diy Archives - Improvised Life

Linen Room Divider, Napkin, Tablecloth, Pillow DIY Without Sewing

Over the years, I’ve learned that making linen room dividers, tablecloths, napkins and slipcovers does NOT have to involve sewing…

Inspiring, Do-able Interior Design Ideas from Paola Navone

Whenever we look at designer Paola Navone’s homes, we come away with a zillion ideas that we could actually do, without a ton of dough. Here are our favorite steal-able ideas.

Annals of Bad Design: Giant Wardrobe in a Small Room, With a Fix

Many of the design suggestions in Remodelista’s “Expert Advice…for Creating the Illusion of Space” are indeed effective. Not this one. So we figured out some solutions…

Sublimely Analog Chalkboard Drawings of Mathematicians, Rudolf Steiner, Twombly Inspire Our Own

“This is what thought looks like” begins Dennis Overbye’s article about Jessica Wynne’s remarkable photographs of mathematician’s blackboards, that reminded us of Steiner and Cy Twombly…

Kraft Paper Dispensers That Let Your Write On the Walls, and Elsewhere

Kraft paper is so wildly useful that if I had the room in my city apartment, I’d keep a roll on a wall to have easy access when the mood/need hits.

Our Patented DIY Shoe and Boot Refurb, Better Than Your Shoemaker

Years ago we figured out a technique that no shoemaker seems to know: how to remove the rough blims and tears that stick up on the scraped toes prevents a truly satisfying, long-lasting shine.

Manifestations of Gold: Forest Sculpture, Poem, Graffiti, a Dusting Found on Leaves

After I started working with gold, melting, rolling, forging the 22-karat coins I bought years ago, I started to see other forms of treasure, including Karin van der Molen’s beautiful sculpture…

The Art of Collage and Assemblage: ‘Everyday, Non-Art materials…Provoke Imaginative, Even Visionary, Thoughts and Associations’.

In the images from The Art of Collage and Assemblage on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, it was the ordinariness of many of the materials used that we found both moving and inspiring…

Build A One-Page Beautiful Website for Yourself or Your Project or…Anything, Fast

If you are daunted by the prospect of creating a website for yourself or a project, check out Carrd, a free platform for building simple, stylish responsive one-page sites, fast.

A Homemade Foam Core Screen to Block the Sun or Define a Space

In my top floor space, the scorching temperatures have been pushing me to find non-electric ways of cooling the place down to mitigate air conditioner use. I turned to the material that seemed most likely to provide insulation: foam core leftover from the many life-size prototypes I’ve built …

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….

Yoko Ono’s Instruction for Mending (Cup, Self, Family, Earth…)

Yoko Ono’s 1966 lovely “Mend Piece” is a participatory installation that, like many Ono works, comes with instructions designed to resonate personally, meaningfully, expansively…

Pauline Caulfield’s Ingenious Textile Panels Become Wall Covering, Art, Window Shade

This tiny video of textile artist Pauline Caulfield’s brilliant 1968 diploma show while studying at the Royal College of Art shows an inspiring, ingenious alternative to obstructing window treatments.

Sleeping like Donald Judd in Low-to-the Floor Beds, with Details and Plans

At the Judd Foundation, we stumbled upon this wonderful bedroom with a very Judd-esque low bed. It reminded us of the austere low platforms he made for his Spring Street Loft. We took a closer look at how he made them.

Floating Blossoms in a Tiny Indoor Pond (Su Tung Po)

Photographer Maria Robledo inspired us to copy the lovely pond she improvised for fallen blossoms culled from her garden. A perfect accompaniment to this Spring poem by Su Tung Po.

Bring a Little Piece of Nature Into the Home, Heart, Day (Yoko Ono, Max Lamb)

It usually takes just a shift of orientation, or your usual route to work or the store, to work some living trees into your day and heart. Here’s some inspiration from Yoko Ono and Max Lamb…

White Sneakers are Your Blank Canvas for Graffiti and Dalmation Spots (DIY)

Like many white things, plain white sneakers are a blank canvas just waiting to be embellished with permanent fabric markers or paint. Here are two favorite iterations for summer.

Chandelier from 1980’s Berlin and Alexander Calder “On the Cutting Edge of Architectural Experimentation”

We found this divine, completely original and inspired chandelier buried in MondoBlogo’s riff on 1980’s interiors. It’s right up there with this ceiling light Alexander Calder fashioned for his friend Miro.

Clever Bookcases Made of Stacked Boxes

We love the idea of these NOT built-in bookshelves at a Swedish design store. They are composed of a series of volumes — rectangles and squares of various sizes — into which books are stacked. Then we figured out a way to make them.

A Secret Balm for Fear and Anxiety

On my cell phone in a cluttered storage room in an old warehouse, I wondered what I could offer my distraught friend to remind her of other ways of seeing things, the opposite of fear and sadness?

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