Remember being a kid and sitting down with your trusty box of crayons and a nice big inviting expanse of white paper?  All that great, creative possibility at your fingertips?  Yeah…

The owners of Dutch company WallArt must remember, too, because they’re given designers a grown-up version of that moment: 3D embossed wall panels in friendly do-something-awesome-with-me white.  Check out these brilliant examples from their Projects page while I tell you about the product itself.

It starts with sugar.  Rather, it starts with bagasse, the fibrous residue left over when sugarcane is shredded to extract the sweet stuff we put in our coffee every morning.

Sugarcane can be harvested up to three times a year, according to WallArt, so is one of the world’s most renewable resources.  The total annual harvest worldwide tops 1.2 billion metric tons, which could therefore theoretically produce 400 million tons of bagasse.   Like much agricultural waste, it’s normally thrown into a landfill or (worse) burned, but there are better things to do with it.

Pulp and bleach the fiber, which may be combined with other fibrous cellulosic material, add water & oil resistant agents, then mold and press it into smooth, lightweight 50 cm x 50 cm panels.  Tap the imagination.  Play.

These embossed wall panels come in 16 different patterns.  With them designers can form a repeating pattern which not only toys with light and shadow but leaves the field wide open for creative expression with color.  It’s a very tactile product that turns any wall into a sculpture.

The raw material for the panels is 100% recycled, compostable, and therefore 100% biodegradable.  However, because of its Class C fire rating the company recommends after installation use of a Class A fire proof coating/fire retardant paint.

A single WallArt commercial package contains 12 panels, which together covers about three square meters of wall space.  The product is easy to install – and the company website includes a through installation help section to assist in the process.

I’ll leave you with one last image, my favorite: a delicate treatment of the “Pitches” pattern from the Dutch interior design magazine, Ariadne At Home.  Go take a look.

~ Emerald

Images courtesy of WallArt.

So, if you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you might remember this…

My office before

and this… and finally this.  That was back in March of last year.  I’m sorry I left you hanging.  Still, I thought you might like to see the final result. Read the rest of this entry »

Off to the Emerald City we go…

Whether ancient…

or modern, a bright green wall really pops. Read the rest of this entry »

I traveled to North Carolina last week and, as I always do, I stocked up on fashion magazines for the flights.  It’s my little “hey, I’m going to be stuck in a cramped seat on a crowded flight for way too long” indulgence.

Valentino Spring 2012

As I flipped through magazine after magazine, a particular trend caught my eye.

Louis Vuitton Spring 2012

Designers were embracing lace.

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2012

A LOT of lace.

Which means that the current trend for vintage lace in interiors is only going to get stronger.  But how do you embrace the look without going full on frilly?  Here are some suggestions….

Read the rest of this entry »

“Demolish another building, it just gives us more to work with!”

John Stein is into demolitions, but not in the way one might think.  The founder and president of California-based Kirei USA has a knack for finding the possibilities inherent in the unwanted.

This vision shows clearly in every Kirei product, including the newest line, Windfall.  These engineered panels are produced in partnership with Windfall Lumber, which takes Douglas & Hemlock Fir from deconstructed buildings in the Pacific Northwest and brings the reclaimed wood to fresh, new life.

“It’s great to reuse demolition material that would otherwise take up space in the landfill,” says Mr. Stein.  “Having it become beautiful wood panels is even better.  This is old-growth wood that just can’t be found any more, and we get to bring it to designers.”

Windfall is manufactured in the United States using low-VOC adhesives.  The reclaimed wood is milled into strips of differing width, which are then randomly stacked to form the panels and cut to size.  Panels are available either solid or 3-ply with a NUAF/FSC-certified core.  They may come unfinished, with a clear coat that shows off the natural grain, or stained and prefinished in Anthracite, Mocha, Ivory, and Leather colors.  The result adds to any interior.

Read the rest of this entry »

In honor of this week’s celebration of Chinese New Year (January 23rd), I give you…

Vigor, the seriously awesome, recycled, drag racing steampunk dragon sculpture by Etsy artisans Reclaim2Fame.

Just look at that face! Read the rest of this entry »

My Grandparents on their wedding day

I’m writing this in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and all others who stand up for what they believe.

My father’s parents weren’t particularly “green”.  Although they were fairly frugal, as so many of their generation were, they loved to keep their thermostat set at about 72° F (22.2° C) all year long.  The A/C was on constantly in the summer, and the heater blasted away day and night in the winter.  They wore polyester clothes, drank a Coke every day at lunch, drove huge gas guzzling cars (again with the A/C blasting), and generally didn’t think much more about the environment than that there should be one.  So how did they teach me anything about sustainable design?

The short answer is, nothing – and everything.  The long answer is this… Read the rest of this entry »

In the depths of winter the primal side of us emerges in a longing for nourishing food, cheerful company, comfort, and the security of warmth.  In the past all this often came together before the fireplace.  What better than to snuggle up and watch the flames flicker and dance, as the fire turns one’s home into a snug little burrow?

Today, however, the sheer energy-inefficiency of a traditional fireplace can make it a less-than-desirable fixture in one’s household.  Yet the allure of captive flame remains.  So, how to satisfy that ancient longing?

Why, bypass the fireplace, of course.

Enter Wall Flame I & II, the sleek brain-children of Michael Rösing, managing director of Radius Design, in Brühl, Germany.  Gone is the large, surrounding containment structure, gone the flue, gone the chimney.  In short, gone is the fireplace itself, and in its place is left a simplicity of flame. Read the rest of this entry »

If you haven’t heard about the explosion of interest in big, flouncy red dresses in the last few days, read this and then come back here….

Did you read the whole thing?  Good, because I think The Bloggess has touched on something really important.

Namely, we have to indulge ourselves from time to time with something that is true to our nature, no matter how ridiculous or silly others may find it to be.  For me it was painting my nails a bright, sparkly blue – just in time to have my photo session for new publicity shots.  Three hours of me, posing like a (not terribly good) model, all with a celestial blue manicure.  I almost talked myself out of it beforehand, reasoning that it might look a bit to silly for someone of my age (which my son always tells me is 29 – bless his wonderful soul!), and instead I should stick to a more conservative “arty” color like beige or gray.  But then I realized that silly is really who I am, so why hide it?

Really, why should any of us hide it?  Why should any of us live with beige nails if we feel like having blue ones instead.  Or buy a beige sofa because a red one just seems like such a commitment, even though it’s always been your dream?

And that’s the trick to all of this when it comes to our homes.  It has to be your dream – an expression of who you are deep down.  Although the purchase can be impulsive, the desire has to live inside you for a long time.  That is how you know you won’t regret it, because it is who you really are.

So what is your “red sofa”?  What is the thing you really wish you had the guts to do, but haven’t taken that leap of faith yet?

While the name and the concept seem pure ’70s (if this bed’s a rockin’…),

the execution is most definitely not!   This is the Mood Rocking Bed by Shiner International, and it has style!

I just have to say, I don’t know whether it’s the pastoral setting, the pretty draping of the netting above, or simply that I need a nap, but that bed looks awfully tempting, don’t you think?

Read the rest of this entry »