diy Archives - Improvised Life

How Rice Paper Shades Give Their Blessing to a Room

In the messy digital file I keep of ideas for possible Improvised Life posts, I found trove marked simply “paper shades”. Their big message: A rice paper shade or two adds A LOT to even the most “undecorated” room. They have a unique, rather magical presence that pulls the room together. Here’s how.

Artful Lessons in Styrofoam from Lino Schenal and Max Lamb

In the 1970’s mysterious Italian designer Lino Schenal clad his house in sculpted styrofoam, from walls to simple, stylish furniture. Fifty years later we looked to Max Lamb to reveal the secrets of the ubiquitous material for making artful, practical creations.

Hot Weather Joy: Communal Water Music (Hermeto Pasoal, Vanuatu Women, Stephen Nachmanovitch, )

Listening to the water music of women from the northern Vanuatu and Brazilian musician Hermeto Pascoal takes us into the realm of joy, and gives us ideas for our own hot weather revelry. Steven Nachmanovitch, tells us how to access our own inner music…

The Cosmic Meaning of Polka Dots and How to DIY Them (Yayoi Kusama)

We love the green polka dots in this down-at-heels kitchen, a perfect way to jazz up a wall. It got us thinking about their cosmic meaning and how to make them without laboriously holding up stencils.

Matisse’s Homemade Wallpaper

When we looked closely at this stumbled-upon image of Henri Matisse, we realized that the wallpaper behind him was really tacked up prints and drawings. Brilliant. Looking for more, we found a trove of ideas to employ.

How to Make Shadow Magic

“Just a pair of hands and a whole lot of clever imagination” perfectly describes this 1933 film from British Pathe. The performer moves his hands slowly so that the audience can see how the shape is formed. The setup is minimal: a darkened room, a bare patch of wall, a light source to cast shadows.…

Enzo Mari’s ‘Ecolo’ Transforms Plastic Bottles into Sculptural Vases

In the 1970s, legendary furniture designer Enzo Mari pioneered the idea of “autoprogettazione”, roughly translated, “self design”, projects that he hoped would empower people to create with their own hands. With “ecolo” he applied the idea to plastic bottles…

A Bed Surrounded by Flowers Makes a Dreamy Respite

When we stumbled on thisimage by photographer Jill Burrow, we thought, ‘Ah yes. We’d love to sleep surrounded by flowers, especially now, after months of guarded and circumscribed living.’ Looking closely, we found permission to do it…

Giant Twisting Balloons Inspire Furniture and Your Own Big Ideas

Designer Seung Jin Yang’s whimsical furniture appears to be made of the kind of twistable balloons used to entertain kids. OMG, we thought, could we make furniture out of balloons?

Easy-to-Make DIY Clear Face Shield

Tokujin Yoshioka created a simple, easy-to-make face shield held in place with ordinary eyewear. It gives an added measure of protection against Covid-19.

Practical Ways to Alleviate Toilet Paper Anxiety and Hoarding

We’ve read a lot theories for the toilet paper hoarding that has marked the Coronavirus pandemic. We have a few of our own + viable alternatives.

DIY Hand and Object Sanitizers to Combat Nasty Viruses UPDATE

When we found hand sanitizers sold out everywhere, we did some research to find ways to achieve what commercial hand-sanitizers would, along with a few other strategies for killing that nasty coronavirus.

Take a Lousy Book and Make it into Poetry, like Mary Ruefle’s Beautiful Erasures

We were knocked out by selections from poet Mary Ruefle’s beautiful ”erasure books”, poetry made by whiting out words in old books. We also discovered Wite-Out is a potent, paint-like art material.

My Secret Weapon for Home and other Projects UPDATE

Years ago painters left behind some sanding sponges they used to achieve a perfect finish in the high gloss surfaces. Something made me pick one up to try sanding an ugly heating pipe coated in green enamel. The ease-of-transformation was a revelation. I’ve been using that perfect sponge ever since for all sorts of fixes and projects around my house.