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Friday Five with Sally Kuchar

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Sally Kuchar is the founder of sallyTV.com, a blog about her life as an interior designer (and design fanatic). She also has written for a plethora of design and architecture blogs, including MoCo Loco and Apartment Therapy. She’s currently residing in San Francisco in a tiny apartment that she painted black. Sally loves playing dice in dive bars, drinking a Hendricks martini, gawking at chairs, and making pillows out of fabric samples. (Editor’s note: She also patiently listened to a lot of my crap when I wasn’t sure where I wanted to live and what I wanted to do with my life.)

Today, she’s sharing with us five things that inspire her. Get ready for the awesome.

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1. Christian Louboutin for Rodarte
I consider myself a fancy lady, so a proper stiletto with a bit of sass is a necessity for my everyday wear. By “a bit” I mean “a lot,” so unusual colors, stripes, mesh, a lot of patent leather…the stranger or sillier the better. The first time I saw these shoes I think I vomited. Not because I was sick or anything, but because they were so awesome that my insides actually couldn’t work properly. My body started to shut down and it was like “cannnooottt hanndddllee thhheee awwweesomeee.”

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2. Ballistic Rose by Tobias Wong
Tobias Wong is on my extremely short list of newish North American designers to watch. I love almost everything he designs. My favorite product he’s put out, by far, is the Ballistic Rose. It’s made out of Kevlar, which is the same material that is used for bullet proof vests. When I wear mine (rose brooch, not bullet proof vest) people always stop to ask about it. I just love the juxta — I’m not going to fall into the wordy designer cliche. Okay so basically it is pretty rad that something so elegantly beautiful is made out of the same material that helps prevents bullets from penetrating flesh. Especially when worn directly over a heart (which is where I put mine).

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3. Paphiopedilum hainanense
Mother dearest is a garden designer and I absolutely hate the stuff. It’s dirty and you can’t do it in stilettos. This disappointed her, so I decided to do some research into specific exotic species and that’s when I found out about Lady Slippers, or more specifically: Paphiopedilum hainanense. Over time I grew to love ferns and succulents and all that other foliage you find in modern settings (and in nature, right?!), but my true love is for orchids (are you happy now, mom?). Especially the exotics. Lady Slippers are scary looking and they’re difficult to care for and when one of them finally blooms again after you think it’s been dead for like 6 months but you kept fertilizing it anyway it is seriously the highlight of your week. That was a run-on sentence but I don’t care because it’s after midnight on a school night. Anyway, I think when designers say that they’re “inspired by nature” what they really mean to say is that “orchids are fucking radical looking and I want to create radical looking stuff too!”

4. Raekwon – Criminology, the part where Ghostface is rapping and they cut to a scene where he’s outside of a dam or something and he’s only wearing his Polo bathrobe.
Ghostface is my favorite of all time and when I watch that part it makes me so happy. He was just like “Oh, I’m shooting a video today? Cool, let me just go get my keys.” No need to put on pants. I apply the same logic and mindset to my daily routine. It’s about the bottom line, folks. Either you’ve got the talent or you don’t.

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5. The UP5 by Gaetano Pesce
Most normal people spend their Friday nights out on the town doing things like going to bars or shows or on dates. That’s all fine and good but most of the time I’d rather just sit at home and think about chairs. My favorite chair of all time (it is tied with the LCW) is the UP5 by Gaetano Pesce (you can read all about it here on my website). It looks very intimidating and it demands all of your attention. Can you even imagine walking into a room and there’s like a 60-year old dude smoking a pipe and reading Vonnegut in that chair? Isn’t that the most awesome image ever? He’d look up at you all startled and be like “oh, didn’t see you there, I was too busy blowing your mind.” Anyway, the blatant symbolism is pretty ballsy (HA HA HA) and I wish more designers would do stuff like this.

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.