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How To: DIY Woven Wood Lamp

Posted by Chris Gardner to Uncategorized on 22 July 2010, with 3 comments so far.

In the last few years, industrial designers have continued to push the boundaries of material and texture towards creating amazing new home decor products made from things that were previously impossible. But, many of these designs rely on expensive machines and manufacturing techniques that have kept them out of reach of the average DIYster.

So, it’s always reason to celebrate when some clever soul comes up with a project that rivals those high-end efforts. And, oh boy, is this DIY woven wood lamp one of ‘em. Strips of wood veneer (available at woodworking shops, or as edge-banding at your local home improvement center) are wrapped and glued around each other, housing a single bulb powered by an IKEA Hemma cord set.

Just be sure to use a low-watt bulb, and then bask in its warm, wooden glory.

[Via: Poppytalk: DIY with Bookhou: Woven Lamp]

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200 Chair Designs For the Price of One

Posted by Chris Gardner to Uncategorized on 20 July 2010, with no comments so far.

Furniture, like the best things in life, comes in a variety of flavors. But normally, once you’ve committed, you’re living with the piece for the long haul, or at least until you’ve used it enough to justify whatever you’ve spent.

Not so with the Darwin chair by Stefan Sagmeister, presented at Design Miami/Basel a few weeks ago. The chair features 200 uniquely patterned sheets that can be torn off as they wear.

(more…)

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How To: Create a Stylish, DIY Photo Wall

Posted by Chris Gardner to Uncategorized on 19 July 2010, with 2 comments so far.

Blank, white walls can intimidate even the best of us. On the outside, we say, “Oh, it’s modern, it’s classic, it’s, so…Scandinavian,” while our insides are shrieking, “Oh my gosh, it has such potential! I don’t wanna mess this up,” or, at other times, “I’ve got nothing.”

Liz from Paislee Press, who in her bio claims her “fondness for white space and uncluttered counter tops,” decided she had one white wall too many, a choice blank space betwixt two bookshelves in her office:

So, she created a stylish photo wall display that rivals the best we’ve seen. Liz says:

I decided to go with a square format so I could include both photos and layouts in the mosaic arrangement. All of the photos were printed with a white border. I like how the white borders “frames” each individual photo and also acts as an anchor, visually bringing together all of the photos. The layouts were printed without the borders.

And the best part? She’s created a free, downloadable template so you can easily format your pics in Photoshop!

See it all on the Paislee Press

[Via Creature Comforts]

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A Brownstone’s Second Floor Garage Door

Posted by Chris Gardner to Uncategorized on 14 July 2010, with 4 comments so far.

Ten years ago, an 1869 brownstone in the East Village was to be boarded up with a check-cashing operation filling its ground floor.

Go to this same spot today, and you’ll find a clean white condominium, and if the weather’s nice, you just might be able to see the entire second floor. From New York Magazine, in regards to the architect:

Peterson…imagined the brownstone tilting back and up like a garage door, updating the traditional parlor-level balcony into a 21st-century porch….The architect went to Stone Panels in Coppell, Texas, to source ultralight brownstone, which weighs three and a half pounds per square foot rather than 60. A thin veneer of real stone is bonded to a three-quarter-inch aluminum honeycomb, and the resulting blocks can be used like quarried rock. The hardware on the moving wall is custom, and McLaren Engineering Group, the firm Peterson eventually hired, also works for Cirque du Soleil.

The resulting space is still the original 16 ft wide, but now opens up to hear the bells of St. Mark’s and the din of nearby Stuyvesant Square.

Whatcha think? Has anyone actually seen this space in person?

[Via BoingBoing]

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How To: Make a Mod Mobile

Posted by Chris Gardner to Uncategorized on 13 July 2010, with 2 comments so far.

A quick bit of mid-century trivia from Make It! Mid-Century Modern, a How to Guide:

The word mobile conjurs up two images: the tinkly contraption hanging above cribs in nurseries ‘round the world, and the work of Alexander Calder….His early experiments with wire sculpture and kinetic toys eventually led to his famous kinetic sculptures, dubbed by friend Duchamp as mobile, meaning both “movable” and “motive” in French. Over the next decade, Calder perfected his articulating mobiles, capturing the realtivity of weight while exploring the movement of wire and steel in time and place.

So, see? The mobile fits in your fresh-modern lounge just as well as it fits in your nursery. And…da dum da! They’re totally easy to make at home.

Heather from Dollar Store Crafts whipped up this geometric guy, taking her inspiration from JennSki’s print of a mod mobile. She used some fancy cuttin’ software contraption, but it’s nothing that a trace and pair of sharp scissors couldn’t handle.

[Via Dollar Store Crafts]

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Crate Digging: How to Make a Soda Crate Spice Rack

Posted by Garth to How-To and Kitchen and Reuse and Salvage and Storage and Uncategorized on 3 June 2010, with 14 comments so far.

The kitchen is one of the rooms in our house that we spend the most time in. Claire and I live in Humboldt County, California, which is blessed with incredible local food resources. College of the Redwoods, where I teach, has its own organic farm and CSA.  Our local food co-op is well-stocked with local cheeses like Humboldt Fog, local organic meats and local seafood.

The kitchen was the first room that we started tearing into when we started renovating our house, and unfortunately, it was one of the last to be finished. We wanted the kitchen to be a place where we actually wanted to hang out and spend our time. The kitchen as we originally found it was fairly well laid out, but filled with horrible cheap 80’s cabinets, dingy floral wallpaper and cheap appliances.

We installed a dishwasher, put up drywall over the wallpaper and painted the room a bright yellow and installed some funky lighting fixtures. It was a great start, but the stove—an inexpensive Sears model with an old pegboard over it— continued to taunt us.


The horror. After removing the pegboard.

What could we do to make the stove area fun and functional? A new stove would be a good start. We started combing Craigslist for vintage stoves, and finally found a great (but really dirty and greasy) one that we could afford. Claire put a huge amount of elbow grease (and gallons of vinegar) into cleaning it. You can read about her valiant efforts HERE.

(more…)

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Posted in How-To, Kitchen, Reuse, Salvage, Storage, Uncategorized | 14 Comments »

Lil-Century Modern: Contemporary Furniture Classics for Children

Posted by Chris Gardner to Uncategorized on 27 May 2010, with no comments so far.

I love other people’s children. But I’d love them even more if they were snuggling atop an tiny Eames lounge or enjoying a coloring book in a Saarinen womb chair.

Turns out, I can get my wish. Little Nest is an Australian company that makes tyke-sized modern kids furniture. Even more adorably, they give each model a kiddish twist on the name: so the Swan chair becomes the Cygnet, the Egg Chair the Yolk, and the Bertoia wire chair the Little Bert.

There are lots of understandable debates in the mid-century communities about originals vs. knockoffs, respecting artist works vs. their extremely high prices, etc. But these things are so adorable, you’d think Charles and Ray and Eerio and Arne might just be okay with it.

[See them all at Little Nest]

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