One Percent Inspiration
Inspiration for a great scene can come from anywhere. I've been known to drop everything because I spotted a new Google object and decided that I had to build a 'home' for it in SC immediately. Just lately I seem to be on a bender for re-creating images I find of beautiful residential architecture and interior design. I like the idea of being able to spend a few hours in these spaces I will likely never get the chance to visit in real life (unless the company finally caves in to my suggestion that I take a world tour with unlimited license to barge into people's homes uninvited). It's sort of like trying on a suit you know you can't afford and isn't necessarily your style, but you just want to see how wearing it will change you, if only for a moment.
My two favorite online destinations of late are both blogs, and I put them out to you only because there's a lot of budding designers amongst the SC population who may find them inspiring as well. The first is Design Milk, which is a showcase of what's new & inventive in art, architecture & industrial design. There are some very out-there ideas here, but you'd be surprised how much of this stuff gets filtered down eventually to your local IKEA. DM was the source of this scene:
which was inspired by this home in Costa Rica:
The second is Apartment Therapy. They're all about livin' large when space is at a premium. They've got specific sites for many of the major metropolitan centers across the US (I feel only slightly snubbed that Toronto is a no-show). The nosy neighbour in me is addicted to one of their regular features called 'house tours' which was the source of this scene:
which was inspired by this home in San Francisco.
So, while I may never live in a modernist glass home in the Costa Rican jungle, or a mid-century bungalow in San Fran, I can still spend a few hours 'living' if not actually living there. In dissecting and re-assembling these spaces I garner two major benefits. One: I get to rip-off great ideas for use in the ever-evolving, never-ending, please-make-it-stop renovation of my own home, and two: it's a good design exercise to imagine what was on the other side of the photographer and 'fill in the blanks' as it were.
No wait, there's three: by taking things apart you get a good handle for what makes them work, and this gives you the tools to build things better in the future.
My two favorite online destinations of late are both blogs, and I put them out to you only because there's a lot of budding designers amongst the SC population who may find them inspiring as well. The first is Design Milk, which is a showcase of what's new & inventive in art, architecture & industrial design. There are some very out-there ideas here, but you'd be surprised how much of this stuff gets filtered down eventually to your local IKEA. DM was the source of this scene:
which was inspired by this home in Costa Rica:
The second is Apartment Therapy. They're all about livin' large when space is at a premium. They've got specific sites for many of the major metropolitan centers across the US (I feel only slightly snubbed that Toronto is a no-show). The nosy neighbour in me is addicted to one of their regular features called 'house tours' which was the source of this scene:
which was inspired by this home in San Francisco.
So, while I may never live in a modernist glass home in the Costa Rican jungle, or a mid-century bungalow in San Fran, I can still spend a few hours 'living' if not actually living there. In dissecting and re-assembling these spaces I garner two major benefits. One: I get to rip-off great ideas for use in the ever-evolving, never-ending, please-make-it-stop renovation of my own home, and two: it's a good design exercise to imagine what was on the other side of the photographer and 'fill in the blanks' as it were.
No wait, there's three: by taking things apart you get a good handle for what makes them work, and this gives you the tools to build things better in the future.
posted by Michael Sanders at
1:08 PM
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