Hungry for color but don’t quite know how to pull it off? Check out this house tour of a seriously colorful modern home from the 60’s. Loud + inspiring! via Design Milk
Read Morefoamcore illusions for short-term home-design fixes
Once the bulk of the Harlem Laboratory renovation was done, I made the decision to move in with many smaller projects still to be finished. The place was liveable, and I figured I could work on them over the coming months, gradually. Busy with work, months dragged on and some of the unfinished bits became…
Read Morewhat are you waiting for?
The Whitney Museum recently sponsored a public art project with artist Gary Simmons. To make the project, teens collected responses to the question, “What are you waiting for?” from their classmates and the larger community. The handwritten scraps of paper were then photographed, printed, and wheatpasted onto a wall, creating a layered, complex, and sometimes…
Read More24 diy chair inspirations from andy hall
Three years ago, we posted a mystery chair whose cool design inspired us to think we could make it ourselves. We did not know who’d made it, until today, when a reader sent us a link in a Comment. It is the work of artist/designer Andy Hall. We’ve discovered that Hall set himself the challenge of…
Read Moreimprovised life: leap…and one thing leads to another
Recently, we were browsing through Paperless Post looking for a virtual card to congratulate a couple we know on their twentieth anniversary of being together. We stumbled upon this image by Magnum Photographer Ferdinando Scianna and thought: that’s it! Over the past year, both members of the couple has been feeling their way, and ultimately…
Read Moreplum with a heart tattoo (perfection of imperfection)
Maria Robledo sent this image of one of the first plums her plum tree yielded. What might seem like a blemish could be seen as something else althogether: the perfection (and magic) of imperfection. Thanks Maria! Related posts: brilliant graffiti: ‘you are (not) perfect’ ‘seeing’ is a practice (look what’s hidden in plain sight) ‘the…
Read Morediy minimalist stainless steel pot rack
For many years, I steered clear of potracks. I disliked the feeling of having things hanging above me when I cooked, the visual busy-ness they created, and the generally clunky lines of most commercial ones. In my old place, I hung my pots on wall racks made from sleek shower bars, in a nook that…
Read Morebruce mau’s incomplete manifesto for growth
Anne Johnson alerted us to the extraordinary ‘Incomplete Manifesto for Growth that legendary designer and visionary Bruce Mau wrote in 1998: 43 powerful principles and practices. We’ve bolded our favorites: Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You…
Read Moreelectric fans as mosquito deterrent + AC booster
During the recent heat-wave, we took the opportunity to test what electric fans can REALLY do when the going gets tough. For sure, their ability to move air around can keep a space bearable enough to forego AC for hours. And when the AC is on, that same ability can augment its power, help cool…
Read Moresolution: stenciled painted floors
When we chose plywood floors for the Laboratory, the idea was that we could paint them as needed. They’d start out an oyster white…and then go who knows where as they became worn or our mood changed. So we’re always on the lookout for cool painted floor ideas, like this one from an old station…
Read Morewondrous washi tape installation (you can do it too!)
(Video link here.) We written before about the wonders of washi tape, Japan’s version of masking tape made of rice paper; it comes in many colors and sizes, with an adhesive that is very gentle to walls. It’s the perfect material for instant-decorating. MT is the company that started it all and has an extensive…
Read Morestrategy: the 4-minute workout + the mio alpha
Along with our strategy of exercising outdoors with whatever is at hand, we’ve found this heartening report in the New York Times really useful for getting ourselves to work out regularly: In a study, published last month in the journal PLoS One, researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, and other institutions attempted to delineate…
Read Moreseth godin on creatives: ‘there’s only what works for you’
In the course of a year, quite a few people ask me for advice about how to DO what they dream of doing. Many, not all, are writers. The question is not about how to achieve success, but simply how to start and keep going. It is a central question of the creative process. Seth…
Read Morebig, light tyvek tote bag
Every since we bought on of Grain Design’s Tyvek shower curtain, we’ve been fans of Tyvek’s ability to crumple like fine fabric, while being incredibly durable (after a year, the shower curtain is going strong…and a black Tyvek Issey Miyake bag we’ve had for years has only gotten softer and better looking). Always on the…
Read More8 improvs that make life better (don’t believe everything you read!)
Our friend Chris Deatherage forwarded an email compilation of unattributed little improvisations that seemed at first glance to be truly useful. (Who puts together these endlessly-forwarded compilation emails, anyway?) We were charmed by the spirit of improvisation they reflected. We culled the 9 below and tested a few out. Wrapping a wet paper towel around…
Read Morejames turrell’s aten reign: ‘other seeing’
(Video link here.) After we saw artist James Turrell‘s wondrous installation of light at the Guggenheim Museum, we looked hard to find a video that could give some semblance of what it’s like. Turrell completely transformed Frank Lloyd Wright’s spiralling rotunda into something completely other. We recommend watching this succinct two minutes full screen: what…
Read Morevideo: sally makes fragrant herb salt + other goodies
(Video link here.) Before I moved up to Harlem, the great Lynne Rosetto Kasper, host of public radio’s The Splendid Table, visited me in my old Chelsea apartment to film me making Tuscan Herb Salt. It’s one riff in The Key Three — three recipes I consider essential in every cooks repertoire — featured on…
Read Morems sophia’s duct-tape flip-flops (orange is the new black)
(Video link here.) We are addicted to Orange Is the New Black, Netflix’s series about a a waspy young woman from Connecticut who must serve a fifteen-month sentence at women’s federal prison for a one-time drug run when she was young. It is full of the make-shift, improvised, survival tactics inmates devise to make their lives…
Read Morerecipe riff: chard + other vegetables stuffed with rice, raisins, pine nuts
For many years, I wrote about improvising in the kitchen. My basic approach was to show people how to ‘see’ the basic structure of a recipe. Once you understood its essential workings, you could play with all sorts possibilities, depending on what you had on hand or were inspired to do. It’s pure liberation. So…
Read Morevirtual chill
Our minds boggled by this egg-frying 100′ heat, we were wondering if we could actually MAKE ourselves feel cooler by looking at chill gifs…
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