drowsssse. Sounds like a name of a serious cocktail. They were part of a line of electric snooze alarmed from the 70's. Can't buy them anymore, except maybe vintage, but you can check all of 'em out at clockhistory.com.

marimekko

the marimekko people are doing such a brilliant job. above are a few pieces from their new collection - ratanpuisto & latvassa with leaves a foot long and below are kaiku, lumimarja, tuuli, blowing rock, and hoi hoi. they are clearly the experts at abstracting nature. the beauty in trees have been such a successful theme throughout their collections. ahhh, so gorgeous. all are available as wall hanging kits. would love to see pics if anyone has one on their wall. i'm sure it's just breathtaking.

happy mundane

i'd also like to introduce a new offshoot from Its(k)notwood, a new blog called "happy mundane" created by our fellow woodnut Jon. happy mundane aims to celebrate the "unusual and the ordinary, happy colors, good design of any kind, and to take a moment to appreciate some things that can get overlooked in the everyday. www.happymundane.com

tree cookies

over the weekend, I stopped by the local Mitsuwa grocery store- it goes without saying that just 5 minutes in a japanese grocery store is almost too much eyecandy- similar to the crackers that em posted last week, i found these yummy yummy tree cookies!!- the inner core "rings" of the trees are made of a graham cracker cookie, and they're dipped with chocolate bark- they're tiny and bite size, but they are sooo good, i practically finished off the entire box within minutes of opening them! ( I also picked up a few other things which we'll be blogging about throughout the next week-) for now, please enjoy some tree cookies!

fabric

thank to hailey for her links to her some woodgrain fabric last week. we've been holding off on showing these fabulous woodgrain fabrics we've had in our archive because we can't find the source anymore (argh!). The brazillian rosewood is especially gorgeous with that knot morphing into the grain. i've included a close up of the selvedge in case anyone can find this fabric again. help! thanks again hailey!

SBIG #2 plastic logs

So Bad It's Good (SBIG) Fridays Continues...
#2 Plastic Logs
i believe these are intended to be used with toy trucks, but they're kind of fascinating. A nice little stack of them on a book case or table seems strangely appealing to me. And since they're for toys, i would also think the scale would be interesting too...obviously you wouldn't want them near a real fire... they probably could be brilliant if you reconstructed them and used them for a lamp or something.... anyways- out of the UK- they can be found here.

hi-tech surfboards

Saw this on Coolhunting awhile back, about these hi-tech surfboards by Nev Surf. Aside from the über hi-technical performance features, what really got me was the printing of the faux wood and the faux side-of-a-ship-complete-with-pin-up-mermaid motif- apparently these graphics are printed digitally on super touch fabrics that are then vacuum formed and incorporated into the skins of the boards. Also commendable is that they use solvent-less inks, which don't give off harmful odors/vapors-

march elle decoration

the march issue of british elle decoration is on newstands now and it's featured serveral forest scene wallpaper options that give your home the feeling of outdoors, indoors. The first is 'The Woods' by Cole and Sons in its full glory. d*s featured this a few days ago. These come in a great selection of two tone colors including a version with stunning metallic foil. Next is the Bespoke treescape screen by Screen Productions. Not only do they offer this high contrast forest, they can also do custom images and sizes. 'The Forest' Photowall is by The Dream Scene. It seems we could probably find somthing like this here in the US. And the final one is actually laminate papayrus flooring placed on the wall made by Pergo. This issue is great if you are considering bold scenic images as a focal point in your home.

japanese crackers

japanese packaging never ceases to amaze. this wood texture and the little clear window to reveal the crackers are subtle and cute. these crackers actually look like little snow covered branches. i'm detoxing this week - no sugar, no salt, nothing greasy, but... i cheated on these. i guess i'm not perfect and life's too short right! they're fried pretezely twigs with sugar coating. on the back side of the packaging it says 'ichicka tokushima sobako karinto' which i think in short translates to crackers. Available at your local Mitsuwa Japanese Market.

hanging coat rack and coat stand

This clever hanging coat rack and coat stand is made of chrome steel and steel wire and polyuerethane- the coat stand is called "OKA-B" and the hanging one is called "OKA-A"- I especially love the hanging one, because it doesn't take up floorspace, and it can spin around- they are designed by Teppo Asikainen at Valvomo for Inno. don't know if you can get them in the US- but on the Inno website, it shows they have a US distributor- i have a feeling they're kinda pricey though- but what a great concept no?