Thursday, September 26, 2013

Electric slides


Our local reuse center always has bins of vintage slides. I've seen other slide lamps, but nothing so fantastic as this Film lamp by Davide Groppi. They use LED bulbs and can be linked up to form long, candy-colored strings of awesome (or black and white, depending on your choice of slides).

Images from Davide Groppi. Via This Is Colossal.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Slate-ish


Just discovered, Slate-ish, which is a triple green product (I just made that up--It's not a technical term.) 

  1. Slate-ish is made from construction scraps instead of new materials
  2. The source material (Richlite, Paperstone) is already an eco-friendly material, which builders and architects are using to gain LEED points in their projects.
  3. The company has a buyback program (or a buy program) where they will gladly buy your countertop scraps to make them into tiles.

The tiles look like slate, but are actually a combination of paper and resin, laminated and pressed into a solid form. The material is durable, often used in countertops and skateboard ramps. The tiles are cut from the scraps leftover from construction projects--sink cut-outs, oddly shaped corners, anything too small or strange to be useful. 


This might be perfect for our new fireplace, which has been languishing unfinished without tile for far too long. If I can only decide on a design--trendy hex, long strips, triangles?


Images from Slate-ish.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

It's a doggy dog world*



If you're a crafty DIY type, you should know about the amazing team and HomeMade Modern. They regularly post easy, well documented, and industrially styled DIY projects for you to add to that list of "I'd like to make that!" Fond of simple materials--concrete, plywood--they come up with some really interesting and modern shapes and provide enough detail for you to modify the projects for you own needs. In this case, easy instructions to size the cubby to fit your own particular size dog. Currently on their site they have several projects using faceted shapes, but I wanted to share this fantastic dog house.
I don't have a dog, but if I did, I would be so tempted to make this charming pet bed for him.

*Before the pronunciation police get onto me, I know the traditional phrase is dog-eat-dog, but this is one of my favorite mis-stated cliches. 

Images from HomeMade Modern. Via NOTCOT.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Drink up!


This stunning Brazilian garden is further evidence that you can make beautiful modern design out of almost anything (even plastic soda bottles), provided you are willing to use enough of them.




Images from This is Colossal. Via NOTCOT.