Artist, designer, craftsman, longtime friend Jamison Sellers solves a bit of the ethical wood-sourcing dilemma by delving into the world of shipping pallets. He explores these familiar, reclaimed objects on a much finer scale than most by collecting bits and pieces of coveted woods (and even again recycling his own shop scraps from past projects) to create ornamental patterning inspired…
Read MoreBed on Boxes, Files, Shipping Pallets and Other Platforms
This image of a charming plywood platform bed reminded us of the late Tobias Wong’s bed made of a mattress on top of a grouping of file cabinets. No need for an OFFICIAL bed, of the grand style seen on every home blog and magazine. A good mattress on a flat sturdy slab is a simple formula. And…
Read MoreThe Architectural Possibilities of Plastic Crates and Pallets
Plastic milk and soda crates are often used as design challenges for architecture students, who morph them into interesting useable structures. We’ve found uses closer to home.
Read Morethe scoop on safe shipping pallets (shipping pallets 101)
Yesterday, a reader alerted us to the possible dangers of wooden shipping pallets, especially found ones that are so great for d-i-y projects. When we read that even new wood pallets could be subject to chemical treatments, we did some research to figure out how we can happily keep making things out of wood pallets,…
Read Moreps: some possible dangers of wood shipping pallets
This morning a reader alerted us to the possible dangers of some wood shipping pallets, of toxic chemicals leaching from treated woods (required by law to prevent insect infestations, although not all treatments involve chemicals), or of contamination by e-coli and other pathogens (a bi-product of being used to transport food or being exposed to…
Read MoreClever Shipping Pallet Barbeque + Rotisserie Station
While we were researching Arlene Gottfried’s work, we stumbled on this photograph she took of a barbeque in a then-Puerto Rican neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. When we looked closely, we realized that shipping pallets had been cleverly employed, not only to help anchor the spit, but to provide seating for two kids hanging out while the…
Read More1001 Pallet’s Trove of Ideas and Info
Over the years, we fed ours and reader’s passion for practical things made of shipping pallets, with examples of the very best, most stylish versions we could find of pallet beds, sofas, side tables, steps, even a version of Le Corbusier’s iconic club chair. Gradually, novel ideas for pallet began to drop off as the diy-universe reached a saturation point,…
Read MoreStage a Rooftop Party with Modest Means
When Ikea’s Livet Hemma posted this compelling image of rooftop party preparations, we ran the Swedish description through our language translator to discover that Ikea’s copywriters left out the best parts for DIYing a rooftop space.
Read MorePopUp Hotel Rooms Inspire Cabin Thinking
Last October, 22 temporary hotel rooms popped up around Mannheim, Germany, as part of the Hotel Shabby Shabby event for the city’s Theater der Welt festival. Designers were invited to build temporary cabins in unexpected locations using found or recylable materials, for a strict 250 pounds (less than $400) budget. It yielded a many ideas for building…
Read Morebig shipping pallet and concrete block outdoor table
Last weekend, we walked down to the Urban Garden Center to check out the pig roast they hold every Saturday in the summer in their rough-and-tumble party pavilion. The pavilion is made of all sorts of found and rustic materials, including mismatched chairs and junk store finds. We especially loved the huge table made of shipping pallets and concrete block, two of our favorite building materials. It could easily seat twelve AND weather the elements.
Read MoreWater Lily-ish Sculptures and Other Floating Possibilities
Japanese artist Toshihiko Shibuya has placed ‘water pallet’ floating on a square pool of water at the Sapporo Sculpture Garden, Painted with pinks, blues and greens on the underside of their base, the white circles glide on the surface of the basin, reflecting a colorful hue when they overlap. We discovered a lot when we tried to figure out how we could do it.
Read MoreArtist’s Cool Precursors to the Pallet Bed
Artists Donald Judd and Martin Kippenberger both liked sleeping on a low platform, unbounded in the room…the precursor to the popular pallet bed?
Read Morecool steel grating chair + our favorite catalogues for diy
This sculptural mesh chair ($2,000 at yliving.com) by designer Damien Velasquez has a deep, springy ergonomic seat. It looks to us like it was made from standard punched metal sheets used for grilles and other architectural applications. We checked one of our favorite catalogs for McMasters-Carr, and sure enough, that’s what it is. We wonder if Velasquez…
Read Morediy window boxes and planters: modern to rustic
Julie Houston, whose home reno we posted last week, sent us this image of the clever window box she made using some of Hurricane Sandy’s twig debris, glued onto plywood frames (made to order by her husband). It came just as we’ve been collecting images of the various diy planters we’ve spotted around town. …
Read Morediy pallet furniture: essential steps, reality sandwiches
Reclaimed shipping pallets continue to be a material that inspires design-afficionados and diy-ers alike. Over the years we’ve posted many clever iterations of pallet sofas, beds, planters, wine racks, flat files (just type “shipping pallets” into our Search box)…As well as some serious research and info on the safety of pallets, what to look for,…
Read Moresimon beck’s snow art + dworski on why we improvise
As a spring snow storm sweeps through the midwest, it seems fitting to post these wondrous snow paintings by artist Simon Beck along the frozen lakes of Savoie, France. He creates the beautiful geometric patterns, some as large as 3 soccer fields, by plodding through the snow in snowshoes for hours at a time. How long the…
Read Morea very pallet apartment: beds, sofas, side table, tabletop
Architects SMLXL Studio seems to have a real THING for shipping pallets, which they’ve used all through a tiny two story apartment in Prague. In many cases, it seems they took they pallets apart and reconfigured their components: thick blocks and slats to custom make furniture the exact size they wanted. Pallet has clearly become…
Read Morewaxing + waning…we’ll be back in a few days
We found this beautiful gif on Krulwich Wonders some time ago, along with a quote that resonated deeply: We wax, we wane. It’s the dance of life. Every living thing is a pulse. We quicken, then we fade. There’s more to the quote, but the part we related to was principle of waxing and waning,…
Read MoreCubist, Mondrian-esque Painted Shipping Pallet Bed
Spotted in a the cube room, a concept room created by designer Fabian Gatermann for a design hostel in Cologne, Germany: a fab shipping pallet bed painted like one of Piet Mondrian‘s famous “Compositions” from 20’s and 30’s. On close inspection, it appears that the bed was made to LOOK like it was made of pallets; it seems a bit too…
Read Moreenzo mari’s autoprogettazione for diy furniture designs
Autoprogettazione, roughly translated “self design,” was a project and book by the modernist artist and designer Enzo Mari that gives instructions for building easy-to-assemble furniture — tables, chairs, bookshelves, wardrobe — using rough boards and nails. Originally published in 1974, it has been reprinted many times. Mari created the project because he thought …if people were encouraged to…
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