So jealous of your gorgeous dresser. Thanks for sharing.

I like the cattle theme in the living area - the cows in the picture and the cowhide rug and cushions.

i think it was smart to go with the sectional for this open space in the entry. the pieces you've used in your place is modern/mid-c and i like the fact that you've carried it throughout. although i love concrete floors, for some reason, to me, it seems out of place in this house. i can totally understand your reasoning for wanting it with your dog. however, i'm not sold completely that it fits here. my preference for this space would be a natural stone.

otherwise good job.

Where did you get the tall chairs? Love.

i love this space. I also really love your concrete floors.

My dog Sam had multiple accidents on my old rental's concrete floors after finding some discarded pig's ears in the backyard. It certainly is fortuitous flooring for pet owners.

House tour please!!

The fortuitousness of concrete for pet owners is only as good as your sealant. By itself, it is is a very porous material.

I have a question. Is the high stack of books just a stack or is it some kind of book rack?

grandee -

I'm guessing it's a Sapien bookcase from DWR. CB2 and West Elm both sell knockoffs, but they hold about half of the weight of the original.

Nice job, fellow Tucsonan! Enjoy those cool floors this summer.

We can see the patience, but where's the quality?

That's kind of harsh. Maybe you could point out specific things that don't appeal to you or that you think could be better executed?

Personally, I love the art. And I'm sure the concrete floors are very nice in sunny hot Tucson. (They look great too.)

Is my perspective just wonky or are those chrome chairs kind of short for the kitchen counter/ bar? Otherwise i like it. Concrete floors are lovely.

that chaise is yummy. i need it. where it is from?

The desk.... I have seen so many old metal desks that have been stripped to the metal but your appears to be painted white and it looks amazing!

It gets a thumbs up from me. I like the big cow photo in the living room, especially when juxtaposed with the rug and the seat cushions. No wonder the cows look slightly panicked!

It is however a little sparse. A bit more layering would help enormously.

Love that white steelcase desk and the art!

Your wife's called " 1?" This is me looking at the calendar, seeing that it's 2010, and raising an eyebrow. Call her "Colin's wife," if you must, or "Jane Doe," or "Gigi," or some other goofy pseudonym but 1? Oy.

Do like the place. It manages to feel warm (which I'm using here as shorthand for "mellow and welcoming"), but also airy and cool.

Cool chair! Where did you find that chair near the large painting? Is it comfortable to sit in?

Awesome floor.

So great to see someone from AZ on here! And concrete is fabulous out here. I like this a lot, but it lacks warmth. I think the mid-c/mod combined with the concrete makes it feel cold. I think some window treatments and a few throw pillows or painting the floors a mottled brown with warm tones to give it some texture would do wonders.

I found the cows at the feedlot mixed with their bodies all over the place very scary. I would not come inside your house.

I've had many a cocktail at that kitchen bar and can attest the chrome chairs are the perfect height.

My whole office is filled with the exact same desks but in the original metal finish. Did you strip that and paint it white?? It looks great. How did you do it? Enamel paint?

LOVE the office area. that bookshelf is super cool!

I love the office setup as well, however, I think the short mirror next to the Sapien book case is too short (not to be confused with Too Short who is a famous rapper.) I also think some paint or other surface treatment on the walls would do wonders for adding visual interest as well as removing the base boards and pairing down the door trim. Replacing the cheesy formica builder's special countertops couldn't hurt either. Other than those small quibbles you did a great job. I hope you win! -B

Love the use of cows to integrate the local flavor into your modern home. It stays true to Arizona roots while completely avoiding the common tacky pitfalls. Gorgeous! Agree that the refinished desk is gorgeous. Way to be green reusing furniture!

If anyone can translate lazysmurfs comment into english, I'd be interested to know what it means.

I'm actually liking this one. Good styling throughout. I agree the concrete floors help a great deal in making everything else pop.

Translation: I found the "cows-at-the-feedlot (photo)" mixed with their bodies (hides) all over the place very scary. I would not come inside your house."

Your placement is wonderful. I adore the artwork of the woman carrying the man, and I love the chair beneath it.

I couldn't give you a thumb's up, though. Animal rugs gross me out. This one was particularly disturbing to me because of the cow art above the sofa. Ick.

@yul: come on. Dude has cow art, and dead cow adorning his floor. It's entirely natural to question such a seeming disconnect. Is Colin being funny/ironic/making-us-think? Is he starting a discussion, a bastard, or thoughtless? What's the deal? People are allowed to be puzzled. Also, more people are getting to where dead animals and analogues are less acceptable, so get used to it. Ethics and kindness are coming in, skinning things because their skin goes well with the furniture is going out. Slow process, but it's unlikely to turn around.

No, I think people are uncomfortable with "dead animals" that still resemble their living forms, because it makes them uncomfortable about the source in ways a cheeseburger or Chicken McNugget does not. And there is not any kind of outcry when a leather sofa is shown on here (generally, or at least to the same degree), and no outcry I've seen about Coach bags or Jimmy Choos...

As long as I eat meat, and own a leather chair, shoes, belt and messenger bag, it seems hypocritical to chastise the owner of another home for his/her choices, just because they still have the hair on them.

It's ironic to me that the people who are most vehement about animal rights seem to have the *least* amount of "live and let live" attitude towards their human counterparts.

Sorry for the rant, Colin. This should be about your home (which is great), and the contest itself. I should not have taken the bait!

Thanks everyone for your votes and kind words!

When furnishing, my wife and I loved to come on Apartment Therapy and consult the many brave tours of places people actually lived in and their creative small space solutions. I hope that my offering up the pad was useful for you!

And in the spirit of paying it forward, here are some answers to some questions posted:

re: Bookcase
Yes, that is the tall version of the Sapien Bookcase from DWR in white.

re: Desk
I'm so glad everybody liked the desk, that was a bit of a sentimental project with my mother soon before she passed. She had a government job and worked at this 50-year-old tanker desk that tax-dollars would never replace (because they just wouldn't break!). So when she retired we brought a bit of that home and had a friend refinish it in a gloss white. He was a hobbyist learning how to paint cars and would take on side projects. He did a bang-up job and it's held up remarkably well. I just hope I don't have to load that in a truck again, those things are heavy! Seriously though it's the best desk in the universe...I love minimalism maybe more than the next guy but when it comes to work, nothing works harder than a vintage tanker!

re: Bench
The bench under the television is unfortunately not for sale as we made it ourselves. The wood slab is a piece of Ponderosa Pine rescued from the Rodeo-Chediski fire in Northern Arizona. With some amateur woodworking and some hairpin legs (hairpinlegs.com), voila! OHIO Design sells something similar here.

@bove
The chair next to the painting is a stacking chair designed by Konstantin Grcic in 2003. It is manufactured by Magis and is formally known as "Chair One Stacking". I find it to be very comfortable/ergonomic (though they sell pads as well). The real "win" of this chair though is the weight. Between the handle on the top and its aluminum/titanium construction the chair can (very) easily be moved about the house as needed...helpful when we have guests and need more seating in the main room or office. I had been ogling the chair for a while and my wife bought me one for my birthday just before they hiked up the price. Appreciation on new furniture? Score!

@MarieE123
The tall chairs are counter-height barstools from a collection of chairs colloquially known as "Bertoias", they are manufactured by Knoll and were designed by sculptor Harry Bertoia in 1952. I got these off Craigslist for a smoking deal from a restaurant designer that bought too many. He told me that the hide pads were fairly rare (though these are modern "authorized" reproductions, not vintage). Once upon a time I saw them (with the Knoll hide pads) available at highbrowfurniture.com, not sure about now.

Much love to AT and watch out for the trolls!

colincolin--

Above all, bravo for having your entry name and your screen name being somewhat the same. So tired of people's entries being "Big John's Hipster Heliport" and the screen name being "mybluepanties."

@patrick: that wasn't bait, dude, it was engaging in a discussion. Sorry to overstep.

Now. You really think people question decorating with cow skins and pictures of live cows because it makes those people uncomfortable with their dietary choices? That seems...projecting and/or highly unlikely. It's far more likely to be that they see that as hypocritical and find it odd enough to comment on. People don't complain about couches/bags/shoes, I suspect, because we don't see cow pictures in the same photos as the leather objects.

You assume that others are hypocritical in questioning someone else's choices -- how do you know that the questioners consume animal skin products?

As for "live and let live," people who are really vehement about animal rights really care a lot. And questioning somebody else's decorating choices doesn't rise to the level of, you know, killing or eating something. Questioning Colin's rug/art choice isn't infringing upon his rights, and I think it's a legitimate question. Are only non-activists and other people who don't care what anybody else does allowed to ask questions? In short, get off your high horse.

Carnivore hypocrite here, but the before-meets-after juxtaposition of the art with the hide makes it a little too personal for me.

It's probably residual guilt having spent 5 years in 4-H.

I live in Tucson and have concrete floors, too. They really are the greatest!

Your space is great, too, by the way. I was going to vote for it but it's too late :(. Normally, I'm not a big fan of cowhides, but I think it's really interesting the way you made it into a cow-themed living room. I interpret it as a sly wink to the Old Pueblo's western heritage. Way to go!

Colin,

LOVE your space! Absolute favorites are the tanker desk (and so fantastic that it was your mom's instead of some random store purchase!) and that painting of the woman carrying the man. Please let us know who the artist is--and kudos to you for your great taste!!

shanalulu--

I will if you will.

You totally did not get my point, but oh well. This is my surprised face.

I WILL say I wasn't calling anyone ELSE a hypocrite. I was saying, given my likes and the things I own, *I'd* feel hypocritical by making a big deal out of someone else's choices, in their own home.

I've had lengthy, genuine, inquisitive conversations with people who are totally fine with leather, but hair-on-hide creeps them out, for the reasons I cited. So, I was not just talking out of my @ss. I wasn't making a direct-to-food connection, either... (GOD knows I've learned to not tread on vegan territory around here!!) it's just that hair-on-hide still looks more like a cow than say, a Big Mac. And that, in fact, makes more people uneasy, since it's a quicker link from "thing" to "dead thing." It's not unlike poepl who love to eat fish, Unless it's the whole fish with head on. Why did you take offense to that concept? It wasn't at all an attack. On you or anyone else.

And the whole duuuude thing is really played out.

@patrick: ah. I had not met anybody, in all my hippie-veggie travels, who was cool with leather but not with hides, so I didn't realize that that was where you were going.

As for not treading on vegan territory, that's probably a good bet -- or at least much appreciated by us. We get enough "you guys are retards, I'm eating two steaks tonight just to cancel you out, har har har" elsewhere, as if trying to do what we feel is right is stupid or naive or...whatever. We can get a little defensive and/or argumentative, but try walking a day in our leather-free vegan footwear and watch your fuse shorten. Regrettable, for sure.

As for the "dude" thing, I grew up in the age of Bill and Ted and their Excellent Adventure, so I come by it honestly and have had the habit too long to part with it, current/recent fashion be damned. I also say "man" and "groovy" with my "dude" and "rad," so I'd probably annoy you right over the edge in person! Takes all kinds, tho.