The Origins of Shou Sugi Ban

This wood finishing technique originated in Japan, but the popular interpretation of the phrase has gotten a few things wrong. “Shou sugi ban” is technically a misreading of Japanese characters that actually say “yakisugi,” so you might see either term used on the internet. Roughly translated, it means “burning cedar board.” As the name suggests, it’s traditionally only used for Japanese cedar, which has a naturally high resistance to rot, mold, and bugs.

Contemporary usage has expanded the technique to other types of wood, which technically makes it something other than yakisugi — but the benefits and effects are similar. Light, porous softwoods are generally preferred because they allow the heat to penetrate deeply into the wood without twisting or splitting.

How it Works

Traditionally, boards burned in a vertical prism form are laced together with string, lit on fire, and allowed to burn just long enough to char the exterior before they’re doused with water. The propane or gas torch method is as simple as it sounds: you burn the wood about 2 to 3 millimeters deep for five to 10 seconds, then spray it with a hose. Both processes are typically done at the building site, but some manufacturers specializing in shou sugi ban do it in their own facilities instead, shipping the finished product.

After burning, various techniques can be used to change the overall effect, either leaving the dark char intact or wire brushing it for a lighter hue. Coarse sandpaper can also be used. This will change the texture from the roughness of scaled alligator skin to a smoother, more visible wood grain, and can remove some of the surface carbon to avoid messiness in certain applications. Natural oils like pure tung oil can be used to seal the wood and deepen the tone, if desired. If re-oiled every five to ten years, yakisugi siding can last a century or more.

Applications of Charred Wood Siding

Use shou sugi ban anywhere you want the look of dark, dramatic, and well-protected wood. It’s most often used for exterior siding, but we’ve seen yakisugi wood utilized to brilliant effect in interiors, too. And its uses aren’t limited to just architecture. You could also apply the technique to fencing, wooden planters, and other outdoor accents.

Some notable projects we’ve covered that incorporate shou sugi ban include the gorgeous Grotto Sauna in Ontario, the exterior of a dream bathroom by Bette, a Japanese tea house by Terunobu Fujimori, and a handmade log cabin. Lighter versions of the technique can be seen on the exterior of the Escape XL tiny home on wheels and a modern kitchen addition to a home in England.

The post Shou Sugi Ban: A Gorgeous Charred Wood Finish with Tons of Benefits first appeared on Dornob.

Not so fast. Saying shiplap is over is like saying tongue-and-groove paneling or drywall is over. The concept started way back in the time of the Vikings, when overlapping planks of wood called lapstrakes were used to make boats watertight. Lapstrakes eventually evolved into shiplap, which made its way from the boatyard to architectural usage. It features boards (typically made of pine) that overlap at rabbeted edges to create a tight fit and a smooth surface.

Exposed shiplap, on the other hand, is relatively new. Originally, shiplap was hidden behind finishings like wallpaper. The thing is that it’s often such a lovely surface on its own, it might as well be uncovered. Joanna Gaines loves it for her signature rustic-meets-modern farmhouse aesthetic, often painting it white. The rabbeted edge is crucial for true shiplap, especially when used for exterior applications, because it keeps water out. But many people create “faux shiplap” using of rows of simple wooden planks to get a similar effect on interior walls at a low cost.

Simple to install, shiplap needs very little finishing. Just nail it up and paint it, oil it, stain it, or leave it raw depending on your preferences. In that way it’s similar to other types of interior wall surfaces made of wood, which, by the way, predate drywall by almost the entire duration of human history. If anything, it’s drywall that’s potentially a passing fad. And once you have real wood on your walls, drywall starts to feel pretty boring.

If you live in an old house, you might even have shiplap already without realizing it, disguised beneath a thin layer of plaster or drywall. If you’re itching to renovate, it might be worth investigating, though what you find might simply be wood planks rather than real shiplap. Either way, you’ll end up with a similar look. The internet is rife with tutorials for restoring old shiplap or making your own DIY shiplap walls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EELk_Y6qEPA

Now, if you’re asking whether shiplap is “overdone,” or used indiscriminately with interior design styles that don’t make sense together, that’s another conversation, and the answer is absolutely yes to both. One of shiplap’s primary distinguishing qualities is its informal yet traditional nature. There’s a little bit of rusticity that can be polished up a bit depending on how you finish it. If your style matches that description, or you’re going for an eclectic look, shiplap might look great with the rest of your decor.

If your home is more modern, industrial, classical, or an ornate Victorian, for instance, pulling it off gets trickier. Try it in small doses first, perhaps as a single accent wall, and decide how you feel from there. Painting it a dark or bright color will trade the rustic cabin look for a more versatile and sophisticated result. Otherwise, you do run the risk of your hard work eventually looking as dated as dark 1980s wood paneling. And please, leave the faux shiplap peel-and-stick wallpaper on the shelf.

The post Is Shiplap Paneling a Passing Fad, or Here to Stay? first appeared on Dornob.

The Birth of Wabi-Sabi

Around the 14th century, Japanese decor was very similar to the haute couture of the day: gaudy, garish, ornate, and precise. Rooms and people alike were draped in layers of silk and satin and meticulously bedazzled with gold, gems, rare stones, and other baubles. But since only a small number of people could afford that kind of luxury, the wabi-sabi philosophy emerged and quickly began to influence all of the country’s aesthetic trends.

Wabi-Sabi Primer

You’ve surely heard of newer expressions like “get real” and “own it.” In the olden days, a common Shakespearean phrase had the same meaning: “To thine own self be true.” Wabi-sabi embraces this tenet above all others.

Wabi-sabi is all about practicing authenticity in life. When applied to something like decor, its focus is on celebrating imperfection instead of trying to improve it. Rather than replacing a torn couch cushion, for instance, you might consider repairing it using a visible stitch or by slapping a patch over the tear. Learning to find the positive in all objects and rely mainly on natural materials is key to the wabi-sabi decorating attitude.

Wabi-Sabi Shopping

Instead of perusing high-end furniture stores online or hiring your favorite decorator to shop for you, shopping at swap meets, garage sales, second-hand stores, curio shops, and craft shows is now encouraged. What better way to embrace wabi-sabi decorating than to use pre-owned objects with colorful pasts to give your home a down-to-earth ambiance? And don’t forget to keep it simple. Ostentatious objects don’t belong in a wabi-sabi home or office.

Wabi-Sabi Friendly Furnishings

Earth tones are highly encouraged here, but wabi-sabi approved accents often include a few bright, vibrant colors, too. Oversized vases in hues of red, blue, and yellow are perfect as long as they display a couple of imperfections like visible chips or cracks. All the pottery found in the “Seconds” section of your local craft store should meet wabi-sabi standards. Unfinished wood and unpolished metal accents are also perfect, as are any objects made from brick or unpainted concrete. Choose natural fiber materials like canvas or burlap for window coverings and tablecloths. When it comes to wabi-sabi flooring, simply woven cotton or hemp rugs will always trump carpeting or laminate floors. Wabi-sabi fashion has also been known to pair well with unfinished hardwood floors.

Setting the Stage

Once you’ve gathered your wabi-sabi-inspired furniture and accessories, it’s time to perfect the setting. Forget about finishing that drywall in the kitchen to give the place an unpretentious work-in-progress look. Never got around to finishing that deck? No problem, if you adhere to the wabi-sabi style guidelines. Instead of arranging books and knickknacks in creative ways, consider placing just one book on a table to make it the focus of the room and arranging a sparse assortment of trinkets on high narrow shelves to draw people’s attention upwards.

A word of warning: If you go full wabi-sabi, your friends and family may think you’ve just gotten lazy and lost your sense of style. But once you explain the philosophy behind your choices to them, they’ll eventually start to embrace the new aesthetic. Who knows, they may even follow suit!

The post Wabi-Sabi: The Hot Japanese Decor Trend that Celebrates Imperfection first appeared on Dornob.

Will these timeless trends ever fade for good? We recently explored the answer to that question in regard to one of the Roaring Twenties’ most popular design movements.

The History of Art Deco

Similar to popular car styles that trend every few years, some great features of art deco just can’t be denied. High contrast, inundated colors, bold silhouettes, daring bursts of chrome and brass — all of these make for classic accents that never lose their appeal.

The movement was born in France just before World War I broke out. It was a time of opulence and indulgence on many levels, and it influenced virtually every aspect of life. Glamor, fantasy, fun, and lavishness inspired everything from the design of ocean liners and vacuum cleaners to the day’s music, theater, and literature. Fashion was playful and alluring, boasting an abundance of rich materials, brilliant colors, and geometric patterns.

Many of the most beautiful examples of art deco can be found on buildings from this period. Today, some of those buildings are even being restored to keep their defining features intact. For example, One Wall Street, constructed in 1929, is currently having its exterior restored by Macklowe Properties. Not only will the structure’s historical limescale veneer be restored through this process, but its celebrated Red Room will also be refurbished to its original art deco splendor, with its triple-height floor-to-ceiling mural by Hildreth Miere acting as its focal point.

Originally a bank designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1928, Hotel Gotham in Manchester UK is now the city’s most famous five-star hotel. It’s been pristinely maintained for nearly 100 years, and visitors come from all over the world to stare at its majestic, palace-like exterior and Wall Street-inspired art deco interiors. The hotel’s regal appearance has even earned it the nickname “King of King Street.”

The New Art Deco

Today’s art deco features a lot more dramatic disparity in the way of wall displays and furniture selections. The colors are deeper and surrounded by even more brass and chrome. Geometric patterns and fabrics from the past like velvet and fringed material are already making a big comeback. And since there’s no real indication that this trend is going away any time soon, we only expect to see more varying combos of concrete, inlay, marble, lacquer, and smoked glass in the coming years. Burlwood, a throwback to the 60s and 70s, is also likely to resurface to heighten the emotional response expected from art deco.

Looking to work art deco into your home? Start small by adding accents to a single room, or go full throttle and push all those dated midcentury furniture pieces into the garage.

The post Will Art Deco Ever Go Away? first appeared on Dornob.

With a few simple steps, the Leaf Cover can bring a dull room to life and provide a ton of useful storage space. The Leaf Cover is a little plastic piece shaped like two leaves and a stem. It fits right over a nail to green up any room.

Leaf Cover-clad nails can be used to hold jackets, keys, dog leashes and any other small, lightweight object. An entire wall filled with the little green sprouts can go from plain to magical in little more than the time it takes to hammer in some nails.

Designed by Jeong Hwa Jin, the Leaf Cover is a clever new take on the practical but unsightly solution so many of us use to keep necessary objects close at hand. It would be great to see the designer introduce other types of leaves and maybe some flowers in the future to provide a splash of variety on users’ walls.

“Leaf cover which gives birth to new life in a nailed and dead space. Design which brings new vitality with leaf growing out from the wall. with the image of leaf growing out from the Ground as motif, sprout grows in the nailed space of wall which gives no sense of life.”

“We tend to concern much about driving a nail because unsightly mark might remain or it is difficult to clean up. Mindlessly nailed wall. By covering the nailed place with leaf cover, it is possible to grant the feeling of new life growing from the wall. In addition, it is possible to grant various usability such as lid of ball point pen, picture frame hanger, and etc..”

“The project mentioned above will target on the European and American market by cooperating with SUCK UK LTD, and is to be released since the second half of the year 2012 through mass production. “

Buy them at SUCK UK.

The post Leaf Shaped Decorative Nail Covers first appeared on Dornob.

The post Waste Marble Transformed into Home Objects first appeared on Dornob.

The post Vases Made of Glued & Sanded Pencils first appeared on Dornob.

The post Silver and Gold? More Like Cardboard and Wood first appeared on Dornob.

1. Magical Thinking Constellation Map Shower Curtain

How can you not love something with “magical thinking” in its name? Urban Outfitters sucked us in the with quirky moniker and held our attention with the swirling design on this star map shower curtain. As you lather up in the tub you can ponder the mysteries of the universe and learn the various constellations and their shapes. The circular design of the map is eye-catching, too.

2. Star Map Duvet Cover

Love to sleep under the stars? Well, now you can do that, without worrying about coyotes or bugs. The Star Map Duvet Cover by Parallelish at Society 6 is a hand-sewn lightweight comforter cover with the constellations boldly outlined and charted on one side and a soft white side in case you want to flip out.
And as a bonus, the same design is available from Society 6 as a throw blanket, wall tapestry, iPhone case, T-shirt, wall clock, shower curtain and more.

3. Glow-in-the-Dark Constellations

Okay, we’ve shown you how to sleep under the stars in your celestial duvet cover. Now you can sleep under the stars and look up at them, too.
This ceiling star map from DeliciousDeals is made of individual constellation decals that you put together based on a map that you are sent. (Hopefully this will be a fun activity and not one that will make you shake your fist at the heavens.)
During the day, the vinyl decals look white, but at night they shine a vibrant green. Sweet dreams!

4. Versace Star Map Backpack

Warning: You may have to be a star to afford this cool carrier. But it can be yours, for just $1,628….
The black polyester backpack has an all-over star map print, handy two-way zips for easy access to your belongings, two zipped pockets, one outside and one concealed within the bag to protect your keys, wallet, whatever. Adjustable shoulder straps make it comfortable to carry, and there are sturdy top handles in case you need to quickly drop and lift it when you’re on a crowded train or bus.

5. Celestial Chart Stars Northern Hemisphere Constellations Print

This star chart print is based on a map in a 19th-century Spanish book, says Verónica Olivera Gómez, of TheCuratorsPrints. She changed the color from the vintage print, but kept the title and the names of the Zodiac in Spanish.
The star map is a professional digital print on heavyweight matte paper. The frame is not included, so you can choose your own to match the style and color of your room.

The post 5 Starry Ideas for a Heavenly Look first appeared on Dornob.

Carpet backing isn’t usually decorative. It’s typically made of heavy glues or plastics, and being able to see it from above through the carpet fibers is a sign of low quality. Most of the time, the aesthetic impact of the backing doesn’t matter too much, as long as the rug is plush enough to hide it. It’s the durability that counts, right? But Patcraft’s new collection makes sure each tile is both functional and beautiful right down to its core, and it shows off this handiwork by allowing it to peek through.

By varying the heights of the carpet fibers to create highly tactile textures, the designers were also able to expose parts of the tiles’ shimmering backings. The look “Deconstructed Metal” is going for is more of a subtle glow than a bold glitter (and while that actually sounds pretty cool, you can’t exactly get this look by sprinkling glitter all over your existing carpeting.) The bronze and titanium backings are a little more high-impact, while the graphite is subtler. It’s a fun way to punch up the amounts of color, texture, and reflection in an interior space.

The company collaborated with metal product manufacturers to integrate the real metal backings into their own production process, after which they experimented with different textures to get just the right result. Achieving that balance was a challenge, they say, but it looks like the end result was well worth it. Each tile comes in an array of textures so users can create their own dynamic patterns.

If you’re skeptical of how metallic backings perform compared to their more conventional counterparts, you might be glad to hear that they’re still made with strong thermoplastic polyolefin compounds, reinforced with fiberglass, and rated for “severe” wear. The Deconstructed Metal collection is also Cradle to Cradle certified, which means it has met rigorous standards in terms of material health, reutilization, water stewardship, and social fairness.

“In many cases, the artistry that drives the aesthetic and the technical processes that fulfill the performance requirements of a product are on opposite ends of the design spectrum,” said Shannon Cochran, Patcraft Vice President of Creative and Design, in an interview with Design Milk.

“This was the underlying balance for Deconstructed Metal. From backing to fiber, we had to understand the effects of the deconstructed design on each ingredient as well as in the compilation of ingredients in the final product. It was definitely a process that tested our design and manufacturing teams to think differently about how we do things and what performance means to each end user.” 

The post Deconstructed Metal: These Dimensional Carpet Tiles are Backed with Titanium first appeared on Dornob.

What is YourOwnMaps?

YourOwnMaps is a brand-new, San Francisco-based company that offers their adventurous customers travel memorabilia in the form of personalized map art. The company’s goal is to bring people closer to their favorite places on earth. Whether it’s one of your usual vacation spots, your hometown, or a city where you met someone special, YourOwnMaps will turn any destination into a modern wall map that you can proudly display in your home.

How Does It Work?

When creating your map, you’ll be asked to type in the name of a city or region. YourOwnMaps will let you select any town in the world, no matter how big or small it might be. Alternatively, you can use one of the company’s pre-made pieces and edit it to suit your tastes. Once you’ve chosen a location, you’ll be able to zoom in and out and drag the map around to achieve the exact scale you want. Edit the text printed on the map by typing out your own header, subheader, and tagline. If you opt out of including a custom tagline, the text will default to your destination’s latitude and longitude coordinates.

You can also customize the color of your map. Currently, the company prints in blue, green, red, yellow, colored, and light (white) for a total of six options. This means you can easily match your map to your or your recipient’s home decor! You can’t go wrong with the sleek black and white option, though those with an eye for color might prefer a bright, popping shade of red. Finally, select your desired layout, landscape or portrait, and poster size. Submit your design, make the payment, and wait for the magic to happen!

YourOwnMaps monitors each order from start to finish, working with family-owned printing shops and hand-checking each poster to ensure the best possible quality. In the future, the company hopes to collaborate with local artists to further expand their range of available graphic and design options. Once all of your specifications have been met, YourOwnMaps packages your order and ships it to you from the United States.

Who is Behind this Map Art Concept?

Co-founder Humphrey Yang created YourOwnMaps.com as a solution to his own struggles with souvenir shopping. Upon taking a trip to Switzerland and Austria, Yang was enchanted by a set of large-scale wall maps he saw being sold as tourist memorabilia. Unfortunately, limited luggage space prevented him from bringing any of them home. As soon as he got back to North Carolina, Humphrey was determined to find a piece of artwork that resembled what he had seen in Europe as a way of commemorating his recent adventure.

Try as he might, he could not find a regional map that matched his vision. Having nowhere else to turn to, Yang began to create his own in early 2017 with the launch of YourOwnMaps. The phrase “Bring your adventures from anywhere, everywhere” aptly became their slogan, which embraces the idea that all travel memories can live on through their cartography. The company’s website reads, “Our mission is for our community to be able to relive their experiences, give the gift of a memory, or just explore the world through a custom printed map!”

How Much Does Map Art Cost and Where Can I Get It?

These maps are only available on the company’s website and cost $55 per standard 18×24 inch print. For an additional $15, you can have your map made in a larger 24×36 inch size. Shipping takes just a few days, which means you can have your artwork up on the wall within a week of placing your order!

The post Put Your Love for Your Favorite City on Display with Fun Map Art first appeared on Dornob.

Wall paneling has been around for centuries. Traditionally, wooden wainscoting, often on the lower portion of the wall, performed several functions in the home: to insulate, to help add soundproofing and to prevent the wall from being damaged by heavy furniture.

Nowadays, molded wainscoting is often made from gypsum board or wood, and it mainly serves as decorative wall covering, often with a nod to the country manor appeal of a bygone era. Minnesota-based CSI Wall Panels have now kicked the design element of wall panels up a notch, offering laser-cut 3D, mosaic and multi-faceted designs: Conventional paneling, wallpaper and paint just got boring.

There’s a groovy, mid-century modernist vibe to these designs, which have been created and constructed for both outdoor and indoor use. From the 1950s through to the 1970s, textured wall coverings brought the outside inside with faux brickwork, wooden panels, cork and leather. The modern day CSI variety is more dramatic, with more texture, depth and pattern variety. New technological innovation has produced a wider palette of materials and computer-generated designs.

Interior wall panels work particularly well in spaces with open floor plans, and they also do a wonderful job of highlighting certain parts of a room. For example, these wall panels would look great on the chimney breast in a living room, above a seating arrangement or in decorative alcoves.

“Living room walls are your blank canvases, waiting to be touched by your signature style and art. Whatever you do to crank up the style here defines you, as the living room is the first sight when someone opens the door. It’s all there to greet your guests and welcome them with your unique design,” according to the CSI Wall Panels website.

Inspired by nature and global architectural trends, the panels were created by a team of Minnesota- based designers, software operators and engineers from MDF, acrylic or metallic materials in CSI’s Eden Prairie facility — a one-stop shop for custom-made interior and exterior wall panels. You can call them using their online contact number for a live evaluation of your needs with an in-house architect. Weatherproof and visually striking, exterior wall panels are an ideal and sophisticated way to create individual, laid back and durable artworks in the barbecue area and in the garden.

In the home and in the office or in restaurants, reception areas and retail stores, wall panels make a statement. CSI allows for bespoke designs, and it also has in-house, ready-to-buy collections. The Five Senses collection, for example, is tactile, lightweight and visually striking.

“We live by a simple vision: create value products for the customers and make their everyday life better. At CSI, we strive to offer a wide range of durable, trendy and highly decorative and functional wall panels at affordable prices,” according to the CSI Wall Panels website.

Working together with the firm’s designers and with input from architects and engineers, CSI can collaborate with every customer to create a bespoke product based on the customer’s design suggestions. Each wall panel is priced, designed and manufactured to express specifications. The Virtual Plane collection also makes great room dividers to create small zones and private areas in large, flexible spaces.

The post Swanky and Sophisticated Modern Wall Panels and Room Dividers from CSI first appeared on Dornob.

Hayward-Harris began his working life producing models of animals for film and TV—including the feature film “Gorky Park.” Traditional, yet with a contemporary feel, his artworks have placed him as one of the UK’s finest wildlife sculptors. His “Otter and Stone” life-sized bronze (pictured above) is typically lively and alert. Anything but inert, in fact.

His bronze creations of English native animals cry out to be touched—they have a subtle, tactile ‘living’ presence that belies the weighty nature of the chosen material. Metal becomes wood, becomes silk—the patina is inviting, the forms are supple and lithe.

In 1988, Hayward Harris transferred to the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, working alongside some of Europe’s foremost wildlife artists. His outstanding wildlife sculptures and natural landscapes have been featured internationally in many private and public collections, including the private art collection of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

His first ever bronze sculpture was of a bull elephant in 1991, and his bronzes capture his signature brand of sensitivity, simplicity and sheer animal magnetism. “Galloping Racehorse,” originally carved in ancient walnut then cast in bronze, expresses beauty, speed and strength, just flowing with movement and vitality.

Hayward-Harris’ “Boxing Hare” was included in international art house Christie’s “20th Century British Art” exhibition in 2001. His Christie’s sales in the 1990s have helped support wildlife through his contributions to the World Wildlife Fund.

A BBC TV documentary “Lost Land of the Tiger,” set in the Himalayas and broadcast in 2010, alerted Hayward-Harris to the plight of the tiger, whose natural habitat decreases each year. He was inspired to produce “2063,” a sculpture of a tiger’s skull, gilded in 23.5 carat gold. Striking yet fragile, it underlines the precious nature of this glorious wild animal, tragically now on the brink of possible extinction—there are only an estimated 3,200 tigers left in the wild.

The sculpture was shortlisted for the annual Wildlife Artist of the Year Prize, run by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. The price tag of £20,000 for “2063” was split 50/50 between the artist and a fund for tiger conservation.

“I wanted to make a sculpture that would provoke thought and debate around the threat of extinction and that unless we act (and act now) the tiger will be no more.” said Hayward-Harris. “The (TV) presenter’s initial joy upon discovering the tiger, and then his mounting sadness upon realizing what was happening was palpable. It really brought home to me that there is only a short time left to give these majestic creatures back the freedom and the territory they need to once again breed successfully, otherwise there is a very real risk they will become extinct within 50 years.”

He doesn’t just sculpt common or garden animals though. Hayward-Harris can also excel at the human variety. His “Leap” life-sized sculpture of a ballet dancer with 24-carat plaited headpiece and golden ballet shoes, as shown at the Henley Festival in 2014, has all the fluidity of movement and supple grace of his wildlife pieces. Not all his pieces shine with gold. If not exactly the Midas touch then, Martin Hayward-Harris infuses all he touches with dynamism, elegance and contemporary style.

The post British Sculptor Martin Hayward-Harris’ Bronze Animals Seemingly Live and Breathe first appeared on Dornob.

Work in a stuffy office? Live in a city? Well, the stylish EcoQube Air could be a breath of fresh…well, you know.

Billed as “The world’s first desktop greenhouse,” the EcoQube Air promises to improve your quality of life. And just how does it plan to live up to this bold claim?

Well, it’s a combination air filter, humidifier, LED light, and hydroponics system, and all of these elements play a part. According to the tech whizzes at Aqua Design Innovations, the air is first sucked in and cleaned by two filters that remove dust, mold, pollen and indoor chemical pollutants. Next, your plant itself filters the air further and reoxygenates it. Then the EcoQube releases the cleaned air back out into your room. That’s 460 cubic feet of clean air every hour. You’re welcome, lungs.

Two fans circulate air and feed CO2 to the plants, helping them thrive. So, this is perfect for those of us who may not have the greenest of thumbs. (Don’t worry–your secret’s safe with us.)

Additionally, the designers of the EcoQube air say that the plants grow without any soil, using a “Nasa-inspired plant medium.” (We suspect the full details are classified information.) It’s a low-maintenance system, as you only have to remember to add water once a month. The plants do all the work, absorbing the nutrients and water they need. Oh, how easy they make it look…

What role does the LED light play? Well, if you love plants but don’t have a space with direct sunlight, the full-spectrum LED light will supply specially designed rays to boost the growth of your mini greenery.

The light can help you flourish, too.

“You can use the EcoQube Air to influence your own biological clock with the phone app,” explain the designers. “This helps you wake up feeling refreshed, alleviates insomnia, helps overcome jet lag, improves productivity, and helps prevent seasonal depression.”

The inventors also point to British experiments that underlined the mood-boosting power of plants:

“According to studies conducted by Exeter University, plant-rich environments providing clean air can boost creativity and productivity, improve your mood, reduce stress, and energize your body,” they say.

The phone app also lets you schedule light when your plant needs it most; change colors; and adjust weather options, such as adding a lightning storm.

Bringing a little bit of nature into your day-to-day life can only be a plus. And when you combine that with the joys of growing food, flowers or lush green plants, it’s the real deal.

Your friends, co-workers and family members will be really, um, green with envy when they catch sight of your soothing, stylish plant aquarium. Think of it as living, healthy, ever-changing art.

The EcoQube Air burst through the finish line of its Kickstarter campaign, raising a whopping $306,524 and easily surpassing its original goal of $25,000.  The team expects to ship orders to domestic backers in November, with full production launching in February 2017.

The post Go Green with the EcoQube Air first appeared on Dornob.

Airplantman sounds like a super hero, and maybe he is. His real name is Josh Rosen and he creates stunning air plant designs, including fantastic vertical squares to display a plethora of tillandsia aka Tillys.

Rosen’s piece the resistance is his large Airplantframe, a stunning piece of living art. The beautiful frame is made from an eco-friendly, powder-coated aluminum and hand-strung stainless steel cable. The materials are completely recyclable, and a percentage of the profits goes toward air plant eco system protection.

You can get your vertical garden started easily with the plant booster kit, which includes 10-20 species at different sizes, or sign up for club membership where fresh boxes arrive at your doorstep regularly. His website shows instructions on the “how to,” from light to watering, fertilization and more.

One can also get a gorgeous square frame measuring 11”x11” in hip colors such as matte black or white, and glossy orange or aqua.

Finally, there are a variety of stylish vessels made in ceramics, steel and wood to display the gorgeous tillandsia.

The post Airplantman: A Vertical Garden for Your Home first appeared on Dornob.

Imagine dining surrounded by gangsta tattoo art. This is now possible in Aix-en-Provence, where patrons of a Japanese restaurant called Le Koi are surrounded by vast monochromatic motifs inspired by the Japanese Yakuza tattoos. The environment is a stylish feast for the senses. We may just forget to focus on our plates and get lost in the walls!

Now, the Yakuza are a notorious crime syndicate (gang would be an understatement), who are famous — among other, more unsavory things — for their beautiful and ornate tattoos. One of the many reasons for getting their whole body covered is that the dragons, koi fish and other motifs serve as “protection.” Besides, they clearly let others know where in society you belong.

Koi restaurant in the south of France was stunningly done, from walls to floors to ceiling, by architect Vincent Coste and graphic artist Claire Leina, who designed the art. Splashes of color like bright red steel chairs, natural elements like pale timber, as well as metallics contrast beautifully with the dramatic and somehow elegant black and white vibe. In the bathroom, the “tattoos” show up in burgundy.

We’re thinking the idea could be applied at home wallpaper depicting classic Japanese art motifs. Unless you can hire Coste!

About Vincent Coste

“Vincent Coste opened his architectural agency in his home town of St. Tropez in 2000, after collaborating with Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam and Oscar Tusquets in Barcelona. His approach, based on his solid architectural background, is strongly linked to a Mediterranean context : climate, culture, history.”

“Every architectural design he creates takes into consideration the physical boundaries of a home, relative to its surroundings, making each project totally unique. Thanks to Vincent’s own interest in interior design, he extends his vision with those activities closely related to his work.  He is able to offer a global life scenario through architecture, interior design and furniture conception.”

The post Yakuza Tattoos Liven Up a Restaurant Interior in Aix-en-Provence first appeared on Dornob.