04.09.20

Current Obsession

Think Face Pottery Is a Millennial Thing? Meet the Artist Who’s Been Doing It Since the ’70s

When Jill and I posted pictures of our favorite books on Instagram last week, mine featured one of my favorite objects in my living room, shown above: A pot, used by me as a planter, that features two hand-painted, color-blocked pastel faces. I bought it on eBay for $10 a year and a half ago. I don't remember how I found it. I had no idea, at the time, who the maker was, only that her name was Victoria Crowell and I assumed she was an obscure local artisan who made the pot in the '80s. I was mostly correct.
More
04.07.20

Interiors

Inside a Forgotten Gem of 20th-Century Belgian Art Deco

In case you missed it, writer, curator, and Prague-based architectural historian Adam Štěch hosted one of our most popular IG Live talks a few weeks ago on the topic of Belgian 20th-century architecture. Here, he gives us the backstory behind one of our favorite examples from that era — the Queen Elisabeth Foundation by Henry Lacoste.
More
04.04.20

Saturday Selects

Week of March 30, 2020

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a fancy treehouse in Brazil, a relaxing image we're returning to over and over again, and a faux fur–upholstered bed that would make staying home a little more palatable.
More
04.03.20

Current Obsession

Get Ready to See This Classic Pattern Everywhere

We first realized a checkerboard trend was happening last fall, and have since amassed a folder full of images that grows bigger by the week, as we see the pattern flying by on the Instagram accounts of fashion brands, interior designers, and shops. Today we've prepared a roundup of our favorite examples of the trend, but prepare yourself for a lot more — despite faint echoes of bad '80s interiors and ska bands, trust us, it's coming.
More
12.21.17

Excerpt: Exhibition

In a New Show, 3D Printed Objects So Real They Look Fake

Called "Transitional Speculation," the show blurs the line between the digital and physical worlds even more than Wang Söderstrom's work normally does: While their 3D illustrations often have a whiff of handicraft, here, they've made tangible objects — primarily printed in 3D — that seem to take on the blobby, hyper-real aesthetic a rendering would typically have.
More
03.31.20

Sighted

Feeling Anxious? Calm Down With an ASMR Interior Design Video. (Yes, It’s a Thing!)

We discovered recently that there's a whole genre of ASMR videos devoted to faux design consultations, from whispery kitchen renovation meetings to a guy who's just narrating himself drawing the floorplan of a house for 30 minutes. We're sharing our favorite examples of interior design ASMR here, which, trust us, are exactly what you need right now to lift your spirits, whether they chill you out or make you laugh — or both.
More
03.30.20

Current Obsession

Eny Lee Parker Designed a Tiny, Perfect Room in Oven-Bake Clay During Last Week’s Quarantine

“Tedious tasks are my love language,” reads the caption in one of Eny Lee Parker’s process videos, shared with candor last week on Instagram Stories. With design weeks canceled around the world and all of us confined to our homes, the Brooklyn-based designer is making the best of things with "Clay Play," an initiative she created that challenges her followers to design their own ideal room in oven-bake clay.
More
03.26.20

Excerpt: Book

This 1960s Guide to Ikebana is the Resource We Need Right Now

I found The Art of Arranging Flowers, a comprehensive 1960s guide to the Japanese art of ikebana, in Stockholm at the beginning of last year. Too heavy to carry home, I tracked it down from a seller in Indiana and promptly bought it, thinking it would be a nice visual touchstone and a cool thing to display on my coffee table. Little did I know that a year later, I'd be wondering if the book could serve as an actual resource for those currently stuck in their homes, flailing about for ways to express their creativity.
More
03.24.20

Fair Report

Our 3 Favorite Projects from the Pandemic-Shuttered Melbourne Design Week 2020

Just as Melbourne Design Week was set to open its largest edition ever a week and a half ago, with over 200 events ready to launch around the city, it was largely shut down by the COVID-19 crisis, one of the increasing design-world casualties the virus has claimed this year. We spotted a few great projects in our inboxes and on Instagram, though, so we're highlighting our three favorites here.
More
03.21.20

Saturday Selects

Week of March 16, 2020

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: We continue to bring you the best of what we can see from the safety of our homes, including a chic alternative to terrazzo, a small-space focused furniture collection from Beirut, and a Vincent Van Duysen–designed Portuguese vacation compound (above) that looks pretty appealing right about now.
More