“Sensual wave“, an art installation by French architects Marion Moustey and Alexandre Arcens, gave us ideas for late summer-fall gardens lit with Soji Solar Lantern. Susan Dworski first posted about the wondrous, inexpensive solar shoji lights she festooned her garden with. “Sensual Wave” takes her idea a step further.
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Wishing we could climb the ancient trees across the way, we wonder, WHY NOT put a ladder up to one to give our creaky selves a boost up. Then we saw The Tree with Ladders, an installation by François Méchain.
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Our friend Holton Rower has been learning about cooking salmon on a cedar plank on his Weber grill through trial-and-error, a method we totally endorse. His first go wasn’t completely successful but it was clear that the cedary smoke is a perfect marriage with salmon. If you don’t have wood coals to cook over, cedar…
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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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In addition to a cool shipping pallet table, we found another great DIY at Urban Garden Center: a concrete block planter (below). We’d seen images of them before like the one above that houses succulents and at this Pinterest devoted solely to concrete block gardens. The basic idea holds lots of possibilities, some rough, some curiously sleek.
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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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At the very end of May, we planted grasses in the planter on the Laboratory’s patio. Since then, they’ve grown like wild fire, along with the Morning Glory vine we plunked into their soil to further screen us from our neighbors. We love watching the grasses move in the breeze; they seem to constantly change…
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Japanese artist Toshihiko Shibuya has placed ‘water pallet’ floating on a square pool of water at the Sapporo Sculpture Garden, Painted with pinks, blues and greens on the underside of their base, the white circles glide on the surface of the basin, reflecting a colorful hue when they overlap. We discovered a lot when we tried to figure out how we could do it.
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If this isn’t the absolute essence of the escapist wilderness whims we had as children, we don’t know what is…. We wonder what it would be like to lay still in one of these floating spheres and listen to a slight wind coming through the trees.
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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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Outdoor wooden benches are a pain to move around. Here’s a clever wheelbarrowish solution as well as our own simple hack.
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We are struck by the many similarities between the iconic American Adirondack chair designed in 1903 and the Crate Chair Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld designed in the 1930’s. We’ve investigated ones to buy, and plans that would allow you to make an interesting fusion of the two —all great, indoor and out.
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Looking for ways to jazz up wood decking? Studio Weave has designed a new roof terrace for London College of Fashion’s gallery space, adding brightly coloured decking and seats. Says Studio Weave’s Eddie Blake: The whole thing was done with reference to basket weave – trying to make timber look as if it’s woven. The timber is…
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These charming little structures got us thinking about beach shelters. Of late we’ve seen some pretty chic, pricey ones, like Sombrilla Beach Tent for $189. It’s based on a simple, classic structure, one of many you can make yourself.
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One of the many details we love in sculptor Constantino Nivola’s “outdoor rooms” are the walls he erected to define space and make into artworks. We’re crazy for this tree wall sculpture, as well as his wall paintings, including the Solarium. Hmmm. Wonder how they are made? Of course, we tried to figure it out, hoping…
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Among Constantino Nivola’s inspiring outdoor garden rooms is his open air “solarium”, designed with high, white walls to reflect the sun “to such a degree that nude sunbathing was possible even in the winter.” And an artful solarium it is.
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We recommend turning the music off while you watch this tiny miracle: a strawberry comes into being from flower to fruit. Since strawberries are in season (and went through such an amazing process of becoming), here are our favorite ways for enjoying them.
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When we were starting to think about planting our 50-square-foot terrace, we hunted around for low-profile, minimalist planters that would keep it looking as spacious as possible. It proved no mean feat to find something good-looking and affordable…here’s what we found.
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John Brooker, a 75-year-old retired fan-maker in Norfolk, England, has spent 10 years patiently sculpting a hedge into a 100-foot-long dragon. We especially love Brooker’s reason for doing it, found in this succinct 50-second clip. It totally sums up the creative process and reminds us of Anni Albers’ great words about “listening”.
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After we’d been living in the Harlem Laboratory for a while and gotten our bearings, we turned our atttention to the 50-square-foot patio that overlooks a glorious park in New York City. What to plant? Our friend-with-a-green-thumb Maria Robledo said simply: “Grasses”. Grasses? “Yeah, plant ornamental grasses on one side of the terrace. They’ll form…
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