shopping
Find of the Day /
this perfect 80's couch
I had this idea today to start a new category on this blog of "Find of the Day" to keep all my favorite things I find when out shopping but usually don't end up buying or needing catalogued.
It is hilarious that I'm creating a new category for a blog that I hardly ever update, but anyways I am leaning into the ambition for now.
The thing is, I get a chance to come across so many truly unique, fascinating, and funny things which truly give me joy and delight. Often I feel like I just need a photo to complete my joyful experience without purchasing the item.
But then I was thinking about all my favorite things I've come across throughout the years and many thrift shops I've scoured and I thought it would be nice to have them all accessible here through the click of a category tag "find of the day". So I'm going to try it out. Maybe one day when I'm feeling truly ambitious I will back catalog all my favorite finds from the last few years (...someday).
Back to this couch, it is such a nice shape, great proportions, and then the print. THE PRINT! It is so perfect. So late 80s early 90s in such a great subtle and interesting way. Sigh if only I needed the couch for a set...
here's a close up of that sweet print. AND THE MATCHING PILLOWS!
Seven Carts at IKEA /
checking out with seven loaded carts at IKEA
I’m sorry to say I can tell you what it looks like to checkout with seven full carts of IKEA.
with Jessica Petruccelli, partner in crime. It was a two person job.
When someone asks about the glamour and fun of set decorating I always mention the number of lunches I’ve eaten in my minivan in the IKEA parking lot.
Victorian door hardware! /
On Valentines Day, I discovered one of my true decorative arts shopping loves: searching for the perfect Victorian door hardware.
I parked myself at one of New York City’s funnest stores: Olde Good Things rifling through their collection of old door hardware to find pieces for a hero door for Russian Doll which will air on Netflix in 2019.
I could spend every afternoon carefully rummaging through old Victorian hardware and be in bliss. .
Magazine Back Issue Warehouse /
One of my favorite parts of the job is discovering warehouses filled with items that are a gateway into a whole ecosystem you never thought much about. Today’s was magazine back issues, like where newsstands send back all their magazines after the month has passed.
Parking Triumph /
A big component of set decorating buying in NYC is driving a minivan (#minivanlife baby) around New York City’s five boroughs, crazy traffic, anything goes driving norms, and most importantly parking.
When I first started I did not really know how to parallel park. I’m happy to report one of the most concrete skills I’ve acquired in the set decorating career is solid parallel parking skills.
Also, talk to anyone who drives regularly in New York City, and they could take to you ages about their best parking triumphs like a highlight reel of sports teams best plays. A good parking spot can totally make your day!
So it is with great fanfare I present you one of my best parking jobs to date:
near Washington Square Park on one of the quiet nearby streets that always has good parking (I’m not going to tell you where!)
Trim Mania /
Was dressing a set in beautiful Victorian Flatbush and needed a large quantity of ribbon fast. So I searched what was around and was delivered to this gem box of a ribbon and trim store.
Stumbling upon little old school businesses with an ambiance of cheerful mania like Trim Fabric (they have coupon codes named "SuperMega") is one of the true joys of set decorating work for me.
Madonna, Rhianna, Ilana + Fruit Cart! /
On last night's Broad City one of the funny little joyful sequences was Ilana's little jaunt arriving at Madison Square Park.
For this sequence, one of the key pieces of set dressing was a classic NYC fruit cart.
There are many ways to go about finding the right fruit cart, but in this situation we decided approaching a working fruit cart nearby and negotiating a rental deal was the ideal choice for ultimate authenticity.
The fruit cart we used in its natural habitat on 6th Ave in Manhattan
So I walked up and down 6th Ave approaching different fruit vendors. As you can imagine, most of the guys working a fruit cart are not interested in entertaining little requests like this + many don't have the authority to ok a non-traditional request like this.
But I finally found, Helal, who was willing to do it. Finding out he was a Bangladeshi immigrant, I talked him up in Bangla which I learned while living in Bangladesh for two years when I was a Foreign Service Officer--who knew speaking Bangla would turn out to be so useful for set decorating in NYC?
Here is the fruit cart in question on set, Helal on the right in the brown shirt, and the actor who plays him on the left in the maroon shirt. Hilarious right? oh also, Ilana on the right.
I thought Helal and I talked about him bringing another plain umbrella for the shoot, but when we got to set we realized the only two umbrellas he had were all marked up with company brand names. In the future, I will always bring an extra back-up umbrella-lesson learned.
So then it became an issue of finding the right matching blue tape nearby to do the best "Greeking" job we could on short notice.
It isn't the greatest color match, but it was the best we could do on such short notice.
I'm sure when you watch that sequence for the first time your attention was focused on Ilana and her unique blend of charming and irreverent joyful charisma. I, however, was watching the blue tape.
