(Video link here.) In 1975, film maker Tom Schiller made a documentary of Henry Miller. A full 35 minutes of it takes place in Miller’s astonishing bathroom after he had woken up. We found all 35 minutes riveting, though the first 3:35 give the big gist: Miller decorated his bathroom in a break-the-mold way that has nothing to do with the usual concerns of style and luxury, that takes you WAY beyond the little room:
People often come in here and get lost as it were…they get fascinated with these pictures. I often myself, to tell you the truth if it, I spend long minutes in here reviewing them all, wondering why did I get them, why did I put them up there. They run a gamut from the Buddhists to the whores to the maniac that made that beautiful castle up there.
In a way, it is very much like a sort of voyage. I look upon it, a voyage of ideas. We’re traveling not around the world but around my bathroom which is a little microcosm like the world…that’s one of the beauties about it, that it can take you anywhere. You let your mind roam. As we way, one thing leads to another. If you sit here and you are relaxed, why you’re free to make free associations. read more…
We’ve been mulling the idea of using a pegboard on the inside of a tool closet door, the cleaning closet door (to hang mops, brooms, vacuum cleaner hose) and perhaps even in a walk-in clothes closet where it would be useful for hanging jewelry for jewelry, belts etc. We can’t stop thinking about Julia Child’s famous kitchen (you can take a virtual tour of the Smithsonian’s re-creation of it) with it’s charming/homely blue pegboard that hung many of her copper pots and tools. When painted, a pegboard’s polka dot grid can make a pleasing visual, witness the non-utilitarian pegboard headboard we posted a while back.
As is happening more and more, as soon as we started thinking out our options, an answer appeared. This one came as a great how-to found in Kate Payne’s Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking. She takes you through hanging up a kitchen pegboard step-by-step, and has some indispensable lessons learned. read more…
The most inspiring article in last weekend’s New York Times was about Chris Hackett and his workshop in Gowanus, the epicenter of Brooklyn’s burgeoning underground of artists, inventors, chefs, carpenters, urban gardeners, hackers, fabricators, scavengers, repurposers, live-free-or-die,and prepare-for-the-shit-to-hit-the-fan proponents.
On Chris Hackett’s personal periodic table, the world’s most interesting, and abundant, substance is an element he calls obtainium. Things classified as obtainium might include the discarded teapot that he once turned into a propane burner, or the broken beer bottle he used to make a razor, or the 9-millimeter shell casings he acquired some time ago, melted in a backyard foundry (also made of obtainium) and cast into brass knuckles for a girlfriend.
Hacket has been described as a “ master improviser…It’s almost like he thinks with his hands”, and his workshop, an obtainium mine, rich with materials for making: read more…
This room designed by the artist Tilt for Au Vieux Panier Hotel in Marseille, France is called “Panic Room” We look at it and see our two selves: loving serene white, admiring crazed audacious color – our split personality. It manages to evoke a whole world of possibilities: opposite ends of the spectrum in one fell swoop.
When you focus in on the details, something else happens… read more…
We recently stumbled on a cool post at French by Design illustrating ways to define space by painting walls in unexpected ways. We especially like the illusion of sunlight make be using tones of grays and whites, and the blue paint defining the start of a new space: read more…
We are thrilled to publish some of resident photographer Ellen Silverman‘s work from a forthcoming exhibit at the Umbrella Arts’ gallery in New York City, “Spare Beauty: The Cuban Kitchen” her ongoing project.
This past year I travelled to Cuba three times; having a strong interest in food and food photography, the kitchen was a natural subject for me to focus on. I was welcomed into homes where I found sparse spaces, where time has stopped. Due to years of lack of money, supplies and equipment, many Cubans have been forced to adapt and improvise. These photographs reflect the personalities and circumstances of those who inhabit them. If you are unable to come to the gallery please take a few minutes to go to my website and view the photographs online.
We are a big fan of Joel Henriques who runs the great Made by Joel blog. So we were interested to see what was on his new Pinterest page. We found these pictures of interiors designed by Gio Ponti and flipped over the ceilings. read more…
(Video link here.) We love this installation at one of Issy Miyake’s stores: computer-controlled electric fans sending little gusts and sculpting an ethereal fabric. We wish we could translate the idea to home but think it’s beyond our reach. BUT we could take the idea of the etched-looking floor that we saw early on in the video, read more…
(Video link here.) The story behind this extraordinary video is brief and understated:
On an unseasonably warm November night in Manhattan on our way to get ice cream, we stumbled upon what appeared to be a vintage shop, brightly lit display window and all. As we began to walk in, a man sitting out front warned us that we were welcome to explore, but nothing inside was for sale. Our interests piqued, we began to browse through the collections the man out front had built throughout his life. This is a story of a man and his home.
This ‘story of a man and his home’ completely knocked us out. After we watched it, we just listened to the audio and realized that this man, whose name we don’t know, is an artist-philospher-complete original who has deeply illuminating things to say about the meaning of home, objects, age, life, engagement, joy…
Charlie Allenson alerted us to the Vatican’s brilliant website that allows you to fly around the vast Sistine Chapel from your armchair. Using your mouse, you can click left/right/up/down…zoom in or out at astonishing Renaissance frescoes, including The Last Judgement widely believed to be Michelangelo’s. We are stunned at it’s beauty.
As with just about everything that comes our way (especially art), we start to imagine how we can”use” aspects of it to apply to our own lives. In our Sistine chapel roaming, we got a big lesson in perspective: its use of trompe l’oeil gives the effect of endless spaces that reaches way beyond the actual ceiling. read more…
Many of the blogs we read have direct practical applications to our lives; they give us ideas we can use in our home, office, traveling, relationships, work, self-image…
One category of blog is really for pure escapism; they offer us a break from our usual routine and vision. Of late, our favorite is Cabin Porn, pictures of cabins all over the world. Some of the images are accompanied by a bit of interesting commentary, like The Best Hut built by Jono Williams (and friends) in New Zealand.
“Built for less than $1500 using mostly scavenged or donated materials, the treehouse includes solar panels, rainwater collection, a gas-fired outdoor bathtub and a radio-controlled drawbridge.” read more…
For an interactive installation at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, artist Yayoi Kusama created a totally white room as a palette for visiting children to embellish as they pleased with colored dot stickers; ultimately thousands of stickers were used, to make bulls-eyes, whorls, dribbles and overlapping hits of color. The results of this crazy-simple exercise in spontaneous design is the increasingly stunning transformation of the white room…a big lesson to our often white-stuck decorating heads. Check out the transformation from start to finish…
It takes quite an eye for color to put together tiles in such a harmonious and charming manner, but if you’re not up to the task…just copy these great patterns… read more…
The best part of Maria Popova’s Brainpickings blog is, for us, the glimpses she gives us into new books. With extensive pictures and well-selected quotes, she immediately and completely draws you in to the world of the book she’s featuring. This picture from the book Nomad by Jeroen Toirkens particularly spoke to us, as it reveals the life of people who must always be prepared to be on the move. A teepee with solar-panels and satellite dish in Mongolia somehow resonates with our obsession with portable rooms (both inside and out), and reminds us the many other ways of living that are going on right at this moment… read more…
One of the pleasures of meeting Sebastian Nurmi and his wife Ülle when we were in Finland was the quick tour of their home on Bovik Farm. It is an amazing combination of charm, style, warmth and REAL… read more…
