sleeping

tom sachs’ philosophy of making

Todd Selby//The Selby

A picture of a chair made out of orange-and-white-striped wooden safety barriers that we saw on The Selby led us to discovering Tom Sachs. He’s an artist who makes elaborate recreations of modern icons: masterpieces of engineering and design of one kind or another, from Knoll office furniture to Prada to NASA (like this hilarious video). The all-seams-showing recreations are made out of ordinary stuff like phone books and Foamcoare welded together with duct tape or a glue gun. As it is clear from The Selby’s pictures of Sach’s living/studio space, the work of this imaginative inventor/artist holds ideas for our own more modest creations…

Although we don’t know what it says, we’re crazy about Sach’s bedspread, and the idea of writing on our own…

….not to mention the wonderful chair… read more…

07.26.10 | comments (1) | in art, cool spaces, elements, inside, inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, materials, people, repurpose, sleeping, storage |

trompe l’oeil room (cocoon) bed: opinions wanted

another-cocoon-bedspain
via Remodelista

I continue to mull ways to merge office and bedroom without sleeping in the midst of the fray of papers and projects…and stumbled on an interesting variant of the idea posted earlier, of creating a little shed in the office/bedroom that would be a sleeping cocoon, protected from officey stuff and the idea of never-finished work. This version of a “room (cocoon) bed” from Hotel Aire de Bardenas in Spain has a wonderful view (a nature preserve). Not so in my city digs.

To create a view, I’m fooling around with the idea of making a “room (cocoon) bed” whose fabric walls are printed with a trompe l’oeil photo mural, read more…

10.22.09 | comments (2) | in elements, inside, rooms, sleeping, solutions |

bedroom office strategy: room (cocoon) bed

cube-bed-deborah-burke1

www.dberke.com

For years, my office was a corner of my 20-x-17-foot bedroom. I managed to write a 700 page book there, and numerous articles, as well as pay bills. The problem was that I really never left my work; it was always in view, always calling me to do more. For an urban freelance person, having a separate office, as I’ve had for a few years, is a real luxury, and one that, given the scary economy, I’ve been wondering if I could give up if I had to. IS there a way to have an office AND a bedroom, in one large room? read more…

02.04.09 | comments | in elements, inside, reimagine, sleeping, solutions |

diy patchwork headboard

patchwork-headboard-stylefiles

Living Etc. via Style Files

I love the idea of this patchwork headboard from Lockwood Design. There are endless possibilities for combining cool fabrics and textures and it’s definitely a do-able project.   I can imagine using all sorts of vintage fabrics, which can be found at flea markets and on Ebay. Or buying 1/2 yard of several fabrics from a great fabric store.

It’s basically an elaboration of a basic upholstered headboard like this one made from a tablecloth. (Tablecloths are often made of wonderful hard-to-find fabric. So why not use them like fabric?) Charming tea towels and linen place mats would make great patchwork panels.

tablecloth-2-pixdesigners-lib

via Designer's Library

There’s lots of info on the internet about how to make an upholstered headboard; I recommend reading a few to figure out your strategy. Here’s a start:

How to Make an Upholstered Headboard (sew a panel of patchwork pieces to use as their single sheet of fabric)

How to Make an Upholstered Headboard Using Pillow Shams (essentially a patchwork headboard that you could do with other fabrics).

01.24.09 | comments | in elements, free + flea, furniture, how-to, repurpose, sleeping, soft |