Here’s another great little backyard studio. This time we’ve got a suburban tipi designed by John Paananen who came up with the structure while he was a student at Cranbrook Academy of Arts in Michigan. It doesn’t look like it went into production but you can reach John through his website. Via Materialicious.
Stylist Marcus Hay lives in New York and works for food and interior magazines all over the world. Like a lot of New Yorkers he’s rather short on space and his studio apartment also doubles as an office. In December last year he created a dedicated work space complete with dusty mauve walls, serious storage and a little dish for his air plants. You can read about the office makeover on his blog Fluff N Stuff. Marcus generously agreed to share the pictures with us here on Lifework. Enjoy!
You spent a good deal of time and money choosing the perfect laptop—so be sure to outfit it with something worthy of your efforts. Start with our picks for cooler-than-you-thought-they-could-be cases and bags.
1. Mandarina Duck Knock Business Expandable Horizontal Tote with 15” PC Case, $205.00 Works as hard as you do (and looks as good, too). The interior of this chic multitasker contains a removable laptop case with ultra-thick padding and easy-to-carry handle. Get it: unicahome.com (Image via unicahome.com)
2. S N A Pdesign 15″ UNI-LAP, $59.95 With its snappy red details and mod design, this durable unisex bag can easily double as a portfolio or everyday carrying case. Get it: supermarkethq.com (Image via supermarkethq.com)
3. Muji Nylon PC Case, $35.25 Smart look, smarter price. This simple nylon case fits most sizes of laptops and includes pockets for storing small accessories. Get it: muji.us (Image via muji.us)
4. Rubi handbag-brief $295.00 Named for a rapidly growing municipality of Barcelona, Rubi is the sexiest workbag around. Carry it using short handles or its detachable strap. Get it: knomobags.com (Image via knomobags.com)
5. The Blackstone by ETCETERA MEDIA, $210.00 Cozy up to this naturally water-resistant wool felt shoulder bag with an interior crafted from 100% post-consumer recycled Knoll fabric—making it almost stain-proof (and easier on the Earth). Get it: supermarkethq.com (Image via supermarkethq.com)
It’s a slow Monday over here so we are definitely in need of inspiration (and coffee!). With that in mind I’ve found a few office pin-up boards that I think you will like. Above is an interesting take on the traditional board. Photographer Jennifer Causey has employed simple string and bulldog clips for her home work space. The image below is from Russian illustrator Irina Troitskaya. Again no board necessary. And the image at the bottom is a board covered in a coffee sack – nice texture. You can learn how to make one yourself over at Maya Made.
There’s a great interview with Yves Behar over at Inhabitat. Behar designed the Leaf and Ardea lights for Herman Miller. He is the key speaker at the Greener Gadgets Conference this week where he’ll discuss his work including the super cool little tablet computer he designed for the One Laptop Per Child project.
Here’s our weekly round up of must-see sites:
1. BBC News You’re wondering why I’ve included a news site? Well they have an excellent section called Day in Pictures that collects really striking images from around the globe. Where to start: Today is pretty cool (Feb 19) – you’ll get floods in Indonesia, the start of Fashion Week in London and rebuilding in Haiti.
2. W Magazine Another left of centre choice but the home tours on W’s fashion site are wonderful. They are as opulent and fabulous as the fashion covered in the magazine. Where to start: I love the Marquess of Bute’s estate in Scotland. Now that’s a home office.
3. Inhabitat Great green design news. Where to start: Their interiors section – this clamp lamp would make a great desk light.
4. Living Etc If it’s good enough for Apartment Therapy’s Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan it’s good enough for us. In a recent interview with Lifework Maxwell mentioned this British interiors magazine as a great source of inspiration. Where to start: The excellent photo galleries. Here’s the home office gallery.
5. Material Girls Put together by 5 designers it’s loaded with great images and well-researched reads on design. Where to start: A great post on desk chairs.
Graphic designer Jennifer Ramos just renovated her home office. It took two weekends to get up some new wallpaper and move around furniture, purchase a new desk and declutter. In fact, you can see the renovation in progress on her blog Made By Girl.
You just renovated your home office. How long have you been working in that space and what do you do there? I’ve worked in this space for over 2 years and I love it. It has 2 really large windows that let in lots of sunlight for those days when you don’t get to go out much because you’re stuck working! I also have a production studio in my home….but it’s not as pretty, so I don’t show that to the world. I like pretty.
Why did you choose a cool color palette? I figured that a cooler palette would make things brighter & look more crisp! It’s not the largest space in the world so it made more sense to brighten things up to give it an appearance of a larger looking space.
Where did you source the office furniture? Both desks are from West Elm, they’re called Parsons. The curtains are a velvety light blue & are also from West elm. And the white storage unit is also from West Elm.
How do you keep clutter under control? Oh, I hate clutter…it feels chaotic to me. Even when I’m a friends place….I feel the need to organize & de-clutter if it’s a mess. The best thing I’ve learned on how to keep clutter under control is always put things away immediately after you use them…you’ll avoid the clutter later. I also throw out everything I haven’t used in 3 months or more.
The wallpaper is called ‘Mackintosh Rose’ and you can get it a Graham & Brown.
What is your favorite desk accessory? My pencil holder…..I use it everyday and it was very inexpensive!
What inspires you? Pops of color, paint swatches, design books, magazines, furniture, art…..so many things inspire me.
Do you listen to music while you work? Absolutely, it relaxes me. I usually turn on my iTunes on my Mac and let it play….I love Kings of Leon, Amy Winehouse, Chris Cornell…etc.
Readers often ask how to tell if a Herman Miller piece is authentic, especially when the piece in question is vintage. Authenticity is very important to Herman Miller and we will be covering it here on Lifework in a series of posts focussing on individual designs. But the 20th Century Cincinnati show, a showcase for over 50 vintage furniture and design dealers, looks like a very good place to start. The organizers have published an excellent short guide to buying vintage. It’s linked to the show which runs over two days – from February 28 – February 29 at the Sharonville Convention Center in Sharonville, OH.
Kim Johnson is one half of Desire to Inspire - a blog packed to the brim with great interiors. She and fellow blogger, Australian Jo Walker, have never actually met. They came together on Flickr and “well that was that. Desire to Inspire was born.” It’s a picture- heavy global tour of chic homes that attracts people from all over the world. Kim, who is a web programmer based in Ottawa, Canada, talks with us about blogging from her home.
What does an average work day look like for you? The majority of my day is spent in a cubicle while I am at my day job as a web developper for the Canadian government. Not very exciting. But then I get to come home and spend my evenings working on the interior design blog I share with Jo, who lives in Australia. That involves answering reader emails, conversing via email with advertisers, collecting photos for a post to be published the following day, and hopefully finding a bit of time to make dinner, check out other blogs, and relax a bit before the day ends. Then it all starts again (at 5 am). My workspace is pretty small; a room at the back of my house that is 11’x10’, with a rather large powder room taking up a quarter of the space.
What technology really works for you? Being surrounded by technology all day, I am inspired by the simple things that get the job done quick. My pink (I loooove pink) Dell laptop is a god send. It is fast and super handy. I often move it into the kitchen where I sit at the dining table and while working I can watch the TV in the living room (and keep an eye out on my 7 cats).
Do you have a favorite desk accessory? The only desk accessory I really need is my whiteboard. I have a marker obsession so I love keeping track of everything (blog advertising, grocery lists, Home Depot lists) on my whiteboard.
What makes your home office work well? Organizing a home work space is essential. Disorganization = stress. No one needs more stress in their lives. So I am always on the hunt for fun vintage metal baskets, storage furniture, trays for stray papers…whatever I need to have a space for every single thing that enters my office.
What do you listen to while you work? Sadly I find I am too preoccupied with other things to find decent music to listen to. I often turn to my digital cable box for help, where I set it to one of the “hit list” radio stations.
The current Herman Miller showroom in Los Angeles is a beautiful space and this year it won an LEED CI Platinum certification—the first building of its kind in this city to receive this accolade. It also marks 60 years of Herman Miller’s participation in the LA design scene. To see where it all began head over to our sister blog, Discover. Charles Eames and architect Kenneth Acker met the challenge of designing the original showroom in 1946. Discover’s editors collaborated with the Eames Office to put together a great slideshow of the original space – many of the images haven’t been seen before. It’s really impressive.
