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Wormed Wood: 5 Home Furnishings Highlight Organic Holes

Schell Loef — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 16:47:36 +0000

What a waste. Some furniture makers recoil when they cut open a raw board to discover its insides have been chewed up by invading insects. Others, however, see this as a unique opportunity to turn natural flaws into found treasures.

Riva 1920 has featured fascinating?recycling projects like those pictured here, in which weathered and worn materials were transformed into modern and appealing home objects. The timber, in this case, was salvaged from its watery grave (inspired by Venice – a place where water meets land) and turned into a series of creative tables.

Minimal steel is used to create structural joints and bridge material intersections, while glass is employed to make the wood visible from all angles.

In some items, the larvae-carved holes that wind into the wooden supports are turned outward for maximum visibility.

Resulting round and square side and coffee tables, stools and other accessories would look right at home as accents in anything from an ultramodern condo to a converted industrial loft space.

Some of these pieces are simple and practical, but others feature a wooden core that goes beyond structural necessity. While this is an interesting choice, it feels less effective than the works in which the wood plays both an aesthetic and functional role.

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Key Control Helps Find Missing Objects Around the House

Schell Loef — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 16:46:06 +0000

As soon as GPS and other micro-location devices hit it big, a lot of ideas were generated around the notion of tagging lost items that frequently need to be re-found – keys, wallets and the like.

Few devices propose such a simple and user-friendly solution as this one, though, by Chu Wang, Qiujin Kou, Qian Yin & Yonghua Zhang – the RFID tracking sticker is nothing special, but the gadget that goes with it is just great.

The main terminal helps direct you in three-dimensional space tower the missing object, guiding with arrows then highlighting with circles while showing the distance to your destination, all in the compact shape of a smartphone (perhaps some day it will become one with your cellular device, too!).

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Secret Door is Hiding in Plain Brick

Schell Loef — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 19:00:51 +0000

This not-so-secret door is one way to deal with a lot that borders directly on a public sidewalk – while not concealed per se, it does blend beautifully into the background, while the rest of the brick wall provides privacy.
It’s not often you see doors made out of brick, for good reason. Bricks would be overkill for virtually any other project, heavy and bulky as they are. But here, they’re just the right solution for a bit of fun camouflage. Doesn’t it make you think about other materials you could use to achieve a similar effect?

Of course, this unusual brick door is just a small element of a larger residential complex.
Designed by architect Jack Woolley (photos by David Grandorge), this home-and-office complex is half-buried below grade, with work and meeting spaces on the main floor and living quarters under them.

But there is another layer of surprises inside: the existing carpenter’s workshop provided raw materials during the remodel – specifically, beautifully aged wood – that now serves to contrast with new white surfaces.
The project is called “Old Workshop,” and it’s just one of many cool creations by Jack Woolley.
“The rehabilitation of a derelict workshop, converting the building to live/work and doubling the inhabitable space by inserting an offset basement storey. The design aims to respect the integrity of the street elevation: a nineteenth century wall that links two neighbouring terraces while framing a borrowed landscape of tree canopies.”
The design won the Architects’ Journal Small Projects Award 2012.

“An almost invisible live/work scheme on the site of a former carpenter’s workshop has won this year’s AJ Small Projects Awards. Described by the judges as ‘delightful’ and a ‘superb use of a found site’, Jack Woolley’s £232,000 Old Workshop in London was handed the £1,000 first prize at a ceremony on Wednesday night at the NLA.The office and home, with its ‘hidden’ door built into the brickwork of an existing wall, saw off schemes by 24 shortlisted practices, which all had a build cost of £250,000 or less.”

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Modern A-Frame Log Cabin in California

Schell Loef — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 16:09:14 +0000

Situated in the Sierra National Forest of California, miles above sea level, this gorgeous rustic modern vacation rental property boasts Yosemite as well as swimming holes, hiking trails, rolling landscapes, waterfalls and boulders all around – an eclectic mix seen in the architecture of this structure as well.

At high elevations, shedding snow and deflecting moisture is a crucial roll of residential rooftops, hence the steeply-angled aluminum that shapes this triangular a-frame cabin. A matching communications tower plus outbuilding sits alongside the primary dwelling space. However, equal attention is paid to the rural surroundings, reflected in the use of rough, rusticated and weathered timber siding and deck-topping slats.

Standard modules are used throughout the prefabricated cabin to aid in the prefabrication process – 4 by 8 feet becomes the organizing principle when it comes to anything (plywood panels, metal siding, etc…) that can be cut and shaped to this simplified scale.

This kind of quaint abode is unlikely to win any awards, but not all good designs aim for such accolades – nor should they. Here it seems sufficient that the place serves its purpose, feels unique and responds to the needs of both renters and owners alike – namely by providing a fun experience and durable property.

“Far Meadow is heaven for all of us who seek the call of the wild, and the remote places that shift our senses back to the natural essentials.”

“Brought to life by Boutique Homes founders and design connoisseurs, Heinz Legler and Veronique Lievre as ‘a simple retreat for chic nomads’, it’s so much more than that. It’s classic design where you’d least expect it. It’s escape without compromise or crowds. It’s adventure and carefree fun with friends (including the furry four-legged kind who are always welcome in our world).”

“Set within beautiful, unspoiled meadows high in the Sierra Nevadas, ringed by majestic forests, this cabin rental in Yosemite is both timeless and modern. A place of unplugged peace, where you can leave the world behind, embrace simplicity and marvel at nature’s amazing display.”

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Wood Slat Wall Inspired by Safari Vests

Schell Loef — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 13:50:31 +0000

We spend time and money trying to hide our messes, but at the end of the day, often keep track subconsciously of where all our stuff is anyway. What if we were to celebrate disorder and couple it with accessibility?

Phoebe Washburn is actually an artist, not organizer, by trade, but there are interesting lessons to be taken from this installation project.

In her case, the wall is composed of overlapping slats of found wood, given it depth, dimension and just a hint of chaos – layered on top are other found objects, at once disorganized but hinting at shed pegboards and other functional storage systems.

From Guggenheim:

“Phoebe Washburn was born in 1973 in Poughkeepsie, New York. She received a BFA from the Newcomb College of Tulane University in 1996 and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2002. Since her first one-person exhibition in New York, at LFL Gallery in 2002, Washburn has constructed monumental installations from detritus found in city streets. In this early exhibit, the imposing materiality of her piece Between Sweet and Low (2002), crafted from a hefty 2,500-plus pounds of cardboard and thousands of drywall screws, overwhelmed the ceilings and walls of the gallery, even encroaching on areas like the reception desk and office.”

“The similarly bulky raised installation True, False, and Slightly Better, produced at Rice University in 2003, appeared from the front to be bolstered by not much more than some rickety-looking wooden ladders and a few plastic chairs that buckled under the enormous weight of a densely shingled cardboard construction. For Heavy Has Debt (2003), Washburn built a colorful patchwork cardboard structure along the curve of a ninety-foot long wall at Rice University. While the shape and scale were visually akin to Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc (1981), Washburn’s employment of a pastel palette, humble materiality, and craft-like construction bespoke the radical and playful differentiation between her own work and Serra’s sculpture.”

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2 Cheap DIY Corner Desks with Shelves

Schell Loef — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 17:00:50 +0000

Corner desks can be a real life saver in small spaces, and they tend to feel extra cozy, too, wrapping you in a nook and keeping everything you need within arm’s reach. But you don’t have to splash out a bunch of money to get the same functionality with just a little bit less polish.
They may not win awards for style or be quite as elegant as the store-bought versions pictured above, but the two ideas below sure are simple (and relatively cheap) to build as long as you have a plan and know what you want out of a corner-oriented work space. Shelving and a working surface should suffice, but even then there is more than one way to frame a do-it-yourself desk.
Consider these two DIY desk ideas a starting point to creating your own customized setup.

Designed by Cate of Los Angeles, this wrap-around system of Sears Kit Home shelves frames a cozy semi-enclosed desk while keeping all of your books, odds and ends readily at hand and making maximum use of a small space.

Standing desks can be great for our health, helping us avoid all of the diseases experts say we’re risking when we sit too much. Corner desks, on the other hand, save a lot of space. This brilliant solution not only combines the two, it simplifies them – and does it for very little money. The result is visually clean and appealing despite using unconventional materials.
A graphic artist and patent illustrator by trade, Tom Geisler shows off raw functionality aesthetically-simple standing desk constructed from wooden IKEA butcher blocks. Hung from walls in one corner, the desk surfaces could of course be lowered as well for those who would rather sit. Now just imagine if they were mounted to the kind of wall brackets used for adjustable shelves, so you could raise and lower them at will.

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Shower Head with Built-In Mirror

Schell Loef — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 16:44:40 +0000

Combining shaving and showering in the morning can help save precious minutes of an early-morning, wake-up-for-work routine – but mirrors in showers usually fail on multiple fronts. First and foremost, they fog up, making it impossible to see what you’re doing, anyway. And what if you accidentally knock it over and break it while you’re at your most vulnerable? Where would it even go, and how do you secure it?

All of these safety, space and fog concerns and more are all addressed simply by building the reflective functionality of a mirror directly into the metal surface of a shower head. The result is a clean, crisp, close-up image of your face for close last-second shaves that skip the sink entirely (without risking sleepy nicks along the way).

It’s a clever way to address a common frustration, but might introduce just as many problems as it attempts to solve. You’ve probably already noticed the piddly amount of water that emerges from this shower head as a result of devoting most of its surface area to reflecting your beautiful visage back at you. Is gazing upon yourself really worth sacrificing all that extra warmth and rinsing power? No. No, it is not.

If you love it anyway, you can either wait for Reflect to start manufacturing these genius little inventions or try some alternatives. The fun windshield-wiper mirror by Suck UK is so close to being more practical than “Reflect,” while the puzzle mirror from Emiliano Brinci will encourage you to spend even more time than usual in the shower.
But you’re probably better off just getting a cheap plastic shower mirror that sticks onto the wall with a suction cup and calling it a day while we all wait for the emergence of something that actually works. Got a bright idea? Be sure to share it, or maybe just patent that sucker — clearly there’s a demand.

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Sculptural Mirrors Seem to Disappear

Schell Loef — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 15:30:44 +0000

Mirror meets glass in many ways, from simple reflections on clear windows to silvered glass surfaces found in bedrooms and bathrooms. This optical illusion design begins to blur the distinction in an even more novel way as pure mirror fades into pure glazing. These so-called Fiction Mirrors shift from top to bottom or side to side, attached to walls via metal cylinders and held out so their effect is more pronounced. The design won the Interior Innovation Award in the Materials category at IMM Cologne 2008.

Jean-Marie Massaud envisioned this particular series of mirror art, subsequently realized by Glas Italia, but his other works address reflections in likewise fanciful ways. They range from clearly-bent reflectors to mirror-surfaced furniture and reflection-distorting wall mirrors. Some of these items can be purchased online, including a selection of Fiction Mirrors at UK store Chaplin’s. You can also check out Massaud’s collaborations with Glas Italia, including the Diva Mirror, pictured above, at the latter’s website.
Glas Italia describes the Diva Mirror as “a floor mirror made of glued smoked glass. The upper and lower part is transparent, while the central part has a special mirror through which the luminous trace of a lamp positioned on the back can be seen. The lamp turns on and off by pulling a red cord.”
“A graduate of ENSCI in 1990, Jean-Marie Massaud is immediately looking for synthesis, reduction and lightness. It addresses the different aspects of design: from furniture to industrial products, to equipment. In 2000, he created Studio Massaud and extended his activity to architecture and development strategies. He collaborates with several prestigious companies such as B&B Italia, Axor Hansgrohe, Dior, Poltrona Frau, Lancôme and Renault. Rejecting trends and fashions, Jean Marie prefers to question the current situation, working on the progress made and possibly proposing answers to contemporary challenges. It is this symbiosis between man, his creations and his natural environment, which Jean Marie Massaud strives to achieve, as a catalyst for innovation, as an economic model and as a life project.”

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Secret Agent Multi-Tool Shirt Stays

Schell Loef — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 17:38:00 +0000

“Secure it, pop it, screw it, cut it, work it.” You better believe James Bond is wearing these, whether or not they announce it in the movies – how could Q not include them in his awesome arsenal of secret gadgetry?

Fashionable functions include: a cutting tool for stray strings (or other things), a bottle opener for the party-goer and, of course, a screwdriver … because really, you never have one when you need it (especially on the go). For the well-dressed do-it-yourself type, these genius little inventions from Exuvius offer a handy alternative to pocket tools, which are particularly cumbersome to carry in suit pockets or dress pants.
The multi-tool collar stay kit from Exuvius is distributed in SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape) kits around the world, comes in a pair and its made of 100% titanium. It fits alls spread, wide spread, close spread and semi-spread collars and contains a half-Phillips head screwdriver, slotted screwdriver, thread cutter, bottle opener and keychain hole for transport or carrying spares. It includes laser-etched Imperial and Metric measurement markers and weighs just .4 ounces.

“Be well-dressed and prepared like a secret agent with Titan Multi-Tool Collar Stays. These featherweight titanium collar stays keep your collar looking sharp, and are virtually indestructible. Conveniently fix gadgets, eliminate loose threads, and open bottles at a moment’s notice. Feel confident that you’ll be suited to handle unexpected situations as they arise.”
“Exuvius is a small U.S. company based in Los Angeles, California. Through the initial collaboration between three friends, Exuvius began by making functional apparel for guys who pay attention to details. The goal was to enhance men’s apparel to enable the modern man to better do what needs to be done. This philosophy has carried on till today. Our products are sculpted with the idea that function fashions form. The feature set for Exuvius products is always a combination of the two. Our design philosophy is to create items that will enhance a person’s inherent strengths. Our products, like the people who use them, should do many things – and do many things well. After all, these products are essentially a natural extension of the Exuvius man.”

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Tiny Backyard Shed with a Green Roof

Schell Loef — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 15:30:01 +0000

Stand-alone sheds and prefab work spaces rarely look integrated into a landscape; generally, they are an extra piece plopped on top of an open flat area, cleared or already unused on a property. This quaint little construction project takes green additions in a new direction — up. The grassy green-roofed shed design almost looks like an abstracted natural structure that’s sprouted out of the lawn thanks to its seamless connection from roof to wall to earth.

The Lawn House from Altro Studio is sized to fit strips of grassy sod that wrap up its walls and over its roof, creating a layer of heat-and-light-absorbing insulation, natural ventilation as well as a simple drainage solution for outdoor applications.

Gridded metal helps hold the soil in place vertically, in combination with grip-friendly angles along the relevant edges. Want some more space? Each of these tiny house units can be extended in a modular fashion by adding more. How about power? Solar photovoltaic strips can be lined in between each module.
Two translucent sides give it a sense of openness and let in indirect light, while two opaque dirt-and-grass-covered walls and the overhead angled ceiling provide a feeling of enclosure. PVC pipe makes for a lightweight and easy-to-assemble framework for support.

As you can see here, the Lawn House is perfect for outdoor parties, offering a little cabana away from the noise of the crowds.

In short: it is a poor man’s do-it-yourself, green-roofed backyard workspace, storage shed or small man (or woman) cave – not a permanent home addition, but rather more of a landscape extension. They may not be quite big enough to live in, but they’re so cute (and relatively easy to build) you might just want to plop a few down outside your home to create new temporary rooms for any uses you can dream up.

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Flat Folding Plug Saves Power

Schell Loef — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 17:35:07 +0000

Until electricity is entirely wireless, the question of how to deal with dense plugs will continue to nag at designers. This solution, while nifty, poses a new problem while trying to solve the old one.
There are angled, bent and flush-fitting solutions, but when you go to change configurations (like standing up from a low seat with your laptop) your cord may have other ideas.
Huang Guanglei‘s vision for this flexing plug looks perfect, but in addressing the issue of mobility it creates a problem of power. Specifically, it is designed to flip up and down not just to accommodate movement but also to turn on and off. This last tweak is neat insofar as it results in an adjustable dimmer switch for lights, but less functional for something that uses continuous power to run.

“Last week when I was doing my homework, I moved my chair and moved the plug board at he same time, only to find that the power of my computer was unplugged,” says the designer. “I lost all of my homework that I didn’t save it. So, unfortunately I had to do it again. So I designed the folding-plug. It is powered only when folded 90 degrees to fully attach the board. Then the red stripe unfolded from hidden position indicates that the power is on. When it is folded to the power on position, it could be unplugged by unintentionally touch. This can also free us from unplugging the power frequently. What’s more, when the plug is some distance away in the corner, it can be done without reaching it by creeping into a narrow alcove.”
Despite its limitations, this power-saving flat plug design is a step in a better direction for power outlets that still seem stuck in the 20th century. Somehow, we’re still dealing with plugs that stick out way too far from the wall on nearly everything that needs to remain plugged in most of the time, from electric heaters to televisions. Perhaps connected smart homes will soon eliminate the issue of dimming or turning off our lights and appliances from afar, however.

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DIY Levees Turn Homes into Islands

Schell Loef — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 16:02:52 +0000

Waterfront is better than waterlogged, reasoned residents facing floodwaters along a smaller tributary of the Mississippi river, many of whom went to great lengths in protecting their properties from rising tides.

Inverted DIY moats of muddied sand and dirt stand guard, ringing yards or simply houses themselves – support structures, driveways and such were simply not worth saving to some, while others broadened their boundaries to accommodate these extras.

Some of these improvised barriers reach as high as the Vicksburg home they guard, while walls of this kind generally mean boat-only access to get in or out.

And there are no guarantees, either: if water levels rise high enough there is no retreat for vulnerable first floors and basements, perhaps whole houses if sufficiently weakened from the ordeal.
Planning is important, but luck plays a (sometimes unfortunate) roll as well. In most cases, there is no second line of defense.

If you want to learn how to build a DIY levee or temporary moat, the best time to start is well before flooding starts. Popular Mechanics consulted the levee experts at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the best tips that might actually work. You start by gathering materials like shovels, sand bags, sheets of polyethylene plastic and wheelbarrows, determine the best place to lay out your earthen barrier and then dig a trench. From there you’ll start building your mounds, making sure they’re high enough to not be breached but still topple-proof. Next comes covering the levees with plastic tarps and performing some maintenance when disaster strikes.
“George Riedel, deputy executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, says that even the best-built levee may not hold up to the emergency at hand, and there will always be a bigger flood. ‘Levees are one tool in the toolbox for fighting floods,’ he says. ‘But to my mind they come in two varieties: ones that have failed or been breached, and ones that will fail or be breached.” And as Led Zeppelin famously said, ‘When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.'”
Get the details of these tips for building DIY moats for flooding at Popular Mechanics.

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Slide & Hide: Modern Space-Saving Kitchens

Schell Loef — Fri, 18 Jan 2019 17:07:54 +0000

There when you want it, gone when you don’t – that is the essence of this elegant two-part ‘Moove’ series of modular built-in kitchen designs. The pair of wall-mounted and center island solutions are different in appearance (and disappearance), but the streamlined sliding-and-hiding approach is the same. Space-saving kitchens have never looked so good.

In one, the top moves down while the bottom slides up to meet it, hiding the entire set of cabinetry, cooking surfaces and appliances inside a glossy red box. A combination of fold-hinged cabinets above and flush-to-surface sliding drawers below conceal additional storage spaces. If you’re really sneaky, you could even close it up at the press of a button to conceal a mess when an unexpected guest arrives. The effect is elegant and minimalist, perfect for modern kitchens that don’t have a lot of space to spare.

In the other design, an internal rectangles slides sideways out from a stable island work surface, revealing a stove and sink within. While perhaps the less visually impressive of the two, this strategy is arguably more successful at actually saving space since the closed configuration effectively cuts in half the physical footprint required for these core kitchen elements.
After all, most people only use their stovetops a couple times a day at most. It makes sense to tuck it away when it’s not in use, eliminating visual clutter. This clever sliding kitchen solution frees up just enough space to make your home feel a whole lot bigger, and best of all, it’s not more complicated than it needs to be— at least on the surface.
When you take a closer look, the effect accomplished by Florida Furniture with the Moove series is deceptively simple. The real trickery goes on behind the scenes, from the stove connections to the sink plumbing. These are designed adapt to shifts in corresponding appliance positions. Can your kitchen do all that?

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Color-Coded & Purpose-Specific Bags for Savvy Travelers

Schell Loef — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 11:00:23 +0000

There are many popular systems of modular bags to sub-organize your stuff for travel, but most of them (though they may come in various sizes) are a one-type-fits all solution for your clean clothes, dirty laundry and other goods alike.

This cleverly-designed alternative has bags that are suited to different purposes, ranging from breathable to waterproof depending on your needs.

A simple and bold system of colors, titles and icons helps easily distinguish the different bags in quick-grab and low-light situations. These so-called Go Clean Pack Bags may take up more space, but they sure could save a lot of time, too.

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Stemware Slots into Side of Plate

Schell Loef — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 15:26:44 +0000

Shaking hands is a shaky proposition when you are carrying around both food and drink at a gathering, and stems generally make things all the more complicated because you cannot set your beverage down on your plate.

Katarzyna Borkowska and Tomasz Pydo of KABO&PYDO have a rather elegant solution to this timeless problem, in the form of a folded ceramic plate with a hole to accommodate tapered-neck glassware.

Even tipping the combination will not send your drink flying – sure, it could still spill, but that is a risk, regardless. One complaint, though: the plate has an elegant curve and looks a bit like a painter’s palette, but the glasses are a bit clunky by comparison.

“The dishes are intended for cocktail banquets, where people are standing, changing places often and chatting. The set consists of a plate and two glasses (for wine or for water and juice). The advantage of this project is the ability to hold a plate and a glass in one hand. The user has a free other hand, which he can put on attachments without any difficulty, hold a fork or shake the interlocutor’s hand.”

About the designers:

“KABO & PYDO is a proprietary, interdisciplinary design studio with extensive experience, founded by design designers Katarzyna Borkowska and Tomasz Pydo.”

“We design products and visual communications in many industries, mainly for industrial producers. We are looking for innovative solutions in every design process. We treat design as a tool to achieve the business goals of enterprises and meet the needs of users. We support companies in creating design strategies. We use the Design Thinking methodology.”

“Sustainable development, relationships with people, intangible assets and social aspects of products are important to us. With our work, we want to improve the environment of humans, animals and plants. Respect and harmony are the values that guide us as designers and as people.”

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Hack-Worthy Wooden Furniture Fix Using Just One Walnut

Schell Loef — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 11:00:12 +0000

Finding, buying or building great designs is one thing, but maintaining them can be quite another. Chips and dings in wood furniture can be especially difficult because any single-color solution (e.g. furniture marker) may be too blunt an instrument.

With that in mind, sometimes the fix for a natural furnishing is found in nature – say, in the form of a simple cracked-open walnut (particularly for those mid-toned, mid-century walnut furniture pieces, perhaps).

The moisture and variegation of the nut helps blend with natural wood tones – no perfect match is promised, but it sure is worth a shot. Tip via ApartmentTherapy.

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