The Floyd Shelf Bracket is a clever tool that allows you create a shelf from any flat surface by simply installing the brackets on a wall and clamping them to the material. With them, you can turn all sorts of interesting materials into shelving and switch out surfaces whenever you find something neat and new (or old).
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We don’t like seeing labels on things we have around the house — there’s enough advertising in our world; we don’t need it at home — so we routinely peel them off. At the kitchen sink, we fill plain, unmarked bottles with dish soap and hand soap. Even when we had two very differently-shaped bottles,…
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On design sites recently, we’ve been noticing quite a few interesting iterations of industrial storage cabinets —new and vintage—as furniture, like the classic Bisley 10-drawer steel storage cabinet, above. We’ve relied on the trusty Ikea lacquered metal Helmer drawer cabinets ($39) for years,
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Our friend Pamela Hovland is an extraordinary designer who helped us create the original look for Improvised Life. Our first year in business, we wrote about her clever use of ripped-out pages from magazines as her envelopes. Recently she sent us this beauty with the message “this wrapper had your name all over it“. Indeed…
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Being very sensitive to spaces, we have long been big on tailoring hotel rooms to our own sensibility and personal feng shui. Photos of the newly renovated Hôtel Baume in Paris made us think of the many strategies we’ve developed over years of traveling to shift the feeling of not-quite-right, often OVER-decorated hotel rooms and make them more comfortable. Here are our tricks and tips, with examples:
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When we looked closely at images of the invalid Matisse sitting in bed or in a chair making his beautiful paper cutouts, we realized that he used an adjustable bed table similar to one we’ve had for years. We came across ours while trolling Ebay for mid-century furniture nearly 20 years ago. Billed as a Danish…
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We have an infestation of flies in this Southern California heat. Particularly in the kitchen. Having no screens no doubt complicate the issue. But, hey, we haven’t really had to deal with this before. In a fit of rage I started shooting them down this afternoon with PAM oil spray wherever they landed. Overjoyed to…
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Recalling Virginia del Giudice‘s recent post on using needlework to cover holes in vintage garments, Susan Dworski alerted us to an inspiring iteration on the theme of embroidery fixes:
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Five years ago we began profiling an intrepid group of urban farmers, all of whom have the day job of taxi driver. They’ve “borrowed” pieces of unused open land in various corners of New York City and turned it into bread and butter – or rather into corn, beans, tomatoes, grapes, herbs and whatever else they can…
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Marella Consolini sent us her inspired transformation of a gorgeous linen shirt bought on eBay for pennies, that turned out to be SO big, it languished in a drawer, waiting for something to be done with it. “Finally it dawned on me: the back was big enough to turn into an oversized linen tea towel”. Here’s how she did it.
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Recently, several readers wrote to say they’d saved a pile of wishbones to send to Holton Rower for his monumental art work made of thousands — maybe hundreds of thousands— wishbones. Since we first announced it, our crowd-sourced Wishbone Project has yielded Holton a lot of wishbones. In return, the errant wishbone collectors/donaters receive a…
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We recently received another inspiring fabric fix from Virginia del Giudice, photographer and co-owner of La Percalina, a fine vintage clothing shop in Buenos Aires.
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New York City’s Madison Avenue in the 70”s is among the toniest areas in the city. We were wandering there when we suddenly noticed this unlikely fence made of branches and twigs: a beautiful, unexpected DIY right dab in the middle of luxe (and a relief from the usual iron fencing! Look close and you…
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When we start poking around the google translate version of rioetc.com.br, a site meant to show the stylish side of Rio, we found, over several separate posts some compelling mashups of tables. The first, the coffee table, above, which appears to be made of mismatched crates, some with wheels, some not, and a cubist hunk of…is…
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Liu Lingchao built a makeshift dwelling to house himself as he walked back to his hometown in China. He has carried it on his shoulders daily for five years as he walks home.
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When we looked at images of the COS Lightweight Backpack online and read the product description we thought PERFECT. Just what we’re looking for: Made from a lightweight technical fabric, this cotton-lined backpack has an all-over print and fastens using a magnet and wide drawstring. Multi-functional, it can also be worn as a tote bag…
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Our friend Virgina del Giudice sent us a lovely vacation email with the subject line: “Improvising“: We were on vacation in La Pedrera, Uruguay (very beautiful place!) My husband and I rented a forties garage converted into a cozy little appartment for two. The kitchen was small but perfect for improvising nice recipes like croquettes…
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Last weekend, we walked down to the Urban Garden Center to check out the pig roast they hold every Saturday in the summer in their rough-and-tumble party pavilion. The pavilion is made of all sorts of found and rustic materials, including mismatched chairs and junk store finds. We especially loved the huge table made of shipping pallets and concrete block, two of our favorite building materials. It could easily seat twelve AND weather the elements.
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In our endless search for “adult” Legos with which we could actually make some home projects, we’ve checked out all sorts of possibilities. Here’s the closest we’ve come.
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(Video link HERE). Shipping pallet creations are among our most popular posts and we’ve featured A LOT of them over the years. Tomáš Moravec‘s re-purposing of the simple pallet may be the most inspired of all: “A new transport vehicle brings change into the spatial perspective of a passenger in motion and generally changes the life of…
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