furniture Archives - Improvised Life

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.

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….

Lotta Agaton’s Flat File Day Bed and Other Inspired File Beds

Stylist Lotta Agaton’s clever day be made out of flat files got us considering the very practical and chic possibilities for these sophisticated storage beds…

The How and Why of Donald Judd’s Brilliant Plywood Tables

Artist Donald Judd’s iconic plywood tables are made with materials you can get anywhere, with methods just about anybody can do: his response to the lack of useful, well-designed furniture he was unable to find.

Draped Linens and Drop Cloths Transform Furniture in a Chateau (and Your House as Well)

For need-of-a- refresh sofa or chairs, we take a cue from this chill 12th Century château in France transformed with the artful use of draped cloth.

Salvaged Marble and Stone For Tables, Shelves, Backsplashes…

A budget apartment overhaul by a Brooklyn design student reminded us of the great design possibilities inherent in salvaged cuts of marble and other stone.

Annals of Bad Design: The Mixed Message Kitchen Island

In yet another high-design, uninhabited space recently sold at auction in Australia, we discovered a surprising design flaw at odds its superlative description. It made us look closely into kitchen islands, and the mixed messages they can inadvertently be made to send.

Guggenheim’s Clever Baltic Birch Tables and Chairs

While wandering through the Guggenheim Museum, we stumbled on its cafe with Bauhausian tables and chairs made from Baltic Birch, one of our favorite materials. The stylish simple furniture would be easy to make ourselves.

Two-Tone Half-Painted Optical Illusion Chairs

Lately we’ve seen some classic old second-hand store chairs transformed with paint in a way we hadn’t considered, to very cool effect.

Annals of Bad Design? Cat’s Pajama Lounge Chair UPDATE

Ann Richardson emailed us her selection for inclusion in our ever-growing Annals of Bad Design: Blu Dot’s $499 Cat’s Pajama Chair. Her thoughtful commentary that made us laugh, as good dishing of bad design does. (This $39 Ikea chair blows it out of the water).

A Foam-Wrapped Sofa’s Lesson in Problem Solving

We can only imagine the process of making this strangely-compelling foam-wrapped sofa…It made us think of British architect Richard MacCormac’s useful insight…

Drape Stuff, Like That Scrap of Beautiful Fabric or Vintage Rug

We always scouring cool home ideas the are easy to do. Are we secretly lazy? We sew but try to avoid it or having carpenters come or buying major pieces of furniture. We just want to have a pleasurable, unencumbered time making something fresh out of what we have. Here are two three examples…

The FlexiSpot Sit Stand Desk Changed My Life

After 2 months of test-driving a Flexispot Sit Stand Desk, I’m smitten, fitter and thinner. Here’s my honest review, with pros, cons and what to look out for.

HomeMade Modern: Smart Stylish DIY with a Mission

We’re smitten with HomeMade Modern’s stylish, DIY-able home goods — from beds to planters — and really smart, detailed designs that empower you to improvise.

Great Ideas from a Ridiculously Minimalist Apartment

The Times T Magazine featured ANOTHER perfectly minimalist apartment with no sign of a human being in it. Still, we culled some good ideas from Danish designer Oliver Gustav’s very gray Copenhagen apartment.

Paola Navone House Tour and Idea Factory

Using our rusty French to translate this video tour of designer extraordinaire Paola Navone’s Paris apartment, we’ve gathered a small trove of smart, original, inspiring and doable ideas.

Fab Fermob’s Outdoor Furniture INDOORS

Having bought vintage furniture years ago that I still love, I rarely buy a new piece unless I really need it (and/or see something SO spectacular, I can’t resist). And what I needed when I moved into my Harlem space was a table for the terrace. I fell in love with the Fermob Tertio table because it’s stylish enough…

Martino Gamper’s Chairs are in Our Head

When we stopped to ponder the legless back and seat of a ubiquitous faux Eames polycarbomate chair we found on the street, we suddenly realized the influence designer Martino Gamper had on our thinking, whose clever 100 Chairs in 100 Days inspire completely novel iterations.

Ikea’s Stylish Frosta Stool is BACK to Hack and Embellish

I have had a set of four Ikea stacking stools for years. The $14 version of the iconic $500 vintage Alvar Aalto stool has done stylish double-duty as extra seating, side table, surface for projects… in a number of spaces I’ve had. In my new space I built a nook just to store a stack of them…

Loom Chairs, Tables…Reminders of the Adjacent Possible

We’re smitten with this chair by Pascal Anson, a wire frame with one thousand pieces of ribbon, rope and string that were individually tied it, creating upholstery and wondrous visuals. (And metaphorically, it is a reminder of the possibilities in the everyday, which we need right now).

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