Outdoor Projects On My Mind

Even however I&#8217ve been doing work difficult on the laundry area lately (right here&#8217s a sneak peek of the most recent update, but much more to come soon!), the trees coming down final month and the boost in temperatures have me thinking about exterior tasks a lot. Although I&#8217m not nevertheless ready to pull the set off on any a single project in particular (my allergies are trying to keep me indoors for the subsequent couple of weeks, and I won&#8217t commence on these until the shelves &amp counter are all done in the laundry space&#8230 so near!) I did want to share with you some inspiration I&#8217ve been pinning recently.

1. Tree bench

There&#8217s only a single remaining tree in the back yard after getting rid of the rest back in March, and I&#8217d truly like to see it hunting far more purposeful. So lately, I&#8217ve been contemplating about what a modest bench would appear like at the foot of the tree, like the examples under.

tree bench

Not only would it include some seating, but would make the yard search more inviting to a guest (and how great is that suspended guide shelf concept?). I truly like the idea of incorporating some plants under the bench too, but with my brown thumb, I could just want to stick to gravel or mulch. I found a amazing tutorial from This Previous House, which makes me all the a lot more confident that I&#8217ll be seeing this project come to fruition this summer time.

2. Outdoor Lights

I have constantly needed string lights in the yard. I just really like the soft and cozy feeling it adds. Plus, I&#8217m inclined to bet that it helps make any yard, even mine, look dressed up (don&#8217t believe me? the subsequent time you see a fairly picture of outdoor string lights, cover up the best portion exactly where the lights are displayed&#8230 it practically often will take the &#8220it&#8221 element away). Maybe I&#8217ll begin by running some lights out to the remaining tree when the bench is in spot.

outdoor lighting

(clockwise) 1 &#8211 2 &#8211 3 &#8211 four

three. Landscaping along the fence

Ultimately, I&#8217d like to create a actual and workable landscaping prepare for the back yard. With the elimination of all but one of my pine trees, it&#8217s variety of like hitting a reset button on the ideas I&#8217ve had just before. All of the shade I used to count on is no longer there, which opens the door to new landscaping possibilities. The 1st key hurdle will be moving the enormous mound of soil and tree mulch from the spot that when had all of the trees, but after that, I&#8217ll need to have to select an region and commence digging (virtually). I believe a single of the first areas that could genuinely use some support is the correct side of the yard, where my neighbors have left their fence to rot. Not wonderful, and not often pictured on this weblog, but also not worth receiving into some kind of discussion with my neighbor about it (right after all, my yard is hardly the envy of the neighborhood!). So the simplest solution is to discover anything that masks it a little. Right here&#8217s an older pic from some yard cleanup I did a 12 months and a half ago the place you can see the fence I&#8217m speaking about:

I believe a quite good remedy is to install some raised garden beds (which are quite cheap and straightforward to build) and some flowering shrubs of some kind that can tolerate the shade/sun combine on that side (neighboring trees that aren&#8217t in my yard even now maintain this spot shaded in the afternoon). Or, I could nix the garden beds and basically plant one thing that doesn&#8217t demand any upkeep, like Annabelle hydrangeas (as you might already know, I Enjoy hydrangeas of all sorts), or knockout roses (whom I&#8217ve been advised by 1 reader requires practically zero upkeep). But nevertheless, I do consider the raised bed makes issues a little nicer. The yellow knockout selection are a favourite of mine in distinct.

fence landscaping

(clockwise) one &#8211 2 &#8211 3 &#8211 four

I don&#8217t prepare to in fact try out herbs &amp greens in this spot, so the lack of full sun should not be also a lot of a problem. But then yet again, I don&#8217t have a green thumb, so these are still just tips kicking around in my brain!

That&#8217s about it for now, but I feel these 3 tips are in the prime spots for what to do about the yard this summer. As usually, landscaping is a slow-moving monster, so I&#8217m carrying out my ideal to feel of small concepts that will ultimately add up to 1 awesomely entertaining outdoor space. What landscaping projects do you have planned this summertime?

The publish Outdoor Tasks on My Thoughts

The Unsightly Duckling Residence

Bargain Finds, A Fiddle Leaf, Re-Loving And Other Stuff

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I’ between big projects at the minute (aren’ I usually?) even though that doesn’ mean there isn’ something fun to share right now.

If you study my last submit, or if you stick to me through social media, you possibly presently know that I just joined Instagram. Finally!

The local community on there is soooo awesome and I’ discovered it remarkably motivating in terms of house tweaking. The idea of sharing anything new and diverse by way of a straightforward snap shot can make me way much more thrilled than it almost certainly must. Is that weird? Didn’ feel so.

So, I’ been happily enjoying vignettes and have even had fun getting some cute new price range-friendly equipment, a rarity for me at the moment.

A handful of weeks back I stumbled upon this fiddle leaf fig!

Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree | The Painted Hive

I know every guy and his puppy has a single now even though I’ wished a single for a few years and figured that prolificity (yes, I just created that word up – it has 5 syllables and sounds really fancy) appeared like a silly cause not to get one particular. They are nonetheless stunning. And, as an additional bonus this a single cost less than two zillion bucks! For anyone interested this child is about 80cm tall (floor to leading) and was \$45 from Wombat Gully Plant Farm in Geelong. I have no concept no matter whether they nevertheless have any in stock so maybe ring ahead if you prepare on dropping in there. The wicker basket was \$22 (on sale) from Spotlight.

Have you guys witnessed some of the amazing homewares Kmart is rocking at the mo’?

Science Flask

I picked up this great little conical flask for just \$four.

And Target is doing okay as well.

Vintage Vignette with Brass, Leather and Seagreen Demijohn | The Painted Hive

Couldn’ go previous this beautiful sea-green demijohn for only \$15. May possibly have to go back and get more 🙂 All of the other components in this vignette are thrifted. The leather case holds vintage binoculars and the wattle lends a nice Aussie really feel. Ahhh, really like me some layering!

And how about The Reject Shop? They have some genuinely wonderful buys in retailer for Mother’ Day.

Rose Gold Animal Heads | The Painted Hive

I snatched up these ceramic metallic animal heads for \$7 each. They have been supposed to be a present though I hung them in my entryway to take some pics and now I adore them so much I consider they may well have to stay. Against my vintage wallpaper they are a match created in heaven!

Metallic Rosegold Animal Heads | The Painted Hive

These animal heads are accessible in rose-gold as shown (named copper in-store however definitely more of a stunning rose-gold to me!) or silver and animals contain horse, rhino, canine and elephant.

And I definitely fell in love with this leather strap lantern for \$15 (from The Reject Shop also!).

Vintage Lantern Vignette | The Painted Hivev

It would also make a really cute vase and I adore it even far more right after studying the price of some comparable ones…

Glass and Leather Lanterns

1 | two | three | four
Clockwise from best left. Charges in \$AUD.

Huh? Crazy, right? I imply, I know I’ tight, however critically?

Break

If you stick to me socially and have currently seen all this then I apologise for the repetition. 
I wished to share here for anyone who might have missed my social media posts and for individuals of you who merely don’ use social media. 

Plus, it’ just plain wonderful compiling every thing in a pretty tiny site publish 🙂

Break

In other information, my Re-Love Task piece is coming along nicely!

I don’ want to reveal also considerably just however however I will say I’ stepping outdoors my comfort zone in terms of aesthetic. I hope the deviation from my usual design doesn’ disappoint you guys even though I’ loving the creative challenge and freedom! I’ share some sneak peeks in a potential post soon.

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PS Thanks so considerably to everyone who left a pretty tiny comment on my Houzz interview. I was blown away by the sweet sentiments.

PPS I was also not too long ago interviewed by Porch. You can check that exciting post out right here.

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You have just read the post Bargain Finds, a Fiddle Leaf, Re-Loving and other stuff from The Painted Hive. Click on above to check out the website and get engaged in the comments part – I would really like to hear your thoughts! Republishing this article in total or in component is a violation of copyright law.

The Painted Hive

Splayed Concrete Walls Give Valerio Olgiati’s Villa Além The Appearance Of An Open Box

Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati added concrete fins to the walls of this house in rural Portugal, which splay outwards and inwards like the flaps of an open box to supply shade for a garden within .

Villa Alem by Valerio Olgiati

The five.5-metre-large walls were constructed from a red cast-in-situ concrete designed to harmonise with the colour of the rusty earth and to conceal the single-storey dwelling inside of, making it invisible from outside the compound.

Villa Alem by Valerio Olgiati

“The character of the complex is chiefly defined by the surrounding walls, which produce the impression of petals that near and open in direction of the sky,” explained Olgiati.

Villa Alem by Valerio Olgiati

“The major intention right here is to produce a secluded backyard,” he extra. “The surrounding walls are up to five and a half metres higher to offer the necessary shade and the complete impression created is a single of a desert, dry, stony and dusty.”

Villa Alem by Valerio Olgiati

Named Villa Além, the home and its walled garden are found in the middle of a cork forest in Alentejo.

The rural area in central Portugal is situated around five miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean and is renowned for its vineyards, as nicely as the cork forests utilised to supply bottle stops for their create.

Villa Alem by Valerio Olgiati

The gardens can be observed through broad openings in the outer walls and are protected from the area’s free of charge-roaming livestock by big metal doors.

Villa Alem by Valerio Olgiati

Two prolonged beds positioned along both side of the courtyard are planted with succulents and modest shrubs, although a cast-concrete trench with a marble base in the centre forms a swimming pool.


Related story: Vidigal House by Contaminar has a V-shaped prepare enclosing a triangular garden


An opening is positioned at one particular end of the pool, offering views into the surrounding woodland.

Villa Alem by Valerio Olgiati

At the opposite finish of the courtyard, an outside dining region is arranged beneath a concrete awning that tasks upwards and outwards from the facade of the residence.

Villa Alem by Valerio Olgiati

Inside, tall raw concrete walls give the rooms and hallways a cave-like physical appearance that contrasts the sun-exposed courtyard. Tiny cork accents in the form of furnishings refer back to the landscape.

Villa Alem by Valerio Olgiati

A extended arch-shaped corridor runs along the living spaces at the front of the residence before hooking about to 3 bedrooms and bathrooms organized in a row behind.

“A curved hallway permits the inhabitants to retreat into shadows and into the introverted personal rooms,” explained the architect.

Villa Alem by Valerio Olgiati

Every of the 3 bedrooms has accessibility to its personal private patio set along the periphery wall, and all three are covered with flat concrete roofs that feature elongated oval openings.

Villa Alem by Valerio Olgiati

The dining room occupies a gabled construction at 1 finish of the north-south living strip, even though a living room is found in the centre.

From this area, residents can look out above the courtyard pool and on by means of a gateway in the southern wall of the garden to the woodland beyond.

Villa Alem by Valerio Olgiati

Photography courtesy of Valerio Olgiati.


Project credits:

Architect: Valerio Olgiati
Common contractor: Matriz Sociedade de Construções Lda.
Collaborators: Patricia Da Silva, Daisuke Kokufuda, Liviu Vasiu

Villa Alem by Valerio OlgiatiFloor strategy Villa Alem by Valerio OlgiatiElevation  Dezeen

Spaces + Soirée + Style // Hearts

Heart-Shaped Inspiration For Your Home And Life | Dream Green DIY

Spaces: The Crafted Life | Sarah Hearts
Soirée: THUY | Vicky Barone
Fashion: Momtastic | Paige &amp Chris

Who says it demands to be Valentine&#8217s Day in purchase to obsess above fairly pink and blush-colored hearts?! Properly, Pinterest actually says so because practically all of these tasks have been touted as Valentine&#8217s Day crafts as I went through my search, but nonetheless—I think they perform properly past February 14th, don&#8217t you agree? There&#8217s just one thing about that feminine colour palette and silhouette that has me loving the truth that I was born into this frilly, nostalgic gender. 3 cheers for getting a lady and for hearts on every thing from hoodies and hairdos, to cookies and canvases!

(Get a lot more inspiration on Pinterest)

The submit Spaces + Soirée + Design // Hearts

Dream Green DIY

Italy’s Museo Della Merda Is Full Of Shit

The Museum of Shit is housed in an Italian castle and is focused to demonstrating “what a beneficial and residing substance crap really is” .

Museo della Merda Italy

Opening this month, the Museo della Merda – or Museum of Shit – showcases tasks that span in between artwork and technological innovation, but are all in some way linked to the reuse of natural waste.

Museo della Merda Italy

The museum is positioned at the Castelbosco dairy farm in the Picenza province of northern Italy, exactly where two,500 cows generate thirty,000 litres of milk as well as one hundred,000 kilograms of dung.

Museo della Merda Italy

Seeing an opportunity to use this waste for profit, the farm’s proprietor Gianantonio Locatelli created an industrial facility that extracts the methane gas from the manure, which can be burnt as an power supply.

Museo della Merda Italy

His plant also turns the dung into a raw material that can be utilized as a creating product, both as a plaster or fired to type bricks.

Museo della Merda Italy

Collectively with architect Luca Cipelletti, curator Gaspare Luigi Marcone and gallerist Massimo Valsecchi, Locatelli designed a museum inside a late-medieval castle on the site to showcase the possible employs and advantages of the waste materials.

Museo della Merda Italy

“In the museum spaces and castle rooms – and in their digital model – people aesthetic and scientific, human and animal, contemporary-day and yesteryear experiences are and will be on present, displaying what a beneficial and living substance crap truly is,” mentioned the museum’s web site.


Connected story: Layout Academy Eindhoven college students invite Milan to Consume Shit


Museo della Merda Italy

Visitors initial take a tour all around the farm and its production amenities to understand about the place the material comes from, and the processes that transform it into a useable material.

Museo della Merda Italy

Connected interventions by artists this kind of as David Tremlett and Anne &amp Patrick Poirier are situated about the web site.

Museo della Merda Italy

Within the renovated castle, the interior has been stripped back to reveal the building’s unique structure. The ground floor is focused to the show of conceptual resources and installations.

Museo della Merda Italy

The spaces are stored warm by engines that create heat utilizing the methane extracted from the manure, whilst iron-framed vitrines are partially clad with dung.

Museo della Merda Italy

Plaster produced from the muck covers sections of the walls, very carefully positioned to look as if it is pouring from the ceiling.

Museo della Merda Italy

1 wall is mounted with a set of 16 glowing green jars. The light is produced by bioluminescent bacteria that feeds on methane pumped into the vessels, demonstrating that light can be created utilizing completely all-natural materials.

Museo della Merda Italy

Continuing the theme of reuse, old iPads and iMacs show media and details about the exhibits.

Museo della Merda Italy

“The Shit Museum will expand in three dimensions: not only will it continue to be a physical room to go to, but also a virtual area and an ever-evolving actuality,” said Cipelletti.

Museo della Merda Italy

“The contents of the Museum will also be loaded onto its online platform, a website which enables for direct and broad interaction with the public, as nicely as the continuous updating of pursuits, tasks and initiatives,” he explained.

Museo della Merda Italy

To promote the museum, Cipelletti has lined Milan’s POMO Galerie with the excrement plaster and presented the bricks as an installation titled Shit Demonstrate.

Museo della Merda Italy

The set up was proven throughout the city’s style week final month, when college students from Style Academy Eindhoven’s food design program also showed projects connected to excrement in an exhibition known as Eat Shit.

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