Wordplay

Why,  oh why, couldn’t I have found one of these REAL GOOD chairs on the streets of  New York? Orange, please. Thank you.

Blu Dot Real Good Experiment from Real Good Chair on Vimeo.

What’s more eco-friendly than getting a hamster on a wheel to power your Macbook? Don’t have a hamster? Don’t have a Macbook? Don’t enjoy cruelty to animals?

Fine, here’s a sticker.

Here’s a better one:

And for science/weather/history nerds:

And for crafters:

All decals via Hu2Design.

Who’s laughing now, electricity bill?

We’re in the midst of a complete overhaul of my railroad, since we weaseled the landlord out of charging us more for another year. The “emergency” Craigslist furniture is being sold (some is already gone!) and new “less emergency” Craigslist furniture is arriving everyday. Our most successful day, thus far? Buying a new desk in midtown, trekking it back (after dropping it, drawing blood, and breaking it slightly) to the railroad, selling two other desks we already had to two different buyers, and then venturing down to the West Village for this Blue Dot TV stand. Yes, it was madness.

But yes, things are underway.

First (and quite possibly the easiest) upgrade: NEW CURTAINS.

Since we’ve been living with drab white linen ones for the past year, there’s no way I wasn’t going to add big bold color to my windows (double negative? Ugh. Well, that’s how strongly I feel about patterns on windows right now). If you’re really crafty, you can follow Martha’s tutorial for painting your own panels (except I would use these templates, instead). Some great patterns:

You may notice a blue/green theme here. I can’t seem to get away from it. Looks so great with the light streaming through. Not that we  have any light streaming through our windows…just mostly ambient noise, street haze and the adjacent apartment’s every move.

a: House to Home b&c: Martha d: Anthropologie

But, of course, if you really want to jazz your windows up a bit, you’d add some of that infamous Marimekko fabric as curtains. Not that either of us (meaning you, the reader, and me, the dreamer) could afford enough yardage to cover even the tiniest window…

e: Maija Isola’s Madison Wi f: Anna Danielsson’s Bottna g: Kristina Isola’s Biloba h: Unikko

But don’t they look great?

i: Marmekko Bedroom j: Marimekko Kitchen But don’t worry, I’m not spending my entire month’s pay on some damn curtains. Instead I found some second handy ones on Craigslist for cheap! Originally $34 a panel at Urban Outfitters, I paid only $10 for a set of these green ones! Can’t wait to see how they look with every else…

A Field Journal blogged about their awesome craft closet in the making a few months ago. See kick-ass sketches with watercolor:

And who doesn’t want a kick-ass tiny-space office closet? Especially when all you have is a corner to call your own? So I did some digital dreaming and found some things that would make me happy in a home office. Now I just need a wardrobe big enough for a desk and all my clutter aka possessions…

a. Orange Yuan Lamp from Anthropologie: b. Inspiration office from Martha Stewart; c. Large 1950s Orange Canister from Etsy shop PardonMyVintage; d. LINNARP desk from IKEA; e. Vintage Canister Set from Amazon; f. Natural Magazine Files from The Container Store: g. Hi print from Etsy shop TheLoveShop;  h. Terai Folding Chair in Cleopatra from Anthropologie

**ADDED LATER…

So, as fate would have it, after I’ve already published this post, the most adorable little office found its way across my Safari window and showed her pretty face. Via Design Sponge, this is the office of Emily Johnston Anderson, who takes lovely photos, which you can see here. This office is practical, warm and smart. The chairs have wheels, which I realize may be the key to keeping the peace in an office built for two (the scooting and scraping of pulling out chairs is not conducive to creativity or mindless web browsing I have found).  Now, only for an open wall…

Only because online interior design quizzes are quite accurate and insightful, I thought I’d share my results of the International School of Color and Design I found online this week…take it yourself, here.

Images from ISCD

I have to say–they pegged me. The “gallery” description–right on. It’s truly amazing how they knew about all the textures (dust, wrinkled curtains, plywood Ikea “investment pieces”) and the rich details–oh!, the rich details. What gave me away–was it my weird double-life thrift store vases/candle sticks or the old but loved questionable bathmat-turned rug? Perhaps our newly acquired tye-died bongo or my surprisingly self-sufficient bonsai named Pearl? …Ok, so the “rich” part is a bit sideways, but I suppose  the “abstract” is on the money. And every wall does tell a story–like the one in my bathroom screaming for mold and mildew cleaner and the one next to the bed where the drywall bows when I roll over too far…

But of course, the day I have whatever an”Eastern Boho” home is, I’ll want my Murray Hill railroad with all it’s shortcomings and decent rent, so I’ll stick with “Bare Eclectic Forced Minimalism” for now…

Finally! Something to do with all those canvas tote bags lying around. Via NotCot (and Apartment Therapy), a tutorial on how to transform those weird logoed bags into cushy pillows for your futon.

Image via Notcot.

The “you need a canvas tote” trend is really getting a little much. Yes, do away with plastic bags. Yes, put your groceries, library books, dirty laundry, locks for love in a reusable bag. Yes, save the earth–one wad of flimsy non-biodegradable plastic at a time. But I already gave up plastic bags. And I already have a tote for items that need toting. I think I have six. And a few of them say things like “Holiday Gift Guide Show” with ugly sponsors logos as decorations.

Time for a couch upgrade I think. They’ll match my jute rug. So eco of me.

Found this DIYideas chair cover tutorial via How About Orange and can’t stop staring. Doesn’t this chair look great? The instructions say you need all of this:

• Cleaner
• Plain paper for template
• Pencil
• Art print or poster
• Scissors
• Glue or decoupage medium
• Foam brushes
• Water source
• Sponge
• Brayer
• Polyurethane

But it sounds like a lot more than it really is: Household craft items, a piece of furniture and a cool poster (plus polyurethane…unless you just like to keep that around…you know, just in case).

Image from DIYideas

So really the main reason I like this project is because I HAVE THESE CHAIRS. They are secondhand Craigslist IKEA chairs (does it GET any better?!) and they most definitely need new “clothes” for spring. We just recently acquired a super cool Japanese movie poster of Quentin’s DeathProof which looks like this one and can’t think of anything that would look better on a chair.

I have a feeling I’m not going to be allowed to cut that up, though. Any better ideas?

I know the world has seen these images a thousand times over since they were posted on Design Sponge, but this is one of the best faux headboard ideas I’ve seen. And trust me, over 1,000 stolen paint swatches on a wall could look much worse than this:

Paint swatch wall created by Scott Prendergast of a state of emergency, images via Design Sponge.

I know he uses pink and blue as well, but I’m getting a vision of a gender-specific way to divide sides of the bed with these colors…hmm. Although currently my mattress has a long side against the wall (hey! close quarters!) so I suppose that wouldn’t work. But you can just imagine the patterns and possibilties of this concept. Stripes?

Made By Girl showed off her beautiful framed art wall yesterday and now I’m ready to start collecting for mine.

How great is this smattering of printed goodies?

Images from Made By Girl.

Perhaps I’ll star with these…

Clockwise from top left: Healing from Shirae::perCEPtion by vincenzorizzo::Paint piece from Jacksonville, FL artist Clay Doran, found via ScoutieGirl::Indian Summer from JKphotography::Alienation from JenMcCleary 

It’s hot:

New endeavor from a gaggle of (laid-off) Portfolio.com staffers that wish to bring the world more sticky recession news. It’s only for the time-being (so they say) and hopefully it won’t be here forever. Catch it while you still can (good for passing time whilst wistfully waiting for employment opportunities to arise).

1. Watch some of their recommended  feel-good movies–feel good because you’re better off than these suckers:

The Fly–because you could be half-insect.

Cast Away– because you could be stuck on an island and not only have no paycheck, but have to talk to a volleyball smeared with blood.

Carrie–because you could constantly piss people off by accidentally setting them on fire. Well, or maybe you could view this film as a how-to.

The Wrestler–because you could be on the minor leagues wrestling circuit–and yep, that really would be worse.

2. Watch for their daily Recession Briefings — a day’s worth of corralled doom and gloom heds from the papers.

This week:  Mom, I joined the Army–because I couldn’t find a job from CNNMoney
The Department of Defense says all branches of the armed forces met or exceeded their recruiting goals for January, despite the two ongoing wars.

3. Follow Joe the Trader’s daily schedule of life after Wall Street:

Monday, 3:18 p.m.:
Go to Equinox on 45th and Lexington. When it first opened, it was conveniently located near Barclays, Bear Stearns, JP Morgan and the Park Avenue hedge funds. Bear is gone, and I wonder how much longer the others will be around. There sure are a lot more guys here in the mid-afternoon than I would have expected. Are they all out of work too? Or do they just have nothing to do at work? I guess one positive benefit of the recession is that a lot more Wall Street guys will be able to run an eight minute mile.

4. Think you have creativity left in you? One contributor mentions how to decorate your new (smaller) apartment (near JFK)  in these tough times, including a $0 project made from old spiral-bound notebooks. Trash diving is now posh, I suppose.

Me? I just Rasterbate when no one’s looking. It’s free and it feels good:

Photo by Iñigo Amescua (I like how he sees U.S. photography), NYC, 2008, Rasterbated on 8.5 x 11 sheets of printer paper, meticulously trimmed and joined with Scotch tape and a careful eye.

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