storage

how to lighten the look of shelves filled with books

Arranging books in in vertical and horizontal stacks, interspersed with art and objects, is a simple way of lightening the often weighty look of book shelves.

how to make low ceilings look higher (optical illusion)

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…

curiously chic, bracket and wooden board bookshelves

Last August, we went to The Hole Gallery’s Summer Reading show in the Bowery, a group exhibition and transformation of the galleries into a giant art book reading room. The Hole’s spacious rooms were lined with shelves to hold over 5,000 books, with comfortable and very cool looking chairs to lounge about on. Interspersed were some…

invitingly messy stacks of books

Among the things we find heartening and inspiring, are messy stacks of books just ready for exploring… (…a far cry from the ubiquitous, impossible-to-actually-get-into stacks of artbooks used as home decor elements.) via Covet Garden via SF Girl By the Bay Related posts: stacked-book display cases and other great ideas via scott newkirk sighting: shelves made…

how to use fabric to disappear eyesores and clutter

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…

a curtain rod for storing chairs ‘n things

We love this tiny bit of brilliance found at Desire to Inspire. A chair stored up and out of the way by hooking it to a curtain rod placed in a corner up near the ceiling. That rod-and-hook method could work for all kinds of things, including paintings, stools, lighting, baskets, crates, folding tables ……

diy or buy: not-plastic beeswax food wrap

Just about everyone we know wants to cut back on using plastic wrap and ziplock bags but are having a hard time actually doing it. One way is with clever Abeego food storage sheets: cotton sheets that are coated with pure beeswax, jojoba oil and tree resin, known for their preservative properties. The sheets are…

paint bright colors inside your white kitchen cabinets

As much as we love white, we’ve been getting a bit weary of the generic Ikea-esque kitchen cabinets we see a lot. That is until we saw these simple cabinets with the INTERIORS painted bright colors, the brainchild of Italian architects Marta Laudani and Marco Romanelli. Open a cabinet door and SURPRISE!: a pleasing blast…

staircase as bookshelf

Spotted at Desire to Inspire: this Alec Hemer‘s photograph of a flight of stairs whose extra room at the side makes a fine, surprising set of bookshelves. Related posts: staircase of succulents + succulent sculpture reverse-painted stairs (a carpet of wood) stairs in colors

diy: long wood shelves with wood brackets

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…

lookbook for our next project: bookshelves + murphy bed

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…

a floor that is a table and other cool ideas

Spotted at Still + Company: a mysterious unnamed interior with many cool ideas at one fell swoop. First off: the worn wooden table that doubles as a floor! At one end you can sit at it at a Japanese-style low bench; at the other you can sit ON it. It makes for one of the most…

hang your folding patio furniture, indoors + out?

We were so struck by this vision of hanging folding patio furniture that we took the liberty of cropping it from a bigger image in a Gardenista post on the totally-unrelated subject, How to Stop Killing Your Succulents. The story made no mention of the clever and beautiful background of colored bistro furniture hanging on…

artful improvised receipt storage (via maria robledo)

We found this wonderful image on Maria Robledo’s Instagram. Ohhh, what a great method of storing receipts (emptying pockets or bag then-and-there.) Thrown into a space between books —some amazing ones at that— they take on a curious beauty. We have a box in an easily-accessible file cabinet that we throw them into to collate…

how to to store extra chairs + stools, on walls + shelves

Stumbling on this wonderful image of sculptural black-painted chairs on a wall of the La Gran Francia Hotel in Granada, Nicaragua got us thinking about ways to store un-folding chairs. This assemblage is a more playful, freeform take on the Shaker-esque practice of hanging uniform chairs on hooks (below). Then, moving too fast as we scanned…

a busy office disappears behind hafele’s sliding wall

For the renovation of my 1,000-square-foot ‘Laboratory’ in New York City, my mission was to open up the space to the spectacular park view AND fluidly accomodate an open kitchen, workspace, dining area, and living area. To do this, I removed a small bedroom to dramatically expand the main room and built an office area along one 15′ wall…

simple style: side-by-side ikea cabinets

White steel Ikea PS cabinets ($99 each) lined up side-by-side, and stacked high with books, become curiously chic. via Desire to Inspire; photo by Sabrina Rothe Related posts: xhackism: the infinite diy possibilities of ikea’s LÖBBO shadex 16 REALLY clever uses for binder clips found: frosta/alvar aalto stool knock-off!!! an artist hacks ikea’s ‘billy’ bookcase cool…

diy or buy: ladder shelves

Spotted in Design Milk’s recent story about Rua Confettora, unconventional, international design shop in Brescia, Italy: a white-painted ladder used as the support for glass shelves: instant, rustic/modern chic, made from ordinary materials. When we hunted around, we discovered that Lab::Istanbul’s had created a line of shelving based on the idea:

house tour: clever expansive 240 sq ft apt ‘cabin’

Recently Dwell featured a slideshow of Brooklyn architect Tim Seggerman’s design to renovate a dismal brownstone studio with a sleeping loft. He was inspired by legendary furniture designer George Nakashima to “create an enveloping cabin of blond woods”. He managed to make a tiny 240 square foot space seem expansive by using the blond wood panels to…

clever shelving configured for bicycle storage

Spotted on Ikea’s Swedish website LivetHemma: a bunch of cabinet boxes afixed to the wall, with space to store a bike. It’s a graphic solution to storing a bike when you have no outside bike storage, and want to get it off the floor. Of course, bikes are beautiful hung directly on the wall, horizontally

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