Category Archives: Habitat

Declutter the kitchen

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Habitat and tagged with , , ,

When you live in a rental property, there’s not a whole lot you can do with a poorly laid out kitchen. There is one drawer in our kitchen. One. So we’ve learned to live with that precious drawer. We’ve introduced freestanding drawers into our kitchen and I keep boxes inside my cupboards for various knickknacks that other people might put in drawers. I mean, aren’t drawers just a stack of boxes with handles?

I’ve had this set of white corner drawers since I was in high school. It was great in a corner of a teenager’s bedroom, but looked out of place in the middle of our kitchen. It stuck out too much and it didn’t hide enough.We had cookbooks, bags of potatoes and onions, stacks of shopping bags and tablecloths that needed homes.

This spring, we added a whole lot of useable space to our kitchen by adding a long buffet/sideboard. I grabbed this from an online auction site and my initial intention was to paint it with blackboard paint. But when we got it home, the wood looked too nice to paint over. With heaps of storage, it already holds all our tupperware, bags, cookbooks, potatoes and onions and is still half empty (or is that half full?). By moving the drinks tray, kettle and toaster from our countertop to this sideboard, we’ve gained over 30cm of extra bench space. I’m already thinking about what appliances I can invest in to plug up that extra space. I’m keen for a slow cooker, The Koala would probably prefer a deep fryer.

We invested in a new fridge/freezer this spring too. The old one we had was very possibly older than me and probably chewed through loads of power. Getting rid of our old fridge was also a good excuse to clear out our fridge. There was some stuff in there that had been there for a good 5 years.

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Tofu Tuesday: Tofu’s Nursery

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Habitat, Tofu Tuesday and tagged with , , , , ,

We recently picked up a new sideboard for the kitchen which meant a bit of rearranging and we bumped a set of white drawers into Tofu’s “room”. With a few items from our bunny collection, Tofu’s room now reminds me of a baby’s nursery. Sloth painting bottom right is by my sister Joanne Ho.

Tofu seems to like it. He said it is totally reminiscent of bunny Ikea.

Monday Bunday: Interior Design with Real Bunnies

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Habitat, Monday Bunday and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

When a new person comes to visit, we notice them noticing our rabbit running loose indoors. We are accustomed to seeing a rabbit around the house. Tofu isn’t a prop, he’s a legitimate member of the household. Still, I always get a kick out of seeing other rabbits in other indoor settings. Especially beautifully styled homes or hanging out on beautiful furniture.

When you have a beautifully designed room or piece of furniture, you need two other things. A rabbit and a talented photographer. For your viewing pleasure, I have collected these images from around the world, relating to bunnies with beautiful interiors or architecture. I hope you enjoy these as much as I have.

Cécile de Vries

Lola on a blue floral armchair Reposted with permission

Lola on pink floral armchair Reposted with permission

Into The Land Of My Dreams (with Charlie and Lola) Reposted with permission

Cécile is a photographer with two Teddy Widder rabbits named Lola and Charlie. The three of them are very beautiful, have excellent taste and a gorgeous home in The Netherlands. You can view more of Cecile’s work on her website www.droom-kleuren.nl or her Flickr page www.flickr.com/photos/ciel-photography.

Todd Selby (The Selby)

Petit-Gris the hawaiian shirt bunny 

This photo of Auckland bunny Petit-Gris makes me burst with delight. This photo was shot by New York based photographer Todd Selby at Karen Inderbitzen-Waller and Delphine Avril Planqueel’s lovely home. Karen is photographer and stylist and Delphine is a retoucher and lighting director…Petit-Gris is a stunning supermodel and appears to be a broken black lop. Obviously. More photographs of their amazing home can be viewed at The Selby’s online portfolio here.

Studio Klink

Rabbit House (Villa Peet Lelystad)

This minimal rabbit house (Peet House) in Netherlands by architects at Studio Klink seems to be popular with the bunnies. You can view more of Studio Klink’s architecture at their website www.studioklink.com.

Lisa de Araujo

Dines With Rabbits Reposted with permission

Regis and the fake tulip table Reposted with permission

Lisa is a talented designer, photographer and bunny lover in Cambridge, UK. Lisa’s dutch rabbits are named Troy and Regis and enjoy free reign of her home. The bunnies are great friends and can be found inside her home and outdoors. You can view Lisa’s Flickr account here and her website at www.lisadearaujo.com

Karl Anderson

Bunny on Bed (Casa International) Reposted with permission

Karl shoots amazing photos of gorgeous Scandanavian home interiors and lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. He also takes portraits of interesting people and celebrities, To see more of Karl’s photography, visit his website www.karlandersonphotography.com. To view more gorgeous Scandinavian interiors and the place where I found Karl’s image, visit www.fromscandinaviawithlove.com.

Kira Brandt

Kaninen Stampe (Thumper) Reposted with permission

Kira Brandt is a photographer working in København, Denmark. As well as interiors, she photographs food, flowers and editorials. She’s basically a lifestyle image powerhouse. When Kira photographed Danish interior designer Tina Havmøller’s beautiful family home, their pet rabbit named Stampe (Danish for Thumper) wanted in on it. I love how Stampe’s colouring makes it look like he’s wearing a snuggly knitted jumper. I’m also impressed with semi-lop ears. You can view more of Kira’s work at her website www.kirabrandt.dk and the original post (in Danish) at Bo Bedre.

Myra Klose (MYK)

Hare with Bommel Carpet Reposted with permission

When I brush Tofu the bunny, I’m often left with round balls of cream coloured fluff. I could make Tofu a neat rug just like this. The designer of this rug is Myra Klose of MYK and she is one of those designers that blur the lines between art and decor. Her cosy pompom pieces including rugs, chairs and poufs are a pleasure to look at and I’m sure a pleasure to have in the house. She works in Austria and Germany and with her fashion design background, she has an eye for whimsy, structure, texture and colour. What are stylish interiors but fashion for the home? You can view more of her work at her website 
http://myk-berlin.com
.

Design Curiosities

Eames the bunny and his Ikea-hack hutch 

Eames the bunny on Panton Chair with Charlotte the kitten

Newlywed graphic designer and lab geek, Steven and Nicole have excellent taste and website/blog called Design Curiosities. When they adopted a sweet little lop ear bunny they named Eames, a mid century design inspired hutch was the only solution. Eames looks to be a broken sable/tort lop, much like Tofu’s brother Olliver.

Eames also enjoys sitting on his mid century Panton S Chair designed by Verner Panton for Vitra. In 1960, this was the very first single-form injection-moulded plastic chair. One piece of plastic, one piece of furniture. Ground breaking.

Of course, an Eames chair would be too obvious. Far too obvious. Still, I can’t but think that the little Eames sitting on an Eames rocking chair would be hi-la-ri-ous.

Rabbitier @ Flickr

Bubu on Eames Side Chair Rocker Reposted with permission

Bubu with bust Reposted with permission

Bubu on orange armchair Reposted with permission

Photographer on Flickr known as Rabbitier lives in Tokyo, Japan and has a black otter lop bunny called Bubu. Bubu follows Rabbitier around their home with the enthusiasm of a puppy and enjoys jumping up and down from chairs and Rabbitier’s lap. His favourite food is banana and he seems to have very discerning taste. You can see more of Rabbitier’s photos on Flicker: www.flickr.com/photos/rabbitier

Melissa Muhlenkamp at Squawk Box Designs

Rabbit at Mustang Mott Reposted with permission

Melissa is a fellow graphic designer that I met through Graphic Design Forum. She lives in Denton Texas and has two bunnies called Bernadette and Mr. Weatherby and a cockatiel named Boscoe (the squawk box himself). This photo was shot at Mustang Mott, Texas. You can view more photos of her charmed life at her website www.squawkboxdesigns.com

Josh at Bella Grace Studios

Rabbit in bedroom of a home office in Kentucky

Josh from Bella Grace Studios photographed this bedroom in home/office building of De Leon & Primmer Architecture, owned by Roberto DeLeon and Ross Primmer. Josh is primarly a wedding photographer and you can view more of his work at his website www.bellagracestudios.com. Image reblogged from Decor8blog.com. 

Rambo the bunny

Rambo on couch Reposted with permission

Rambo the bunny isn’t a designer, but if you check out his hipster ways, you may forgive me for thinking otherwise. I love this photo of Rambo the bunny in a lovely home setting. You can see Rambo’s facebook page over here: www.facebook.com/EddyRamboBunny.

Note: All photographers/designers were contacted for permission to repost their work, most replied with permission, others I never heard back from. If there are any images here that should not be, I will remove them immediately. Please credit photographers with links if you too would like to spread the bunny love.

Love bunnies? Check out the categories Monday Bunday and Tofu Tuesdays. Please check back tomorrow as there will be an extra special Tofu Tuesday inspired by this post that oozes Scandinavian type charm.

Tofu Tuesday: Upholstered Chair

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Habitat, Tofu Tuesday and tagged with , , , , ,

A few years ago, I roped my friend A and my sister and her boyfriend into doing an upholstery class with me. This the chair I re-upolstered, sanded and stained. I have yet to sew the buttons  on and the fabric panel on the back requires attaching but it looks legit from the front so I don’t think about it.

Tofu judges my handiwork.

Swoon-worthy Dinnerware

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Habitat and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I swear drinking water or orange juice from a goblet tastes different than drinking out of tumbler. I’ve always noticed that the right bowl or plate makes a meal taste better. Even if it’s all in your mind, it’s there. When you’re eating a rustic meal in the country side of an exotic location, a banana leaf plate makes the experience authentic and delicious. When you’re eating at home, the right plate or bowl for the job makes all the difference.

Since as long as I started dreaming about my own kitchen and dinner parties, I’ve wanted a slightly off centre dinner set. Something that is not too ornate or stuffy and has an earthy character. My ideal dinner set would frame a rustic and hearty feast. It would not suggest fine dining and it’s also not so busy that it competes with the food.

Flatmates always leave kitchen items behind when they move out so whenever we cleaned out of a flat, we also moved the flat kitchen stuff that had been left behind over the years on to our next flat. Our current dinnerware collection includes a strata stack of mismatched items that we have inherited over 6 properties. It’s more like a hodge podge collection of Auckland flats plus some wedding gifts from loved ones.

To be fair, I kind of like mismatched pieces and if I were to start fresh, I might look at buying some pieces from one collection to compliment pieces from another collection.

Here are my picks of organic and nature inspired dinnerware available here in New Zealand. All prices are in New Zealand dollars.

Wonki Ware

Wonki Ware have a huge range of various plates, bowls (pasta, dessert and salad), platters of all shapes and sizes, cups, saucers and teapots with various finishes including plain, sand and lace and different colours including white, duck egg (grey) and black. You can mix and match pieces with different finishes within a colour or even mix colours within the same finish. I love the idea of getting all white but with different finishes mixed through the collection. Pieces in the ranges are priced from $18NZ to $80NZ each

Collections include: Beach Sand, Baroque Lace, Fancy Lace and Three Lines

Visit their website at wonkiware.co.za

Wonki Ware Beach Sand Salad Stack

Wonki Ware Duck Egg Set

Wonki Ware Fancy Lace Dessert Bowls

Wonki Ware Fancy Lace Plates

Wonki Ware 3 Lines Dinner Plate

Freedom Furniture

Even as a kid I loved wandering around Freedom Furniture with my family. My sister and I would pick out pieces we wanted for our dream homes. Freedom Furniture have 4 collections that would suit this round-up. They are the deep blue Bali, eggshell Lanay, cream and black Styx and grey Cascade Collections.

Visit their website at freedomfurniture.co.nz

Bali Collection

This dark blue collection features variations in black and brown as well as square and round shapes to mix and match with. I can see these at home on top of a dark teak dining table.

dinner plate (28cm) $7.95NZ

side plate (22cm) $6.95NZ

round bowls (10, 20, 34cm) $2.95, $6.95, $29.95NZ

square plate (22cm) $6.95NZ

square bowl (14cm) $6.95NZ

Freedom Furniture’s Bali Dinner Plate

Freedom Furniture’s Bali Bowl 20cm

Freedom Furniture’s Bali Bowl 34cm

Freedom Furniture’s Bali Square Plate

Freedom Furniture’s Bali Square Bowl

Lanay Collection

This collection features raised borders of organic lines in soft eggshell hue.

dinner plate (29cm) $11.95NZ

cereal bowl (15cm) $7.95

side plate (24cm) $8.95NZ

Freedom Furniture’s Lanay Dinner Plate

Freedom Furniture’s Lanay Cereal Bowl

Styx Collection

This black and cream graphic collection features a border hand drawn black lines.

dinner plate (28cm) $8.95NZ

bowl (15cm) $6.95NZ

side plate (20cm) $7.95NZ

Freedom Furniture’s Styx Bowl

Freedom Furniture’s Styx Dinner Plate

Cascade Collection

This medium grey collection features reminds me of a drop of water rippling through a pool of water.

dinner plate (25cm) $9.95NZ

cereal bowl (17.5cm) $7.95NZ

side plate (20cm) $7.95NZ

Freedom Furniture’s Cascade Dinner Plate

Freedom Furniture’s Cascade Dinner Plate

Briscoes

Arthouse Collection

This range is available in three colours: Beach White, Lavender and Ice Blue. The contrasting rim is most obvious on the beach white variation and gives the pieces a lovely patina.

Visit their website at briscoes.co.nz

dinner plate (27.5cm) $9.99NZ

side/salad plate (24cm) $8.99NZ

cereal bowl (14cm) $8.99NZ

bowl (18cm) $8.99NZ

soup bowl (22cm) $9.99NZ

Briscoes Arthouse Collection

Briscoes Arthouse Dinner Plate in Lavender

Briscoes Arthouse Bowl in Beach White

Briscoes Arthouse Soup Bowl in Ice Blue

Briscoes Arthouse Cereal Bowl in Beach White

Stevens

Pinstripe Collection

This pinstripe collection available at Stevens made of square dots originating from a central point remind me of crosscut logs of wood. The black and white print is very striking and would look fantastic on a black or white table setting. At $3NZ a piece, they are also the cheapest of all the pieces I found. A set of 6 bowls and 6 plates would set you back just $36NZ.

Visit their website at stevens.co.nz

bowl (14cm) $3NZ

plate (21cm) $3NZ

Steven’s Pinstripe Dinner Plate

Steven’s Pinstripe Bowl

Living and Giving

Ayra Glass Collection

The Ayra glass collection is made from Turkish glass and has a pleated design with a silver rim. While I love the finish, I’m not sure that a clear plate or bowl looks very good with food in it. Maybe that’s just me.

Visit their website at livingandgiving.co.nz

dinner plate (28cm) $34.99

soup bowl $19.99NZ

charger plate (34cm) $64.99NZ

Living & Giving’s Ayra Dinner Plate

Living & Giving Ayra Soup Bowl

Trade Aid

These Thimi made pieces are thrown on the wheel by the Associate for Craft Producers. ACP’s pottery comes from Thimi, Nepal. Thimi is well known for earthenware (terracotta/ceramics) and other handicrafts.

Visit their website at tradeaid.org.nz

Thimi large plate (25cm) $17.99NZ

Thimi white bowl (18cm) $14.99NZ

Trade Aid’s Thimi Dinner Plate

Trade Aid’s Thimi Bowl

White V-shape bowl with teal inner (15cm) $16.99NZ

This small bowl with a chopstick rest has a white glaze on the outside and stunning iridescent crackle glaze on the inside. Perfect for complementing the other pieces in the range. Hand crafted by the artisans working with Craft Link in Vietnam.

Trade Aid’s V-Shape Bowl

Citta Design

Sinousa Collection

The Sinousa Collection from Auckland company Citta are serve ware, come in colours oyster and charcoal and feature a unique organic shape.

Visit their website at cittadesign.com

bowls (10cm, 22cm 33cm) $19.90NZ, $39.90NZ, $115NZ

platter (36cm) $89.90NZ

Citta Design’s Sinousa Platter

Citta Design’s Sinousa Large Bowl

Citta Design’s Sinousa Small Bowl

Dietlind Wolf’s work is swoon-worthy

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Blogging, Habitat and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

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I’m no food stylist but when you take photos for a blog, you can’t help but look at your food differently. Composition, light, props, colour, texture, shape and white space are some of things I consider when shooting my food. I cringe at the photos I took when this blog started in 2010. But they’ll stay up because they’re a reminder of how far I’ve come.

Looking at beautifully styled food is inspirational rather than depressing and my favourite food stylist in the world is Dietlind Wolf who is based in Hamburg, Germany. Her work is truly swoon-worthy. I adore her use of organic shapes, groupings and interesting props from all sorts of places for editorial spreads.

Please check out more of her gorgeous displays on her blog dietlindwolf.blogspot.com.

Bonus: Check out tomorrow’s post on beautiful, organic and nature inspired dinnerware.

Urbis Designday 2012 Designs

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Events, Habitat and tagged with

Urbis Designday is an accessible, entertaining design event for Auckland city.

I guess it’s easy to forget that everyday items were designed at some stage. Look at the closest table to you. The closest chair, lampshade, set of drawers. Someone or a team designed that to be the way it is. Designday gets these designed items into the radar of both public and professionals. Admire the things in the showrooms, the creative collaborations between designers in different industries and interact with anything they let you touch. This year’s Designday featured lots of painted and interactive elements.

Here are some of the designery sights from the day:

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The Kohler showroom with Resene and Art Associates had interactive elements such as a painting wall using your choice of Resene testpots, throwing games (bathtubes, paintbuckets and balls) as well as painted artworks on live models.

The “Identify Your Design” flowchart painted on a huge wall at Essenze in Parnell was an interesting way to figure out your style.

The Photo Booth Fun with dress up boxes at Mini Garage and Urbis Designday HQ proved to be a hit.

Painted models at Spaziocasa showroom livened up the space. Some were displayed in the floor to ceiling windows and caused quite a stirred I particularly liked the man painted in different blocks of marble, the beautifully painted black and white model who was a portrait of the tile artwork she was posed in front of, and a colourful Urbis Designday themed model complete with glitter. Another beautifully painted red and white floral model was painted in front of a matching wall at Bo Concept store.

The general gist of the days go with the flow, interact, be delighted, ask questions and enjoy. Looking forward to 2013′s Design day already.

More information about this year’s event can be found at the Urbis Magazine website here.

Monday Bunday: Rabbit knife block

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Gifts, Habitat, Monday Bunday and tagged with , ,

Rabbit knife block

At home, we have a magnetic knife strip on the wall so I don’t need a knife block. But even if I did, I would find this rabbit knife block a little weird. It reminds me of the popular voodoo knife block, only stabbing an innocent bunny in the back seems more evil.

Source: Home Interior Trend.

Monday Bunday: Corker Bunny

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Gifts, Habitat, Monday Bunday and tagged with , , , , , , ,

I’m sure many of you as children at adult dinner parties made fun creatures out of the cork and wire from a bottle of bubbles. Well, here is a step up from that.

Introducing Corker Bunny!

So sweet.

An original addition to the wine bottle you bring to dinner. Bring your dinner party and your bottle corks to life with these cute, collectable animal parts. Each pack includes the body parts required for one Corker. Available in 6 designs: Monkey, Deer, Buffalo, Bear, Bunny & Crow. 

Cork not included

Available at Animica USA for just $7.99US with free shipping worldwide!

Monday Bunday: Alessi bunnies

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Gifts, Habitat, Monday Bunday and tagged with , ,

I started Monday Bunday over a year ago to collect and curate a selection of contemporary rabbit designs from around the world. Over the year there’s been Monday Bunday posts on graphic design, illustration and typography, fashion, art, decor and homeware, furniture, office and more. Who knew there was so much bunny stuff out there?

Bunny themed designer kitchen pieces always make me squeal with glee.

This week’s Monday Bunday post is a kitchen one. I present to you: Magic Bunny Toothpick Holder and Bunny & Carrot Kitchen Roll Holder designed by Stefano Giovannoni for Alessi.

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Monday Bunday: Silence Rug by Permafrost

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Gifts, Habitat, Monday Bunday and tagged with , , , , ,

I love the simplicity of this rug. I know it’s bunny tracks, but my guests* won’t. Well, not until I tell them.

Close up of tracks.

I imagine this artic hare might appreciate this rug.

Image by National Geographic.

* Guests in my imaginary dream house.

Link.

Chalkboard Kitchens

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Habitat and tagged with , , , ,

The idea of running my bare hands over a dusty chalkboard gives me an uneasy feeling. Almost as bad as fingernails dragged across its surface. Even so, the idea of chalkboard as decoration, art or furniture and it’s ever changing surface is really appealing.

We had a chalkboard as a prop at our wedding reception with guests writing messages that got continuously more risqué as the night progressed.

A chalkboard kitchen

I’m not entirely sure how you would get past all the chalkdust this would inevitably invite into your kitchen, but it does look pretty cool. I’ve always had a thing for black kitchens. Even if you didn’t mind eating a little chalk dust for these designs, it just seeing chalkdust around the kitchen would probably annoy the crap out of you.

Here are some of my favourite chalkboard kitchens from around the web. 

11 Magnolia Lane’s chalkboard pantry doors.

I love how she used chalkboard contact paper instead of paint so that it could be removed fairly easily. I’ve never thought about using contact paper before and now I’m thinking I could contact paper my kitchen too. Chalkboard contact paper is cheap from Amazon, although the shipping will probably kill me.

Another example of a chalkboard pantry from Country Living.

Anne, Aimee and Nathan’s chalkboard cabinet kitchen in Sydney snapped by photographer Todd Selby.

Photographer Erik Zappon’s modern chalkboard kitchen cupboards.

Negs26′s chalkboard spice rack.

Lauren Liess from Pure Style Home’s chalkboard fridge.

Danny Seo’s DIY chalkboard fridge.

A fancier chalkboard fridge from The Handmade Home.

A feature wall in Danielle Deboe’s pink kitchen.

House Obsessed Leah’s kitchen recipes wall.

Some cute placemats.

A Bargain To Eat Upon

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Habitat and tagged with , , , ,

As much as I love eating outside, we’ve never really owned an outdoor table. We either sit on the edge of the deck with plates perched on laps, or if we’re feeling really fancy, we drag the dining table out. We don’t often bother as it doesn’t really fit through the door and takes a bit of shoe-horning and coaxing to get it in and out.

Then, I found this sturdy table on Trademe for $20. It looked a bit rough, but had potential. Brought it home, sanded it and gave it a few coats of paint. We already had sandpaper, a bucket of paint and a sponge paintbrush leftover from other projects, so this really cost $20. Perfect for alfresco dining over summer. I’m dreaming of BBQs and cocktails in the backyard.

Now all we need are outdoor chairs or benches. But for now, our dining chairs will do just fine.

Japanese Lifestyle Goods

Posted by Bunny Eats Design in Habitat

One of my favourite local places to shop is Japanese Lifestyle Goods. It’s open 7 days a week until 7pm and is only 10 minutes walk from my house. They have heaps of cute kitchen stuff as well as other stuff for your house. They have a small but well curated food section too for those essential Japanese ingredients you need but your supermarket doesn’t stock yet.

I’ve never owned a lemon juicer. Weird huh? At $3.50 I couldn’t resist this cute yellow one.

I also bought some shaped cutters.  Not for cookies, I don’t make cookies but I’m going to use these to shape puff pastry. Fingers crossed these do the job.

Japanese Lifestyle Goods
 75 Dominion Road
Mt Eden
Auckland

Phone 09 638 8038