The Latest: Feb 12, 2013

These Lyon steel drafting stools are straight from the architecture school where I was an undergrad over a decade ago. Rusted and layered with spray paint, they were pretty well-worn even when I was in school. Recently, when the department underwent renovations, a friend picked these up for free when they were discarded during construction. We paid him $5 each for the trouble of scavenging them and then started looking into refinishing.

Fluffy white Mongolian lamb stools pop up like dandelions in tony dressing rooms and decor magazine spreads, but the prices can be a bit overwhelming for the rest of us. But Nadia, the Paris-dwelling blogger behind Preciously Me, came up with a way to get the look on her own with just an IKEA stool and a fluffy pillow.That’s quite the upgrade, no? Nadia started with an IKEA Marius stool (which seems to be available in black, white, and blue on the U.S.