Coastal life and a tree house

This is one of the best tree houses ever, and it's made from scrap pieces of wood. The bottom image offers more luxury but still a lot of inspiration for a simpler and more natural life.

Images from dontcallmebetty.tumblr.com

Broken tiles outdoors

Creative and great looking use of broken tiles outdoors. A cool way to make something beautiful with stuff that's otherwise headed to a landfill. It's pretty cool in itself to see signs of ingenuity, resourcefulness, and creativity around!

Top image from myhomeideas.com, bottom two images from custommade.com

Broken tiles, stairs, creativity, & resourcefulness

I love it when something useful and beautiful is created resourcefully. That's how everything should be created.

Image from salvagesecretsblog.com

Log walkway/garden path

An old tree stump can be sliced and used as pavers or stepping stones to create great looking paths but if you're thinking about doing something like this make sure the wood is treated against rotting and termites, and that each piece is at least a 4-5 inches thick. You wouldn't want your hard work to rot away in a year or two. Also if the walkway is likely to be wet, consider covering the pieces with chicken-wire to avoid creating a super slippery walkway.
 

Image from GrowsOnYou.com

Comfy pallet chair

According to some sources there about 2 billion wooden pallets in circulation and about 65% of them get used just once. It makes sense to make something out of them instead of sending them all to landfills, which in turn makes that new stuff cost less. It's a win-win situation. This here (The Pallet Armchair from Pierre Vedel) is one example of what's possible. I love seats with wide armrest so as long as this baby's sanded down to a no splinter finish, I would love one of these.

Images from shft.com

By the way, Pierre Vedel shares the design with the world so you can download the specs and build your own for for free! Go Pierre!

Beautiful lamp

Cool and simple lamp, no? You could put one together yourself, and enjoy it that much more for it.

Image from JCovingtonHome.com

Wooden revival

This place has a lot of great furniture simply put together by salvaged wood, old shipping crates, and pallets. They're relatively easy to put together and they really show how great raw wood looks. These things give their home a lot of character and are also easy to live with because you don't need to worry about scratching them, or hurting the finish.

Images from ApartmentTherapy.com

More crates for shelving

Cool looking walls and great use of crates for shelving

Image from yatzer.com

Mind-candy instead of eye-candy this time

Great video from TED. The houses or the interiors featured may not be everyone's cup o' tea but the ideas discussed are very much inline with the spirit of this blog! Enjoy!

Broken tile mosaics

Broken tiles are very versatile. They can be applied to curved surfaces or irregular shaped areas really well, and they create an easy-going, colorful look. The Architect Gaudi used the effect very well in his curved Guell Park benches (second image from the top.) Broken tile mosaics are also a great way to add color to life while preventing broken or cracked tiles from ending up in a landfill.
-See all posts on broken tiles here.

Top image from MerchantCircle.com, 2nd image from top is from BarcelonaCulture.com, and the bottom 2 images are from SmashingTimes.com

Born again

An old cable spool gets a second life as a cool side/coffee table with lots of character.

Image from blog.DesignSquish.com

Hail Daniel Hale

The Remodelista.com post about Daniel Hale has some inspiring images, such as the sofa built with wooden pallets -very nice!- and that easy-going low-maintenance yard.

All images from Remodelista.com

Waste not

When rugs get old, instead of throwing them in the dumpster you can cut them up and re-organize the pieces into great looking patchwork style rugs, like the Australian company Loom Rugs did with their "Hepsi" collection.


All images from LoomRugs.com.au

Reclaim easy-going with reclaimed wood

Whit McClead made a great armchair with reclaimed wood. Wide armrests are always good and this one has a simple mechanism for reclining - for when you're serious about relaxing.



Images from www.WhitMcLeod.com

Live the resort life!

The climate wouldn't let everyone merge their indoors and outdoors as well as they did at the North Island Seychelles resort, but the underlying principles of using natural colors, textures, and materials (along with an easy-going attitude) can be applied anywhere. Notice how the materials they used are not only natural but also processed and finished minimally, some are almost found objects. They also let age and the elements add some character instead of constantly refinishing and repainting things.






All images from North-Island.com

Reclaimed character!

Two casual pieces made of reclaimed wood; one is the Cant End Table from Uhuru made from the end caps of bourbon barrels, and the other is the Boardwalk Bench from Wuttke Werks, made of reclaimed wood from an old boardwalk. With the pattern left by removed nail heads on one, and the color and smell of bourbon left on the other, both pieces have lots of character!

Above - image from UhuruDesign.com

Above - image from WuttkeWerks.blogspot.com

Blue Nature

The French company Blue Nature (great name) makes great pieces, mostly out of beautifully aged salvaged wood and driftwood. The wood is not treated much and the preserved raw appearance adds to the charm and character of the pieces. Way to go Blue Nature!


All images from BlueNature.com

Nightwood NY

Myriah Scruggs and Nadia Yaron of Nightwood in Brooklyn, NY, give new life to reclaimed wood and out of commission furniture. The look they create is easy-going, warm, and unpretentious. Hats off to Nightwood!


All images from NightWoodNY.com

Scorched Wood

I usually prefer the natural color of wood, but if you're interested in something darker or more dramatic scorching also preserves and highlights the grain quite well.

Above - Scorched oak stool from SamChinnery.co.uk

Above - Bench made out of old teak railroad by Chista.net

Chase DeForest

Furniture from salvaged materials do not always look great but I love the warm and familiar character of Chase DeForest's pieces.

Images from ChaseDeForest.com