working
Sally Schneider
For the renovation of my 1,000-square-foot ‘Laboratory’ in New York City, my mission was to open up the space to the spectacular park view AND fluidly accomodate an open kitchen, workspace, dining area, and living area. To do this, I removed a small bedroom to dramatically expand the main room and built an office area along one 15′ wall in the big space. The pressing question then became: how to “disappear” or close-off the office so I could “leave” my work? (This is the great dilemma of people who work at home; I learned the hard way that sleeping where you work is NOT a good idea.)
I discussed the problem with Scott McFarlane, an interior designer I consulted with early on in the project. A curtain won’t do”, said Scott. “It’s not substantial enough. You need to close your work off with a WALL, that will really make you feel it’s gone.” He thought for a moment. “I remember seeing a mechanism that was basically flat panels that roll on a track to become a flush wall that would conceal the office. When you rolled them back to reveal the office again, they would “nest” in a specially built nook.”
We found the mechanism — called the Aperto 60 H Operable Wall System read more…
04.30.13 |
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in cool spaces, elements, inside, materials, resources, storage, stores, walls + windows, working |
Lynsey Fryers
Every since we wrote about artist Dieter Roth’s work tables, which he covered with sheets of thick artist’s paper so that they would capture the processes of whatever he was working on, as well as notes and scribblings, we’ve loved the idea and have used it. Recently, we stumbled on a clever iteration: use a swatch of Kraft paper as your surface. Rolls of Kraft paper are cheap (48″ x 200′ roll of kraft paper
$20!)and great to have on hand for a variety of uses, from drawable gift wrap to instant dining table “cloths” and place settings .
via Desire to Inspire
Related posts: dieter roth’s workspace + the courage to ‘leave crap the way it is’
kraft paper table “cloths” and place settings
d-i-y post-it table
at last, the right size sticky note (to buy or d-i-y)
graphing novels, business plans and other big ideas
04.03.13 |
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in cheap + great, d-i-y, elements, inside, materials, resources, working |
Like many people, we’re always trying to find ways to increase productivity without stressing ourselves out. We’ve discovered that along with the idea of being more productive and in control comes the pressure to accomplish things. I can have the effect of making us “look over the fence at other people’s greener grass” and be too hard on ourselves.
Recently, we’ve taken to periodically take stock of the big things we’ve accomplished over the year, or several years, i.e. the broad picture as an antidote to thinking we’re getting nothing done. Then the other day on Lifehacker, we came across the idea of making a DONE wall, where you post all the tiny steps accomplished. read more…
11.19.12 |
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in business, d-i-y, paths + processes, solutions, strategies, walls + windows, working |
photo: jill krementz
Although our borrowed cabin in the country was not quite as spare as Charlotte’s Web
author E.B. White’s enviable makeshift work space (in his boat shed overlooking Allen Cove in 1976, pre internet), we are refreshed by going minimal for a week, in nature and quiet.
We were so intrigued by White’s utterly simple, focused space, that we browsed some of his essays
. We were amused and heartened to read of White’s eloquent stuggle with “stuff” in “Goodbye to Forty-eighth Street:
For some weeks now I have been engaged in dispersing the contents of this apartment, trying to persuade hundreds of inanimate objects to scatter and leave me alone. It is not a simple matter. I am impressed by the reluctance of one’s worldly goods to go out again into the world. During September I kept hoping that some morning, as if by magic, all books, pictures, records, chairs, beds, curtains, lamps, china, glass utensils, keepsakes would drain away from around my feet, like the outgoing tide, leaving me standing silent on a bare beach. But this did not happen… read more…
10.23.12 |
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in furniture, inside, paths + processes, people, quotes, solutions, working |
Since we started renovating ‘the improvised life’s space’ we’ve had our eyes peeled for solutions to various design problems. We’re finding that once we have a question in our head, inspiration and ideas can come from the most unlikely places.
Desperately needing a proper desk to work on, we hurredly devised one out of hollow core doors (below) on spray painted salvaged file cabinets. It works fine – a sleek 13 feet, but we weren’t crazy about the wood veneer, which has an unexpectedly reddish cast. Wonder what we could do to change it?: reverse-painted glass crossed our minds, as did slabs of steel or copper we found at a an internet site. Then two modernist Italian vases we saw on Mondoblogo grabbed our attention. What if we painted the desktop that fabulous red of the fifties vase by Antonia Campi, above? read more…
07.25.12 |
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in cheap + great, copy this!, d-i-y, floors, furniture, inside, inspiration blogs + sites, laboratory, materials, resources, working |
soupstudiodesign.com
Cynthia Caldwell sent us a link to this Post-It table she spotted at Design Taxi with this note: “Love this idea-post it size desk pad. Couldn’t find where you can actually buy one but I think I need it NOW for my son Russell.”
It appears the table is one of those tantelizing design one-offs that would cost a fortune to buy. We’ve seen a number of iterations of the idea over the past few years. For us, it has the essential design flaw of regular-size Post-It notes: that awful yellow color.
So of course, we set about figuring out how to MAKE our own custom post-it table, with paper we like. Here are two approaches: read more…
06.28.12 |
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in copy this!, d-i-y, furniture, how-to, inside, materials, resources, working |
photo: sally schneider
Last year, I posted a mid-century modern folding desk that I’d used for many years, and had decided to sell. Maria Robledo bought it for her 13 + year-old daughter Isabel. Recently, I was thrilled to see Isabel’s take on the desk: full of color and pattern, and a completely different style than my ascetically minimalist one.
Same desk; different view altogether. read more…
05.02.12 |
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in furniture, inside, working |
copyright: mastermind maps
A few weeks ago we wrote about the concept of “pulsing and resting,” throughout the work day; actually taking breaks from work in order to get more done (and do better work!). One of our readers introduced us to the Pomodoro Technique, (names after a tomato-shaped timer) which is based on this very idea and provides a specific method:
- Choose a task to be accomplished
- Set a timer for 25 minutes
- Work on the task until the timer rings
- Take a short break (5 minutes is OK)
- Every 4 cycles take a longer break
We decided to try it out, and it so far it has been a wonderfully useful technique. We’ve found that the 25-minute work cycles allow us to package together work in a way that makes sense, so we aren’t cramming a big bunch of unrelated tasks together. The result: we’re calmer, and feel more organized. Getting up and getting away from our desks is also extremely refreshing, and allows our heads to cool out throughout the day.
It’s so simple that it’s definitely worth a try.
read more…
01.24.12 |
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in copy this!, paths + processes, principles, rules for living, strategies, working |
photo: Jacque Burke
Our friend Jacque Burke is the Communications Director for The Dutch and Locanda Verde, lynchpins of chef Andrew Carmellini‘s growing restaurant empire. She sent us a photo of this astonishing to-do list with some thoughtful commentary, and inadvertently became a guest blogger:
“I had some work waiting for me at Locanda Verde, and when I went into our chefs offices there, I was stopped dead by this to-do list sitting on the desk.”What chaos!” I thought. Just looking at it made my mind go blank. I need symmetry in my to-do lists: columns with an underlined header for each one, that these days is either a person who needs tending (AC, Luke, Josh, Patrick, JACQUE) or one of our ongoing projects (Locanda Verde, the cafe inside The Dutch Miami, MSG…) I keep them in one of these journals that I carry around with me.
Once I got over the insta-vertigo from this list, it struck me just how interesting looking it was – with the random acts of color in certain spots – and how graphic. Was this really a hapless creation? Or perhaps it is the perfect picture of that frenzied life we all lead (and by lead, I think I really mean ‘chase after beet-faced and breathless.’) Everyone’s to do list looks different, but maybe this is how everyone’s to do list feels. read more…
12.05.11 |
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in kitchen, paths + processes, people, working |
Tara Mann
We found this great looking d-i-y mousepad on our friend Tara Mann’s Tumblr. We love Tara’s description of her eureka moment:
My friend Phillip recently had cork flooring put in his kitchen, and as I was shoving a cheese covered baguette down my throat, staring at the floor, I thought about how nice that material would look as a mousepad.
So I asked Phil if he had any extra cork, and he had quite a bit laying dormant in a closet. Anyways, I measured and cut the cork in squares of various sizes. They look great on desks and work really well! read more…
06.27.11 |
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in cheap + great, copy this!, d-i-y, inside, solutions, working |
Allison Michael Orenstein
Marc Chagall‘s grand daughter Bella Meyer got a Doctorate in medieval art history from the Sorbonne and has held a variety of jobs – designing props for the theater, working as a puppeteer – before stumbling on her true calling: floral design. After friends asked her to design a blossom-laden chuppah for their wedding, Meyer, who had always drawn and painted, realized that flowers are her medium…”in their variety and richness, they’re natural art supplies.”
In 2003, she started Fleurs Bella as a floral design company; two years ago, it morphed into a bricks-and-morter shop near New York City’s Union Square. Heres an bit of her compelling story recently published on Tablet:
“Cut flowers,” she says, “have no other purpose aside from being given.” She always keeps a stash just outside the shop, with a sign that says “take one please.” About once a month, she ventures out onto the streets with what she calls “flower graffiti,” tucking small bouquets into alleyways or subway stations. Occasionally she’ll thrust her flowers at random strangers. Not everyone is thrilled. She recalls one man who yelled at her: “I don’t want to be happy!”
Flower graffiti! Such a wonderful idea: a guerilla florist. Downtown Express called her a “flower vigilante” for her unique strategy: read more…
06.07.11 |
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in art, materials, paths + processes, people, services, sightings, working |
Maria Robledo
The other day we got an email from our friend A.S.C. Rower, President of the Calder Foundation (we know him as Sandy). It’s subject line read: “More Noise Please!” The title of a poem by the late Steven J. Bernstein, a mutual friend, was the go-ahead for ‘the improvised life’ to feature posts about Rower’s grandfather, Alexander Calder, an idea that’s been in the works for a while. Calder, one of the 20th century’s greatest artists, known for his monumental and kinetic sculptures and mobiles, was possibly one of the world’s most inspired and relentless improvisers. When Sandy heard of ‘the improvised life’s mission, he thought it would be a fine fit.
We thought we’d start our ongoing Calder theme by featuring some pictures of the Calder Foundation space, excerpted from the current World of Interiors. They were made by another close friend and frequent contributor, Maria Robledo (who photographed all of Sally’s books, including The Improvisational Cook). The space, in New York’s Chelsea, houses a vast archive of Calder’s life and work including the ongoing catalogue raisonné, and supports the Foundation’s mission to deepen understanding of Calder’s work and scholarly work; it is not yet open to the public. (Note: The images published here are scans of the magazine and hence don’t have the luminosity of Robledo’s originals.)
We got A LOT of inspiration from the article and our recent visit to the foundation which affirmed our central operating principle: that an improvisational environment begets an improvisational mindset… read more…
05.03.11 |
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in art, cool spaces, elements, family + friends, inside, inspiration blogs + sites, inspiration books + zines, paths + processes, people, walls + windows, working |
Robert Blinn of Core 77 posted an extensive and very interesting review of Living with Complexity
by Donald Norman. He describes looking at a picture of Al Gore’s messy office, and issuing big judgements about a man who campaigns against our messing up of the environment, while not keeping his own space together. Messy spaces are widely considered the sign of a disorganized and un-together person. Not for Norman:
In Norman’s view, Gore’s desk is the cluttered extension of an organized mind. Indeed, Norman interviewed many seemingly organized owners of messy workspaces and heard them repeatedly request, “Please don’t clean my desk.” The apparent disorder of the office was being carefully tracked in their minds. Norman explains that all of our desire for “simplicity” is a false hope because life is complex. Complexity, however, does not need to be confusing.
We find complexity amazingly interesting AND confusing; since starting ‘the improvised life’, we’ve have had to totally GET with our messy workspace, and it’s vast piles of ideas that we’ve found and can’t keep up with filing. We’re kind of obsessed with “messy” spaces of creative people, who clearly have their own unique mental filing systems. We find that so many people think they are somehow flawed for having an in-flux workspace, we love to post examples to antidote the notion. Here’s another favorite. read more…
02.28.11 |
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in inside, inspiration books + zines, paths + processes, rules for living, why not?, working |
