We saw this knife holder in a friend’s kitchen and thought: seriously clever. It’s simply a tall, narrow box filled with vertically-standing wooden skewers. The skewers hold the knives in place without dulling the blade. Although we tracked down where you can buy one, the formula for making it yourself is simple…
Read MoreArtful DIY Minimalist Aprons
This startlingly simple apron by Maison Martin Margiela suddenly made us SEE aprons for what they really are: a piece of cloth with ties to hold it snugly against the torso. And it gave us lots of ideas for making them, some done on-the-fly.
Read MoreMartin Margiela’s Philosophy of Art, Creative Process, Life
In this very interesting interview, purportedly with famously reclusive designer Martin Margiela, are some seriously insightful views of art, the creative process, and what’s REALLY important. Together they make a rather wonderful poem.
Read MoreDressing for Camouflage or Self-Expression w Rumi
Walking around the park recently, we saw a man leaning on a fence, minding his own business, wearing an astonishing hat: a baseball cap turned backwards and interleaved with fresh green branches. When we asked him how he came to make it, his answer got us thinking about just what our personal apparel really does for us…
Read MoreClothes to Draw, Write, Paint On
At Kleidersachen, a German tumblr whose name name literally translates dresses things, sublime examples of out-there clothing and textiles had us transfixed, culling ideas right and left on a variety of themes, in awe, inspired. To start, we’re thinking about neutral apparel that can be drawn, painted, written on.
Read MoreBent Copper Tubing Lamp Sculpture DIY (after Anna Fasshauer)
We’ve written about all sorts of practical things made out of copper pipe and tubing from room dividers to tables.The copper lighting we’ve posted has been simple, with one or two bends NOT the wonderfully freeform tangles of artist Anna Fasshauer’s light sculptures. Which seem, possibly, diy-able.
Read MoreDollar Bills and Other Found Bookmarks
Our friend Jody Lotito Levine pulled out a book she was reading. In it was a bookmark made from a dollar bill. It is one of the better bookmarks we’ve seen, as good as slices of ribbon or a delicate length of toilet paper (below), each having their own unique effect. Using a dollar as a…
Read MoreThe Many Surprising Uses of a Kitchen Hammer
Matthias Wandel is a clever improviser whose YouTube channel is full of good ideas. Our favorite: a kitchen hammer, something you rarely see on any “kitchen essentials” list. We use ours — a rubber mallet— for variety of general household whacks, where a hammer would be too harsh. We hadn’t thought of Wandal’s great use, done with…
Read MoreRe-envision Time to Have More of It
Scott Thrift redesigned the traditional numeral clock to make it shift the way you experience your day: he simplified a 24-hour day into a visualization of dawn, noon, dusk and midnight, its slowly moving hand making a gradual transition from one to the other. He says its effects are powerful…
Read MoreLED-Illuminated Chairs, Tables, Beds
About the time we spotted Nadia el-Khoury’s chic, underlighted, slipcovered chairs in The New York Times Magazine, we saw this simple bed lit from underneath on poet Ocean Vuong’s tumblr.
Read MoreFavorite Kitchen Tool: French-Style Universal Pot Lid
On my first trip to France, I bought a classic French pot lid in a flea market. Ten inches in diameter, it is a tin-lined copper disk with a cast iron handle. Little did I know that it would become one of my most-used kitchen tools. Or that the copper lids would become really expensive. On the hunt to find an alternative, I finally found a new iteration that is affordable and incredibly useful.
Read MoreHammocks for Healing, Indoors or Out
When a friend told me about research showing that gentle rocking can help heal nervous system, emotional and cognitive imbalances, I decided to install a hammock in my NYC space and test rocking out on myself.
I dove headlong into hammock investigations. Here’s what you need to know to hang a hammock inside or out.
Iron-Skillet Smoked Salmon
One of my most pleasurable challenges in the kitchen has been to cook like a farmer in a city apartment, curing hams, aging cheese, making butter, and best of all, smoking food. Hungering for the flavor of wood smoke but having no fireplace, years ago I devised a way of smoking in an iron skillet. The spectacular results belie its ease: it requires no special equipment and can be easily improvised.
Read MoreTried-and-True: Cool, Crisp Percale Sheets
Some time ago, we went on a hunt for great sheets. The sheets we love feel cool and crisp when you climb into bed. Combed or jacquard cotton won’t do it, neither does linen nor most of the million thread-count sheets we’ve tried. The only way we’ve found to guarantee ‘cool and crisp’ is with Supina cotton percale bedding from Garnet Hill. We wait for their 25% off sale, which is NOW…
Read MoreTo Manage Projects (or Your Life) Do a Quarterly Review
My wife and I had been interested in small, micro-sized startup ideas for over 16 years, at one point pursuing six projects at once. As you can imagine, we were spread so thin, none of the ideas took off. So we began looking for a simple way to manage the chaos of startup ideas and…
Read MorePoetry Vending Machine DIY, with Mary Oliver, Rumi, Anne Sexton
As kids we loved old-fashioned vending machines that would drop a little plastic container holding a treasure — a ring, miniature toy, or candy — through the shoot when we put in a dime or a quarter. Lately, various iterations of poetry vending machines have been coming to our attention, perfect for our adult selves. Imagine…
Read MoreAncient Trees: Portraits in Time, Change, Survival
“Ancient Trees: Portraits in Time” is one of the most beautiful and instantly transformative books we’ve seen in a long time. Photographer Beth Moon spent fourteen years traveling the world photographing ancient trees She describes her images as “Portraits of Change. Portraits of Survival. Portraits of Time” and interleaves them with the occasional perfect poem. It is a book we will leave open, to keep in our field of vision as we go about our day.
Read MoreGutenTag’s Graphical Day Planner Inspired Our Own
We’ve tried numerous day/task planners in our quest for one that really works. We recently came across a graphical way to plan time that claims to liberate us from linear agendas and apps. The GutenTag Method features a clock face that you stamp into a notebook so you can graph you day around it. We found downsides and wonderful benefits once we started hacking the idea.
Read MoreTransformative Phone Diversion for Idle Time
Another utterly simple, surprising, transformative use of technology from digital product designer and consultant Bryan Landers:
Read MoreTricks + Tools for Instant Clothing Nips + Tucks
The stylish French saleswoman at a NYC Megshop wore a men’s jacket with the back nipped in with a few stitches and the sleeves rolled up. It looked great! It got me thinking about even easier, less permanent ways to give instant form-fitting shape to a shirt, jacket or dress.
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