d-i-y “masked” painted tables

Jon at Happy Mundane spotted these cool adaptable dining tables by Muuto (which means “new perspective” in Finnish) that can be ordered with different legs, tops, and colors. They reminded him of the possibilities for painting wooden tables in interesting ways by masking off parts with tape, something he did to wooden chairs a while…

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‘the improvised life’ in remodelista!

We were THRILLED to see ‘the improvised life’ blogged today in the renowned home design site Remodelista, as “a favorite recent blog discovery”. They featured our post A Mantle as Furniture (No Hearth). Boy, are we in good company! Thanks, Remodelista! Related posts: A Mantle as Furniture (No Hearth) Remodelista, Expanded (in Beta)

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joshua allen harris’ subway air-fueled street art

New York Magazine sponsored this video about Joshua Allen Harris’ and his very cool street sculptures. He creates giant creatures out of taped-together plastic bags and positions them on subway grates; gusts of warm air from passing trains inflate them momentarily, animating them. He’s made a Loch Ness monster and an uncannily life-like polar bear,…

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valiant make-shift (and spirit) in haiti + a cool way to help

A couple of weeks ago in the New York Times, Lawrence Downes wrote a beautiful report from Haiti called The Kite Makers that painted a vivid picture of the devastated country in a few short paragraphs. He described the resourcefulness at play everywhere for those “with skills, strength and luck”. At the Petionville Club camp – donated tarps forged…

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designing slow life

We wish there were a way to beam ourselves (a la Star Trek) to a conference taking place in Lahti, Finland on March 24 to 25, called “Designing Slow Life” “…international experts of design, service design and wellness talk about and develop services under the main theme of better, slower and more meaningful life…The Slow…

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zen monday

In a recent New Yorker Talk of the Town, we came across this surprising image: a Japanese ukiyo-e print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi made in 1842 (from a show at the Japan Society). It’s called “Haysuhana Prays Under a Waterfall”. The idea knocked us out: of praying, meditating, thinking… just plain sitting… under a waterfall, for a…

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hermeto pascoal: music via lagoon, bottles, flutes, imagination

Brazilian musician Hermeto Pascoal is  famous for making music with unconventional objects. (Miles Davis called  him “the most impressive musician in the world.” ) Here’s Pascoals astonishing Musica de Lagoa, made in a lagoon…the lagoon made into a instrument… According to his bio, Pascoal is self-taught: “Fascinated by the sounds of nature since he was a little…

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the power of time off (stefan sagmeister)

Last December, Pam Hunter, the mastermind behind Studio 707, THE Public Relations firm in Napa Valley, closed its doors to take a sabbatical. On her website’s last post, she told the story of meeting two artists over the years whose practice of taking long sabbaticals from their work had impressed her deeply. Spain’s Fernan Adria, considered…

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sally on finland at the atlantic food blog

Aside from endless design ideas, last summer’s trip to Finland has yielded a several part series at Atlanic Onlines’ Food Blog, starting today. The Atlantic posts will be ongoing for the next few weeks and will be mostly food-centric – woven through with cool design –  until we get to the home of a Finnish…

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spring is coming (really)!

I was in Savonlinna, Finland last summer poking around at the ancient town where there is a huge opera festival each summer inside a castle that was built in 1475. I spotted this flower arrangement in the market… (If you think we’ve got a long winter…)

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kitchen cabinets as furniture

Twenty years ago or so, I designed a kitchen for a space I thought I’d be in forever. I had cabinets made in a Shaker style that I hoped could walk the line between classic and modern for a long time, and bought myself a restaurant stove. Ten years later, life changed, and I had…

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