Hide & Sleep

Remodelista's recent post on alcove beds was inspiring; depicting innovative space usage, emphasizing the modern trend toward comfort, and making me feel an afternoon nap coming on. Here are some of my favorites from the post, with a few of my own window seat and sleeping nook finds added in:


A modern bed at the Hotel Aire de Bardenas in Spain (from Remodelista).


A built-in reading niche by Piet Boon (from Remodelista).


A built-in bed in Minneapolis, via Dwell (from Remodelista).


A window seat hideaway found in Ideal Home UK, via Dwellers without Decorators.


The perfect place to hide from the world.


As seen on The Green Door.


Guest room alcove beds from Posh Posh.




The two photos above feature a living room I designed in Atlantic Beach, NY and a close-up of the window seat lounge.


A cozy spot for reading and afternoon tea that I designed for a Manhattan client.

America's Least Wasteful Cities

Naglene, manufacturer of a variety of BPA-free reusable containers, has created an intriguing website rating major American cities on their wastefulness. Check it out: www.leastwastefulcities.com. Not surprisingly, San Francisco takes home the prize, however I was interested to learn that New York City came in 3rd. This would be even more encouraging, had they not ranked 2nd in 2009 which either indicates an uptrend in wastefulness of New York City residents or simply that Seattle stepped it up big time. See the stats on NYC here. Either way, it sounds like my hometown of 14 years is leading the way in sustainable practices, being a part of the solution, as effectively as an uber-metropolis with millions of people in a few square miles can.

Here's the real kicker, you can take a personal wastefulness test by answering a few simple questions and see how you rank among others in the nation. I surprisingly ranked LOWER than the national average in my reuse and recycling practices. What?!? My guess is that the country's most active and eco-conscious are those that are going to the website and taking the test, therefore the millions of average households aren't even accounted for. Phew - I feel better. Sort of.

Pot Lid Fix

Another brilliant storage trick from Martha Stewart, solving the problem of where to store pot lids when space is limited. I nest several pots in my pantry cabinet and the lids just sorta hang out around them. But I love this ingenious solution and think I will bump this up on my growing list of DIY home projects. Click here for the full post.

Monday Color: Robin's Egg Blue

I'm not sure if I'm inspired by the official commencement of Spring today or if I have one of my clients (loving wife of Tiffany & Co's CEO) to blame, but I'm currently falling back in love with the sweetly vintage and always cheery hue of Robin's Egg Blue right now. It imparts a simple happiness in each of the rooms and products below. It can do its thing in a kids room in a more sophisticated way than pastel blues but is vastly popular with adults as well, working seamlessly into a number of different decor styles. A robin itself boasts subdued brown or rust feathers, but lays brilliant blue-green eggs, the color of which has carried the branding for an enduring luxury goods brand and graced brilliant interiors for decades. That's a powerful egg.

















Images above:

1. Accents of Robin's Egg Blue are fun, yet soothing in this eclectic bedroom posted on Apartment Therapy, San Francisco.

2. A daring kitchen from Coastal Living, via Make Room for Living.

3. A group of mismatched dining chairs become a happy set in vibrant Robin's Egg Blue, via Tater Tots and Jello.

4. A tree silhouette on Robin's Egg Blue walls is both sophisticated and fun in this little girl's room, found on the Style Decor blog.

5. Brigitte Desk from Bungalow 5 in light blue.

6. Lacquer Napkin Holder in Robin's Egg Blue and Gold, by Entertaining with Caspari

7. Haviland "Laque de Chine" in Gold and Light Blue

8. Available in storage pieces, beds, bunks and more, the Robin's Egg Blue in Alexander Julian's Cottage Colours Collection is totally charming.

Etsy Love: Peg and Awl

Happy Saturday!!

One of my favorite pieces of furniture in my home is a simple bench made from support beams rescued from a turn-of-the-century lower Manhattan commercial building and I recently dragged a sea-sculputed plank of driftwood off the beach to turn into a shelf or maybe a table. You see, I have long believed that wood never belongs in a dumpster; the history and character that reclaimed wood possesses is more beautiful to me than any newly planed board could ever be. This said, I was delighted to discover a pair of talented Etsy artisans diverting this precious resource away from landfills after it has served its structural purpose in our nation's oldest buildings. Peg and Awl is a Philadelphia-based, husband and wife duo who dream up new uses for time-worn wood, as evidenced by the alluring - and sometimes quirky - pieces below. Whether crafting purely functional housewares out of salvaged wood or adding their own decoupaged twist to reclaimed chunks, the results are all equally lovable. Please take the time to read the stories in each link, as the origins of the wood materials are often just as interesting as the resulting piece.





Reclaimed Wood Candle Blocks (Metamorphosis, in the single photo above, is my favorite.)




Reclaimed Oak Tub Caddy




Medium Reclaimed Pine Desk Caddy




Reclaimed Hardwood Apothecary Spice/Tea Rack




Reclaimed Wood Shelf and Coat Hanger




Set of 3 Nesting Reclaimed Oak Fruit Baskets

Green Weavers

My son's elementary school recently assigned a recycling project to all the grade levels as part of a school-wide environmental initiative. Needless to say, I'm stoked! We brainstormed a bit about the project a few nights ago, considering the only parameter of the project: make something cool out of our trash/recyclables. Easy enough.

Well, our garbage is fairly minimal (patting self on the back right now), so we looked to our recycling bin. We basically found cardboard food packaging, some junk mail, a few catalogs and a small pile of design magazines (I'm hopelessly addicted to them, despite the paperless e-versions now available). We recently made a giant, wall-mounted, 3D relief of our solar system completely out of found items already in our home (although sawing a handball in half for two of the planets was much harder than I had anticipated!), so I knew we could come up with a project requiring that we use only our trash. With paper recyclables being our only resource, we set on our sites on weaving up some boxes and baskets from them, as found in this crafty re-use project. Actually, I snipped and weaved experimentally myself for a bit and then thought "someone must have already figured out how to do this" and hopped online, delighted to find this wonderful how-to on Craft Stylish. We'll post the results here sometime next week.

Muji Eco-finds

In light of the recent devastation in Japan, my aim for today's post was to turn my attention on a Japanese brand, so of course I immediately thought of MUJI. I discovered their products in London over 10 years ago and have been in love with their practical, minimal aesthetic ever since. I was pleased to see that many recycled offerings have been added to their product lists and have included a few of my favorite Earth-conscious wares from Japan's infamous MUJI brand below. While the people of Japan are still reeling from the devastating effects of the tsunami, we sit comfortably in our dry, warm homes, wondering what we can do to help. From prayers to acts of service, to the donation of our fiscal resources, our country is dutifully stepping up. Supporting their commerce is yet another way to help.



Reused Yarn Tank Top $19.50



Recycled Paper Monthly Kraft Notebook $3.95 (made from recycled paper)



60 Colored Pencils in a Tube $27.95 (pencils are made from Cedar, storage tube is recycled cardboard)



Card Holder $7.25 (made from PET, 50% recycled plastic bottles)

Eco-Audio

I love music just about as much as our dear Mother Earth, so I was thrilled to discover the new Vers Earphones (pictured). They are available in sustainably harvested walnut or cherry hard woods or fast-growing bamboo. The completely PVC-free design features ear buds with "in-ear passive noise cancellation design [that] blocks 90% of the surrounding sound, assuring an ideal acoustic experience in any environment." So I guess this means that screaming babies on airplanes can now be drowned out without needing to lug around headphones the size of a carry-on.



And when you get back home, pop your iPod or iPhone onto this AM/FM radio/alarm for 15 watts of full, rich sound (also by Vers, shown here with Bamboo housing).



(As you can see from the photo above, Ryder and I already rock out with the older version of the bamboo Vers iPod player.)



Finally, for a lo-fi beach party (and a little upper body workout), check out the crank-powered Safe Bamboo Radio designed by Pierre Garner and Elise Berthier (available through MoMa). Two minutes of cranking provides thirty minutes of eco-friendly tunes, via radio or by connecting your mp3 player.

Monday Color: Avocado Green

Avocados are riddled with misconception: they are a fruit, not a vegetable despite their location in the produce aisle; they may be high in fat, but it's the good kind; and so on. The bright verdant color of their fleshy insides was once a popular decorating color, then gained the opposite reputation, but thankfully has become vogue again. A child of the 70's myself, I've always appreciated pops of this notoriously retro color, especially in updated ways like the rooms and products below reveal.




















Images above:

1. A darling room, rich in color and pattern, found on a blog called My Best Friends Little Sister.

2. Avacado was a staple in kitchens and bathrooms decades ago, but this updated white kitchen with warm green peeping out of the cabinets is totally contemporary and fresh. (Found in a brilliant post on Decorologist.)

3. In my own home, an oversized, avocado green John Robshaw pillow inspired the palette for a whole room.

4. A practically perfect nursery found on Decor Pad. If you can take your eyes off the awesome avocado and white wallpaper, check out the treatment around the light!!

5. Classic cast iron Le Creuset Round French Ovens in Spinach

6. Ludoli Bedding Collection from John Robshaw

7. Outdoor Shelter Sectional from cb2.

8. Classic By Nature Modern Owl on Natural Linen Front and Damask Print Back Cushion Cover

9. Color Bee 'All My Loving' Lyrics Poster