Before I recommend some home design-related books for your last-minute gift list, let’s consider the bookshelf that will hold those new tomes. Thanks to a cool website called The Design Vote, I came across a poetic version: two artworks by Mike & Maike (produced and sold by an innovative design company called Blankblank) that comment on the influence of words and ideas. Each is a cluster of books on a single theme notched into a shelf that’s a piece of reclaimed hardwood.  One, called “Juxtaposition: Religion” holds religious tracts, including the Bible, Qur’an, and Tao Te Ching (according to the company the art piece is one of twelve things Gwyneth Paltrow can’t live without).

The other,  “Juxtaposition: Power” holds political treatises, from Plato’s

Republic to The Communist Manifesto. By bringing such volumes together and scribing slots for them into the wood so that they all sit at the same level, the artist makes us think about the influence of each book, their competition with each other, and how juxtaposition is important in stimulating curiosity and the imagination itself. The fact that each book has its specific (literal?) slot is also suggestive –

things can get messy — and interesting — when ideas move off the page (out of the slots we invent for them) and into the world at large (a land of many suppositions and juxtapositions).

On a somewhat more practical level, what’s a good shelf that’s flexible enough for changing needs and expanding collections? We used the infinitely adjustable Rakks system of extruded aluminum shelf supports (photo courtesy Rakks),

in the laundry and closets of our Online Ranch House, Plan 508-1 (detail below). The brackets notch into the vertical strips at any point so shelves can be placed

at whatever level you wish. We’ll be using the same system in our Online Country House, Plan 508-2, which is now under construction.

Three New Design Books

Counter Space, by Juliet Kinchin with Aidan O’Connor, accompanied the recent Museum of Modern Art exhibition on design and the modern kitchen – shown below – and offers a fascinating look at how

architects, product designers, and artists re-imagined the kitchen in the 20^th century. For some, such as Viennese architect Grete Schutte-Lohotzky,

it was a kind of laboratory where efficiency, cleanliness, and storage became standard elements. The photo shows the MOMA exhibition replica of her 1926-27 “Frankfurt Kitchen” for affordable public housing. MOMA started collecting stylish kitchen implements in the mid 1930s. Ideas for “Kitchens of Tomorrow” proliferated during World War II. Tupperware appeared in 1958. Television writers and film directors used the kitchen to communicate harmony or chaos. In short, it’s a huge subject – this book just scratches the surface – or should I say, scrubs the sink.

Salvage is always of interest but especially during a difficult economy, so I was drawn to Salvage Secrets by Joanne Palmisano (W. W. Norton & Co.),

which offers a wealth of ideas for using old objects and materials in new ways. She includes a helpful lexicon — for example, recycled refers to items made from salvaged materials whose basic structure has been changed and repurposed means  items reused in a different area of the home or used in a different way — like the antique swing doors adapted as sliders, shown below.

Chapters are on wood, glass, metal, stone/concrete/brick/ceramics, lighting, where to find salvage outlets (a countrywide listing is included), and design concepts. The book shows the wide range of salvageable material available and what to do with it.

Edward Durell Stone was one of the most influential yet least appreciated modern architects. His work was uneven but fascinating. The excellent and exhaustive new biography by his son, architect Hicks Stone (Rizzoli, publisher)

lucidly describes the man, his work, and his contradictions. An abstract modernist, he was strongly influenced by pattern and texture. He developed a form of ornamental grillwork — beginning during his participation in the design of Radio City Music Hall during the 1930s — that culminated in his famous American Embassy in New Delhi,

completed in 1959 (image above courtesy David Cobb Craig blog; below, courtesy Goat Hill Resorts).

Hicks writes that here “Stone had essentially taken a glass building and wrapped it with ornamental screen block.” The interior courtyard is an elegant water garden, expressing — with the screens — not just connections to Indian landmarks like the Taj Mahal, but also to Stone’s lifelong interest in unifying indoor and outdoor space (photo below courtesy Bustler.net).

Stone later used similar concrete block grills on other commissions and then other architects and designers copied the idea and it became a cliché-victim of its own success. (I remember wondering about such screens on dental offices and shopping malls as a boy.) Stone rose from poverty to become one of the country’s most successful architects who counted Eero Saarinen, Walter Gropius, Frank Lloyd Wright, and other visionaries among his friends. He also designed some of the earliest dramatically modern American residences,

like the Mandel house at Mt. Kisco, New York, of 1935, with its iconic curving

glass block dining room (photos courtesy Arch News Now). And yet he had a lifelong drinking problem that no doubt lead to his multiple marriages, poorly managed office, and work that occasionally verged on the simplistic and banal. The story brings an important but largely forgotten architect, and architectural culture, back to life. It turns out Stone isn’t easy to pigeonhole — or slip into a notch on a book shelf.

Memorial Day marks the official start of life outdoors – another form of ”rapture” for many, including me – so here are a few patio furniture suggestions, prompted in part by my friend industrial designer Eric Pfeiffer of Pfeiffer Lab, who has just debuted an outdoor version of his famous bent plywood Mag Table. It’s the Metal Mag 3, made of steel in a brilliant orange and produced in collaboration with Offi & Company and Loll Design. With his steel Fire Ring that doubles as a coffee table with a resin-based top when not burning wood  – also produced in collaboration with Loll Designs and  also new — the outdoor room is definitely warming up. Other designs that caught my eye after a quick Web search include the elegant Valencia Teak Chair from Viva Terra, which is inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s famous Barcelona Chair (the name is clever, referring to another Spanish coastal city). Using wood that’s sustainably grown and harvested, the chair deconstructs to fold flat for storage. For the recycler who can’t stop dribbling — wait for it — what about this coffee table from Uncommon Goods that uses part of a gym floor for its top. Worth a free throw at least! If you are a do-it-yourselfer, why not bring back the classic picnic table-and-bench idea using reclaimed wood painted white to give a fresh contemporary twist (this example designed and built by Houseplans’ own Stephen Williamson). Paired with white-painted antique metal chairs the effect is summery and sophisticated. Classics are definitely in this year — at ICFF in New York last week (the International Contemporary Furniture Fair) the Editors’ Award in the Outdoor Furniture category went to an Eames outdoor furniture design from 1958 — for the Miller house in Columbus, Indiana by architect Eero Saarinen – retooled with new materials for today (image courtesy theoutdoorstylist.com). The chair is produced by longtime Eames manufacturer Herman Miller. 

New Home Plans that Celebrate the Outdoors

The latest additions to the www.houseplans.com inventory include a range of designs that deftly incorporate outdoor living. Plan 484-5 is a small two- bedroom house organized around what’s called a “Chill Deck,” which is really the outdoor living room.

  Plan 519-1(below) is a small cabin designed for a sloping site and

includes a view deck off the living area and kitchen. 

Similarly the focal point for Plan 449-2 is a seductive pool patio, complete with waterfalls. Time for a dip!

The news that some stores are opening at 3:00 am on the day after Thanksgiving has made me a little panicky, so here are some early and  random design-oriented gift suggestions. I’m a big fan of personalized gifts, like luggage tags that incorporate your own imagery (a faster way to distinguish one black bag from another on the carousel)…they feed my obsession with stones, thanks to the easy upload process on Shutterfly:

Coasters are another item that shows off your eye for design. Here’s what I did with Houseplans.com Chief of Design Nick Lee’s elevations for the house we’re building in Sonoma (Ranch House Plan 508-1):

(This view is from my Shutterfly project page.) A nice way to dream about the house you’re hoping to build as you sip that holiday cocktail.

Or to continue the agricultural theme of the house, how about a prefab chicken coop. The subject seems to be gaining in popularity at the moment, in any case. I like this A-frame example, which I found on renest.com, an interesting shopping guide to green materials:

Designed to house two chickens, the simple clarity of the structure is appealing. It’s the Eco Coop by Rentachook and uses primarily recycled materials. Friends just remodeled their kitchen and that made me look for an appropriate “warming” present so at Placewares I found Marimekko oven mits. One with a floral pattern:

The other more abstract:

Speaking of house presents, consider an ornament, like this globe. It seems an obvious idea to dangle the world on a string but this version seems particularly elegant:

And why not give your friends and relatives a planet anyway! This example is one of several from the shop at the extraordinary Museum of New Mexico Foundation. I also tend to check the offerings at Terrestra and this time I found an eye-catching, wave-like wine rack.

Something to help me surf the holiday season, perhaps…

I just toured a new showroom in San Francisco that is a one stop shop for earth-friendly flooring, cabinetry, counters, fixtures, paints, and more. It’s called Ecohaus and has outlets in Seattle and Portland as well as SF. Here are some of the items that caught my eye. I have mentioned one or two of these products in previous posts but having them all in once place makes shopping so much easier…

Marmoleum (made from linseed oil, a natural ingredient) is a type of linoleum and though not a new material now offers a wide range of

colors and patterns. The image above shows the huge array of glue-down sheets. Marmoleum also offers click-together planks for easy installation.

An expanding variety of recycled woods are now available, through a company called Eco Timber.

Their newest introduction is  FSC-certified Strand Woven Poplar

with its attractive multi-toned, vividly figured grain. It’s made from post-industrial furniture scraps!

Eco-friendly counter options are multiplying. Squak Mountain Stone offers this seductive warm gray.

It’s a composite of recycled paper, recycled glass, and low-carbon cement and comes in full and half slabs that are 1 3/8 inches thick. It has the smooth cool touch of burnished concrete.

Low-flow and dual-flush toilets are now routine, but here’s a water saving example that has also been shown at recent Home Builder shows. It uses the run-off from the sink to fill the toilet tank.

It’s from a company called Caroma, which also offers  a variety of other bathroom sinks.

Using a table as a kitchen island is a simple strong idea and this table would fill the bill for me nicely.

It’s handsome enough for an elegant meal and durable enough to use as a work surface. Made by Windfall Lumber, it’s composed of wood from shipping pallets and crates.

No- and low-VOC paints are important finishing touches and among the choices are lime based paints by Olivetti, which have a rich texture.

Something to consider for an accent wall like the one above (courtesy Ecohaus). See how the texture adds depth and richness to the hue.

New Plans to Explore

These green materials would be especially suitable for some of our latest exclusive plans, like the Vermont Simple House 1 (plan 500-1) by architect Robert Swinburne.

Bob, who started out as a carpenter before becoming an architect, is interested in creating super simple, flexible, adaptable modern and traditional designs that can be affordably constructed.

The  layout is very efficient, with a good-sized front porch.

Upstairs are three bedrooms.

He says: “My designs are green without gimmicks other than some degree of passive solar and Passive house insulation.” Which reminds me of one of my nervous tics, I mean, mantras: good design is green all by itself.

A Sunset magazine headline of some years back — Recycle, Restore, Reuse — is more relevant than ever in today’s economy. So, where can you find affordable but distinctive home products and building materials

like this Talaveras pottery sink for $50?  The answer is: at architectural salvage yards like Habitat for Humanity’s ReStores across the US and Canada. ReStore is a home improvement outlet that sells donated, new, used, and surplus goods to the public at greatly reduced prices.

Profits  support the local Habitat for Humanity, a network of community volunteers who build modest affordable homes with the families who will live in them. Browser beware, however: you’ll need to visit an outlet regularly to catch the most popular items — that sink came in to the Sonoma County, California Restore outlet (entrance pictured above) just after I arrived and had sold before I left!

These outlets and other salvage yards are where you can make like the insatiable artifact collector and San Simeon Castle builder William Randolph Hearst but without his billionaire budget. (Remember: a lot of the doors, paneling, and even ceilings in Hearst Castle came from Spanish monasteries and French chateaux — in those days Europe was the ultimate salvage yard for some people.) In addition to the sink shown above, I found

solid core paneled doors for $100, and a granite-topped

corner bar cabinet for $850.

If you don’t see what you want at a ReStore, google “architectural salvage” or check with your local building department to find recycle outlets in your area.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, for example,   Ohmega Salvage Yard now has some unusual Gothic-style oak panels saved from the old Carnelian Room

Restaurant on the 52nd  floor of the Bank of America building in San Francisco. Historic Houseparts in Rochester, New York boasts a large inventory of vintage plumbing and bathroom fixtures

and would be a good place to look for early twentieth century porcelain sink spigots. At Architectural Artifacts in Chicago you’ll find items like these Art Nouveau interior doors.

A Builder’s Recycle Sourcing Tips

Our in-house contractor expert Brian Garrison has some good advice for the home product hunter-gatherer:

On Older Windows  and Doors: “I would not recommend recycling doors and windows for the exterior because of the heat loss and gain. Older building materials and practices may not be worth the upfront savings. “

On Appliances and Fixtures: “Suppliers often finds themselves with opened boxes or damaged/imperfect products and these can be great buys. As long as the imperfections cannot be seen or do not take away from the beauty or function of the product there is no problem with using them in your new home.”

Thanks Brian — and Mr. Hearst — for showing us how to shop the recycle market.