clean, bright & airy: japanese interiors

These photos, all scanned from Japanese interiors magazines, seem like such a logical progression from traditional Japanese interiors. Admittedly, all I really know about such things is that they involve tatami mats, soaker tubs and bonsai trees, but these interiors seem to embody the same minimalism. I'm feeling more and more motivated to de-clutter my apartment.



Man, I am really crushing on Japanese design lately - see this post about Tokyo storefronts.

textiles & textures

Warm wood + beautiful fabrics + natural light = dream home.

This Melbourne home of two Australian architects is so minimal yet so cozy. I can't stop looking at these photos. Check out their amazing kitchen too!

hej, hej, hej: true scandinavian

My dear friend and co-blogger Ming has been in Sweden for the past year, where she presumably spends her time eating lingonberry jam and dating boys with soft Js in their names. I hope she has also clocked a few hours in houses that look like this.

These photos are from soon-to-be-released book True Scandinavian: Contemporary Living. I love these photos because they buck the trend of overly blonde-wood, too-sleek Scandinavian interiors. These are spaces you can actually imagine living in, maybe even getting a little dirty. Not everything has been artfully slotted away into custom-made cabinets. DVD players work just as well sitting on the floor. Milk crates are excellent storage containers.


Considering that I'm about to move in with a knack for drawing flora & fauna, that last photo might not be so far off from our future apartment!

found these photos via this lovely swedish blog - thanks!

hooked on succulents

A trip through the American southwest totally reshaped my ideas about natural beauty. Outside my window here in Montreal, the rain is falling and the buds are sprouting - and that's nice and all, but I'm almost too busy fetishizing desert plants to get down with spring. Is that so wrong?


photos (from the top) from here, here and here.

making peace with the hippies

The photos from this 1974 book have me California dreamin'.




I grew up on the west coast, where my mom took us over to the Gulf Islands between Vancouver Island and Vancouver to visit her aging hippy friends. I never identified with that aesthetic, but as I get older (and admittedly more stressed), I find myself gravitating more and more to brightly-lit, wood-panelled, house-planty spaces. I've finally realized I can love west coast interiors and wear a lot of black. Duh.
The other day someone told me they could tell I was from BC because I radiate "such a calm vibe," as if he was trying to speak to a British Columbian in language she could understand. Like, totally, man. East-coasters are nuts.

Check out more pictures from the book here.

breakfast in denmark

A beautiful morning spread in a house made entirely of pale wood. Part of this idyllic vacation with pals.

the unbearable cuteness of tokyo storefronts

If these photos are anything to go by, Tokyo-ites like their shops and cafes pocket-sized and kawaii as hell (although their diminutive size might be born of necessity more than desire). These pictures were taken by this lady in the Tokyo suburbs of Koenji, Nakameguro and Shimokitazawa - all of which she describes as being packed with, variously, thrift stores, stationery shops and cozy restaurants. Now, to befriend someone who will let me crash at their place in Tokyo...

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

tibetan catholic churches

a temporary church set-up in baihanluo

In the Footsteps of Joseph Rock follows an Australian journalist's journey through Tibet. Not to get too liberal-arts-student about things, but these images of Tibetan Catholic churches really are a reminder that, for all the news stories I've read about Tibet, I really know shit all about it.
That, and I have a sudden urge to build a shrine.




midnight mass at baihanluo church

(photos from jiulong's flickr)