We knew that changing the shape of a sofa’s or bed’s legs can be a simple way of jazzing up lines and look AND that there are lot of options around for unfinished wooden legs of all shapes and sizes. And we’ve written before about mask-painting one or all the legs of a table or chair. But we hadn’t thought of putting the two ideas together until we saw a how-to on the French blog Morning by Foley.
By by masking off parts of the an unfinished wooden leg with tape, you can create all sorts of designs – subtle and not-so – that lend a pleasing detail to a bed or sofa; read more…
‘improvised life’ editor-at-large David Saltman has just finished writing a historical novel starring Harry Houdini. From David we’ve learned about the amazing achievements of this real life superhero that go way beyond his well-known escapes from straightjackets and handcuffs. We’ve come to know a little of ‘the inside’ of the great magician.
Houdini trained his mind and body rigorously perhaps to a level never achieved by anyone else. His daily work was a kind of meditation. He practiced sleight of hand and acrobatics, of course, but even more important was his mental and emotional training, aimed at overcoming the natural fears of the body and mind. Wrote Houdini:
My chief task has been to conquer fear. The public sees only the thrill of the accomplished trick; they have no conception of the tortuous preliminary self-training that was necessary to conquer fear. No one except myself can appreciate how I have to work at this job every single day, never letting up for a moment.
This allowed him to solve life and death problems in the moment read more…
April is the time when ramps – wild leeks – appear throughout the Appalachian and Catskill mountains, one of the first edible harbingers of spring. Then they start hitting farmer’s markets. Since the pungent leek is one of the most delicious and transformative foods we know of, we’re reprising past posts about the famous lily, along with our best ways of cooking/eating them: read more…
Now that spring has officially sprung, we find ourselves ready for new projects, around our houses and outside. We keep coming back to our friend Kate Payne’s The Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking, an all-purpose guide to doing-it-yourself in your home (and having fun, too) – for ANYONE, whether hip girl or not. (We think it would be a great book for guys setting up their first apartment.)
The books covers a ton of ground, from what you need to stock your home (and how to make your own resources) to the basics of easy, stylish home design. She has trouble-shooting options for virtually any common home mishap. It was Kate’s blog, of the same name, that we turned to last week when we needed instructions for how to hang pegboard in your kitchen.
Some of our favorite springtime gems from Kate’s guide include, her how-to on setting up your own bucket garden; read more…
(Video link here.) Matilda Klein is 94 years old, and danced during the World War II big-band era. She’s still dancing, in competition no less, with her dance partner Danny Maloney. We love the videographer’s – and Matilda’s – message of defying expectations and stereotypes about age – or anything else.
Lately, we’ve come across some extraordinary uses for OSB – oriented strand board (also known as waferboard) – a cheap, strong, durable building material made from pressed tree chippings and resin. It’s generally been viewed as garbage, something to use for structure and hide, until open-minded designers started to explore its potential and beauty.
Architect Carl Turner’s use of it to clad the interiors of two barns borders on obsession; it is everywhere as itself: as walls, beds, sofas, benches, even an interior pod that houses a bathroom and utility room. read more…
At Pinterest, we’ve been creating collections of images – boards- under specific categories like Lighting, Storage Solutions , Art and Artists, Food and Cooking – even Shipping Pallets!. They allow you to navigate ‘the improvised life’ through its images, so you can poke around our vast archive in freer, more organic way. When you see an image that interests you, you can click on it to go right to the original post, to find information, commentary and more images. For example, if you’re looking for storage ideas, just stroll through our Strorage Solutions board, or for a morning lift, check out read more…
Today Remodelista featured Garde, a new shop in Los Angeles that sells “stylishly understated” housewares. We are smitten with the poplar-top table’s Garde’s owner Scotti Sitz designed to display her wares, and which are available by custom order.
The bases appear to be an ingenious use of simple copper plumbing pipe. We’ve thought of all the times we’ve found ourselves in the plumbing department of our local hardware store, mulling the possibilities for copper pipe, t-joints and other fittings. Copper, left uncoated, is beautiful shiny or dull.
We recently came across a photo essay of a home decorated with vintage fruit boxes. We’re talking some kind of obsession here. They’re all through the house as furniture and storage solutions, like the bed and shelves above, and this kitchen island on wheels… read more…
(Video link here.) Of the many episodes of The Little Rascals produced in the ‘thirties, this clip has to be one of the best: the poor, ever-resourceful, uninhibited, unsupervised gang of kids make a cake filled with prizes, following the recipe in a completely original way.
The backstory: Dickie’s abusive dad is so mean to Dickie’s mom that Dickie decides to cheer her by buying her a $2 dress for her birthday. Not having the money, he tries to raise it by baking the cake with his pals and selling prize-filled slices to other kids..
We are smitten with this room divider featured a while back on IkeaHackers: it is a rather visionary transformation of a simple material by Marloes van Heteren of SOLUZ and Remco Wilcke of CUBE Architecten. Clear glass Ikea rectangular vases, in two sizes, were painted white inside, to make reverse-painted glass, a compelling material we posted some time ago. They are used as “bricks”, staggered with light shining through, and cemented with strong transparent glue.
The effect is of a curiously light wall that can be made in a variety of shapes to define a space, read more…
Ouno recently compiled quotes by fashion designer Vivienne Westwood that SO totally fly-in-the-face of the usual fashionista view, we were knocked out: it is fashion-as-liberation, self-expression and NON-consumption. Our favorite Westwood quotes:
“Wear a towel instead of a coat, it’s very chic. Or your husband’s boxer shorts with a belt, or something from your grandmother. It’s all about do-it-yourself at the moment.” —Vivienne Westwood at the New Economics Forum in November 2011.
“There’s this idea that somehow you’ve got to keep changing things, and as often as possible. Maybe if people just decided not to buy anything for a while, they’d get a chance to think about what they wanted; what they really liked….” read more…
After photographer Beatrice da Costa sent us her virtual flowers in an email, we went poking around her website. There we found a trove of images of interiors, each, though uncaptioned and mysterious, holding some cool and inspiring idea, like the extraordinary choice of wall colors, above.
We are smitten with this corrugated tin ceiling… read more…
, an all-purpose guide to doing-it-yourself in your home (and having fun, too) – for ANYONE, whether hip girl or not. (We think it would be a great book for guys setting up their first apartment.)
