Blu Dot Austin

The already good selection of modern home interior stores in Austin just got a little bit better with the addition of Blu Dot. Last night was their big grand opening party, but before the crowd arrived I had a chance to take a tour of the space and chat with founder John Christakos about Blu Dot and the store.

First, it should be noted that Blu Dot is different from West Elm or CB2 and other modern design stores in one very specific way. Everything at Blu Dot is designed in house and manufactured by Blu Dot. John, and co founder Maurice Blanks first formed the company in 1997 because they could see the need for good affordable modern furniture.

DesignCreede FitchAugust 8, 2014Furniture, Downtown, Shopping, Blu DotComment

Blackshear Project : Moving time

Things have progressed quickly at our house project in the past few weeks. The kitchen is mostly installed, we have modern day conveniences like hot water and air conditioning, and out roof only leaks a little during heavy rain storms (ou vey!). This last week we started moving over some of our art, and a bit of furniture. The wall unit shown above is a piece I designed and built with my wife a few years ago. It's modeled after the classic Danish modular wall units, but I built it with supporting feet so it could be used free standing instead of attached to the wall. Something that was important as we moved from rental to rental.

DesignCreede FitchMay 16, 2014Mid Century Modern, East Austin, Furniture, Casa MarrakechComment

West Austin Studio Tour

While I tend to be full of east side pride, I admit that there is plenty of great talent lurking out there east of I35. Thankfully the team at Big Medium is putting on their third annual West Austin Studio Tour this and next weekend. If you haven't heard of West, the idea is similar to the East Austin Studio Tour, it is a free self guided tour featuring all sorts of amazing designers, artists and all around creative people. While the roster is fairly long and impressive, here are a few picks that I am looking forward to checking out.