Design Public

Just a few links to get you through the weekend:

1. Synagogue turned studio above and below as seen in New York Home:

2. Fun interview with Domino Editor-in-Cheif Deborah Needleman over at All Things Bright and Beautiful

3. A thorough guide to design blogs from Down Under, over at decor8.

4. Sumptuous Art Deco costumes and sets from the movie The Aviator, over at designsmack. It’s hard to choose a favorite, but my lord, when was the last time you saw a public restroom this gorgeous (note Leo in the mirror):

5. Design book releases we are anxiously anticipating, from one of my favorite bibliophiles, The Peak of Chic.

photo credits:

1 & 2 from New York Home by Jason Schmidt

3 via All Things Bright and Beautiful

4. via designsmack

5. via The Peak of Chic

I’m so excited that Jonathan Adler’s “Monthly Musings” now includes a comments section. I left one that really rambled because the paragraph separations did not work out, so I sound even more A.D.D. than usual. This month he is musing about finding inspiration in places from Morgan Fairchild’s face to Timbaland’s mad mixology. I love knowing what makes people tick. My favorite example of this is in Douglas Keeve’s documentary Unzipped, where Isaac Mizrahi creates a collection inspired by Nanook of the North and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

So what inspires you? Do tell!

image of Kiki’s Derriere from Jonathanadler.com. You can buy one here.

Unzipped and Nanook images from amazon.com. You can buy your copy of Unzipped here.

MTM image from youtube. You can catch the theme song here.

I’ve been meaning to tell you about this great book my Mom brought me as a hostess gift about a year ago. It’s a monograph of the work of Samuel ‘Sambo’ Mockbee, appropriately titled Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency. I kept putting it off, because frankly, scanning stuff is a boring chore, plus, it’s really hard to pick just a few projects from this book. I doubt I can summarize it better than the book jacket:

For almost ten years, Samuel Mockbee, a recent MacArthur “genius grant” recipient, and his architecture students at Auburn University have been designing and building striking houses and community buildings for impoverished residents of Alabama’s Hale County. Using salvaged lumber and bricks, discarded tires, hay and waste cardboard bales, concrete rubble, colored bottles, and old license plates, they create inexpensive buildings in a style Mockbee describes as ‘contemporary modernism grounded in Southern culture.’”

This is the first project from Sambo I remember seeing back in architecture school. It’s The Cardboard Pod and is made from baled sheets of corrugated wax-impregnated boards:This is the incredible Yancey Chapel, built around an existing rusted trough and constructed from 1000 dirt-filled used tires:This property near The Yancey Chapel is called The Goat House, a former shed for animals that Rural Studio originally planned as part of an artists’ colony. The colony never, um, colonized, and the building is now a residence. You see the Chapel aesthetic influence on the structure: (more…)

My favorite image from my newly set up bloglines feeds - the tree cozy. From PAN-DAN via swissmiss:Does anyone else know anything about where this is? It reminds me of some exhibition in France - I am blanking on the name, or The Spoleto Festival. Wherever it is, it’s quite striking, and this is a great image.2:30 p.m. E.S.T.:  UPDATE!  Zee from Homebug has let me know that the tree is the work of artist Carol Hummel!  Thank you Zee! Another image I clipped a few weeks ago comes from one of my new favorite blogs, Homebug. New to me, I should say, it’s been around for over a year. I stumbled upon it via design*sponge.

The weird thing is, I had just finished admiring Homebug’s red phone in our anti-depressive living group and within 24 hours I saw her on design*sponge. Isn’t it weird how certain things cross your path a few times all of the sudden? It was like it was fate telling me to subscribe to Homebug! I am also in love with Homebug’s dog, Polly, who looks exactly like my niece dog Chloe Harris. Is this dog the perfect model or what?I’ve also been enjoying exploring Urban Prairie, and checking out Chris Brown’s inspirations, like this one:

Finally, I can’t stop thinking about this perfect nook from Christina Murphy Interiors I saw over at desire to inspire:

Clotheslines have been on my brain all weekend. It started on Friday morning. I finally got around to reading the rest of The New York Times from the previous day (it took me until then to get the whole Charlton Heston thing that was going on the crossword, and I’m not allowed to read the rest of it until I’m done. It’s an O.C.D. thing, you wouldn’t understand). The International Report had a great article called “A Line in the Yard: The Battle Over the Right to Dry Outside.” It seems some Canadian renegades who like, want to save energy or something crazy like that, have the audacity to hang their clothes on a line behind privacy fences in a neighborhood that prohibits such an obscene act. With Earth Day being in April and all, I thought I would take a look at good old clotheslines.

I was trying to find an image of the clothesline in the middle of Muriel’s burned backyard, and I came across this fascinating and eloquent post over at makingwifi. I love it when that kind of thing happens! Am I the only person that did not realize this contraption is called a Hoist? It’s really rather genius.

This photo from flickr member Vincent Casey conjures up one memory I have of clotheslines: My classmate Peggy had all of her jeans stolen off the her clothesline in Venice (this was back in the day when most jeans were under $100; I know some of you are too young to remember way back then).  Unfortunately, Peggy and her roommates had a second story apartment, and the jean bandits would jump up and steal their pants.   Similarly, I figure in my ‘hood, where pieces of cars, lawn ornaments and copper gutters are stolen on a daily basis, a pair of True Religions on the line would not be safe, never mind the bird poop problems, so it’s a no-go for me. However, I have fond memories of my grandparents’ long line in Bristol, Connecticut, and even in historic and perfect looking Hingham Massachusetts, where the town likes to dictate what kind of mailbox one should have, my mom lets her laundry dry in the sun. What’s the big deal?

Later on that day, I was catching up on Bluelines, the blog that has taken the place of Blueprint magazine, and I saw a great feature written by Lena. She had collected some of her favorite flickr clothesline images. You can see all of them here. The one above is from flickr member turkeyfarmtreasures as shown over at Bluelines. The clothesline is a great way to air out and show off her vintage tablecloth collection!

In addition, late last week I noticed hulagirl’s mini-clothesline workspace arrangement on another blog, which right now I can’t remember. I think it may have been shelterriffic. I have been doing this with my holiday cards for the past few years and it’s a great way to show them off without involving tape on the walls.

By the way, I still miss her fabulous booth at Kudzu. Atlanta lost a lot of creativity when Hula and her family left us for Portland! You can keep up with them at her blog, Hula Seventy.

Finally, in this stream of consciousness mixed with blog hopping trip I was on, I remembered a favorite Martha Schwartz exhibit from the 1997 Spoleto Festival. It was called “Field Work”:

In case you are interested in installing your own clothesline, here’s how.  Also, here’s another article about the benefits of air-drying and how much it can reduce our carbon footprints.

I’ve been slacking on my blog reading, and it shows. But Lord is it fun to have a juicy three weeks’ worth of posts to catch up on some of my favorites. I must seem like the crazy over-commenter when I do that - I currently have lost my voice from talking too much so now I’m commenting on blogs too much to make up for it!

Because of my negligence, some of the posts that captured my attention this week are a little dated, but oh well!

1) via Style Court I found out that Edith Wharton’s The Mount is facing foreclosure. Click here to find out how you can help save The Mount! By the way, Style Court never ceases to blow my mind - it is such an excellent blog I just don’t know how she keeps it up so well.

2) It was wonderful to get to know Ninainvorm over at sfgirlbybay. She’s been a favorite of mine on flickr for awhile, but I never knew anything about her or that she has a blog. Thanks Nina and Victoria!

In fact, by coincidence we featured a flickr contribution from Nina awhile back right here.

3) via The New York Times House and Home Section, I found out about MoMA’s new site, which will let viewers follow the building process for five prefabricated houses that will eventually be exhibited outside the museum. (more…)

Dear Bravotv.com,

Will you please include home tours for The Real Housewives of N.Y.C.?  I just did not see enough.  Creepy codependent couple Alex and banana hammock wearing Simon’s townhouse in Brooklyn is obviously in need of a major renovation, Bethanny obviously spends all her money on clothes and still has a twenty-something decorated apartment, Jill’s pad has just about  O.D.’d on Zarin fabrics and Luann appears to have the dream Manhattan townhouse.   Ramona’s condo is dressed the way she dresses, that’s all I’ll say about that.  But I want to see more!  While you’re at it, please include their Hamptons homes.

Regarding the housewives, I admit it, and a lot of my culturally uppity friends AND their significant others who usually only admit to listening to NPR and watching PBS admit it; we are totally addicted to the guilty pleasure of The Real Housewives of N.Y.C. and O.C.  I’ve never seen such tacky social-climbing, talking about money, or cosmetic surgery addiction in my life.  It’s delicious.  How funny is it that they all think being the fourth wife of a Count is a big deal?  Ladies, get a grip, it’s the social equivalent of  being a distant Kennedy cousin who hasn’t committed a felony.

Anyway Bravo, please give us a tour of the homes.  Preferably with each woman giving it for maximum entertainment.

Sincerely,

A Reality TV Junkie

photos from bravotv.com

I had the pleasure of e-interviewing (does the O.E.D. contain a new word that describes interviewing someone online yet? E-verviewing?) Kim Myles, the winner of last season’s show Design Star and the host of her own new TV show, Myles of Style. The show premiered recently and I’d like to thank Kim for taking the time out of her busy schedule to answer a few Hatch questions. I always enjoyed Kim’s energy, attitude, creativity and personality during Design Star; she was clearly a natural television host from the beginning. I also think it’s really cool and refreshing that her background is in hair design. Here goes…

Hi Kim and thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. We’re excited to see your ideas on your new HGTV show, “Myles of Style!”

I was a big fan of the show, and thought it improved immeasurably from Season 1. One of my favorite moments of yours was the Dollar Store challenge, where you fashioned a textured ginkgo leaf wallpaper design out of paper plates. What was your favorite moment or design move that you made from the show?

I’m so glad that you liked those ginkgos, because that was honestly my hands-down favorite personal moment of design on the show. It was the first challenge where we could work solo, and it was my opportunity to do what I love: think texturally, and unexpectedly. Plus I LOVE wallpaper…..so it was my ‘perfect storm’, design-wise.

I understand you are very creative at getting the most out of a small budget. What’s your favorite type of shopping - flea market, dollar store, fancy home boutique, Big Box Store, hardware store, online shopping, tag/stoop/garage/yard sales, other?

I love the hunt, so I’m a fan of craigslist, flea markets, 1stdibs, etc. There’s something so gratifying about having a goal, searching it out, and sometimes being surprised along the way by how the goal morphs depending on what you see out there.

Here at Hatch, we have a slightly snarky drinking game that goes along with the TV. For instance, we drink whenever someone says “brings the outdoors in,” “zen,” or “it really makes it pop!” Also, I say “amazing” WAY too often in my writing. Do you have a phrase or a word you use a lot that I should add to the game? It’s all in good fun!

Good God, you will be dead drunk after watching “Myles of Style”!! ‘Pop’ comes up way too often for me, but I’ve yet to find the word that imparts that sense of fun, fresh, eye-opening effects better than that. ‘Clean Lines…’ is another sure bet. (Start pouring, now!)

SIDE NOTE: “Clean Lines” is DEFINITELY a new addition to our Drinking Games! I can’t believe I never thought of that one! O.K., back to the questions…

It seems you are able to get inspiration from just about anywhere. Is there a favorite unexpected inspirational object/place/precedent of yours you’d like to share with us?

I love hotel lobbies. I can’t check them out in LA with the same ease as I did in NYC, but I find them endlessly inspiring. They tend to have sedate color stories, foiled by design treatments ‘writ large’ across the space. It’s all about showiness, and grandeur, and I can’t get enough!

Finally, I scoped out your hunky carpenter, Anthony Gilardi online. Did you get to pick him?

(You know it!) Anthony is not only hunky and adorable, he also packs some crazy skills: He’s a craftsman, old school style, and he can execute any wild design idea I can come up with. (He can also break dance, fyi……)

A true Renaissance man, from the band saw to the electric boogaloo! My kind of guy! Kim, thanks so much for taking the time to answer these questions. I’m looking forward to the first season of the show!

all images from HGTV.com

 Who doesn’t love a firehouse? It seems they are truly en fuego right now as a trend.  Perhaps it started with this house, where the Ghostbusters had their headquarters:

Then there was The Real World: Boston, where a charming firehouse was renovated to house seven self-important, immature  strangers.  This was one cool renovation:

(more…)

Hi Guys! Well, high winds, power outages, the helicopters circling my house all morning - it’s all going crazy in Atlanta this week! I’m happy to be back online and able to tell you a few bits of news around the blogs this week as I catch up.  Media breaks can be good I suppose, but yours truly usually needs to be forced by a natural disaster or something.

First, I stumbled onto The Complete Organizing Solutions Blog via Tanna, who emailed me to ask if she could use a picture of my pursery. Hey, to anyone who would like to post any of my mediocre-at-best photography from flickr, you can always be my guest! Thanks Tanna. This is a great blog for organization inspiration. Check it out!

Next, I was thrilled to see another favorite blogger, Victoria, a.k.a sfgirlbybay, featured in the March issue of Sunset magazine. It’s funny, Victoria switches up her apartment styling so often that I almost (more…)