Ideas and Experiments from Improvised Life‘s Harlem HQ
My favorite cutting boards are odd-size rather sculptural wooden boards that I’ve collected, or been given, over the years. Some are surprisingly small — 10-x-6 inches. I might use 2 or 3 at a time. There is just something about their “feel” that makes them fun to use, and they are wonderful to look at.…
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We were thrilled when Remodelista contacted us about using images we’d posted some time ago of an essential design trick we’d used throughout the Laboratory’s renovation: replacing the squat 6’6″ doors with tall, eight-footers. Their strong vertical lines make our lowish 8’2″ ceilings look higher. Check out our images on Remodelista. In the meantime, here are…
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Not being the best of meditators, we rely on Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh to gently guide us in mindfulness practice, which, he points out, you can do anywhere, anytime: washing the dishes, walking, cleaning the house, listening to a friend. In The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation, he outlines…
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Having invested in a pair of expensive Jimmy Choo shoes I thought would take me everywhere, I was dismayed to discover, after wearing them out a few times, that they were painfully tight. I went on a quest to stretch them and discovered that much of the accepted wisdom about how to stretch tight shoes DID NOT work. Here’s the one that did.
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Recently while browsing photographer Ellen Silverman’s website, we came across this picture of Sally’s old one-bedroom apartment, where Ellen photographed a lot, both to document the space and to do food and still-life photography. The room above was a minimal, mutable space Sally used as both office and photo studio, as its south light was…
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One of the central principles of improvisation we follow is to turn things on their side, or upside-down, a simple shift that often yields unexpected results. It’s a practice you can do in your imagination just about anywhere, and in practice with everyday things. Recently, instead of the usual way of cutting an apple (slicing…
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Checking out the “ingredients” of a product —whether food or object— can yield a lot of information about how the thing is made, and inspire ideas for riffs and innovation on the theme. While shopping for pair of boots online, I stumbled on a pair by designer Martin Margiela made of “waxed suede”. Waxed suede?…
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“Paint one wall in your bedroom pink”, Maria Robledo advised during the course of the Laboratory’s renovation. My generous friend with a brilliant eye for color had become my ad hoc paint color advisor. “But have it be a dirty pink, and paint it glossy” she went on, “not a bright loud pink.” Then she helped me pick…
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I frequently do Skype consultations with people who need clever, inexpensive fixes for their spaces and are having difficulty envisioning possibilities. Often, they are only able to describe the change in feeling that they’d like to achieve. In the many spaces I’ve looked at, I’ve seen a common problem: there is a lot of visual…
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The Laboratory’s latest design dilemma: how to hide the underpinnings of my makeshift bed and all the art materials stored under it? A bed skirt was clearly the solution, but the traditional route posed a number of problems. Classic bed skirts come in set sizes and lengths, none of which really fit my rigged bed.…
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During the renovation of the Laboratory, my budget would not allow me to buy any but the least expensive finish for my kitchen and bath faucets i.e. simple polished chrome. Brushed chrome or nickel often cost a couple of hundred dollars more, potentially adding thousands to my budget. I discovered that I could lightly dull…
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Aside from my hands, one of my favorite cook’s tools is a fondue fork I bought at a flea market many years ago. It is basically an elongated fork with a thin wood handle: 3 tines and about 12-inches long. It is perfect for turning a piece of meat in a pan, scrambling eggs and…curiously,…
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One day before we started the renovation of the Laboratory, we found ourselves wandering around Mahnattan’s unofficial tile district in Chelsea and Flat Iron; we were looking for bathroom tiles, both for the floor and shower. A display of handmade tiles on West 22nd Street drew us into the store. We were struck by how…
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It was by climbing into the luxurious-looking tub at friends newly renovated brownstone that I identified a design-flaw that I’ve since seen repeated over and over again in shelter sites and magazines: A nice deep tub would be set into a surround of beautiful stone which would form an elegant finish around its edge. But…
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When Remodelista recently featured a picture of the Laboratory’s painted plywood floors in Remodeling 101: Painted Plywood—The Best Budget Wood Floor, I figured it was time to show HOW my plywood floors actually were made, and to lend a little reality to what it takes to install and paint 1000 square feet of them. I love ’em, and…
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We are BIG fans of using found rocks as utensils. Rocks hauled home from beach or forest have become paper weights, doorstops, toilet paper holder “bricks” for our bricked-chicken recipe, even a prop to keep a cactus standing upright. They float around the Laboratory; if not in a direct use, they make lovely still-lives. Wary…
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Knowing that I am in the process of designing a wall of bookshelves with a berth-like murphy bed built-in, Maria Robledo sent me pictures of the bookshelves in Creative Director Anne Johnson’s country house. The simple wooden shelves are held up by triangular wooden brackets nestled into horizontal supports. It’s a way to have a…
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Encouraged by our friend Bruce McKenna, we tried Benjamin Moore’s flat matte Aura paint in The Laboratory’s very hard-used kitchen, instead of the usual oil-based eggshell, which we’d assumed was the only really washable paint. But even eggshell would have shown up the really ugly imperfections in this wall. So, in desperation and against our…
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Over the years, we’ve relied on bungee cords for all sorts of uses, from strapping things onto a dolly or bicycle to lashing our patio umbrella to the terrace rails during a high wind (below). Having never loved the look of the old-fashioned rubber bungees that eventually unravels and loses its elasticity (EXCEPT on Rene Herbst’s…
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A year or so after moving into the Harlem Laboratory, we’re finally mulling building bookshelves and horizontal Murphy bed (called wall beds these days)…like a berth in the living room. We’ve had that forelorn space hidden behind folding screens FOR A YEAR, waiting until we could wrap our head around designing it (at bottom, with…
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