AOL Real Estate - Blog http://realestate.aol.com/blog AOL Real Estate - Blog http://realestate.aol.com/blog/media/feedlogo.gif AOL Real Estate - Blog http://realestate.aol.com/blog en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/This Little Goat Lived in the Cityhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/16/this-little-goat-lived-in-the-city/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/16/this-little-goat-lived-in-the-city/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/16/this-little-goat-lived-in-the-city/#commentsFiled under: ,

GoatsFor a while, chickens were all the rage. You could get a coop, install it in your backyard, buy a couple of quality chicks, and presto: fresh eggs for life. (Or for as long as you could stand the clucking and pecking that comes with any kind of chicken ownership.) But because nothing is stable and everything shifts, we're here to bring the news that chickens are a little bit yesterday.

The new urban animal? The friendly goat.

A couple of people around the country have taken it seriously enough to not only try their hands at goat-raising, but to set their experiences in virtual stone. Welcome to the world of goat blogs.

Let's take a run through the two reasons for raising goats: pets and milk.
The Dervaes family runs the Urban Homestead, a practically self-sustaining home in Pasadena, Calif. In a 66-by-66-foot plot, the family--dad and three kids--produce 6,000 pounds of food per year, divided across 350 different vegetables, herbs, fruits and berries. And then there are the two goats, Lady Fairlight and Blackberry, which the family has been raising for three years. The Dervaeses keep these goats more for pleasure than for work (they point out, a few times, that goats actually have to be bred in order to give milk, which would seem like something of a duh but that seems to be misplaced in goat-raising enthusiasm), but they would give milk if properly bred.

Most helpful is the Goat FAQ, which covers such questions as "Do goats smell?" (Answer: no, although uncastrated male goats do); "Do they eat everything?" (Surprisingly, no! They are quite particular); and, most important, "Are they legal?"

In Pasadena they are. In Seattle, they weren't.

Jennie Grant runs the Goat Justice League, an organization she founded in Seattle in order to allow her to keep her own goats, and to facilitate others who wanted to start keeping animals in their backyards. Grant is hilarious on her blog--giving family members titles like "Sr VP in charge of all two men who think it's a good idea to keep pet dairy goats"--but deadly serious when it comes to the awesomeness of keeping goats. It started when she tasted a friend's fresh goat milk and realized that what we think of as goat milk flavor is actually supermarket-induced gaminess. "I just happened to have this piece of property behind my house that was a little too shady to grow anything," she says. "It was perfect for goats." Eventually, all of her neighbors signed off. Then a faraway neighbor's kid got sick, blamed the goats, and the health department got involved. Turns out the city of Seattle had some very old rules about just where farm animals could be kept. "And that's how the whole goat legalization thing started," Grant says.

In 2007, she got the law changed, thanks in part to an understanding councilman and a whole lot of supportive signatures. And, thanks to her efforts, Grant now keeps in touch with around fifty fellow Seattle-based goat owners, people who, she says, "get together every month and talk about their goats." Grant does see a movement to keep pgymy goats, as pets, but says she isn't interested. "I want to legalize animals that are useful to people," she says.

Legality varies from state to state, but what's clear from Grant's experience is that, if it's illegal, it shouldn't be that difficult to make it legal. So, if you're looking for either a pet to round out the dog/cat/gerbil collection, or feel like making your own goats' milk yogurt, it might be as easy as buying a goat from a farmer and it might be as hard as changing the law. Either way, you'll be showing up your chicken-keeping neighbors, twelve-fold.


(Another great urban farm blog that features our friend, the goat: The Itty Bitty Farm in the City)


 

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]]>chickensfarm animalsgoatsPasadenSeattleurban farmingEva Hagberg2010-03-16T17:05:00 00:00Dark Interiors? Let the Light Bulb Shine Brightlyhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/12/dark-interiors-let-the-light-bulb-shine-brightly/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/12/dark-interiors-let-the-light-bulb-shine-brightly/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/12/dark-interiors-let-the-light-bulb-shine-brightly/#commentsFiled under:

light bulb lampsThe dark and dreary days of winter are almost over. Almost. Then comes the lovely, yet often foggy and overcast, days of spring. So even if your home has the advantage of large windows that regularly provide light-filled rooms, a little extra luminescence couldn't hurt.

In honor of the little-known Joseph Wilson Swan, who actually created the first working light bulb (and then collaborated with Thomas Edison, who had improved on his original plan), let's take a spin around the internet to find lamps- with which to decorate your interiors- that look exactly (or somewhat) like light bulbs.


First up is the gigantic SO1, designed by Sarah Olaerts and standing at four-and-a-half-feet tall. This lamp is shaped exactly like a regular light bulb, only incandescent all the way through and, uh, about forty times the size. It's big enough to fill empty space in a fashion showroom and visually strong enough to be able to share meadow space with a couple of cows. This remote-controlled LED-filled light bulb is equivalent of the gigantic MAX lamp that enjoyed a brief flare of fame a few years ago. While it may be too big for your apartment, it doesn't hurt to dream big.

A little bit more practical is the Vaka portable light bulb, designed by Ian Bach and mobile where the SO1 is a bulb-in-the-mud. The kicker here is the absolute mobility of these little bulb-shaped silicon objects, charged on a "tree" and turned on and off with a simple squeeze to its felt-wrapped base. if you need light in another room of the house this truly versatile lighting system allows you to easily shed a little light even in the darkest of corners.

Or there's Brooklyn-based designer Sergio Silva's Oyule, which he describes as "a modern-day light bulb that has traveled back in time, providing light as a traditional oil lamp." Produced by taking a standard light bulb and filling it with paraffin oil and a fiberglass wick, the Oyule is doubly conceptual given the double nostalgia factor of exposed light bulbs and oil heating. Silva's lamp costs $650, something which dumbfounded another creative designer, Bumpus, who came up with his own DIY version.

A little less cute and a little more raw is the German-designed Scheisse (cleverly named - look it up!) pendant light, designed by Hans Bleken Rud and shaped like a cracked-open light bulb. A chandelier of sorts that's meant for homes of people with avant-garde tastes (and probably a lot of cash).This is the lighting equivalent of designer Dror Benshetrit's smashed vase project for Rosenthal, and it's not for the faint of heart, or illumination.

And who doesn't have a thing for stickies? Whether it's a penchant for Post-it Notes or Wacky Wall Walkers, the Sticky Lamp by Chris Kabel will totally be up your kitschy alley. The PVC casing will literally stick on to any surface of your home - a wall, a window, a ceiling - and create an instant and interesting light source. And for under $50 (light bulb not included), the Sticky Lamp is within the price range of dorm and apartment dwellers everywhere.

Lest anyone think that this light bulb fetishizing is all so very brand-new, however, let us not forget the original light bulb lamp. Designed by Wilhelm Wagenfeld in 1924, this lamp, most commonly just referred to as the Bauhaus lamp, looks like the top of a light bulb has been gently and carefully sawn-off and stuck onto a very shiny rod.

 

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]]>interior designlampslight bulblightingEva Hagberg2010-03-12T16:03:00 00:00Use Your Walls to Declutter Your Spacehttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/10/use-your-walls-to-declutter-your-space/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/10/use-your-walls-to-declutter-your-space/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/10/use-your-walls-to-declutter-your-space/#commentsFiled under:

Declutter Your ApartmentFor those for whom vintage posters and/or tricked-out and often hilarious wall decals aren't enough of a distraction from the endless expanse of bare walls, there's yet a third option. Extending far beyond the solely visual reach of the two-dimensional decoration and into three-dimensional usefulness -- but without the commitment renters would be inclined to avoid -- are options that actually help arrange our space. But these aren't your momma's shelves....


Once again, let's hit it with a couple of wall shelf categories:


Category A: The Supercool-Design-Aware Wall Accessory

This is the big hitter, the type of object as likely to be found in the pages of Dwell Magazine's unhappy hipsters' homes as it is to be found in yours. It's something that you can hang on your wall that says so much more about both the wall and you than it does about books, or tchotchkes, or whatever you end up putting on it. With the Design-Oriented Wall Addition, in fact, it doesn't even matter if you put anything on it or not: it stands alone. Tall, proud, sometimes a little slinky.

Ron Arad's Bookworm ($425-$1,115 at Unicahome.com), CB2's Alcove Wall Shelf ($159 at cb2.com)

Category B: The So-Cute-You-Could-Just-Eat-It Wall Accessory

This is more for trinkets and less for books, also more about eliciting a reaction similar to the one you get when you look at pictures of kittens in bowls and very small babies. This is for the design-conscious house that isn't design-self-conscious, for the renter who wants something easy-to-install but nevertheless gain a semi-permanent-feeling. Ferm Living offers a line of cartoon-house-shaped wall hangings called Studios. "In our wooden studios you can keep your alarm clock, a notepad, a glass of water - you name it, the studio can keep it. The studio can even serve as a bookmark by placing your favourite book on the top of the roof. You can hang them on the wall or just put them on the floor," the site explains. The Dorm, meanwhile, is like the studio but broken up into little individual spaces. With just enough room for a tiny pony.

Ferm Living's Studios and Dorm ($109 - $130 at Ferm Living), Children's Display Shelves on Etsy ($65 - $75, Giftz by David)

Category C: The Fancy-Frills-Yet-Conceptually-Deep Wall Accessory

Part of a larger trend embracing details and ruffliness--first exemplified in Harry Allen's My Brother's Picture Frame, which was visually ornate and materially approachable--is the really adorable wall accessory, the one that just begs to be filled with ladylike things like perfume bottles and rare (and real!) sponges. This is the type of accessory you'd hang in Meryl Streep's It's Complicated bathroom, and the kind you'd promise your children you'll pass along to them, never letting on that you got it from the internet, not Great-Grandmother's closet.

Brocade Home's Ruffle Frame Shelf ($499 at Brocade Home), Areaware's Books Bookshelf ($165 at Velocity Art and Design)

Category D: The You-Won't-Believe-Your-Eyes Wall Accessory

This is the visual trickster category, the one for people who need something a little more thrilling with their wall than even the bare-knuckle bucket of awesome that comes with a bookworm or a birdfeeder-type studio. This is for people who want to do a double-take, even at home, and for the design-savvy who just need that little extra kick. Henry Julier's Magneto shelving system is a series of wood blocks + magnetic back panel so that you can constantly adjust the scale, proportion, and pattern.

Henry Julier's Magneto ($160 at Henry Julier), Elastica Bookshelf (price on request at Arianna Vivenzio)

 

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]]>interior designron aradshelvesshelvingUnica HomewallsEva Hagberg2010-03-10T17:33:00 00:00Still Got Bare Walls? Dive into Decals!http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/05/still-got-bare-walls-dive-into-decals/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/05/still-got-bare-walls-dive-into-decals/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/05/still-got-bare-walls-dive-into-decals/#commentsFiled under:

Graphic Wall decal optionsLast week, we took a look at a few poster options for those of us with bare walls, zero mural skills, and the desire to improve the State of the Home. With some helpful constructive criticism - thank you, dear commenters - came the reminder that there's another option out there: one that is just as fun (if not more so), just as easy (if not easier), and with just as many mind-blowing options as the humble poster.

Wall decals, once thought to be strictly for the two-and-under set, have gone rogue. Sold everywhere from Target to Sears, not to mention all over the internet, and in styles ranging from the decidedly old-school NoJo Jungle Babies (that would be for that under-2 set) to a super-conceptual Stack Chair decal produced by British-based designers Amplifier, decals are the new it wall-detail.

Decals tend to divide into a few categories. And we're here to break them down for you.

Category A: The Ironic Decal

This is a decal for people who probably had Thomas the Tank Engine driving across the mid-point of their walls when they were babes-in-cribs, and think it's kinda hilarious to reproduce that magic here. This is the decal that could just as easily have been left over from previous tenants, the kind of decal that makes you stop and wonder if your friend actually knows that it's on her walls, or just doesn't look at things that closely.

Examples: Sears' NoJo Jungle Babies Decal ($21.59), PrestoChangoDecor's Car Toons Wall Stickers ($24.99)

Category B: The Hipster-Designy Decal

This is the decal for people that wouldn't be caught dead with a decal. Except that they would be, because this decal is just so hella hot. This is the decal that's also designed by people who probably wouldn't be caught dead with a decal, unless it's one that they designed. Aesthetically, this is a decal that tends towards monochromatic spareness and probably a visual trick or two.

Examples: Amplifier's Stack Chair, a chair-shaped decal that you line piles of magazines up with, eventually creating a trompe l'oeil magazine-base chair ($45.00), Scribble on Everything's Lichtenstein-esque BAM ($12.00), or Another Sticker in the Wall's Barcelona skyline ($89.00)

Category C: The Really, Really Pretty Decal

This is the decal for people who love artist Mary Temple's work (she's the one who paints on a wall to make it look like the barest shadow) but are suffering from a momentary cash-flow crunch. Think flowers, trees, natural scenes with birds and rabbits and the occasional nest of open-beaked chickies. The really, really pretty decal usually has names like "Flowering Cherry Blossom Branch" or "Birch Trees."

Examples: Dali Decal's Cherry Blossom Branch ($80 from Dalidecal.com), Pretty Tree With Swirling Leaves (Etsy.com)

Category D: The Badass Decal

This is from the Decal of No Decal Land, the decal that just screams "Yes, I am a decal, and proud of it." Most likely to be spotted in a Portland, Oregon house, a Mission District apartment, or a Williamsburg loft, this is the decal that makes you want to pretty much put a decal on yourself it's so rad.

Examples: Rhinestone Chandelier ($12.99 at Target.com), Buck You by Jeremy Fish ($50 at Blik Surface Graphics)

 

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]]>blikdecalsinterior designNursery DecorTargetwall decalswall decorEva Hagberg2010-03-05T16:35:00 00:00Target Launches It's Most Varied (and Floral) Collectionhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/03/target-launches-its-most-varied-and-floral-collection/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/03/target-launches-its-most-varied-and-floral-collection/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/03/target-launches-its-most-varied-and-floral-collection/#commentsFiled under:

Liberty of London for TargetEleven years ago, a mid-market retailer named Target paired with a postmodern architect named Michael Graves for a line that would end up changing the world. Graves' designs, which included teakettles and paper towel holders, a triple laundry sorter and a drying rack, were promoted as "Design for All."

And now the retailer has gone old-school. Target has teamed up with Liberty of London, a super-traditional (they've been around since 1875) yet somehow totally hip company known for their totally awesome floral prints (no, that's not an oxymoron.) Featuring twenty-five different floral prints across price points ranging from $3.99 for a headband to $199.99 for a bicycle, the line will be the widest-ranging of any collaboration Target's ever done. So, what's it all about? The executive vice president of merchandising, Kathee Tesjia, says that it's all about "whimsical, contemporary design."Liberty of London at TargetThe line is launching on March 14th and will run, as always, for a limited time. What isn't limited is the breadth of the line, which includes throw pillows and dinner plates, dresses and ceramic canisters, teapots and blankets. The fact that putting a Liberty print on each of these items works is testament to the power of a brand, or, in this case, to the power of two.

Target's designs have enough flexibility within their physical plant--how each object is shaped, in other words--that they can sustain the massive change that sticking a bunch of flowers on a garden glove introduces. And Liberty's prints are current enough that these are design moves that actually make sense.

It's a big shift from Target's previous design collaboration, which focused on conceptual heavy-hitters like Michael Graves -- who practically invented postmodernism -- and Dror Benshetrit -- who designs chairs that turn into pictures and buildings that unscrew. The Liberty Line is a little bit more accessible, a little bit less self-conscious, a little bit more design-for-truly-all. While earlier Target collaborations spoke to the idea of design for all, it's collaborations like this one, which span housewares and clothing and accessories and bicycles, that speak to the future of branding and design.

Buying a Michael Graves teapot, even if it was from Target, was still resolutely Michael Graves, and it was the same with Dror's line of literally flippable flipbooks and playful picture frames. Those were designs from the inside out.

Liberty's collaboration, on the other hand, is design from the outside in: a pattern stamp, a tacked-on aesthetic. It's either a lateral shift or just the next step. Either way, history is being made again.

 

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]]>collaborationfloral printsinterior designliberty of londonliberty of london for targetTargetEva Hagberg2010-03-03T14:05:00 00:00When Wrong is Right: Strange DIY Interior Design Ideashttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/02/when-wrong-is-right-strange-diy-interior-design-ideas/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/02/when-wrong-is-right-strange-diy-interior-design-ideas/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/03/02/when-wrong-is-right-strange-diy-interior-design-ideas/#commentsFiled under: ,

Pacal Anson's Reunification ProjectMost designers, celebrity or not, are usually interested in trying to get their look just right. They look at a house, a living room, a kitchen, and they think "What's wrong here? How do I make it right?"

Not Pascal Anson. The London-based designer is the whimsical (which doesn't mean his points aren't serious) genius behind designs like the Reunification Project, a series of projects in which he unifies previously mis-matched items like forks or tables by treating them, as he says, "in the same way" (dipping cutlery in black and then red; covering bedside tables in red-dipped plastic deer) and also high-luxe designs like a porcelain birdbox for china giants Rosenthal or a totally rocking rocking chair. He is also the host of a series of short videos detailing ways in which people with a lack of budget and a surfeit of creativity can outfit their homes.
In a video posted on his utterly addictive Youtube channel, Anson explains how he came up with his profoundly mis-matched kitchen cabinetry. Realizing that cabinet-makers made all of their money on the doors, he decided to circumvent the system, installing the baseline hardware and then buying all sorts of different doors at the IKEA clearance section. "The rule with this kind of thing," the charming designer explains against a backdrop of white, brown, different-colored brown, and still-different-colored-brown cabinet doors, "is that if you're going to use a mix of doors, make sure it's going to be a real mix." In other words? "Make sure it's really, really wrong." Anson didn't stop at the doors -- the cabinet-knobs are painted, as he points out, yellow, pink, blue, and white.


Rented Spaces tracked Anson down to ask a few questions about his Really Really Wrong Design (which he also calls Twisted Design.)

Rented Spaces: Could you explain a little bit more the fundamentals of "really really wrong" decorating? How do you know when something's crossed that line into "so wrong it works?"
Pascal Anson: So wrong it's right is a tricky one to get right, but we can see it in the food we eat...have you ever eaten Pretzel Flipz....salty and chocolaty at the same time....they taste amazing. I suppose it is visually easiest to see in fashion when colors, patterns or textures clash. I think it is so conservative to live by the rules that says everything must co-ordinate, go with one another or match...if you follow this dogma you end up in a very bland existence with no tension.

Herein lies the proof, if what you are doing feels exciting, naughty or a bit edgy, then the chances are you are doing something 'right', if you are trying to emulate a look you have seen somewhere or to try and keep up with the Jones' then it's probably boring...ask yourself how does what I'm doing make me feel?

RS: What is it like to actually live with mismatched cabinets on a day-to-day basis? Does it ever bother you? Or do you live in a constant state of enthrallment?
PA: I suppose mismatching becomes its own form of aesthetic. I think if asymmetry and un-coordination bothers your soul and gets on your nerves then it's probably not for you, however if you are stimulated and not irritated by that then that's all good. So, I live in a constant state on enthrallment anyway!

RS: What kinds of suggestions would you have for someone who is perhaps a little bit less handy with cabinets but still wants to make improvements?
PA: With most of the videos, I tried to focus on ways of working which requite little craft skill and whose emphasis is much more on the idea. Anyone can shop in a certain way on eBay and can drill holes to put up mirrors. That requires very little expertise. It's just about seeing the world in a different way. I think we are told what is beautiful way too much. With the Go sign, I was suggesting that people look through new eyes for something that they might put in a frame....again there is no skill required, just a shift in vision.

RS: What's your background?
PA: I was born in South London and I graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2000 from the Design Products course. I love getting involved in all forms of visual art and design, from fashion to film making although graduating as a product designer. Also, I love swimming.

RS: What's coming up next for you?
PA: The videos have started to lead me in some new and interesting directions, I would love to work with a TV company with just a little higher production to turn the ideas from the clips into a TV show.

 

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]]>diy designikeaikea-hackerinterior designPascal AnsonEva Hagberg2010-03-02T15:35:00 00:00Bare Walls? Less Expensive Alternatives to the 'Mona Lisa'http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/26/bare-walls-less-expensive-alternatives-to-the-mona-lisa/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/26/bare-walls-less-expensive-alternatives-to-the-mona-lisa/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/26/bare-walls-less-expensive-alternatives-to-the-mona-lisa/#commentsFiled under:

Vintage posterThey say a house isn't a home until it has art on the walls. Having something to visually grab on to in what would otherwise be an endless expanse of eggshell, bone, burnt sienna, or dangerous robot, is crucial. Still, with this whole recession and all, it can seem tricky for those of us with the kind of budget Jane Seymour was talking about to figure out how to spruce up our walls. And for that, thankfully, there's the Internet.

First up is the poster. And, no, we don't mean the college poster. We're not talking "The Kiss," or "American Girl in Italy," posters that every sophomore from the west coast to the east has lovingly and, they believe uniquely, tacked up in their dorm room. (Guilty!) We're talking old movie poster, sign of the times, emblem of a particular moment of culture. We're talking vintage poster, like the kind now exhibited in an online show of work collected by the International Vintage Poster Dealers Association.

They're calling it "Life Is Beautiful: Posters That Make You Smile," and they do.Encompassing a whole bunch of decades and eras, these posters include cigar ads from the 1930's, the movie poster for "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" (complete with green dressing gown and risque posing), and an Italian image of a woman on a winged bicycle. In other words, this ain't no "Scarface," baby.

Vintage posterVintage not your jam or within your price range? There are tons of other options, including the comprehensive site AllPosters, which makes up for in inventory what it lacks in user-friendly design and cheap prices. This is the place to find those photographs you thought were unique, but also allows you to search by categories like "x-ray photography" and "poultry." AllPosters is the kind of place to go if you either have absolutely no idea what you're interested in, or an extremely specific idea.

Another option is barewalls.com, which is slightly more curated than AllPosters and also is helpfully broken up into categories. Artists include Van Gogh, Kahlo, and Kandinsky; styles include Art Deco, Abstract Expressionism, and Motivational. And subjects include Animals, Architecture, and Urban (which, in fact, has to do with issues of urbanism and cities).

Still, these are all posters, and there's yet another option for the bare-walled aesthete. New York gallerist/art person/renegade/superstar Jen Bekman runs a program called 20x200, and the conceit is simple. Every Tuesday and Wednesday, Bekman announces the day's artist and artworks, which come in different sizes at different prices. 20x200 is the place to get an 8x10" archival pigment print for $20, half of which goes to the artist, or a 30x40 archival print for $2000, which, again, half goes to the artist. Bekman's cause un-celebre is to get people interested in collecting art, and each of her editions arrives with a perfectly-designed tag that say "Congratulations! You bought art." And with everything from contributions from young photographers like Youngna Park, drawings by established graphic designer Kate Bingaman-Burt to brilliant text-based pieces from Mike Monteiro, browsing the archives of 20x200 is both more pleasant, and more personal, than getting lost in the online version of the uncategorized library that is the online poster world.

Either way and whatever you end up choosing, put something on your walls. As Bekman says, "Live with art -- it's good for you."

 

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]]>artinterior designpostersvintagevintage postersEva Hagberg2010-02-26T13:33:00 00:00Celebs Turned Interior Designers: Who Needs 'Em?http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/25/celebs-turned-interior-designers-who-needs-em/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/25/celebs-turned-interior-designers-who-needs-em/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/25/celebs-turned-interior-designers-who-needs-em/#commentsFiled under:


Would you hire Heidi Montag to grout your tiles? Whitney Port to pick out slipcoverings? Jennifer Aniston to design your life?

Probably a bad idea to go with the first two but given Aniston's place on the cover of the current Architectural Digest, sometimes celebrity designs are fine. Still, with the recent storm of celebrities from Lily Allen to Gwyneth Paltrow claiming to be interior designers and picking up the old design pen, it's tough to know who's trustable, and who isn't.

Let's take a run through the three most current options for all your celebrity decorating needs.


Kirstie Alley
Much of this started when Oprah announced that she and Kirstie Alley would come make over one lucky (?) winner's home. Skepticism was induced, but here's the putative catch. Before Alley was an actress, weight-loss spokesperson, and tabloid personality, she was an interior designer, a stint which has led to her offering such wisdom as "I like things that look Frenchy," and "I hate faux finishes." Certainly not afraid to be servicey, but unfortunately lacking in the kind of helpful tips that truly genius interior designers--like Mary Gilliatt--can come up with, helpful precisely because they are actually about the person interested in making over their room, and less about the author. What Alley offers is a look into her own design sensibility, something that may be intriguing to those diehard Alley fans, but far less so to the rest of us who are actually trying to, well, change our lives.
Upsides: Alley's famous and sorta fun to watch!
Downsides: You might not like "Frenchy" stuff.
Grade: B-

Zac Posen
Darling fashion designer Zac Posen, whose eponymous company has been reported to be undergoing some financial traumas as of late, has been tapped to help out with the design for a new luxury apartment building in Chelsea. Because what the world needs right now is more luxury apartment buildings particularly in Manhattan, but also it needs beauty. And that, Posen says unequivocally and frankly in an interview with The Real Deal, is what he can provide. No word on the specifics of Posen's design, but he does use words like "kitchen," "bathroom," "surfaces," and "lobby," which when seen together point to a wide-ranging and interested design vocabulary. As to what makes him particularly qualified, Posen says, with some jackass-ery that's nonetheless more enviable than it is annoying, "I was born qualified." And he's got a point. Designers tend to be good designers because they care about how things look. Posen has, in a sense, been altering his visual environment by surrounding himself with beautiful women who will wear his clothes. Moving on to interior design then, while not a sure thing, isn't the most ridiculous thing anyone's ever heard of.
Upsides: Posen's clearly an aesthete who knows his way around design considerations.
Downsides: Given that he's used to controlling how people look, imagine what he'd be like in your house.
Grade: B

Jane Seymour
The artist formerly known as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, has just published a decorating book called "Making Yourself at Home: Finding Your Style and Putting It All Together." This, would-be celebrity-aided design-hounds, bodes well. Not only does the second word start with "you" rather than "my" or "mine" or "me," but the whole tone is one that acknowledges that finding your style and then putting it together are two entirely separate issues, both of which she can help you with. A slight downgrade at first for mentioning her china collection, but a quick recover when Seymour clarifies that she got these at a garage sale and also uses the phrase "not having money." As in, it is a thing that exists for some people who may still want to live aesthetically rich and fulfilling lives.
Upsides: Seymour actually seems to have an idea that decorating is a process that can be challenging, and ideas for how to get around that.
Downsides: On third thought, there are none.
Grade: A

 

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]]>interior designerjane seymourKirstie AlleyoprahZac PosenEva Hagberg2010-02-25T13:50:00 00:00Where the Wild Things Are Stuffedhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/12/where-the-wild-things-are-stuffed/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/12/where-the-wild-things-are-stuffed/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/12/where-the-wild-things-are-stuffed/#commentsIn the west end of Toronto, artist Morgan Mavis runs the Contemporary Zoological Conservatory along with her partner Christopher Bennell. She's the director, and he's the conservationist, and together the two have created a space full of taxidermied bears, deer eagle, and a wallaby head. The conservatory is part of an ongoing conceptual art project Mavis has been creating since graduating from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2004, and has turned her rented apartment into a curated art gallery/home.

Morgan spoke with Rented Spaces about the genesis for the conservatory, her collecting habits, and the particular struggles of living in an art tableau.

Rented Spaces: How did the idea for the Contemporary Zoological Conservatory come about?
Morgan Mavis: I've always been collecting. When my partner and I came back to Toronto, I found a dream place in the west end and it was perfect - very large -- so we had space. I wasn't interested as much in being a practicing artist where I would be in galleries. I was really concerned about being misrepresented. So I was really only interested in representing myself and curating everything I own. Rather than relying on a curator, I was going to curate my life and everything I acquire from that point in.

RS: Is this your only art project?
MM: My other practice is all about domesticity and femininity. I've had this pink hair for fifteen years. I like looking at things that are the polar opposites: the juxtaposition, the masculinity. For a while I collected childrens' toy handguns predating the sixties. And then I was collecting taxidermy. I'm interested in things pretending to be something else. I was interested in exploring the role of like a Victorian dandy, or an aristocrat who would be played by a wealthy man. The CZC took shape, and my collections and acquisitions started just rolling in from there.

RS: Who funds the acquisitions?
MM: It's privately funded by me - so I look for deals. I'm an art teacher and I teach cooking at a private school. I have a student loan, I rent, so it's really just me knowing how to negotiate, knowing what things are worth to me and just being patient and coming up with the right acquisition.

RS: How frequently do you acquire new pieces?
MM: It's about every two months. Something I won't get anything for four months, and then I'll get four things at once. We went to Paris, Berlin, and Barcelona and that took a large chunk out of acquisitions. But when we were there we got a wallaby head and then an African butterfly in Paris. So our acquisitions for this year are smaller in scale but they have wonderful stories.


RS: How do you see the stories behind your pieces?
MM: I'm really interested in the preservation of discarded memories. I also collect needlepoints and paint by numbers. Taxidermy is the embodiment of a story. Most of the pieces are hunting trophies. But it's a memory for someone, and they either preserve it themselves by stuffing it, or commission a taxidermist, a son inherits it, doesn't want it, it gets discarded.
So instead of thinking of it as I'm killing these animals, I'm rescuing them from a junk shop, someone's basement.

RS: Who comes to see the Conservatory? How is it run?
MM: Originally it was open the second Sunday of every month. People would make reservations - and then not show up. So now we rent the space for fashion editorials and newspaper stories. We've been getting into that more than tours - although the College of Art and Design did a walkthrough and we had tea. When people come to the conservatory now they get baked goods and a story. It's like a salon.

RS: Is it hard to live in such a curated space? I'm trying to imagine you putting your feet up on the sofa and just relaxing with a magazine, and it's a little difficult!
MM: My partner always teases me I walk around barefoot all the time, and no matter how much I oil the floors, I always have gritty feet walking around barefoot. One of our sofas was custom designed in the 1940's - my feet are always gritty so I have to think before I put my feet on the sofa, and dust them off. I never want to sit with my feet directly on the sofa. I am always aware, it's not the space where you hang out in your pajamas. It's wonderful having a space that's so curated and tailor-made for yourself, except I'm constantly vigilant and worried about it.

Apartments-Turned-Galleries a Growing Trend [RS]

 

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]]>apartmentbarcelonaberlinconservatorydecoratingmuseumparissalonsalonstaxidermytorontoEva Hagberg2010-02-12T10:00:00 00:00Jonathan Adler Preps Your Kids for the Design Worldhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/11/jonathan-adler-preps-your-kids-for-the-design-world/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/11/jonathan-adler-preps-your-kids-for-the-design-world/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/11/jonathan-adler-preps-your-kids-for-the-design-world/#commentsFiled under:

At Sunday's New York International Gift Fair, potter-turned design-maven Jonathan Adler released a new line of furniture. Everything was shiny, cheerful, colorful, poppy, bright, and accessible enough to be manageable, without ever getting either overwhelming, or overwhelmingly boring. There were throw pillows and rugs, armchairs and bookcases. In other words, it was totally Adler.

With just one catch. This was the launch of Jonathan Adler Junior, a new line of Adlerian products designed just for the design-happy whimsical-enough color-craving children of the parents with the resources to kit them out. Kids hoping to turn their worlds into Adler's will have to wait until May, when the line properly hits stores, and official word is that the company is "treating this as a teaser collection and will be expanding it in the future" (assuming all goes well?).

And there's a reason everything looked totally JA: "The Junior collection features furniture pieces identical to our regular collection only scaled to children." Items include Peruvian llama rugs, needlepoint pillows, baby alpaca throws and pillows, wallpaper, clocks, and mirrors.

So. How young is too young to start decorating? Legends abound in architecture schools of the kids who were building with legos in the womb, or the ones that drew floor plans of their bedrooms (yours truly, guilty as charged.) The idea seems to be that there's some innate bug - the design bug - that people are either born with or can catch. And while most of the anecdotal evidence that I've come across suggests that it's an interest people are born with, it's entirely possible that lines like Jonathan Adler's will, slowly and gently, encourage kids to start thinking about design.

Dan Wieden, the ad executive who runs Wieden + Kennedy here in Portland, spoke earlier this week at a conversation hosted by Portland Monthly Magazine. And in that talk, speaking about his offices designed by architect Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works, Wieden talked about architecture as operating essentially the way your body does: it's a physical separator, marking the distance from yourself to the rest of the world.

Design functions the same way; it's a physical manifestation of the ways in which we feel about ourselves (take, for instance, the eternal-and eternally decorating-bachelor), and the chance for kids to be able to jumpstart that process is something that shouldn't be taken lightly. Something like the introduction of Adler's line can operate as a free-ing agent, something that helps kids come up with a sense of their own potential, as designers, and consumers.

Jonathan Adler has the same idea "Jonathan Adler Junior is meant to fire up kids' imaginations," he says. "I love happy emblems like lions and giraffes and hearts rendered in beautiful and crafty techniques--woven llama, baby alpaca, needlepoint, porcelain-and bold saturated color. Color is educational!"

All photos courtesy of Jonathan Adler.

 

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]]>alpacachildrenchildrens roomsdecoratingdecorationsdesignerelephantfor childrengiraffesjonathan adlerNew York International Gift FairpillowsEva Hagberg2010-02-11T14:09:00 00:00Nothing Wrong With Dudes That Decoratehttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/10/nothing-wrong-with-dudes-that-decorate/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/10/nothing-wrong-with-dudes-that-decorate/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/10/nothing-wrong-with-dudes-that-decorate/#commentsFiled under:

Last week, the New York Times' House & Home section ran a story on John Bowe, author of the book Us: Americans Talk about Love. The story ran under the "At Home With" rubric, a series of articles the House & Home section does frequently -and well- that documenst everything from Pentagram designer Paula Scher's incredibly designed Manhattan apartment to hoaxster Margaret B. Jones, the supposed author of Love and Consequences: A Memoir of Hope and Survival whose true identity as well-to-do Californian Margaret Seltzer was discovered after the Home section ran a story on her Eugene, Oregon house.

The point of the Bowe story was not that here is this man who is lonely and perhaps has fears of intimacy and sometimes has a hard time finding a woman who isn't so implausibly unavailable -she lives in Saipan! The point is that we find it utterly bizarre when single men decorate their own homes.The women's gossip site jezebel.com ran a post on the Times article, pointing out author Julie Scelfo's verging-on-breathless descriptions of Bowe's domestic situation.
"On a recent afternoon, he was well groomed and neatly dressed in a pressed oxford and jeans, his bright studio equally tidy: an assortment of cookware carefully arrayed on a kitchen wall, records and files stacked neatly under his bed. In the cotton-candy-colored bathroom, there was none of the hair or dust one might expect to see in a bachelor pad. And nearly every wall of his apartment was decorated with paintings of flowers, a collection he has spent more than two decades amassing."
The problem, Jezebel writer Sadie Stein says, is that "I can hardly see a 42-year-old woman being regarded as a major catch because she's mastered the essentials of adult domestication."


The Bowe story pushes forward one idea about men, and one about decorating. The first is that men who fall in love with people who are far away, or who have a hard time falling in love, are constitutionally damaged in some way. The other is that men who spend time in their homes are somehow compensating for something. And Stein is right: this doesn't happen with women; and, in fact, women who fall in love with people who are far away and at the same time attempt to make their homes lovely and delightful for themselves are seen not as sort of sad and isolated people throwing themselves into their mint leaf growing (as is implied here), but as true romantics, and/or good self-carers.

So. Why is it so strange when a man decorates? Corbusier designed furniture. So did Gerhard Rietveld, and Mies van der Rohe, and George Nelson and a whole bunch of other men (and a whole bunch of women, but that's another post). But somehow, when a man transcends the seemingly artistically-focused threshold of Pure Design and approaches his space with an applied focus, something strikes us as a little bit off. But it's the implied correlation between the preciousness of his decorating and the solitude of his life that sends would-be designers down the wrong path. There's nothing wrong with traveling and collecting a few Japanese carvings and putting them above your bed. There is something wrong with thinking that it's somehow profoundly off.

 

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]]>Eva Hagberg2010-02-10T11:22:00 00:00Make Your Own Mid-Century Knockoffshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/09/make-your-own-mid-century-knockoffs/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/09/make-your-own-mid-century-knockoffs/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/09/make-your-own-mid-century-knockoffs/#commentsFiled under: ,

In 2005, New York design trickster Rob Price-working under the collective name Thwart Design-released a series of designs called Design Without Reach. The idea was to mock the then-excruciatingly popular Design Within Reach line of mid-century modernist furniture (the store has since fallen into financial trouble along with, oh, the rest of the universe).

Design Without Reach was playful without being snotty: George Nelson's iconic ball lamp was reimagined as a series of Tootsie Roll pops; Marcel Breuer's famous chair was redone out of tape and paper clips. The point was simple - Design Within Reach wasn't all that in reach, and neither was mid-century design. The closest counterfeit we could have, then had to be somehow funny, witty, a riff.

Cut to five long and recession-heavy years later, and Bruno Bornsztein, the publisher behind Curbly.com, an online DIY community that posts everything from "Top 10 Uses For Coffee Grounds" to "Clean Like a Maid!", has just released a book-available online for a $9.99 download or in print for $18.00-called Make It! Mid-Century Modern (or MCM, for short.) In it are instructions for creating your very own Mid-Century Modern (sorry, MCM) standbys like a Charles and Ray Eames coathook, a Calder mobile, and that very same Nelson lamp that Price made out of lollipops. Here, though, it's a little more serious, a little less tounge-in-cheek."My writers and I did a brainstorm, and everyone was just really excited about the prospect of writing about mid-century modern design," Bornsztein says. "Also, with the popularity of Mad Men, it just seemed like a good idea." Not to mention that, he believes, the popularity index of mid-century modernism is "very high" right now. "I'd say it has overtaken other trends like shabby chic," he argues.



While Price's point is that these objects are valued through shared agreement and not purely for their absolute formal aesthetic, Bornsztein's interest in bringing mid-century design to the masses is much more practical, not to mention personal.

"I think it's actually much cooler than just going out and buying an expensive original (though that's cool too)," he says of following the books incredibly detailed and user-friendly instructions, put together by a group of Curbly contributors and spanning difficulty from very easy (etching cream-detailed Martini glasses a la the Eames) to a little more difficult (a Mondrian pillow) to outright bonkers (an Alexander Girard-inspired ottoman). "When you make something yourself, it has a really different feel to it, and it's more an expression of your personality. You can put your own stamp on it."

While it's debatable how much room for a personal stamp any of these mid-century designers actually intended to leave, and Price's projects are totally hilarious, it's Curbly's contribution that brings these designs truly within reach. Provided you've got a glue gun.

 

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]]>charles eamescurbly.comdesigndesign within reachdesign without reachgeorge nelsonmid century modernshabby chicshabby chic interiorsthwart designEva Hagberg2010-02-09T10:03:00 00:00Brooklyn Resident's Yard Gone to the Birdshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/05/brooklyn-residents-yard-gone-to-the-birds/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/05/brooklyn-residents-yard-gone-to-the-birds/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/05/brooklyn-residents-yard-gone-to-the-birds/#commentsFiled under:

"It's not nearly as cool having chickens on your farm as in your New York City backyard," Dan Feldman says. Feldman, a thirty-nine-year-old executive who lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, is about to get cool thanks to a chicken coop--the Chicken Ark--designed by Australian expat Drew Waters, a TV news employee by day and Noah-like chicken coop creator by evening/night.

Why chickens?

First, there's the cachet of it. Feldman had been living in Manhattan apartments for the last twenty-one years, and just bought a house that had space for a chicken coop - something remarkable in a city in which most people live in apartments that aren't much bigger than a henhouse. Second, Feldman had, he says, "just about every other kind of pet known to existence - all manner of mammal and reptile." He didn't want to go through the drama of owning a dog again, realized his family - Feldman has kids - ate a lot of eggs, and had been reading all the buzz about backyard animal husbandry. Third, installing a coop is really just the next logical step.

Feldman found Waters' company, Handcrafted Coops, to be an awesome alternative to the Eglu, which is quickly become the most popular coop for amateur backyard enthusiasts, the--"Frank Gehry-designed modernist coop," as Feldman calls it. The Eglu is made of polyethylene plastic and shaped like a spaceship.



Waters' coops--of which there's just one A-frame model--are the complete antithesis. "The look of the coop is based on a traditional design used by a lot of henkeepers in Britain," Waters says. "But that ark A-frame structure -- that was just a design experiment." The handcrafted coop is a simple but sleek little chicken home.




How did someone get from TV news to handcrafted chicken coops? For Waters, it started with the Park Slope Food Co-Op, one of the oldest in the country and a cultural touchstone for new Brooklynites. That, and the increasingly inescapable presence of what we can call the Michael Pollan School-"eat food, not too much, mostly plants"-of eating. "People are becoming more and more aware of wanting to control the source of their food," Waters says. "It was both a design desire and seeing a need that was lacking." Waters' coops are manufactured by a local woodshop and pack flat for shipping to anywhere his customers are; typically hippy places like Madison, Wisconsin; Portland, Oregon; and Austin, Texas are big on his waybills.

Feldman isn't sure how his experiment is going to pan out, but one thing's for certain: it looks like we're en route to a chicken coop coup.

 

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]]>austinbackyardbackyard-chickensbrooklynchickenchickenscoopeggsmadisonportlandEva Hagberg2010-02-05T14:10:00 00:00A Look Into the Home Life of Unhappy Hipstershttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/02/a-look-into-the-home-life-of-unhappy-hipsters/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/02/a-look-into-the-home-life-of-unhappy-hipsters/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/02/02/a-look-into-the-home-life-of-unhappy-hipsters/#commentsFiled under:

First there was LOLCats, then I Can Haz Cheezburger. Then there was Stuff White People Like, then Farmville. There is always an internet meme, but until last week, there wasn't really a big, earth-shattering site for the design crowd.

Sure, the designerati have plenty of blogs and even more sites for commentary. We even have Regretsy, a blog devoted to some of Etsy's worst ideas ever--"Where DIY Meets WTF"-- which introduced the world to the Skants (i.e. what happens when you wear a sweater as a drafty skirt) and Bryant Gumball.

But now we have the brilliance that is the newly-launched UnhappyHipsters -- a re-captioning of Dwell magazine's perfectly articulated, perfectly apathy-filled photographs.
The very first post is a page clearly scanned out of the February 2008 issue. A dude, with barely visible architect-type glasses, leans against a wall of windows. To the back of him is a red wall, to the left, a blue. Turn the blue wall corner, and you come up against a flat green surface. Oh, and there's something brown standing in there somewhere. The UnhappyHipster-ified caption? "He is sad because his house looks like an elementary school. And all the children have died."


Just a few days after their first post the anonymous person and/or people behind UnhappyHipsters have hit a stride. Another image, of a woman posing in green heels, jeans, and a dress against a backdrop of rakishly ephemeral brickwork while her headless paramour (we assume) lounges on a perfectly sheeted bed, offers this: "He sipped his tepid coffee and pondered how to tell her that, in fact, the pants made the sack dress even less appealing."


The point isn't only that it's funny (though it is). The point is that Dwell launched with founding editor Karrie Jacobs' Fruit Bowl Manifesto, an extremely salient part of which reads:
At Dwell, we're staging a minor revolution. We think that it's possible to live in a house or apartment by a bold modern architect, to own furniture and products that are exceptionally well designed, and still be a regular human being. We think that good design is an integral part of real life. And that real life has been conspicuous by its absence in most design and architecture magazines.
With the launch of this 100% insanely awesome parodying site the shelter mag is finally and utterly recognized as having jumped the "relatable" shark a long time ago.

The great thing about hipsters is that they take themselves too seriously. The fact that a hipster's calling that out shows that it's all gone too far. Or, as the anonymous blogger(s) over at UnhappyHipsters stated in an e-mail to me,
Unhappy Hipsters is basically just a place to say, "Oh, unhappy hipster, you picked the concrete floors and the gravel yard; at least pretend you like it."

 

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]]>blogDwellMagazinemagazinemodern houseparodypicswebsiteEva Hagberg2010-02-02T11:19:00 00:00YouTube Rental Ad for Perfect Park Slope Padhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/01/29/youtube-rental-ad-for-perfect-park-slope-pad/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/01/29/youtube-rental-ad-for-perfect-park-slope-pad/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/01/29/youtube-rental-ad-for-perfect-park-slope-pad/#commentsFiled under:

The story goes: a friend of a friend of a friend has a way of making sure he doesn't end up with crazy roommates. The test? "Say you had something you wanted to discuss with one or all of us, and we were out for the day," he'll say to prospective renters. "What would you do?"

Anyone who so much as mentions the words "note," "fridge," and "leave," is automatically disqualified.

Dirk Healy doesn't have such stringent requirements, but the 29-year-old Brooklyn resident is, with an ingenious advertising strategy, giving potential roommates as clear a sense of who he is as he's looking to get from them. Last week, Healy posted a video on YouTube advertising a "Park Slope Garden Duplex for rent Feb 1st!"

See his YouTube video after the jump..."Welcome to my video tour of my Park Slope brownstone," the video begins, zooming in on a typically Brooklyn gray metal gate, to the exhilarating soundtrack of Manu Chao's Me Gustas Tu. First line after that? "Bike storage. Nice." Gives you a sense of Healy, right? He seems cute. Charming. Aware of alternative transportation methods. This is New York, though, a city that runs on real estate obsession, and he cuts to the chase, cutting to the bedrooms. "Rent for one person is $1400." And below that, in smaller text, because everyone in New York is also aware that many relationships run on a mutual real estate need, "For a couple it is $1700."

The rest is similar - introductions to various rooms ("This is probably my favorite room," Healy says of the gigantor kitchen, cf that openness of introductory spirit at work) and little taglines explaining what's going on in each image. It ends with a shot of Brooklyn bay windows and two overstuffed easy chairs. "Move in is Feb 1st...", the final tagline says, the ellipsis hinting at the awesome life that could be yours, if bike storage + kitchens + a roommate who'll make a video sound awesome to you.

The question is, why'd he do it when craigslist is so available, and free? "I'm not in any sort of video/media field but this is the age of self-publishing," Healy tells us. "Social media has given a much louder voice to the everyday Joe so I thought I'd take advantage of that." Healy did the entire video with a point-and-shoot camera, editing the result on free software that came with his laptop. And the Manu Chao? "The choice of music and font and words were all deliberate and were chosen to draw in people who shared a taste or aesthetic."

"I've never attempted anything like this before but the response has been awesome," Healy says. "Apartment hunting on Craigslist is always a crap shoot and between the video and access to my Facebook page people can have some idea of what they are walking into." Any concerns that anyone might get a little too enthusiastic, and show up with a homemade bicycle and the complete Chao discography, on Laserdisc? "It's a little weird, knowing that complete strangers can take a virtual tour of my home but the benefits during this roommate search greatly outweigh my stalker fears."

 

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]]>apartmentbedroombrooklynbrownstonecraigslistkitchenpark sloperentalroommatessharevideoyoutubeEva Hagberg2010-01-29T13:17:00 00:00