Reduce Reuse Recycle

In thinking about today's post, while watching the stock market plummet farther and farther down, I realized that all design work will have to become as much about beautiful new pieces as about using old things in new ways and taking ones own belongings and using them in different applications. I had a look around my own home and discovered that in a way, we have already begun doing so.


My partner worked in a grocery store in his younger years and managed to "nick" some old 7-Up Bottle Boxes. Up until recently they were at the top of a storage rack in the garage but while searching for a new way to maintain some semblance of organization of my magazines, I came across them. What a fun way to bring in some personality, memories, beautiful wood and a bit of kitsch quirkiness!


Additionally, in my weekends worth of magazine organization, I came across some wonderful pictures in Home & Garden UK (March 2008) of different uses of the "under stairs" area which so often is one of the most impossible place to utilize space in a useful, dynamic, and beautiful way. I particularly fell in love with the idea of the wood piled artfully. The simplicity of leaving the under stairs open looks elegent in quite a modern application and the wood creates a bit of texture and interest in an all too commonly looked over space!