Lifewall: Pollution-eating vertical gardens
Spanish company Ceracasa recently debuted a new spin on the vertical garden: Lifewall, a tile-based system designed to absorb pollution and convert it to fertilizer that feeds drip-irrigated plants. The square-meter-sized tiles can be arranged on a building's facade in any pattern, and come in whi…

Discovering Color in Historic Metalwork
We are working on the decoration for the new headquarters building for Historic Hudson Valley, an organization overseeing the preservation of some of the most important historic monuments of American design. Peter Pennoyer Architects are the architects. In the course of working on the decor…

A Monday morning reflection
I stumbled upon this image this past weekend, and was confused, then intrigued, then depressed, then humbled by it. Artist/designer Ian Collins runs a website called The Big Caption, in which he superimposes captions over photographs and posts them daily. He recently posted this aerial image of oi…

Tom Dixon
British designer Tom Dixon does not disappoint—at least I'm never disappointed. I was genuinely thrilled with his multiple booths this year at ICFF. The arrangement of furniture was simple graphic and cohesive. He adds a fun element to his installations by stacking…

JSPR
Everyone is exhausted after ICFF—the show, the parties, the cocktails, the chatting...and all this crammed into half a week. I know, I know, it's nothing compared to Milan, but since I don't get to go to Milan this is the closest design excitement that I get and it's in New York, my b…

Richard Hutten
Despite this fabulous chair being called the Cloud Chair, it actually reminds me of a cluster of bubbles. I am always attracted to this sort of organic circular form. I found it on one of my favorite blogs DesignBoom. The chair is by Dutch designer Richard Hutten and was introduced in 20…

Kitchen Renovation Part 4 – Big and Easy
An el:environmental language kitchen There is no bigger decision when renovating a kitchen than choosing the cabinets, but for me, it was an easy choice. Jill Salisbury, the principal of el: environmental language, is a furniture designer of equal parts creative genius and environmental integrit…

Salone del Mobile: Satellite Show 2010
“The wise person is never surprised by the unexpected. The wise person expects the unexpected to occur as surely as the expected.” - Genghis Khan My expectations for the Salone del Mobile are always high. It is the forefront of inspiring shows, successfully diversifying it content…

A bulletin board with a message
Usually, "Save the Polar Bears!" messages come with a not-so-subtle dose of guilt. But in the case of Petz Scholtus' adorable cork animal wall boards, we get the message, and bring some cute into our home. Entitled Affected, the collection of cork bulletin boards come in a variety o…

ICFF: A Few of My Favorite Things
More and more, ICFF week seems to be about the events peripheral to the show itself. Not to protest too much—I held a reception in my showroom last Thursday—but it seemed like I went to a half dozen openings and drank twice as many caipirinhas before even setting foot in the Javits …

Missing/Reward
I have been calling Contractor Mitch, but I haven’t gotten any responses. Perhaps he read my blog and didn’t like its content, or maybe he decided to take a vacation. I can just imagine him floating on a pool raft and sipping on piña coladas. My only hope is that he calls back tod…

What If We All Lived In New Hampshire?
Hello from 35,000 feet. Traveling home from a visit to Texas I found this terrific graphic in my inbox. (I do a lot of email maintenance on airplanes.) As an urban dweller I find the vast openness of our country fascinating. How can a nation of 308 million people occupy so little of it? Does…

Reality TV Hits Home: Jayne House on TLC's "Heavy Haulers"
I am out west to celebrate my father’s 90th birthday and have had the pleasure of meeting some distant relatives for the first time. We talked about our shared ancestry and got to discuss my great-grandfather Henry Jayne’s house in Muscatine, Iowa. I was once able to borrow my 102-ye…

When is a chair not a chair?
Image via Vitra When it's a... strap?! Vitra takes a new hyper-minimalistic approach in their new "Chairless" design, which is essentially a strap that works with your body's ergonomics to keep you upright and steady while sitting on any surface. Instead of having to sprawl or lean back…

A new take on cork flooring
While we've all seen the pennies embedded in resin as flooring and bar tops, Jelinek Cork has a new spin on the aesthetic that's much greener, and frankly, more beautiful in my opinion. The company cuts recycled wine corks at a similar size, and lays them down to create a naturally resilient and w…

Barber Osgerby
I needed to find a coffee table this week and searched and searched until I came across this one on the Cappellini website. I was reminded of how incredibly beautiful their ceramic tables are. They are by design duo Barber Osgerby. P.S. I forgot to add them to my list of favorite de…

Jasper Morrison
I knew it! I should never have posted a list of my favorite designers, because no sooner did I post that blog, I realized I had left out some designers who I adore and who should have made the list. Jasper Morrison for example, is a brilliant designer. Here is his piece called Oa…

Public Bikes
Rob Forbes is a very smart man. He started Design Within Reach many years ago and after some time he sold it. He has since moved onto his next venture: bicycles. He has a new start up company called Public Bikes and has put together a collection of super-hip bikes to make biking m…

Woody Issues
Members of USGBC have recently received an email from Rick Fedrizzi, USGBC’s President and CEO, regarding proposed revisions to the wood credit in LEED. Rarely has one credit generated so much controversy even during LEED’s formative years. The latest draft differs considerably fro…

Swarovski Crystal Palace 2010
“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand-and melting like a snowflake…” - Francis Bacon, Sr. Zona Tortona has the reputation for hosting the most inspiring design shows during Salone del…