January 2014 - Page 3 of 3 - Improvised Life

Inspired Tape Wall Illusion, Indoors or Out

(fos), a team of interior designers and art directors based Madrid and Barcelona used yellow tape to create the illusion of a beam of light in the facade of a Madrid restaurant. We see it as a wonderful idea to apply indoors.

DIY Floor Stencils Transform Banged-Up As-Is Floors

We love this inspired DIY featured Remodalista in recently: rough-hewn banged-up floors embellished with dramatic stencils spotted in the showroom of Chairloom in Philadelphia. The how-to cuts down unnecessary steps and make the most of the floor’s as-is beauty.

70’s Soul Inspirations for Moves, Fashion, Hair, Grooves

This great compendium of soul dancing from the 70’s: mellow music with endless, fabulously expressive improvisations…in dance moves…fashion…hair do’s…is a morning groove to carry on through the day.

Find: Big, Stylish, French Striped Dish Towel / Napkin

Over the holidays Ellen Silverman gave a dinner party for 14 and wanted a special napkin that guests could take away with them to remember the event. She found some inexpensive but wonderfully stylish big red striped cotton dish towels that a friend machine-embroidered with a pretty design. They were in perfect keeping with the wonderful bistro-ish…

The Deliciousness of Sautéed Stems and Leaves

Leaves and stems we might normally discard can often make for a delcious saute with which to forge a quick meal.

How Hockney Painted a Pool

David Hockney painting the interior of Emmerich’s swimming pool seems like a fitting image for a Monday morning. Afix a brush to the end of a stick and…make your mark, even on the most unlikely things. Leap in your own way…

The REMARKABLE Lives They Lived 2013

At the end of every year, the New York Times publishes The Lives They Lived, a special issue of the Magazine that features remarkable people who passed away that year. It is well worth checking out for the sheer scope of human originality it spans.

Virtual Vacation: Inspired Cabin Balanced on a Rock

We weren’t surprised to read that even looking at VIRTUAL images of nature or art can have a potent, positive effect on our mood and thinking. No matter where you are, winter is winter, shift your head by imagining yourself HERE… (…and we’re thinking of the mindset it took to even think of building that…

The Geometry of Partial, Architectural Sheetrock Walls

Partial sheetrock walls in unexpected graphic shapes and proportions, without moldings or adornments, can add a modern architectural element to a room.

Bird by Bird: Anne Lamott’s Instructions for Writing and LIFE

One of our favorite all time books about the creative process is Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. It is NOT just about writing, but is full of lessons about living creatively.

The Art of Snow (Snow as Art Material, Fashion Inspiration, Gym)…

Our friend Holton Rower sent us some screenshots of very imaginative snow creations that remind us just what a splendid, ephemeral FREE material snow is for spontaneous making, fashion inspiration, exercise equipment.

Light Bulb Strategies: Halogen, LED, Newcandescents, More

For our money, one of the easiest ways to transform a problematic space is with good lighting. Many of the spaces we have consulted on suffered terribly —as have their inhabitants— from dim, murky lighting due to the pressure to move to energy-saving lighting. Now that manufacture of the classic warmly glowing incandescent bulb has been banned, the question “what to do?” is even more pressing. There are a number of options.

What Language Does Your Body Speak?

Artist Gracie Hagen’s project “Illusions of the Body” explored the distance between media-propagated imagery of men and women with impossibly pristine bodies, and the genuine very-imperfect reality of our own flesh. For us it had another, more powerful message.

More Blue Tape Paintings

Blue painter’s tape is the perfect medium for making quick, removable paintings on walls. Check out how Holton Rower and other artists have used it, to make both figurative and abstract art.

Cool Curtain Room Dividers + A Tree Trunk Coffee Table

We often get ideas for home design solutions by browsing the portfolios of interiors photographers. A favorite of late: the massive PDF of Jean Marc Palisse’s work. For starters, we found a couple of great fabric/curtain room dividers that look decidedly elegant and clean, while being quite simple to execute, and an inspired tree trunk coffee table.

Gary Snyder’s Instant Perspective Expander

This instant perspective-expander is from The Gary Snyder Reader: Prose, Poetry, and Translations one of our favorite books, where we ALWAYS find something illuminating.

The Charm and Possibility of Balancing Blocks

(Video link HERE.) We’d seen images of multi-colored Balancing Blocks around but didn’t WANT them until we saw this swell little video. It made us reflect on ‘process’, and long days on a beach spent happily balancing stones…which made us want the white ones. They’re

All articles filed in January 2014