2Modern Design Talk - Modern Furniture & Design Blog

yogurt lamp.

How great is this lamp? And guess what? It's made out of yogurt cups! Yes, yogurt cups -- specifically Fruchtzwerge, which is a German yogurt (if you know of an equally colorful stateside equivalent, please let me know). The craftster ate her way through 70 containers of "sickly sweet" stuff and eventually had enough pieces to create her light! She connected the containers using metal rings and then attached them to a lamp shade. Et voila -- yogurt lamp!

You can read more about the process here.

Vampire Energy

via

--sdotg--

bundt pans on the walls!

 

Photo from hownowdesign's photostream.

I came across this photo on Flickr and had to share! What a fantastically creative way to reuse old bundt pans! If you happen to have a bunch of bundt pans that aren't so colorful, even better! Just pick up some nice spray paint (I suggest going to an art store and picking up some Montana), and you can designate a color scheme yourself.

IdeaPaint Sparks a Playroom Makeover

When I first heard about IdeaPaint, I thought what a brilliant concept! Created by a couple of colleagues feeling constrained brainstorming on a small dry-erase board, IdeaPaint provides anywhere-dry-erase coverage and won multiple awards at NeoCon in 2008. A single can of IdeaPaint covers 50sq ft. This is definitely too good a concept to be limited to the workplace.  We decided to give our 5 year old daughter a permanent canvas in her playroom. Ulterior motive? - saving space and paper!  We created three trees on the playroom wall so mates could have drawing space too.  We've encouraged her to save the higher branches for her teenage years.

Some tips for this weekend project? First be patient. IdeaPaint is so new to the market, most retailers still don't carry it. We ordered ours online. It's a bit pricey, but will last until you paint over it - and we figured we'd save on the cost of newsprint pads and rolls. The shipment comes with one foam roller but I'd recommend picking up a few foam brushes for any small areas you need to cut in. We taped our tree outlines with masking tape and cut out leaves from decorative paper  (a great piece of the project for the kids to help with). IdeaPaint is environmentally friendly and does not off-gas once day, but the application needs to be well ventilated.  It goes on a bit like Elmers glue and dries fast; so if you are new at painting you may consider using a contractor.

Below are some more wall application ideas from the IdeaPaint website sure to spark ideas of your own!

Recycle that Cork!

We are great about recycling our wine and champagne bottles, but what are we supposed to do with all those corks?

It'll cost you a little postage, but Yemm & Hart Ltd, a small green building company in Missouri, will gladly take them off your hands....and with 15 billion corks in circulation around the globe each year, it might not be a bad idea.

What does Yemm & Hart do with all those little poppers (one and a half tons of them to date)?  Floor tiles, of course, and they'll even return a complimentary sample. Check out the website link for further information on the program or mail your corks to:

Wine Cork Recycling: Yemm & Hart Ltd., 425 North Chamber Dr., Fredericktown, MO 63645

     

How to teach your children to choose and eat healthy food?

"The health of youth in the United States is now negatively affected by dangerous eating habits that may eventually lead to obesity. Vending Machines are one of the “easiest” and most convenient ways for children to access snacks, frequently junk food, in schools."... I guess you know about that, maybe if your reading this, you also have this problem at home with your kids: Healthy food is boring and bad food is yummy.  Well why it have to be like that.  Take a look to the clever idea of the designer Irina Ivanova, who create an special packaging for delicious healthy snacks, that will capture the attention of the children.

 

She also create a system to sell and promote the units.  A machine that will contain the fresh food until the moment that a young consumer insert his/her special card to get in a very easy way whatever he or she wants to eat. 
Design did it again.  Congratulations Irina for your Vitameal project.  Soon all the schools will ask for this nice machines.

Via TheDieline.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

2009 will certainly go down as a very memorable one, to say the least. I think there will be a lot of reflection on what exactly transpired over this past year. There is no need to rehash it all, the Media does a great job at keeping us up to date with every detail possible.

I guess the one thing that I can decipher from all of this is this...if you are in a position of power, and your decisions impact several people, then make sure that you are acting with other people's best interest in mind. Make sure that your integrity is in check and that you are as concerned with other people's well-being as your own.

CEO's, Politicians, Hedge Fund Managers (Ponzi Scheme Operators), Teachers, Parents, etc...we all inherently know right from wrong. We all know when we are looking to 'just get ours', regardless of the end result of our actions on others.

I am sure I am preaching to the choir...as most of the people that are the root cause of some of these current global concerns will likely never read this, let alone have it sink in. Maybe if we start giving more attention to the people that are doing good things for people, doing the right or selfless thing when no one is even watching, then things will start to change in a positive direction. I hope that good behavior is rewarded and bad behavior isn't in 2009. That is my wish.

I sincerely hope that all of you out there have a very Happy, Healthy (and Conscious) New Year!

Greg

How to Create a Gorgeous Wall Collage

If you've been flipping through design magazines recently, you might have noticed the resurgence in popularity of the ever-handy wall collage. Used to group wall art so that it mimics the visual weight of a larger piece of art, the collage has many benefits besides just looking fantastic in nearly any space. Collages are usually made up of smaller pieces of artwork, which means you can decorate your walls less expensively. Since there aren't any real rules to creating a collage, you have a lot of flexibility and are able to make your collage match the style of your home's decor. Collage's are also a casual and fun way to decorate your home and are a great solution for those weird wall spaces! They can be both very formal and traditional but also casual and carefree, too. While there aren't any rules, there are a few tips that can help you create the best wall collage ever.

1) Unless you're absolutely going for the bohemian hodge podge look, choose artwork that has at least one of the following in common: size, subject, color or frame style/color. The more formal a collage you wish to create, the more of those elements you will want to have in common.

 

2) Consider spacing carefully. Artwork bunched up tightly with little space between the pieces can give off a cluttered and high-energy feel whereas artwork placed farther apart can give a more relaxed feel. Of course, the size of your wall "canvas" and how many pieces of art you want to display will also determine how close you need to place the art.

3) To get an idea of how you want to display the pieces on the wall, first lay out your artwork on the floor in front of the desired wall. Mark off on the floor with blue tape the exact space on the wall you'll have to work with. This will allow you to mix and match and rearrange artwork until you create the composition of your dreams before you make marks on the wall.

4) When you finally find the right composition, start with the middle piece of artwork and find the middle of your wall "canvas". Use this to measure the perfect spacing you decided on and help you hang the rest of the pieces. Remember to use a level and step back from your hanging often to check on your progress.

5) Consider purchasing double-sided sticky tape squares to place on the corners of your collage pieces. Little artwork tends to move more with vibrations in the house and artwork will seem extra crooked when next to so many other pieces of artwork.

And there you have it! Enjoying creating your own wall collages today!

Photographs taken from Desire to Inspire.

A Few Tips on Rearranging!

So, the economy's tight. You probably don't have the budget for that new couch you've been eyeing, and you certainly can't afford to hire an interior designer to pull it all together for you.

What's a homeowner to do? Suffer through the same old home decor as you always have? Of course not, you can redesign your home.

ReDesign is basically defined as using the furnishings you already have in new ways to create fresh spaces in your home. And while the very best thing you can do is enlist the help of a designer to craft your new home, there are a few tips you can remember when opting to tackle this job yourself.

1) Take photos! You live in your home, day in and day out. Sometimes you can't always see the things that could be changed or even the areas that are a bit cluttered. Take a bunch of shots and examine them for areas that look confusing, cluttered or even that could just use a change.

2) Take stock of your current inventory. Maybe those nightstands in the guest bedroom that you don't use could be better utilized in the living room as end tables? Perhaps even just switching out throw pillows and accessories could be used to enliven spaces. Don't rely on your memory; make an actual list!

3) Get creative. As mentioned above, take freely from rooms all around your house to help transform your new spaces, and don't get stuck on what a piece of furniture is "supposed" to be used for.

4) Remember to arrange for more than just aesthetics. Part of the fun of rearranging is making your space look better, but also concentrate on things like space planning and traffic flow. Is there a chair you're always running into on your way to the kitchen? Take this time to really examine what works and does not work in your home.

5) It may seem obvious, but measure before you move! You might think you're estimating things correctly, but how much would it suck if you hauled that huge couch on the other side of the room only to find out its two inches too long?

6) Lastly, get help with large things. I don't know what the statistics are on injuries incurred in the home while moving huge pieces of furniture, but I bet the numbers are high. Always keep in mind safety so you don't end up injuring yourself!

Happy rearranging!

How to build a Thai temple with nothing but recycled bottles?

The principal material used in the construction of this Thai temple was glass recycled bottles.  They start to collect it at 1984, and ones it was finished, the temple result solid as a rock, and off course, a big attraction for the tourists.

This temple is well known as “Wat Lan Kuad” or “Temple of Million Bottles”, but the true name of it is: Wat Pa Maha Chedio Kaew temple. 

As an extra hint, in the construction, it was used the estimated quantity of 1.5 million of recycled bottles.
Just imagine the big quantity of beer this monks had to drink to watch the temple finished...
Oh, I'm just kidding ;).

Via Core77.