Repurposed teacups? Yes, please! This is a fun bit of DIY that anyone with unused pretty teacups or a thrift store nearby can do without much trouble. The things one can make from a teacup range in difficulty from easy projects (think tiny planters for succulents) to involved projects involving wiring and cutting, so no worries if you’re not all that crafty. Here are seven ways you can repurpose your teacups and prettify your environment at the same time.

I wrote about Domestic Construction’s teacup chandeliers way back in the day, but at $60 for one DIY is the order of the day (at least in my household). DIY it with some thrift store teacups, some Ikea pendant kits, and something to hang ‘em from.

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For those of us who love old design and sweet design and timeless design, but also DIY ingenuity, how totally boss is this Eames Hack? Eames chair turned high chair? Yes, please!

From the artists:

Through physically invasive alterations, these once iconic, elite, forms are liberated from their old, restrained image. The project is not a critique of the Eames, but rather a fulfillment of their original ideals.

This project was produced as part of a three day charette in the Department of Industrial Design at The University of the Arts, Philadelphia. The theme of the charette centers around Remake and DIY culture. The purpose of this charette is to explore the role designers have in respect to this emerging culture. The team members for this project are as follows: Jared Delorenzo, Tim Peet, Alexandra Temple Powell, Tom Reynolds, Alie Thomer, and Andrew McCandlish.

From a parental perspective, however, my main criticism of the Eames chair as a high chair would be good luck getting a tricksy toddler’s legs through those holes when she was pitching a fit.

I am not ashamed to say that I have a lot of stuff on my walls, but even I felt a little crazy looking at this picture. Maybe it wouldn’t drive me batty, but it would definitely be the most distracting part of my whole house. Why, I wonder, would someone want people to pause there? It seems like it would be uncomfortable – here, stop and look around in this narrow, confined space. But maybe I’m alone in feeling this way. To find out, I created a little poll. Please cast your vote, and then explain yourself in the comments if you feel pressed to say more!

(Image via Elle Decor * Design by Steven Gambrel * Photo by Eric Piasecki)

I’m loving this adaptation of the original 706 telephone (the first plastic telephone in the UK) has been vibrantly decorated in colored flock that makes it both useful and surprising with its unexpectedly velvety feel.

The line of Flocked Phones by Johnny Egg features three different colors of flocking, and each flocked phone includes a traditional rotary dial and bell-ringer and supplied ready for use with a modern telephone socket.

I have no clue how or wear to buy these – other than ‘in Thailand’ and ‘using Thailand money’ or here – but the whole collection is just too cute not to share. It’s Propaganda’s Use Me line, featuring dishware, laundry stuff, bags, and other odds and ends that are ready to do your bidding with a smile.

Adorable! I’m in love!

Sea glass? Yes, please. It’s one of my things. Like the carved wooden masks I mentioned the other day and a certain print featuring naughty words that I just can’t seem to take out of my living room, I love me some sea glass. Having lived by the seashore all of my life, I’ve been pocketing it for as long as I can remember. My grandparents always had bowls of it around – they lived on the water – and when I called Costa Rica home, there was tons of it because glass bottles are still popular there for soda and tonic water. I always figured sea glass (or beach glass) was just one of those things you see and pick up.

I still grab it when I go to the beach, which is a lot, all year round.

What I didn’t know was that beach glass is apparently not just one of my things. Nope, it’s an industry and a hobby and a something people make money off of. Not near a coast? You can buy a bucket of beach glass. There is jewelry that features chunks of beach glass, and cosmetics inspired by it in fashion colors. There is, if you can believe it, even a book geared toward people like me who like to find beach Glass, called The Sea Glass Hunter’s Handbook. And other books besides!

But a $90 sea glass wreath from L.L. Bean? That’s where I have to draw the line. I probably have enough beach glass right here in my house to DIY a beach glass wreath but I’m going to do no such thing. this one is admittedly very cute, but it just seems like a waste of perfectly good beach glass. It’s also how I think of the sea glass jewelry I see at local arts fairs – I just can’t imagine anyone who’s lived all their lives on the coast buying a pair of sea glass earrings. Or an indoor-only sea glass wreath, especially since it’s not even real beach glass. It’s just tumbled glass, boo.

as seen on

I think I’m in love. With a chair. Don’t tell my husband, okay? Vintage Thonet chairs become something new entirely when reupholstered in a bright blue fabric that’s been hand screen printed with a collection of California’s birds and blossoms. Sadly, these gorgeous chairs from En Route Studio will not be en route to my home any time soon. A set of four chairs costs $1,100, and as The Beard so sarcastically put it: “Cute! And they’re in our price range, too!”

I can’t for the life of me recall where I heard it, but once upon a time someone said something to me like: You can tell where someone is on the class ladder by what’s hanging on their walls. Members of the upper classes hang art. Members of the lower classes hang family portraits.

I guess that makes my own house solidly middle class, with it’s carved wooden masks, framed portraits, art prints, paintings, and such? I have about as many masks as I do photographs of people hanging on my walls.

So I want you to tell me what you think about the above statement.

Is this more representative of an upper class or upper middle class lifestyle than, say, this:

Are paintings and sculptures the only acceptable upper class embellishments? Where do artsy photos fit in? What would you say about this:

I included the third example because it is in a way the compromise between the two, with artful photographs mixed in with portraits. Or does the rule only apply when you’re talking about photos taken at Sears or something like that? Personally, I definitely think art is important, but I don’t agree that you can pigeonhole someone just because of what’s hanging on his or her walls. That said, what *is* on your walls, and what do you think your choices say about you?

Being in the market for a new bike has me seeing bikes everywhere I look, from on the walls to on my glasses to in my chairs. Here’s some of the cute bicycle-themed stuff I’ve been lusting over recently:

Wallpaper designed by Dan Funderburgh for Flavor Paper

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Some books are just plain terrible, am I right? Which isn’t to say they didn’t get read or weren’t special to someone, but the people who cared about them once upon a time somehow got them onto your shelves and you (like many readers) just can’t bring yourself to throw away a book. You could just let them continue to sit unread on your shelf or you could do something with them. Something that involves cutting them up or drawing on them, but isn’t it better to turn an unloved book into something loved than to let it fade away into obscurity?

Here are some ideas that I am finding particularly inspiring:

DRAW, PAINT, OR PRINT ON THE PAGES: How sweet is this print from Brambleberry Lane? Pages from a vintage dictionary become the canvas for an old school image of a copper politely suggesting that a perp stop in the name of the law. Buy one for $7.50 or give DIY drawing, painting, or printing a try.

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