Ever since we wrote about the discontinuation in America of Ikea’s great Alvar-Aalto-esque Frosta stool – it is widely available in Europe – we have been involved in a curious correspondence with Ikea’s Customer Service Department; it has been a bit “like pulling teeth” (though much more pleasant) to get the information we are looking for.
When we wrote to ask why the Frosta stool is no longer being sold in America, we were told “Unfortunately, the Frosta stool…is no longer being manufactured by our suppliers.”.
When we asked why the stool is sold widely in Europe and not in the US – hence must be available from distributors – we got the original email with a chunk added: in addition to being unavailable from suppliers “we have no control over the products that IKEACorporate from Sweden discontinues products here in the UnitedStates.” Confusing. read more…
When we first read about Appree’s leaf-shaped sticky notes, we wrote them off as just another expensive and unnecessary take on a good simple, efficient design – the Post-It. THEN we saw them used to embellish a wall – not trying to be practical ‘post-its’ but rather, tiny little leaf sculptures…
….a-h-h-h there’s a sweet idea for decorating a room. read more…
We are big fans of impromptu business cards as well as interesting signs posted on public walls, or, well, anywhere. So we’re smitten with the possibilities inherent in Printery & Bindery’s compact, portable self-inking rubber stamp, with a ring to affix it to your key chain, for anywhere stamping. You could have it made up to print your essential info for instant business cards, OR design a sign you want to stamp around town…like CREATE! or JOY! or BE YES!. At $23, they’re a bargain (and a gift we’d want to get).
The other day, we stumbled on Dargelos, an online store with stylish, thoughtfully-designed products for bicycle riders (some are great for NON bikers as well). We originally went to the site to check out their Lighting Vest, a hand-netted safety vest made from a specially-developed reflective 3M material that will make you highly visible to motorists (i.e. safe.) It is lightweight, can fit in your pocket and layer over just about anything you want to wear. It’s so great looking, we could imagine wearing it just for the hell of it.
While on Dargelos’ site, we discovered many other cool things… read more…
“People want to make a million dollars from my books,” Mark Givre says in the pause between rumbles from the elevated subway trains passing over his head. “They’re looking for rare first editions. But I just want to get people to read.”
Givre says he’s on his second life now, and it’s an improvised one. For the past three years he has outlasted Borders, Barnes & Noble and other bricks-and-mortar bookstores with his low-overhead alfresco nook on the corner of 231st Street and Broadway in New York City. read more…
We totally love this collection by of elements and connectors for making whatever you want, designed by Louise Cohen. It is like a perfect fusion of built-it-yourself Lego/Tinkertoy/K’nex/ErectorSet-esque material for adults.
The CREATE YOUR OWN Collection is a building system consisting of 18 galvanized elements and 5 kind of connectors. According to individual desires unique living accessories can be composed.
Constructions for all kind of purposes can stand, lay or ride, hang from wall or ceiling. read more…
We’re always on the lookout for inexpensive housewares that LOOK expensive and stylish. We think these cotton Vilmi Figur pillow covers from Ikea do just that. Throw pillows can be crazy amazingly expensive, so at $10 each (inserts $2.99 to $6.99), these are a bargain (and wash and wear to boot). There’s a jazzy contrasting polka dot version from the same line. read more…
A post in Zen Habits echoed what we’ve been thinking lately:
I don’t do boring exercise. If I hate doing something, I stop doing it. I don’t have enough life left to waste doing stuff I hate.
A big part of blogging is sitting on your ass, surfing thrillingly, but virtually; we don’t get enough exercise because we hate the gym thing and we don’t have much time these days, nor the $$ to pay a trainer to make us work out. We need exercise that we can do easily, that’ll get our heart rates up and really work some muscles and be fun, and that we’ll be self-motivated to do.
As we combed through Artists’ Handmade Houses, the prize in our current book giveaway, we noticed an interesting theme running through the houses of many of the 13 artists featured. They often used the simple rice paper globe ceiling lights pioneered in the 50′s by Isamu Noguchi: an electrical wire hung from the ceiling from which hung a bulb surrounded by a translucent rice paper shade. Paolo Soleri, Sam Maloof, Wharton Esherick, Ruth and Robert Hatch all used them to great effect: they lend a pleasing sculptural element to a room while casting a lovely light.
George Nakashima had them all over the house. We’re wondering if he made this clever wall light by cutting a globe in half and affixing it to the wall. read more…
When the wooden knob came off our 50′s Danish tea kettle, we TRIED EVERYTHING we could think of make it stick tightly to its metal lid that would regularly got really hot. No longterm success. We finally put the kettle in the street hoping someone would find a use for it. We wish we’d known about Sugru, a silicone “modeling clay” that sticks to many materials including aluminum, steel, ceramics, glass and some plastics like perspex. You’ve got 30 minutes to mold it or use it as you want; after that, it’ll cure at room temperature, into a tough, flexible materials that is waterproof, and can withstand temperatures from -76′ to 356′F.
According to Sugru’s site, it is the brainchild of Jane, who was studying product design when she had an idea: “I don’t want to buy new stuff all the time. I want to hack the stuff I already have so it works better for me.” So she enlisted some materials scientists to help her develop a material that would allow her to do that.
We especially love their philosophy: “Hack things better. That’s our motto…It’s not about ‘making-do’, it’s about taking control of our stuff; modifying and improving the products we own so that they work better for us.”
YES!!!
We already have a ton of ideas for using Sugru, and ordered some in chic black and white.
You can buy it here, in packs of colors, or black-and-white, or small packs of single colors.
Ellen Silverman was picnicking with family and friends in Riverside Park in New York City when she saw some folks nearby serenely sitting at a pop-up picnic table, which had they’d unfurled out of a case in just a few moves. From Ellen’s not-terribly-comfortable vantage point sitting on a blanket on the ground (which was a little damp from recent rain), it looked pretty swell.
It’s like having a portable back yard. You could bring a little bunch of herbs: rosemary, lavendar or thyme, or mint for iced tea or lemonade, and arrange it in a paper cup on the table…or decorate it with striped table runner…
…and you could store the flat case under the bed…”
We hunted down the model Ellen saw, and then found other great options: read more…
One of our favorite mindgames is to think about what we can do without, or perhaps better put: What do we really need? We started doing it rigorously in the kitchen when we had to downsize years ago, and began to ask ourselves,”What equipment is truly necessary for the way we cook”. Not only did we discover that we did NOT need the wealth of gadgets being touted as essential, but we didn’t even need some things that people take for granted, like an electric toaster. In our smaller space, we saw an electric toaster as a space glutton that we didn’t want on our counter. About the same time, we came across an inexpensive stovetop fish grill in a Japanese kitchenware store. Hmm, we thought, wonder if we could toast bread on this? It worked wonderfully and we’ve been using it to grill our bread on a burner ever since…(sometimes we put the buttered toast back on it to melt…)
We love artist Thomas Jeppe‘s wonderfully taped bike, via The Selby. The tape is not just a cool visual, it adds cushioning to the handlebars. We went looking for this snazzy handlebar tape at found a trove of close matches – Splash Ribbon – made by Cinelli, whose tapes get very high ratings. Possibilities include vivid stripes, neon and leather. Our favorite: this zebra print one: read more…
Over the past week, we’ve stumbled on some very cool housewares with all the qualities we value: simple, well-designed, enduring, and good value. Our favorite is a charming geometric textile made of pieced Tyvek by Woodnotes that can be used as curtains, partitions, and table decorations.“Flake consists of snow flake like pieces which are joined together simply by slipping the point of a flake through the hole of another flake. You can create a compact or a net like, loose surface. Three-dimensional forms are also possible.” (Woodnotes also makes a variation on the pattern called Flowers.) We love that we can work with the material ourselves, vary the texture and size, fool around, see where it takes us. We’re thinking room divider…or a pleasingly revealing shower curtain.
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