DC Area Auction -- Tom Sarris' Orleans House

Reader HappyCthulhu was so kind as to send me a link to this online auction (pickup only, though, so definitely more suited for locals) of a recently departed restaurant in Rosslyn, Virginia called Tom Sarris' Orleans House. I don't know anything about the establishment, but the auction is full of architectural elements and clever devices.

The neatest? A large recording clock. What it was used to record, I do not know, but the face is beautiful and the innards are full of brass rods, gears, and a reel for paper.






I thought this fern stand -- with chains on it! Was interesting, too.



Auction ends on February 8th, so you have plenty of time to dream, research, and bid.

Ah -- I think Happy found this via BoingBoing, so thanks all around.

Homes and Cities of Dinotopia

Waterfall City

After reading Dr. Fabre's post on Dinotopia a week ago, I was determined to lay my hands on some of the Dinotopia books by James Gurney. Today, I spent my lunch hour delightfully browsing the first Dinotopia book, with 2 more in "the pile" for when I'm finished with that one.

Bonabba

Are you familar with Dinotopia? Not distinctly steampunk (too few things are), but with some decidely steampunk aspects -- for instance the idea of time as a helix is a delightful one, and a helix pocket watch one of the interesting inventions of this world. It's a series of lavishly illustrated young adult books that have been turned into a movie, a miniseries, and an animated movie. (I'm holding off on the movie and miniseries until the steampunklet is a bit older and we can enjoy them together.)

Chandara -- echos of Istanbul for me!

For my purposes, I focused on the buildings of this land. Mr. Gurney (whose works both invite and delight) builds an incredible fantasy world that blends the architectural styles of many cultures and some straight out of his imagination.

The village of Bilgewater, made from the hulls of sailing ships -- the most imaginative of places.

Are you or your own steampunklet as enamored as I am? Did you know you can get a wallpaper mural of any of 8 different scenes from the books as large as 9 feet tall? For the more moderate, there are also posters available on Gurney's website.

Also worth browsing is Gurney Journey, the artist's blog. His love for his art and his teacher's patience both come through.

Library with a touch of the exotic

I ran across this renovated San Francisco Victorian in the November Better Homes and Gardens. Is there any room more steampunk than a libary? (Ok... maybe a workshop. Maybe.)

There are lots of good steampunk ideas here -- the silk ceiling shade provides a touch of fantasy, the secret powder room behind the bookshelf adds mystery, the corner moldings in the doorway would be easy to install in any open framed space to add details. These bookshelves are likely built-in, but you can get a similar look by attaching molding to plain bookshelves. If you peek into the powder room, you'll get a glimpse of the East -- a Chinese wall hanging and a paper lantern.

I found a similar pendant shade at Lombok (this was surprising hard to find -- if anyone else knows where to find a shade like this, I'd be very interested in hearing about it, since I'm smitten with this one.)

For the door frame, you can pick up shelf brackets from the local building supply store, or order some from someplace like House of Antique Hardware

More libraries.

Steampunk style for the modern home

It's interesting when I see steampunk style pieces in very non-steampunk rooms. Industrial styling, after all, has become a big part of modern design. (I wish I had scanned the CB2 catalog cover that had a large clock gear in the background for you...)




I ran across this home in today's decor8 -- it's very modern, but worth a look-see for ideas on how to integrate steampunk style pieces into an Ikea-modern home.



There are a number of pieces here I'd be happy to have in a steampunk home -- the exterior tower, the kitchen stools, the Gothic church bench, the spotlights, the leather chairs.

One of my goals this year is to provide a better "service" to my readers -- I think finding and reporting on cool steampunk rooms is a start, but I want to supplement that with some ideas on how to get from where you are to your dream home -- whether that's a full Victorian home, a loft with gothic and industrial elements, or someplace in between. Hopefully this example shows that you don't have to have the perfect house, or a room full of ideal furniture, to start integrating some steampunk into your design.

Adam Wallacavage Chandeliers

Malfeasances posted these lovely chandeliers shaped like octopodes* on the LJ steamfashion community.

The artist is Adam Wallacavage. His site has even more of the chandeliers, and is worth a look-see since many have fantastic shadows and peculiar settings.




The green one is very 20,000 Leagues, although I could do without the pink room.

His work will be on exhibit at the Jonathan Levine gallery in NYC in May. (More pictures from the gallery.)

*(It's properly octopodes, not octopi, or so says my linguist husband when the local 5 year old asked him recently)

Top Posts for 2007

I spent some time looking back over the 129 2007 The Steampunk Home posts to find what I -- and you -- thought were the best. This is a combination of the posts with the most comments, the ones that had the most views, and my favorites. Enjoy!

The post that started it all of -- not my first, but the one that brought me many of my first readers -- was Results of.... The Challenge where I challenge decorator by email Lynn Cimino to revamp my bedroom in a steampunk style.






Two posts that people seem to like the sound of -- at least they keep stumbling across them via searches -- are the ones on kitchens. First, A Steampunk Kitchen (with some exceedingly good ideas in the comments) followed a little while later by Kitchen Cabinets.






My favorite posts were the weeklong series I did for my Birthday Extravaganza: Jules Verne and 20,000 Leagues. 7 posts in 7 days was a fatiguing pace!






"Query" was a quick rumination on the silliness (or not) of Steampunk as a home decorating scheme, but generated some very passionate and well thought comments.

Finally, the post I am most proud of is the interview with Andrew Meieran, designer of the Edison Bar.

I hope 2008 will be twice as lovely -- with posts galore on projects and rooms in both my home and yours! Thank you for reading and commenting. I'm having a lot of fun and hope you are, too.

Cabinet of Wonders: The Places We Make For Ourselves

Heather, over at Cabinet of Wonders, has a splendid post entitled "The Places We Make For Ourselves". Not particularly steampunk, but a wonderful catalog of the sorts of abodes you can create with a little imagination and a incredible amount of persistence.