Clik here to view.
Picture Frame as Magical Objet
We love this skeleton of a picture frame hung pictureless on a wall. As we gaze into its empty space, we find ourselves imagining all sorts of things while we enjoy its austere shape. It reminded us of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dept of Ordinary Materials: Jacques Boris’ Corrugated Room Screen
The corrugated aluminum screen designer Jacques Boris made in the 1990s set off a firestorm in my head. Its elegant, visionary use of an ordinary material reminded me of Lino Schenal and Max Lamb’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stacked Books Inspiration (No Shelves, No Matter)
A photo I stumbled on on Instagram made me loosen up my fevered drive to create bookcases for my many books, some of which are in boxes. Stacked — loose — can be so beautiful...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Enduringly-Useful Wave Screen Transforms Rooms and Hides A Lot
Over the years, one of the very best purchases I have made were two bamboo Wave Room Screens, made of thin bamboo slats that unfurl to create an organic wave shape. They have proven to be endlessly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
DIY Backrest for Comfortable Improvised Daybeds
The art consultant and dealer Peter Heimer’s postwar Berlin townhouse has all sorts of cunning details. We love the yellow daybed Heimer designed himself. The slanted pillows are brilliant, forming a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Todd Oldham’s Singular Design Philosophy Powers Solutions to Water Damage and...
New York Magazine’s recent article about designer Todd Oldham’s house in the Poconos is a revelation: an over-the-top, completely original color-riot of a country house. Its many cool ideas are driven...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Website Can Be a Sanctuary
We hadn't thought of a website having the ability to act as a sanctuary until we read about Laurel Schwulst's odd, charming Firefly Sanctuary It is at once a digital space that mirrors a physical one —...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stenciling Ugly Concrete Sidewalks (and Other Things)
I didn't realize how naturally brutalist concrete sidewalks are — drab gray, strangely crude— until I saw leaves painted on the sidewalk outside a Harlem plant store. The harsh, dreary slabs were...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tree Rooms Hiding in Plain Sight (Wendell Berry)
Designer Russel Wright had the habit of shaping parts of the land around Manitoga, his home and studio in upstate New York, into "rooms". Rather than making a room, I love the idea of an outdoor room...
View ArticleClik here to view.
BIG Bedside Tables Via Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse, Donald Judd
They say that that if we want to get a good night's sleep, our bedroom needs to be dedicated only to that and love-making and nothing that might stimulate thinking, even reading. But stumbling on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bathroom ‘Tile Painting’ Is an Unexpected Liberation
Found at Lucinda Chambers instagram: Permission to NOT tile an entire bathroom wall, but just selected parts. Beautiful! As is her inspiration…
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Brilliant Concrete Amphitheater + Maria Lassnig’s Body Awareness
We love seeing two of our favorite materials — chairs and concrete — married into the stunning amphitheater designed by artist Armand Pierre Fernandez for Milan's Parco Sempione, Milan in 1973....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Transforming Ordinary Materials Just for the Hell of It
We love when some visionary soul shifts ordinary objects into the visually beautiful and surprising. And reveals the ordinary for what it really it: material full of possibilities...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cecil Beaton’s Hand Print Guest Wall (Cave Painting)
Over the years, we've written about many forms of improvised "guest books", i.e. ways to memorialize the visits of friends. Cecil Beaton tattooed a bathroom’s walls with the handprints of friends,...
View Article
