Funk Shui

FS is a bit late with her house-keeping. This list has been a long time getting re-posted from Times Online. We’re very thrilled that some of our reading habits in the blogosphere are on the list, and of course, we’re now getting onto looking at the ones we’ve missed… It’s also taken some time to take ’snapshots’ of the most promising of the bloglist to post here.

1. Apartment Therapy Every aspect of interior design is covered in this American mega-blog, with the useful option of posing your design dilemmas to its readers.

[OF COURSE IT'S NUMBER ONE! Duh!]

2. Design Sponge With a book in the works, Design Sponge includes readers’ DIY ‘before and afters’ and inspiring house tours.

3. The Selby Uber-cool photographs of creative people in their living spaces, taken by photographer Todd Selby.

4. Desire to Inspire Interiors inspiration galore, co-written on different continents by an Australian and a Canadian.

5. Oh Joy! Stylish selections which complement the cool aesthetic of the writer’s own successful stationery range.

Harry Allen

6. Decor8 All-round comprehensive design blog written by an American living in Hannover, Germany.

7. Poppytalk Vancouver-based blog with a marketplace for independent designers.

8. Emma’s Design Blog Scandinavian style from a Stockholm-based design enthusiast.

9. Creature Comforts Featuring Flickr favourites and promoting handmade design, this blog’s layout is itself a visual treat.

10. SF Girl by Bay Bohemian chic from San Francisco-based Victoria Smith, a former art dealer.

11. Design is Mine A perfectly picked selection of art and design from independent designers worldwide.

Bird and Banner

12. Young House Love Interiors advice, DIY and moodboards from a young couple renovating their own home.

13. Bloesem Kuala Lumpar-based writer Irene also has an offshoot blog featuring child-specific design.

Dutch:: is? Down to earth, open minded, out there.

14. Swiss Miss Unique ideas and products picked by a Swiss graphic designer living in New York.

15. Print and Pattern Popular British blog focusing on colourful surface pattern design.

16. Grain Edit Mid-century inspired graphic design.

17. Frolic! Relaxed style from a Portland-based floral stylist.

18. Lobster and Swan Hastings design muse Jeska shares her photography and vintage-styled vignettes from her home.

19. This is Glamorous Consistently classy selections with a high glamour factor.

20. Dos Family Photographer Jenny Brandt’s aspirational home tours feature stylish Swedish families

21. Design for Mankind Featuring edgy graphic and product design, this blog has a brilliant video series highlighting issues facing creative freelancers.

Daniel K Sparkes

22. Sweet Paul Craft and styling ideas from New York-based food and prop stylist Paul Lowe.

23. Daydream Lily Her other life - dreamy images selected by Melbourne-based research scientist Liss Winnel.

24. Pia Jane Bijkerk Unique content from an Australian prop stylist and author living in Amsterdam.

Vaucluse House

25. Wee Birdy Incredibly cohesive: London shopping and birds-inspired design, authored by an Australian magazine writer living in London.

Glasgow School of Art

26. Coco & Kelley Trend watch from a Seattle-based interior and events stylist with a penchant for elegant glamour.

27. A Field Journal Visual eye candy featuring this talented student’s own photography and craft projects.

28. Bliss Photographer Mrs French’s ‘I heart Monday’ wishlist is a weekly highlight.

29. Fine Little Day Quirky Scandinavian style from a Swedish designer and photographer.

30. Oh Hello Friend Beautifully-designed and curated posts from a graphic and jewellery designer.

31. Making it Lovely Feminine favourites, independent design and home decoration.

32. Mint Design, art and more from graphic designer Ellie Snow, with an interesting recent series on adapting to a freelance lifestyle.

33. Home Shopping Spy Technically the blog of Ideal Home magazine run on the writer’s sparky comment.

34. The Design Files Melbourne homes, shops and design.

Melbourne Home - Donna Zimbardi

35. The City Sage California-based Anne Sage’s features include seasonally-themed styling and book reviews.

36. Oh So Beautiful Paper Wedding invitations and inventive stationery ideas.

37. Modish Portland-based champion of indie designers.

38. Simplesong Design favourites with a clean and simple quality.

39. Katy Elliott New England-inspired selections from an ex-Domino writer.

40. Chez Larsson The interiors and craft projects of a Stockholm family home.

41. Please Sir Vintage purchases to covet and more from a North Carolinian designer.

42. Delight by Design Glamorous interiors and classy styling ideas.

43. Brooklyn Limestone The renovation of a traditional Brooklyn limestone townhouse.

44. Oliveaux A Brisbane-based interior designer shares her passion.

45. Nestled In Home renovation and thrifty finds from Finland.

46. Automatism The daily visual inspirations of a Canadian illustrator.

47. Pillar Box Post London style and observations from an American ex-pat.

48. Design Squish Design blog with an emphasis on nature, sustainability and eco issues.

49. The Fabric of my Life Musings and photo collages from a London interior stylist.

50. Lovely Clusters Pretty design finds chosen by a Hawaiian-based graphic designer.

Ooh La La - how about the set design on this little gem of a film?

Funk Shui has lately been chatting all things styling with new friend John Carey, which has prompted a revisit to stylist and art director Emma Thomas. Thomas has worked with Elle Decoration UK, Harrods, Living Etc, Habitat and Marie Claire. These gritty and whimsical vignettes are inspirational.

Funk Shui has been a Richard Powers fan for years, and is more than happy to hock up the ol’ credit card buying this beautiful book from one of the world’s best shelter photographers. [No more sacrilegious page tearing of his spreads from Australian Vogue Living!]

FS is loving the playful, functional, comfortable, livable vibe created in these monochromatic dining spaces.

[Via the wonderful Emma's Designblogg - This is a little wander through RUM Interiør's site]

This has FS’s favourite: timber, mid-century design, multi-functionality, crisp, monochrome.

Emma’s got a good eye! [In fact, she's on the Times list of the world's top 50 design blogs - She's eighth.] Below are pics of a very enviable home:

From Mies van der Rohe to Phillip Johnson, even the most minimalist modernists never took the ’see-through box’ concept quite this far in the 20th Century – an entirely transparent house plan with see-through floors, ceilings, interior and exterior walls on every side both inside and out. It took a contemporary x-ray visionary to see the extreme possibilities in this simple home design idea.

Decorated with retro-modern furniture classics, the spaces are all but invisibly defined – save for a few bookcases, beds, sofas and and smaller furnishings that pay tribute to modern design as well as some specific designers of times passed. In the absence of opaque surfaces, these stand out more than ever.

Conceived as being constructed from ‘ultra-clear’ glass, this visionary design by the Italian group Santambrogio is not so unrealistic. After all, we already have transparent concrete, see-through wood and structural glazing systems evolving at an unparalleled rate with increasingly few restrictions on opacity. The question, as always, is whether we want to live in such direct visual connection with the world around us or if this is an case where the idea of the building is better than the actual living inside of it would be..

‘Michelle Lives with Art”

“…Technology has made all kinds of amazing things possible for architects, but what is being lost along the way … and are there still designers who will rise to the challenge of mixing real-life models and drawings with new-school digital design programs?…”

Ryoko & Keisuke Masuda

“…Plans, sections, elevations and even perspective drawings are not always enough – and despite computer-program advances there is still something missing from many 3D digital renderings. Ask any artist: the tools used to craft a given work have a good deal to do with the finished form that results. Only time will tell what kind of hybrids the future holds (both in terms of building technologies and approaches to representation) but you can bet that the most compelling architects of the coming generation will reach across the gap and use creative techniques old and new. The approaches that last will almost certainly manage to somehow bridge the divide and become both timeless and contemporary at the same time…”

“… This unbelievable adaptive reuse project involves a strange overlap and blend of fantasy and reality right in the heart of London. The contrast between the dull drab industrial neighbors and colorful lofted subway cars is stunning. Buying them was remarkably cheap, but trucking, lifting, installing and retrofitting them was a seriously expensive undertaking…

… Working office spaces set up on top of a roof seem like a realistic proposition … but these offices are composed of graffiti-covered carriages one would expect to see rusting in a gravel lot or falling slowly apart underground. Instead, they bustle with new life and vibrant artistic rooftop activity… Masterminded by international arts charity Village Underground, these (albeit small and narrow) avant-garde office areas are leased to creative small-business, art-related start-ups looking for something a little bit off the beaten track…

… A subway car has strength, durability and material quality well above the average prefab home – and of course is built to human scale and equipped with heavy-duty windows, built-in doors and everything else needed to create a livable and workable interior environment…” [via Dornob]

See also:  train carriages being converted into churches:

Via Apartment Therapy:

“… House Industries is selling a new collection of 27 hand-pulled serigraph prints. Not only are they hand made high quality prints but they are large at 20″ x 26″ so you can start a high impact typographic collection… All of the 27 new serigraphs are hand-pulled, air-dried and numbered by longtime House Industries collaborator David Dodde. Slow air-drying is an essential step in Dodde’s process and allows the use of richly-pigmented inks to reach the unique deep flatness that is characteristic of high quality prints.

The posters are available from House Industries now at $35[US] each for the large prints (26″ x 20″) and $18[US]each for small prints (8.5″ x 11″)…”