housewares

Practical Matters: Black Dishcloths + How to Hang Sweaters + a Robert Montgomery Print

Recently I came across two things that have upped my homekeeping game hugely. Robert Montgomery’s brilliant artwork “All Palaces” put it all in perspective.

Mark Betty’s OMG Inspired Lampshades

This lamp by English lampshade designer Mark Betty has this description “Lamp and Brown Paper (or whatever you want)” . The brown paper rolled into an asymmetrical cone and secured with a pin seems to have been made in a single gesture. Like all Betty’s shades, it has its own unique personality, as though it were alive…

The Enduringly-Useful Wave Screen Transforms Rooms and Hides A Lot

Over the years, one of the very best purchases I have made were two bamboo Wave Room Screens, made of thin bamboo slats that unfurl to create an organic wave shape. They have proven to be endlessly useful. They are a relatively inexpensive, stylish, bamboo alternative to the beautiful, classic Eames screen.

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.

Tattooed Tablecloths after Sarah Espeute Spark Maps, Guestbooks, Artifacts

When we first saw French artist Sarah Espeute’s embroidered table linens, we thought they were drawn-on with indelible markers, something we might be able to do. Then ideas and memories began to connect and flow.

Tool for Living: A Strangely Perfect $8 Spatula

The best eight bucks I’ve spent lately is the OXO’s Good Grips Jar Spatula, a silicone spatula meant for reaching into jars. It’s so curiously-perfect I find myself using it daily for all sorts of kitchen endeavors.

How to Eradicate Unpleasant Odors in a Washing Machine

For those who to use a shared laundry room say, in an apartment building or laundromat, we’ve found a solution to a common vexing problem: strong synthetic perfume residue left in the machine from the previous user’s detergent. We’d tried every fix we found on the internet to eradicate annoying floral perfumes residue that would…

Tool for Living: Low Profile Step Ladder, in Colors (With Poem)

As I’ve gotten older, the grim reality-sandwich of falling OFF a ladder has become something I don’t want to experience. I’m loving this light, sturdy low-profile step ladder that looks good enough to leave out.

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…

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.

Oilcloth (Not PVC) Makes a Surprisingly Cool, Wipe-Clean Tablecloth that Protects Your Wood Table

When the mid-century wood table I set up for dining and work took a hit from a spilled glass of water, I cast about for a protective everyday solution that wouldn’t look like plastic. I found it in old-fashioned oilcloth…

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.

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.

An Analog Kid’s Timer Increases Focus and Productivity

The simple, clever Time Timer has proven a useful visual aid that helps me focus on whatever I need to make headway with, and then get up and take a break, disrupting the obsessive overfocus I’m prone to. It helps me work more efficiently, with less stress.

Online retailer Brandless’ mission is ‘Better stuff, fewer dollars. Just what matters’. Skeptical that generics could

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