enzo mari wants to choke bad designers with his bare hands.

You may not recognize him, but this man is a hero. He is a designer and his name is Enzo Mari. In 1974 he published a little book called Autoprogettazione. It included plans for 19 DIY furniture projects, and the plans looked like this:



Mari may have provided the plans, but that doesn't mean he meant for them be followed strictly. Disgusted by what he calls the "alienation of industry," Mari hoped to put the power back in the hands of the consumer.
Results vary.



In a recent interview with Apartamento magazine, Mari expressed a distaste for the word "design." He prefers "project," or, in Italian, progetto.

"Projects can only be taught concretely," he told the interviewer. "It can't be done abstractly, using fragmented banal theories, but only intervening critically on a student's practice.
"Every time I asked them [students] to choose what to design, they would propose things like chairs, say, things that have already been designed thousands of times before.
"I would say all the time, 'Look out the window. If everything you see is beautiful, and right, and you approve it there's nothing left to design.
"'If there is something that makes you want to choke the designer and the commissioner with your own bare hands, something that horrifies you, that is the reason for your project.'"

In 2009, a London gallery staged a group exhibition celebrating Mari's Autoprogettazione. The plans may have been published in the early '70s, but the ideas behind them still seem current as ever.

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!

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

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

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.

gutter gardens

A refugee of suburbia, I must admit I spent my childhood dreaming of apartment life. Now that it's become a reality, I can't stop thinking about backyards. The grass is always greener (than the fenced-off asphalt in front of your triplex that your landlord tries to pass off as a garden).
But maybe I should take a cue from this:
Summer project: cultivate a gutter garden.

how to make a clementine candle

My friends and I are big fans of clementines, but we're also big fans of their boxes. The fact that such delicious fruit comes with a nice wooden box as a free gift - it's the greatest! But I have to say, I ain't never seen such an intriguing use of the clementines themselves. Check out this candle!It's not even a waste of a clementine - all you use is the peel.
How to do it:

Using surgical precision, slice the peel all the way around the fattest part so it's cut in two equal halves. Remove the innards (and eat them).

Cut out a little star on the top half. If you're going to unveil the candle during a romantic dinner, cut out a heart. Nothing says love like burning citrus.

There should be a little bit of pith (that white, less yummy part) sticking out of at least one of the sides. This will be your "wick."
Carefully fill that side with vegetable oil.
Time to light that motherf***er! This may not be as easy as it sounds.Watch Apartment Therapy's how-to slideshow for more precise instructions. Apparently this is a European thing. Finally, a more dignified end for peels than the compost bin!

fabric walls

I have fantasies about wallpaper. One day, when I'm certain my lease will be for more than a year, and when I find a landlord who sees eye to eye with my beautiful design visions, I am going to wallpaper the heck out of my home. Floral print, peacock feather print, bright colours everywhere. Until then, however, I'm forced to get a bit creative. And I'm willing to bet you are too.

For months, I've been trying to figure out how to fill up the blank white wall which runs alongside my bed. At the head on the wall I've got a cluster of art, at the base I've got a collection of found photographs from a road trip from Toronto to Vancouver in 1970 (Cha-ching! Best find ever), but the middle has always looked frustratingly bare. I played around with different things and eventually decided: I am going to fake wallpaper until I can have the real thing. I dug up a beautiful old floral sheet I'd bought for a couple bucks at Value Village because I liked the pattern, tacked it up, and in a matter of minutes: voila! Full wall, cozy room, wallpaper at a glance:

You can find lots of pretty vintage fabric on the cheap at any Value Village, Salvation Army, or church bazaar. I found a stack of beautiful ones at the weekly bazaar held at Mont Royal and St Hubert every Thursday for pretty cheap--go grab em!

Sheets work wonderfully if you want a bigger space covered, but smaller sections of fabric can be gorgeous as art on your wall, framed or unframed.

dresses as decoration

I have a dress problem. Floral dresses, 90s dresses, fancy dresses, country dresses, day dresses. I want 'em all. It's too hard to turn down a beautiful vintage find when you know it's yours now or never. But, quantity is eating away at the quality of my display and care for these dresses. The most beautiful fifties numbers are stashed in the back of my closet, white lace sharing a hanger with three cardigans. So, I resolve: no more! Now these dresses will get the tender love, care, and time in the spotlight they deserve. I love the idea of displaying beautiful pieces as artwork. They fill up a wall, provide a bit of colour and texture, and remind their owner that they're there ready and waiting for a night on the town!

I like they way they've done it here, from My Little Apartment:



And here, from Aesthetically Pleasing

Perfect for us young ones with little money for big, bright artworks and an appetite for impractical vintage!

picture frame medicine cabinet

I am really digging this beautiful homemade powder room storage! This would be especially perfect if you, like certain boys I could name, use only the finest and most well-packaged of bath products.
If you're like me, however, and usually opt for the cheapest drugstore options, this could be a beautiful shrine for reading material.
Grab yourself a big ol' frame at your local thrift store (or back alley, for that matter) and check out the way easy instructions for this project on the Country Living website.

handmade decorations

photo from aesthetically pleasing

In the spirit of celebration, this post is dedicated to pretty handmade decorations.

If you're hosting a party (maybe even one tonight for Valentine's day!), hanging paper cranes, pennants, hearts, or chains looks lovely and really warms up a space without much hard work at all. Dig back to your kindergarten crafting and try to reassemble some paper chains or snowflakes, but skip out on the messily crayon-coloured paper and replace it with some inexpensive coloured construction paper. Surprisingly, chains and decorations made with just plain white printer, graph, and lined paper look beautiful too.

I love this idea of hanging paper cranes from brightly coloured clothes hangers. A simple but gorgeous D.I.Y.:

















photo from My Little Apartment

These pennants are lovely too, looks like they've used origami paper:















photo from Please Sir

Paper decorations can make for lovely place settings too, if you're hosting a sit-down dinner party. Here's what we made for New Year's Eve out of printer paper and construction paper scraps, pretty nifty, I'd say:
















Happy Valentine's Day!

D.I.Y. pantry

I love food, especially when it comes in beautiful packaging. So do Ming and her friends, so much that they started up Le Fancy to show off all the lovely things they get to eat. Looking at that pretty blog, it comes as no surprise that here in Montreal, Ming and her room mates would want to showcase these kinds of items in their kitchen.

Using scrap pieces of wood and inexpensive brackets, the kids at the St Denis house built their own do-it-yourself pantry to maximize limited cupboard space and showcase their tasty delights.

















Staggering the shelves fills up what would've been an empty wall to make it look warm, inviting, and hecka tasty too. The section of the wall they've painted with chalkboard paint is a nice touch.



















I also like My Little Apartment's take on the D.I.Y. pantry: a freestanding version with scrap wood, found cinderblocks, and a cute patterned curtain to cover it up, filling an unused nook of the kitchen.