Today, not for the first time, we mistook an artwork for a household object – a mirror actually. We saw this work by Winston Roeth at YouHaveBeenHereSometime right after seeing some images of mirrors and our brain said: “Wow, what a great deeply-orange painted mirror! Why don’t we make one of those?!!” Then we scrolled down and read the copy. We looked back and realized there was no shiny mirror surface after all, but pure geometry on canvas.
Beautiful. So we read about Roeth and looked at some pictures.
We still loved the idea for a deeply orange-framed mirror, inspired by Roeth (whose work we can’f afford) and went hunting around for how to make, or get, one. read more…
Practically, pegboard is masonite (tempered hardboard) with holes punched in it to hold metal tool holders. Visually, pegboard is polka dot masonite that can be painted any color. It is cheap, strong and light (a 4′ x 8′ sheet costs around $20). At Coffee Supreme, they use pegboard in all sorts of ways: as a surface, above or as a simple, polka dot wall…
(Video link here.) Cara de Silva sent us this video with a short note: ”…there is something quite caring (and “scientific) about her approach.”
Indeed Korean Artist Jihyun Ryou cares so deeply about our relationship to food that she has researched traditional methods of food storage used before refrigeration was available, looking for ways that might be more sustainable AND forge a closer relationship to the foods we eat. Then she designed elegant, minimalist solutions -tools that are also lovely artworks – based on this traditional oral knowledge.
I believe that once people are given a tool that triggers their minds and requires a mental effort to use it, new traditions and new rituals can be introduced into our culture.”
Ryou views fruits and vegetables as being alive, and teaches ways to nourish and interact with their aliveness. We especially like “The Breathing of Eggs”, a poetic explanation of the logic of storing eggs outside the fridge and how to tell if they are fresh. read more…
It seems that once we start focusing on a subject, we begin to find all sorts of solutions and iterations. Lately, it appears to be shelving…
Recently on Remodelista, we spotted these clamped together shelves used at Dyke & Dean, a housewares store in Hastings, East Sussex, England. It reminded us of the clipped together cardboard box shelving we posted about a while back, that ultimately turned into a several post riff (see Related Posts, below). Basically, Dyke and Dean’s are made of simple plywood boxes, stacked in various ways, and secured with metal clamps, for clean, industrial look.
It turns out there is a whole WORLD of cool clamps, beyond the classic “C” Clamp. We’re wondering what we could do with this pulley clamp we found at Carolina Biological Supply (a source for all sorts of useful tools for off-use): read more…
One of the amazing and surprising responses to our going “dark” last week were Comments and emails the came in from ‘improvised life’ readers – whom we’ve never actually met – sending words of support, understanding and gratitude for what we’ve been doing over the past year or so. It knocked us out, reaffirming what we learn daily as we post, that there is a huge vein of generosity coursing through the world and the internet is a powerful conduit and connector. We are grateful for our virtual, curiously tangible, community.
We also got a shout-out from our new blog discovery Mike and Molly’s House, just as we were planning to feature their unbelievable Snaptastic Room Divider, an ingenious modular wall made up of an array of panels that are fit together with slotted connectors. Their way and spirit are totally after our own hearts, as we appear to be to them. They nailed ‘the improvised life’ in a post called “A Little Help from Our Friends“: read more…
Some time ago, Desire to Inspire ran a post called Room Porn. It wasn’t our idea of room porn (which we’re very into, but for a totally different sensibility) EXCEPT for the scrawled writing across the top of the room; it segues with our strange lust/love of signs. It’s do-able by mere mortals and holds lots of possibilities.
Dig this flight of stairs with a quote you read as you walk up… read more…
Recently the New York Times ran an interactive feature about Osteria Senz’ Oste, an inn 40 miles or so north of Venice whose name translates “Tavern Without Host” or “Inn Without Barkeep.” The proprietor Cesare De Stefani wanted to create a space that “felt like home”, so he trusts people to pay what they wish for the superb local prosecco and salumi he serves there. The piece was photographed by Todd Selby of The Selby, who is known for honing in on specific and unique details of a space.
We were charmed by this image of visitor’s notes tacked up on a wall.”Why don’t we do that?” we wondered: create a wall of visits from friends and memorable times?
We recalled various iterations we’d seen of this idea: read more…
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…
On the great blog Made by Joel, when we found a post that began: “I was drawing…just for fun.” We love to hear about people experimenting, with no particular destination in mind. In the end, he took one of the drawings and turned it into a little pillow for one of his kids.
He also mentioned his favorite fabric pens, and we appreciate the tip. Joel Henriques is one of those amazing souls whose advice we always trust. Looking at his improvised drawings, we’re thinking not only pillows, but shower curtains, placemats, window shades, coverlets and beyond… read more…
We had just been mulling how much we HATE the design of shower curtain rings, that make it so difficult to remove the shower curtain for washing. Then we thought: how nice it would be to have shower curtain rings with clips instead of closed loops, so we could just clip up a big swath of fabric.
As often happens when we start to mull a question, an answer appears in our field of vision, like this picture at Plastic Sans of “nouvelle” shower curtain rings made with Ikea curtain clips and binder rings. Great!
(Then we found these stainless steel Ikea curtain clips which come in separate parts – the ring and the clip. We’re wondering if there’s a way to attach the clip part directly to a shower curtain ring…) read more…
We’ve long been fans of unhemmed linen tableclothes, napkins, shower curtains – a rectangle of pure linen just ripped to leave a raw edge *. We hadn’t though of this swell embellishment: the yarn stitching accentuates the intentionality of NOT-HEMMED in a really beautiful and charming way. read more…
We love the way the internet can increase people’s ability to design and fabricate things that have traditionally been the realm of professional designers and manufacturers. Our newest favorite online resource/service is digital fabric printing. Over the past three or four years, a number of online textile printers have popped up, including Spoonflower, Karma Kraft, and Fabric on Demand. While each site differs slightly in what they offer and how they work with you, the general principal remains the same: you pick a pattern or design your own, upload it to the site and select your fabric type and reference colors; then wait for your fabric (or practice swatch) to arrive at your front door.
As always, part of the trick is deciding which service to try. Luckily, Kim at TrueUp did the leg-work for us in 2009, printing the same design with four different companies. (One of them, Eye Candey, doesn’t seem to exist anymore). Her experience is extremely helpful, and includes tips about what file type and image resolution to use, as well as the differences in pigment type and the importance of color-correcting. She also created this handy comparison pdf (updated in March 2010) so you can see the differences between each printer.
If you’ve ever wanted to design your own textiles, it doesn’t get much easier than this. Need some ideas for patterns? We find them everywhere, read more…
, and we appreciate the tip. Joel Henriques is one of those amazing souls whose advice we always trust. Looking at his improvised drawings, we’re thinking not only pillows, but shower curtains, placemats, window shades, coverlets and beyond… 
