Posts with tag InteriorDecor

If you live anywhere with decent weather and enough hipsters per capita, you're undoubtedly familiar with the scooter as a fashionable form of transportation. Here in Austin, you can't leave the house without seeing some well-dressed 20-something buzzing along on their sleek-looking Vespa, and we even have lifestyle boutiques that sell designer clothes and "pre-1985 European mopeds" -- for the discerning connoisseur.

You may live someplace that's too cold to rely on a scooter as your main mode of transport, or you may think dropping $5,000 on a moped is stupid when you could just as easily buy a car -- but that doesn't mean you can't join in the fun.

Enter the Vespa Lamp. This stylish nod to 1960's mod (and contemporary hipster) fashion will let everyone know that you understand what's cool -- even if you opted for a used, 4-door Hyundai instead of that classic Lambretta all your friends are riding.

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for novel home decor. Some people collect yard gnomes or weird porcelain figurines, and I lust after kitchy, cute functional pieces that fit my modern design aesthetic.

Like this clothes hanger lamp, for instance. It's not going to change your world, or even revolutionize the way you hang your clothes. It can, however, make your bedroom just a little bit cooler.

For instance, I like to screw a small metal bar into one wall of the bedroom, that lets me hang my favorite shirts out in the open instead of tucked away in my closet. With the clothes hanger, I'd be able to highlight that design choice -- making it fun, instead of merely functional.

The only problem is that the lamps, at $249, aren't exactly within everyone's budget (including mine). But I can't imagine the concept would be that hard to replicate. Just make sure you're using low-watt bulbs. You wouldn't want your DIY design idea to turn your bedroom into a blazing inferno.

Despite our best attempts at living in a sleek, minimalist home, my girlfriend and I have finally accepted that we live amongst an obnoxious pile of clutter. It's become so bad, that we're about to purge a bunch of our stuff -- even, I'm embarrassed to admit, our books. Not only do they look sloppy crammed into our bookshelf, but they take up a ton of space.

But all that was before I spotted this Invisible Shelving System.

While this may look impossible, the books are actually supported by a row of small, clear plastic prongs -- creating the illusion that they're suspended in mid-air. This way you can have easy access to your favorite paperbacks, without letting big, clunky shelving kill your design aesthetic.

Genius.

[via Damn I Like That]

Usually I'm not a fan of kitschy, gimmicky home decor items -- mostly because they're expensive, and they'll undoubtedly go out of style in about 15 minutes.

However, there are always exceptions.

Take this "Personal Moon," for instance. It's nothing fancy -- just a giant light box in the shape of a moon -- but, especially if you live someplace with an open floor-plan that's otherwise uncluttered, the Personal Moon could be a very romantic, and very dramatic addition to your home.

I imagine it'd feel like having a little piece of a fairy tale, right in your room. How cool is that?

If you have a kid, you've inevitably experienced (or are about to experience) the light-switch infatuation stage. For months, my daughter had to flick every switch in the house at least a dozen times -- always completely amazed by the fact that her actions might the lights go on and off.

Sound familiar? As long as you're stuck indulging this obsession, you might as well have fun with it. That's where the Essential Wall Dimmer comes in. The dimmers let you turn on, turn off, and dim your lights simply by tapping them. Plus, they'll add some fun to your walls without looking like color-vomit.

Could be just the thing you need to keep baby's room looking cool.

Are you into pseudo-cheap modern furniture created by hip Scandinavians? Then, chances are, you're into Ikea. Those of you lucky enough to live within striking distance of an Ikea location have probably noticed (even if you haven't been inside) that the stores are shockingly enormous. So big, in fact, that I have no idea how a person could make it through the entire place in one day.

That's exactly what they were thinking at the Ikea location in Oslo -- so the company came up with a solution: when closing time comes, let the customers stay overnight, and finish their shopping in the morning.

The sleeping arrangements are mostly dormitory style, with many beds stacked up together. However, there's also a bridal suite (complete with chandelier), a luxury suite (where you get breakfast in bed), and a family room for parents and kids. Everyone gets breakfast in the morning, and it's all absolutely free.

So now you can shop 'till you drop. Sleep. And then shop some more.

[via Boing Boing]

Even though you're all grown up, and don't rock out to emo like you did back in high school, that doesn't mean that you don't get a little blue from time to time -- right? And, especially now that grunge is back in fashion, I'm sure we'll once again experience melancholia as the epitome of cool.

So, for the days when you'd rather curl up in bed, put in your favorite DVD and mope, here's a pillow that understands your pain.

At $152, the Heart on Sleeve pillow isn't exactly cheap, and I wouldn't use it as inspiration to decorate your entire house or anything (unless, of course, you want to look like you live with Sylvia Plath) -- but nobody will judge for having one tucked in the corner of your sofa or at the foot of your bed (in fact, they'll think it's cute). Plus, the pillow is made of sustainable material, so you can feel like a slightly better person as you cry into it.

With the emergence of Web 2.0 in mainstream pop culture, and the emergence of uber-nerdy pastimes like retro-gaming, one thing is clear: it's cool to be a geek.

And what could possibly be more geeky than Star Trek?

Therefore, Gary Sekulow wins the award for most awesome interior design scheme ever, thanks to his shockingly realistic recreation of the Star Trek set -- re-invented as his home theater. He collected back-lit panels from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Voyager (two of the series many incarnations), and got the captain's chair from Star Trek Enterprise, along with a bunch of props from the many Star Trek movies. Then he hired a local home theater installer to put the whole thing together.

It's a little too sci-fi for my taste, but it's easily the most impressive example of geek decor I've ever seen.

I grew up in a town along one of the Great Lakes, which meant on a summer evening the air was literally full of fireflies. Now that I live in the middle of Texas, the lack of luminous insects causes me considerable disappointment.

But, for people like me, who equate "lightning bugs" with fond childhood memories, there's now the Firefly Lamp -- a great way to get a little down-home comfort, no matter where you live.

From the designer: The firefly lamp is a marriage of simplicity and function. A thick square base made from recycled acrylic holds a nickel plated rod and fixture with a 5" bulb that encloses five miniature "fireflies."

Sounds cool, but unfortunately that comfort won't come cheap -- the lamps are $99 each from the company's website (they'd be $250 if you tried to purchase them at a retail outlet), and come with only one bulb each. Plus, it doesn't look very practical, as I can't imagine the bulb actually gives off much light. (That said, neither do real fireflies, so maybe that's the point.)

And -- lamps aside -- if you never had a chance to run around catching fireflies when you were a kid, I highly encourage you to give it a try. Nothing lights up a dark room like a plastic bottle filled with glowing bugs.