Need More Green Space?

Are you like me and live in an apartment with no outdoor space to call your own? Being a true Cancer, I like to surround myself with living things like plants in order to feel comfortable in my home/apartment. I never realized how much I appreciated the live plants all over my childhood home until I moved out... an apartment without plants is not a very happy place! Besides, my boyfriend, who loves to cook, is constantly burning himself... so we now just keep an aloe plant in the kitchen.

 
Getting back to the point, I love having plants in my apartment! I actually collect vintage planters. In particular, on of my most prized possessions is my vintage deer planter. Funny story actually... when I was about 10 my mom and I were going "garage sale-ing" while we were in Tucson, AZ and I found this vintage deer planter and fell in love with it. It was only $6, but my mom talked me out of it. This would come back to haunt her. Over the next few years we kept seeing this planter at antique stores and the prices kept going up and up! So the wonderful planter that I originally saw for $6 was now selling for $50-$75. Regardless of the price, I was still so in love with it, and finally for my 19th birthday I got my deer planter! Thanks mom, I will stop rubbing that story in your face now. :)

Another great way to have plants in apartments is by getting wall mounted planters! They are usually meant for the outdoors, but they can easily be installed inside as well. I am tempted to get some and create my own "living wall" by planting ivy inside of them. That would be amazing! Here is another great wall mounted planter:

So precious. Enjoy!

Fashionable, Sustainable, Fabulous Showroom

Carlos Ortega is an up and coming fashion designer in the heart of Mexico City, Mexico. Due to the overcrowding and high population of Mexico City, the city is high on diversity, but very low on livable space. This has proved to be a challenge that Ortega and a popular interior design firm in Mexico, ROW, have embraced with ingenuity and innovation. Oh, did I also say they did it with a tight and i mean TIGHT budget too?

Ortega and ROW were able to create a polished, modern space that has a raw feeling of deconstruction for all under $5,000. It is almost unheard of to create a custom space for such a small amount of money. Money was hardly the only obstacle though. Another huge challenge for the design was the space, or lack there of. The overall square footage of the fashion showroom is 700 square feet. They managed to create enough display space for Ortega's garments, a dressing room, and a small seating area for customers within the limited square footage. Interestingly enough, the modern, sleek lines of the space juxtaposed with the raw, rough face of the exposed plywood truly reflects the aesthetic of Ortega's overall fashion collection. Though there is a marriage of modern and deconstruction in the space, there are also classic, vintage elements that are seen in the furniture pieces in the space. These classic lines again reflect the aesthetic of Ortega and his designs. The overall space is a prime example of an innovative design created by the ingenuity of the combined forces of a fashion designer and an interior design firm.

(Ortega and RAW's design utilized every inch of the space including the corners of the room for unique and custom shelving displays. They also used different stains on the plywood surface to create more depth and contrast in the space.)

Not Everything "Pretty" And "Shiny" Has To Be New...

Re-claim, Re-purpose, Re-awesome. There, I coined a new term. Re-awesome. It is truly amazing what designers and artists are creating with re-purposed material. The art of re-purposing material is gained by taking a discarded material and manipulating it to serve a new purpose and for a new application than its previous life. It is really just a fancier term for recycling. When most people think of recycling, they imagine a rustic, sort of rough-hewn and patchwork-y look. Well that is an accurate "stereotype" for this new art form.

Who said patchworks and a rustic feel had to be tacky? That is a serious misconception. Especially in recent years, the art of eclecticism has become the most popular and versatile aesthetic around. Who wants to be tied down to one specific image? Through reclaiming materials and the "mix and match" approach of recycling goods, interior spaces can be given a new life through little to no investment. Discarded items can easily be manipulated to fit into an interior space. For instance, in the room pictured, the beautiful parquet wood floors are actually made from recycled shipping palettes. These palettes are used, destroyed, and thrown away without a care for the perfectly good and usable wood that still exists. This room also uses over one hundred discarded, white, restaurant plates as a focal wall treatment.

Never underestimate the beauty of an item or material that has seemingly met the end of the road. I am a true believer in the reincarnation of materials and everything deserves an afterlife in a beautiful interior.

Who Killed The Incandescent Light Bulb?

As most of you may have heard by now, in the next few years the incandescent light bulb will vanish into thin air. This source of light has already been outlawed by many countries including Great Britain and the United States. So with this form of light bulb about to disappear into thin air, scientists and engineers have been working overtime to find suitable replacements that are more environmentally friendly. The ever growing in popularity CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) is much more sustainable than the incandescent, but it can still be improved. This is where the wonderful LED comes into play.

LED's or light emitting diodes are a newly found technology that creates a bright, pure light while using less than half of the Watts an already eco-friendly CFL uses. Those of us involved in the interior design world have known about this LED technology for quite some time, but frankly it is still a new technology and can be quite expensive. With the ever adapting consumer industry, LED's were first really introduced to the mass market in the form of high definition LED television screens. These screens produce a large, clear resolution image and spectacular color rendering. Now the LED technology can be even more attainable in a new, compact LED light bulb that is design to replace not only incandescent light bulbs, but CFL's as well. This light bulb, though a few dollars more than the inferior products, is about to flood the market with its presence. Though somewhat of a steeper initial investment, LED light bulbs are a great long term investment not only for energy preservation and smaller energy bills, but for their un-comparable light quality and longevity.

Your Roots Are Showing... In a Good Way.

Right now at Israel's Design Museum Holon there is a ground-breaking exhibition that is a true show of our current time. This exhibition highlights the work of over 60 designers and artists worldwide going back to the roots of all art, nature. All of the sculptures, pieces of furniture, and other works of art on display are pieces that were handcrafted by natural, abundant materials.  Many materials used were found objects such as twigs, leaves, mud, and other organic materials. This exhibit highlights the beauty of nature and puts into focus a world of materials that has been somewhat ignored and unappreciated for the past 50 years.
 

One of the highlights of the show, and centrally located in the exhibit, is a large scale sculpture of a bunny rabbit. This sculpture is made up of found, dead twigs that have been shaved down to the "raw" wood and slightly powder-coated with a white wash. This stunning piece along with the other pieces of the exhibit has gained a lot of attention from the art world. Many are speculating a true shift in modern art to truly rely on and center around that of "Mother Nature". This means that there is an expected shift from the bold, graphic modern art that currently flanks our museums to a more simple and rustic aesthetic like that of environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy. Whatever the future holds for art, this exhibit is truly a showcase of the beauty of nature and the natural world and promotes the importance of saving the environment.

Made in Portugal, With Love.

Along with many other countries in the world, Portugal has put a vast amount of interest on the art of sustainability. Always known for their unique style and sense of art, Portugal is once again leading the way in the designing of sustainable interior elements. Made Out Portugal is an organization and coalition of Portugal designers and artists that promotes locally made, sustainable products. These products range from interior materials, to furniture, to artwork, to clothing. This versatile organization is gaining national attention and support by the day. Made Out Portugal has successfully promoted both local and sustainable products to the point where they are beginning to gain international acclaim. This is definitely an organization to watch out for.

Not only does this organization put high importance on supporting local artisans and businesses as well as sustainable products, but they are truly dedicated to spotlighting the artists themselves. This is a wonderful organization that keeps struggling artists off the streets and creates a platform for them to build their career upon. Most of these artist come from humble beginnings and therefore use reclaimed materials to keep their overhead low so that they can stay out of poverty. The beauty of these handcrafted and designed items cannot be touched by the mass manufacturing of machine produced goods. Most of these artists are getting a second chance at their calling and quite a few of them have become the rockstars of the Portugal art scene. Made Out Portugal has begun to establish itself as an international representation of Portugal's artists and artisans and continues to grow in popularity.

Retro-Chic Meets Sustainable Living

Though interesting and cool in theory, living in a vintage Airstream trailer does not sound too appealing to most people. But what if that Airstream had top of the line appliances and the most up-to-date-technology on board? Change your mind a little? In Santa Barbara, CA an architect by the name of Matthew Hoffman is re-defining the art of living. Though he makes a more than decent living off of his profession, Hoffman lives in a 1970's trailer by choice rather than necessity. This unconventional architect has put his blood sweat and tears into taking a dumpy old Airstream and turning it into a modern, unique live/work environment. Yes, this is not only his home but his office as well!

This newly renovated, sleek interior has something that Hoffman says most spaces has a lack there of, "personality and charm". A vintage Airstream trailer in superb condition surely does not lack in the "charm" department. Regardless of your age, the Airstream trailer is a symbol of pride and the "American Dream". Countless movies and television shows have depicted families going on cross-country road trips in their Airstream trailers, living life to its fullest. This overall renovation and reclamation of the vintage Airstream is not only an achievement for Hoffman, but the realization of a life-long dream. Regardless of the ever-changing trends in the design world, Hoffman is sure to always treasure this small piece of the "American Dream" that he has so lovingly crafted for himself.

(Being the architect that he is, Hoffman even took the time to create an accurate, scaled floor plan of the vintage Airstream and its interior. See Below.)