Crushing On: NG Collective Studio

First, thank you for all your comments and emails on my post earlier this week. Versus other personal essays, for whatever reason it felt a little scarier to hit publish on this one, so it made me happy and relieved to know that so many of you share similar experiences, or that my own journey gave you a new perspective in some way. That was awesome.

Let’s segue into something that I love daydreaming about: decorating new spaces. Is there anything better than the excitement of moving into a new space and acquiring new pieces to make it feel like home? I think not. It’s probably that feeling of “blank slate” and starting over that makes it feel so good, but whatever the reason, I ain’t arguing with it. 

As you might’ve noticed, I never really shared a full home tour of our New York apartment, primarily because I felt like it was never totally done. I can now admit to you that this was because since we realized we might not stay here for the long haul, we didn’t want to invest in certain pieces. We still don’t know how long we’ll stay in our new SF apartment (I am hoping at minimum two years, lest I go crazy from moving so much), but one thing I am finally putting my foot down on is investing in a little bit of artwork. Our current artwork sitch is pretty abysmal — I have some old prints and things that I purchased years ago that I no longer love (cue discussion about blogging and gallery wall ubiquity, but that’s another post), and the few pieces of art or prints we have around that I do love are certainly not enough to decorate an entire apartment.

Meg recently introduced me to NG Collective Studio — it was actually through our last B Bar linkup. I’m now just as obsessed! Sister duo Laura Naples and Kristen Giorgi run this studio together, and I think their methodology is really interesting. Laura lives in Ohio, while Kristen is based in Georgia, and they work independently, but come together to critique one another’s work and map where their heads are artistically. I think the end result is a collection that feels varied, but still somehow really cohesive. One thing I really appreciate about their works is how energetic they all are, while still having a feeling of peace and tranquility. It’s a really cool aspect that I’d love to have in my home.

The studio offers hand-painted pillow cases if you’re looking to jazz up a sofa, but I’m especially intrigued by the gals’ collection of mini-paintings. These are small works that are super affordable, and still give anyone an opportunity to have painted art in their home. I’m considering scooping up a few of these to make a series in a hallway or something…but for now, I’m waiting to get into our space to see how it feels and what it needs. Oh, I may have forgotten to mention that part in my last post — we rented our SF apartment sight unseen (!!!!).

Enjoy browsing through NG Collective’s galleries here and here; you can check out the mini-paintings here, and textiles and a few other accessories here. All the works I chose for this post are listed below, if you want to learn more about them!