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What Comes After the Hipster Apartment

By Claire Cottrell on

This week Refinery29 posted a fun feature illustrating 32 signs that you’re living in a hipster apartment. From decorative antlers to terrariums, they pretty much hit the nail on the hipster-as-we-know-it’s head, but it got us to thinking. As we know all too well, a hipster shuns the mainstream. Counterculture, independent thinking, and creativity inspire their collective anthem. Ironic then that the hipster home has become so cliché, no? Mass-marketed individuality might just be this decade’s greatest contribution to the world of retail, but we’re calling an end to mainstream mismatched decor. In the same way that over-the-top retro futurism emerged after a decade of mid-century milieu, we see a whole new, much more colorful aesthetic on the horizon, and it’s a far cry from the subdued hodgepodge of perfectly imperfect flea finds combined with practical IKEA staples and select Danish design splurges that have become par for the subculture course.

Today we proclaim the official end of an era: the Edison bulb-lit DIY terrariums displayed on spindle-legged side tables from Williamsburg to Silverlake are officially played out. What’s next you ask? Well, here’s a few trends we’re starting to notice on creative Pinterest pinboards the world over. From the re-birth of the wall hanging to a revolt against the earthy tones of hipsterdom past, click through to check out what we think will make up a seriously cool apartment of the future. … Read More

Architecture

Fascinating Images of America’s Finest Mid-Century Restaurants

By Karin E. Baker on

Historian and author Peter Moruzzi is an expert on mid-century architecture, nightlife, and classic dining. For decades, this resident of Los Angeles and Palm Springs has collected the postcards and paper ephemera that helped form the basis of his books Palm Springs Holiday (a romp through Palm Springs from the early 20th century to the 1960s) and Havana Before Castro: When Cuba was a Tropical Playground. Now, thanks to the images and essays in his brand-new cultural history, Classic Dining: Discovering America’s Finest Mid-Century Restaurants, we can explore what it was like to swagger one’s way into swanky dining establishments in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, and New Orleans during the Mad Men era. Learn about the establishments, some still with us and many long gone, where shish kabobs and bananas foster were grandly presented in flames, Caesar salad was prepared tableside, prime rib was served from fancy carts, and dishes such as oysters Rockefeller and lobster thermidor were the norm. Check out some of the images, along with commentary from the author, after the jump. … Read More

Design

Inspiring Photos from Vintage IKEA Catalogs

By Claire Cottrell on

Our favorite destination for Swedish pancakes and self-assembled furniture changed the American design scene forever when it set up shop in Philadelphia in 1985. Founded by an enterprising 17 year old by the name of Ingvar Kamprad some 40 years prior, the modern furniture mainstay evolved out of a childhood business selling matches from a bicycle. Kamprad realized that he could buy matches in bulk very cheaply, sell them individually at a low price, and still make a good profit. Et voilà, the idea for IKEA was born.

Today the allure of DIY design really within reach has made its famously frugal founder the seventh richest man in the world and its annual catalog peddling an affordably well-designed home the third most printed publication after Harry Potter and the Bible. Join us as we take a virtual trip down memory lane to flip through the exceptionally colorful and wonderfully retro IKEA catalogs of design eras past. … Read More

Design

The Very Best of Foldable, Functional Furniture Origami

By Claire Cottrell on

It’s no secret that here at Flavorwire, we love ourselves some good, clever design. We’ve looked at everything from innovative furniture that makes the work day more fun to decadent designs for chocolate lovers. Today we’re exploring a new niche design category that addresses one of the inevitable woes of urban living: the unfortunately cramped spaces we call home.

Offering space-saving solutions for those times when our tiny apartment feels like it just can’t hang, and we dream of airy loft living, consider these fundamental furniture pieces that maximize your minimal environs. From folding your own furniture (check out the free downloadable instructions!) to collapsible chairs that double as wall art, put your inner origami enthusiast to work with these fun, fabulous, and functional designs. … Read More

Design

15 Gorgeous Wallpapers You Can’t Help But Covet

By Claire Cottrell on

The Anthropologie catalog is one of the few free ware-peddling publications in print that we actually read. Scratch that. Covet. Sure they’ve started posting a digital version, but like most design porn, it’s best absorbed in the flesh. Now we admit, the monthly tome of whimsical inspiration can be intimidating. We’re often left feeling less than adequate about a kitchen lacking in charming Moroccan terracotta, unassumingly matching the playful, but sexy apron we don’t own. We wonder why the handmade felt bird’s nest dangling over our not-so-perfectly mismatched bedding doesn’t look as effortless as the set up we loved in last month’s home edition. We remind ourselves: it was probably in Mallorca.

Thanks to Renaissance Europe, there’s a sure-fire solution bringing hope to hopeless Anthropologie admirers everywhere, and it’s called wallpaper. From clever rolls that make your boring plaster walls look like salvaged scrap wood to a graphic mountain range designed by an 8-year old boy in Sweden, click through to check out some of the most creative options on the market today. … Read More

Design

A Guide to ’70s Chic: Vintage Photos from ‘Bloomingdale’s Book of Home Decorating’

By Claire Cottrell on

Before there was IKEA, there was Bloomingdale’s. Founded in 1861 by Joseph and Lyman G. Bloomingdale, the first incarnation of today’s upscale department store was a “Ladies Notions’ Shop” specializing in hoop-skirts on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Having the brains — and the imagination — to predict that the bourgeois metropolis to come would need a glorious retail destination housing everything from a delicatessen department to the largest rooftop greenhouse in America for city dwellers wanting the fresh air of a country estate, the Brothers Bloomingdale did more than outfit an era, they defined it.

Bloomingdale’s Book of Home Decorating by Barbara D’Arcy, the influential interior design guru and chief decorator of the model rooms in the flag ship store’s furniture department, is testament to its influence. As one particularly helpful Amazon reviewer writes, “this book showcases the best of the best, furniture for your dream home, no budget in sight. It’s an inspirational, all-out, sky’s-the-limit explosion of creativity, trends and fantasy.” Click through to check out the very best of this ’70s design dream tome. Then, let us know in the comments what inspires you the most today! … Read More

Architecture

The Surprisingly Colorful Homes of 10 Famous Architects

By Claire Cottrell on

Architects often get classified as stark minimalists obsessed with the seemingly boring, non-color palette of black and white. We thought we’d dispel this myth with a virtual visit to the vibrant homes of some of our favorite design legends. Verner Panton, enfant terrible of Danish design and creator of fabulous, funky pieces in exotic colors, once said that “choosing colors should not be a gamble. It should be a conscious decision. Colors have a meaning and a function.” Color brings life, meaning, and mood to even the most simple of spaces, and when done well — in our opinion — is the sign of real genius. From Luis Barragán’s vivid pink walls to Charles and Ray Eames’ whimsical use of red, yellow and blue, click through to peek into the surprisingly colorful lives of some of the world’s most famous architects. Which would you want to live… Read More

Design

10 Sweet Designs Perfect for Chocoholics

By Claire Cottrell on

The creator of the most imaginative, unconditionally loving comic pal ever to grace the printed page, Charles M. Schulz often reminded us that “all you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” One of the greatest simple pleasures in this life, the psychoactive effect of a square of dark, handmade chocolate goes a long way to making a bad day better. Case in point, according to a Harvard study, chocoholics may live longer than abstainers. And a team of British scientists suggested that eating dark chocolate was more rewarding than passionate kissing.

Why not infuse a little no-calorie cacao goodness into your design life? From a charming muffin pouffe that does double duty as a clever storage unit to a symbolic sofa commenting on the gluttony and excess of our time, click through to check out some of the best chocolate-inspired designs out there today. … Read More

Architecture

11 Vibrant Buildings That Glow

By Claire Cottrell on

Great architecture isn’t always about sleek lines, minimal environs, and a neutral palette. As John Hench, Academy-Award winner and Disney Legend, said “color is a very critical thing. I’ve found that architects don’t like colors. Engineers too. And so somebody has to stand in. Because this is the finish of it. It is the emotional part of a structure.”

After spotting this rainbow hued sports complex that glows brilliantly at night, we couldn’t help but wonder what other larger than life versions of one of the best toys ever made might exist in the world. From a house in Turkey that glows inside and out to a hotel in Abu Dhabi that’s the world’s largest LED project, click through to check out some of the most brilliant designs in the world that break the minimal, black and white mold. Which is your favorite? … Read More

Architecture

10 Industrial Water Towers Converted Into Awesome, Modern Homes

By Claire Cottrell on

There’s nothing we love more here at Flavorpill HQ than awesome homes in unusual places, so after spotting a clever water tower remodel by our favorite self-taught Tunisian designer, the great Tom Dixon, over on — of all places — Airbnb, we decided to invest some time in a little Friday afternoon self-guided Google Search tour of the emerging design trend.

From a stunning retreat in a fairytale forest complete with a rooftop winter garden to a seven-story tower that’s straight out of a James Bond movie, click through to check out remarkable industrial conversions of abandoned water towers around the world. What do you think? Could you live in a concrete cylinder? … Read More