the best kind of clutter

Culture Overflowing, originally uploaded by David Serra.
I get good vibes from houses full of books.

nothing to do but thrift

Oh, to have a life of meticulous thrift shopping and creative home renovation. This blog documents the home improvement project of a couple living in what I suspect might be a small town in California. They've got a great eye for deals and really seem to have put together an amazing home relatively cheaply.


Feeling inspired by their penchant for kitsch portraits and dedication to mid-century furniture. It makes me want to put my free time to good use and get back into the habit of scouring the local Salvation Army...

chair customization

Just the logical next step for this chair, which must have seemed so modern at its conception.
I wish I could claim to have done this myself, but no, I found it on the internet. Let this be your inspiration to start customizing all your chairs!

clever topiaries

To add onto Ming's post about shrubbery in Lund, Sweden: photographer Brad Moore captures bushes and humans, living in slightly desperate harmony.

fuck christmas trees

...and not just because it's not even Halloween yet. I've got no space and too many magazines, so this seems like a more practical solution for my personal life concept.

image from here

i need a vacation

vacation homes for all seasons.
from this flickr

paper flowers

I am very impressed with this paper chandelier, made out of paper and straws by a crafty blogger.
My mother grew up in a small town that celebrates every May 1st with a May Day parade, one that always included a fleet of tiny cyclists. My grandpa taught us how to make paper roses from tissue paper, which we would then wrap around the handlebars of our bicycles with sparkly pipe cleaners.
The creator of the chandelier above was inspired by the one below. If I had any free time I would DIY that shit so hard.

photo from wren handmade

getting rid of shit 101

When graphic designer Megan Deal decided to move to Alabama, she also decided it was a hassle to move with more than one bag. So logically, she decided to sell everything she owned.
Looks like we missed the boat on buying her "assorted rectangle felt pieces." Ha!

clutter in gouache

Speaking of the constant battle against messy desks: the amazing Charlie Roberts renders desktops, inspiration boards and everything crowding around them in beautifully detailed gouache paint.
Oh yeah, that's why I was keeping those piles of paper around - because they look kind of great.

the new antiquarians

New York Times article "The New Antiquarians" documents the ol' fashioned tastes of a handful of young Brooklyn-dwellers and their "extremely previous lifestyles." Apparently some young people are fascinated by old shit, especially taxidermy. Who knew?

“It’s way more than anti-modernism, this sort of deep spelunking into the past,” said Valerie Steele, director of the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology. “It’s not aspirational and it’s not nostalgic. It’s a fantasy world that is almost entirely a visual collage. It’s a stitched-together, bricolage world, an alternative world."

She goes on to add that "it's too bad" the antique fascination will inevitably be commodified by marketers. Honey, it's too late.

But as it's just the nature of newspapers to be late-to-the-party about these things, let's just concentrate on the enviable interiors.Note the swans in flight.Ricocheting between loving curio cabinets and having anxiety attacks about having too much useless shitIS THAT A STUFFED DOG?

see the whole photo series on the n.y. times website

COOL

Let your guests know that Goosebumps is in the house.

no place like it

print by jen collins

cana-duh

All good Canadians should own a Hudson's Bay blanket.All good Ontarians should own an Ontario Hydro emergency blanket.And maybe all of us want to live in this cabin.

tasty typewriter

Vancouver store The Regional Assembly of Text is a special little place that sells beautiful handprinted stationery, buttons and the like. They also possess enviable collections of both typewriters and metal filing cabinets.
photos by heidi zutter
The store recently celebrated its fourth anniversary.I like the store and think the owners are living the dream and everything, but the real reason I mention it is because I'm really impressed by the cake they got to celebrate it.

creative workspace

You know the drill: it's 2am. You have a ginormous project you still haven't started. The deadline is 9am. You've been procrastinating by eating for the past four hours and are now too full to continue. You must find another way to not work.
So, naturally, you decide to reorganise your desk.the desk of illustrator victor kerlow

When I'm really under the gun, I inevitably choose my precious, highly limited time to render my surroundings more pleasing. I thought studying at the library would put a stop to it but, before I knew it, I was stacking and restacking my books and lining up my pens instead of writing a paper.the desk of photographer dan winters

Aside from finally pulling up my socks and acquiring some fucking work ethic, I see no solution to this aside from making sure my workspace is already so beautiful, it will stimulate rather than distract.the sewing table of australian costume designer tina kalivas, via the selby

Good luck, my partners in procrastination. May this new scholastic year usher in a renewed desire to pull oneself up by one's proverbial bootstraps.

talar du svenska?

Speaking of swedes, look at this:
Enjoy it while you can because the Swedish summer is only a month of real beach warm weather. But oh, they make it well worth it as witnessed here in the beautiful shrubbery of Lund, Sweden!

rainy summer

It was a rainy, draining Montreal summer. For those who the rain just can't get down, there are these supercute wall stickers from Swedish company Studio Violet. But seriously, who would spend money on something so easy to DIY?

icelandic turf houses

I recently received a postcard from a friend who had just got back from Iceland, a mysterious place where the locals dine on putrefied shark and more than half the population believes in elves. But enough of that ol' chestnut - I'm more interested in these turf houses.Turf houses are naturally well-insulated and the roofs provide natural drainage. Some were even built using whalebones as internal beams when wood was in short supply. All this hullaballoo about green roofs in Montreal and other North American cities when, really, the technique was perfected about a zillion years ago by people with last names too long to fit on caller ID. Typical.

terrarium hilarium

If a garden is a domesticated forest, then a terrarium certainly keeps nature on a short leash. Beloved by interior decorators of both the Victorian era and the 1970s, I think it's time terrariums made a comeback.Terrariums are apparently way low maintenance because the glass container will capture moisture and keep everything happy and humid. The lowest maintenance of all, however, comes from a terrarium that doesn't even have plants in it.Currently reading this terrarium tutorial and nodding to myself. Yes, okay, I could do that/will do that/am doing that.

one man's ceiling is another man's floor

City living according to Los Angeles artist Ana Serrano.

picture this

If my life were a comic strip, I would live in the textured, whimsical world of Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo. Even if this will never be a reality, the least I can do is hang a printout of his work on my wall.

cabinets of curiosity

The way someone fills their house with things can tell you a lot about a person, that's what this blog is all about. 17th century Swedishman, Ole Worm, was working with the same mentality when he decided to dedicate a whole room of his home to display his vast collection. Ranging from naturalia like antlers and tortoise shells to artificialia (man made items), Worm demonstrated to his visitors his knowledge of the world and the ways in which humans and nature are intertwined. Whether or not this is conveyed, does this not look fantastic? Who doesn't wish they had room soley for the purpose of display...

maira kalman: my decorator of choice

New York illustrator Maira Kalman paints rooms that seem to be everything I want in a home: sunny, jumbly and way, way, way aesthetically pleasing. If her book The Principles of Uncertainty and her illustrated edition of The Elements of Style are any indication, Kalman's world is a beautiful one. I want to find a way to wrangle myself an invitation to her home for tea and cake.

jungle dwellings

1 BR - BEAUTIFUL LOFT-STYLE APARTMENT! (south of the equator)
Reply to:hous-atdnt-1175635192@craigslist.org
Date: 2009-05-19, 3:13PM EDT

Tired of ubiquitous hallway apartments and low-ceilinged flophouses? Then look no further than this charming loft, conveniently located next to the biggest river this side of the Mississippi! Open concept. Perfect for singles, close couples, or your entire extended family. Fridge, stove, plumbing and comfort not included. Vertigo optional. Roof access.