I sat looking at an installation by Detroit artist Maya Stovall, I realized that the mirrors she had installed might be an interesting idea to transplant into a home or work space.
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Hi/Low: Round Porthole Mirrors for a Haiku-like View
You have only to search MIRROR on Improvised Life to find evidence of an obsession. Not to look at one’s self. But to angle them in such a way as to SEE a bigger view. Take these port-hole mirrors, for example…and Basho’s haiku…
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Charm and Practicality of Odd and Broken Mirrors
Roaming through photographer Christopher Baker‘s online portfolios, we came across this lovely quirky bathroom. We love the long rough surface for double sinks, and the little set of matching vessels to hold toothbrushes, turning them into little sculptures. But what we love most are the mirrors: a couple of vintage rectangular ones and two shards propped…
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Irregularly Shaped Mirrors to DIY or Buy
As soon as we saw Mc&Co’s irregularly shaped mirrors we thought WANT. We’ve been thinking for some time that our very angular Laboratory could use some organic forms to soften it, and have been mulling how we might do that with mirrors. Mc&Co’s mirrors look like portals into other rooms. Swell! Although we’ve written about irregularly…
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Artful Asymetrical Mirrors’ Unique Shifts of View
Designer Oskar Zieta’s Tefla mirrors reminded us of how GREAT oddly-shaped mirrors can be in adding fluid, sculptural “windows” to a room. Although Zieta’s mirrors are thick with beautiful jagged edge, the essential idea would work fine cutting regular mirror into organic forms, freeform or using a template.
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BIG Leaning Mirrors Expand the View
I’m crazy about how mirrors can animate a room and bring it to life. Particularly oversize, leaning mirrors. I thought these were beauties. … You don’t need to do anything — no hanging or rigging; just set them where the look best or reflect the best view. An oversize picture frame can easily be fitted…
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The Unexpected Illumination of Sliver Mirrors
This image of a tall, thin sliver of mirror reminded us of one of our favorite tricks: using an inexpensive $11 hardware store closet door mirror as a sleek sliver of a view. We first discovered it when we found one of those mirrors left in the Laboratory when we took possession. We used it…
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Asymetrically Cut Mirrors
Designer Michael Anastassiades assymetrical copper mirror gave us two ideas: First, making a mirror of highly polished copper.
But even better: cutting mirrors in odd, assymetrical shapes to shake up a room with the unexpected.
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The Lifespan of Mountains Mirrors our Own
This beauty of a film by Temujin Doran is about the processes by which mountains are created and eventually destroyed. While it might seem to be about physical geography and geology, it is about way more than that.
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mirrors as windows and views
If you look closely at the mirror in the image above, you’ll see sky, clouds, rooftops and a flock of birds swarming in unison in what appears to be a miraculously organized pattern. The mirror allows me to sit at my desk facing a 13-foot wall, and look out the adjacent window for an instant ‘refreshment’…
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the beauty of old mirrors (with pascal anson)
We love this array of shabby mirrors found on Emma’s blog, a relief from the perfection of new framed mirrors. It reminded us that purposeful groupings of beat-up things can turn them into something…ELSE, somehow increasing their perceived value (and made us think about taking old mirrors OUT of their frames)… …Then, because when we…
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A Website Can Be a Sanctuary
We hadn’t thought of a website having the ability to act as a sanctuary until we read about Laurel Schwulst’s odd, charming Firefly Sanctuary It is at once a digital space that mirrors a physical one — her Brooklyn apartment — and a quiet meditation on the “invisible, mental counterparts” to visible, physical things.
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A Cunning Stacked “Bookshelf” with Twine
Recently I stumbled an article about lighting designer and photographer Christopher Baker and potter Odette Heideman’s home in Maine in House & Garden. Amidst a trove of clever ideas was one I plan to steal.
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The Bathroom As Incubator of Ideas
The bathroom is the one place where I find mindfulness overrated. It is a lovely place to read, write, draw. Look at all the way it can be an incubator of ideas.
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New York Magazine’s Low Lift Home Improvements for Under $100 INCLUDING Improvised Life’s Big Fat Idea
How swell to see Improvised Life mentioned in New York Magazine’s ’31 Low Lift Home Improvements for Under $100′ for our decoding of Donald Judd furniture. We got a lot of ideas for jazzing up our space….
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Frances McDormand On Aging, Facelifts, and the Roadmap that is our Face
Actress Frances McDormand says so much that is wise about aging in this short interview. As does this poem by Fleur Adcock.
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Garden Mirror Illusion Expands the Lush, Green of Amster Yard (And Yours)
In NYC’s hidden landmark, Amster Yard, is an extraordinary optical illusion: a mirror framed inside an overgrown arch to evoke expansive garden beyond. An idea to steal.
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We Discover A Low-Stress Work Strategy and Begin Again
During our recent working vacation, we tested out a strategy that yielded the secret to navigating a mountain of work without stress:
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E. Jean on Life, Decor, and The Best Piece of Advice She’s Ever Given
E. Jean Carroll, the longest running advice columnist in history, lives alone on a small island in the woods of upstate New York.This short video profile gives us a glimpse of a pure original whose carved out a completely original life, in the mainstream, yet completely OUT.
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Visit Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms
Since we may not be able to get to the Hirshhorn Museum to see Yayoi Kusama’s six Infinity Room installations in person, we were happy that NPR made this short video…to give us a glimpse of infinity
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