Plastic milk and soda crates are often used as design challenges for architecture students, who morph them into interesting useable structures. We’ve found uses closer to home.
Read MoreMurmuration: Thousands of Starlings Move as One
(Video link HERE.) In this homemade video of murmuration, thousands of starlings flock over a river in Ireland, moving as one. It is a mystery of nature, happening in smaller scale daily, often unnoticed. Each bird in the flock appears to be connected…listening to every other. The mystery is how birds that are hundreds of feet apart “know” when to turn in unison and create such joyous beauty.
Read MoreAQQ Index Inspires and Delights
Recently, we stumbled on L.A. based design collective Al Que Quiere’s blog AQQ Index and felt like we’d fallen down a rabbit hole. The site consists of three columns of images: art, interiors, furniture, much from the 70’s and 80’s in a mashup. As you move the center column up or down, the side ones move in…
Read MoreTorggler’s ‘Evolution’ Re-envisions the Door
This teeny video of Austrian Artist Klemens Torggler clever ‘Evolution Door,’ has been flying around the internet. It sets the common concept of a door — opening via hinges or running on a track —literally on end. The Evolution is a rotating geometric flip-panel door system that opens up with momentum and looks like origami. Torggler’s re-envisioning of the door is NOT just a design exercise, but a truly original solution…
Read MoreEnzo Mari Fireplace Inspiration (A Mantle as Display)
Enzo Mari’s fireplace rolls all sorts of things we love into one: a fireplace, slabs of concrete or stone, shelves and ledges to display still lives —perhaps one of the nicest use of a mantle. Our own yellow mantle acts as a repository of things we love. It’s been getting pretty full lately; a friend suggested placing a smaller mantle inside it.
Read MorePursuit of the New: Surfing with Ice and Snow
A source of inspiration to us over the winter months is intrepid photographer Yassine Ouhilal, who documents surf culture in some of the worlds coldest waters. A surfer himself, Yassine is Canadian born but ventures further north to the far reaches of Canada, Russia and Iceland where a small number of like-minded surfers escape the hoards…
Read MoreFantazoom: A Highrise of Homes
When we stumbled on James Wines Highrise of Homes (envisioned in 1981) we thought, THAT’S what we need to antidote the sameness of apartment buildings, while providing garden spaces and personal architectural identities, from modernist to Victorian to rustic cabin…
Read MoreToilet Paper Holder Inspired by Richard Tuttle Wire Sculpture
At the great, somewhat cryptic art blog Atelier Journal, we stumbled on Rollers, a wire sculpture made by artist Richard Tuttle in 1970. We are smitten with it as an artwork, while our barbarian selves see it as divine inspiration for a toilet paper holder that we hope to one day fashion.
Read MoreTiny Plywood Studio Morphs into a Gallery via Pegs
We got a lot of ideas taking a little photo tour of the versatile 66-square-foot artist’s studio Anaan Stern and Shany Tal, with its many kinds of clever storage: folding bed, shelving, drawers of all sizes…But what we liked best are the wooden pegs inserted into sliding doors to hold works of art or open books, to make an ever-changeable private gallery.
Read MoreYou Are Not Lost + Beat Wisdom + an un-Kerouac Road Map
This great sign reminded us of the Gary Snyder Poem, Off the Trail, which we think is an essential place to be at times. It is the opposite of the 45-page manual of driving instructions to follow the EXACT 17,527-mile road trip that Jack Kerouac documented in On the Road, his great, transformative, UNPLANNED odyssey
Read MoreUse the Right Tools for the Job and Hack Them If Necessary
This image exemplifies the great sculptor Alexander Calder; we feel the tactile sense of the massive tin snips that he customized with little bands of wire afixed with string to make them more powerful. The guy was fearless in his use of materials and tools; he just went AT them and made things. His output was immense,…
Read MoreHanging Out/Reading Spots Indoors and Out
Lately, we find ourselves collecting images of interesting spaces for hanging out: nests of various kinds both indoors and out. We view these little improvisied spaces as mini vacations —a transporting place to read and dream…
Read MoreCoat Hanger + Magazine: A Simple Storage Solution Becomes Art
Recently, while browsing through the Danish website Bungalow 5, we were inspired by this idea in the home of Ollie and Seb. By combining two ordinary, daily objects, they’ve created a miniature installation of their own.
Read MorePockets: What Essential Item Carries You Through Your Day?
Pockets, a tiny treasure of a video by director James Lees made us reflect on what one treasure carries us through our day.
Read MoreWeekend Treat: Chocolate Malted Pudding
Chocolate pudding is a guaranteed hit at dinner parties where guests revel in the unexpectedness of a classic kid’s dessert in a grownup setting.
Malted milk powder builds in an additional layer of richness and surprise; the pudding tastes like a malted milk ball, but there are LOTS of ways to improvise on the basic recipe.
How Often Do You Just Hang Out and Make?
Our new favorite interiors blog for its inspiring, REAL undesigny spaces is Bohemian Homes. This image reminded us of when we used to hang out on a rug and draw… …hmmm. Why not now? With thanks to Maria Robledo.
Read MoreGouged and Sculpted Door Handle (Holes in Walls)
On the heels with our holes in walls post, Holton Rower sent this fab door with a Brancusi-ish quality. It looks like an artwork and functions like a door: Our design ideal. (We also love the curious that additional, somewhat mysterious graphic elements: a painted dot and painted bricks.)
Read MoreDesign Swap Brilliance: Painted Radiators and Pipes
Designer Davito’s inspired painted radiators, and other design solutions, came from “crashing” in friends’ shoebox apartment. It got us thinking about enlisting friends to give their unique perspective to spaces or design issues that have become too familiar for us to “see”.
Read MoreA Stunt Video’s FEELING of Risk (Watch at your own…risk)
As we watched this video of professional stunt people doing their thing, we realized we knew the feeling well: of taking a risk once we’ve done everything we can to master what we are doing. There are so many unknowns being in the world; we’re ALL always walking on SOME edge…But why take risks? we wonder.
Read MoreAn Improvised Goodbye to Gilda, from Bill Murray and Friends
How do you say goodbye when you know you might not see someone again? Bill Murray tells the tell of an unexpectedly improvised, completely perfect goodbye to his friend Gilda Radner: Gilda got married and went away. None of us saw her anymore. There was one good thing: Laraine had a party one night, a…
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