Centers And Squares
Skateboard House
PAS House - Skateboard Dream
PAS House, aka the Skateboard House, is a fantasy made real for any teenage skateboarder or former skateboarder.
But you’ve got to grow up and make a lot of money to make your dreams come true if your dream is to have one of the world’s most unusual houses designed for you.
Pierre-Andre Senizergues, formerly a professional skateboarder and now the owner of Etnies, a sportswear company, commissioned architect Francois Perrin to create a house in which every surface is skateable.
PAS House (the name uses the owner-to-be’s initials) is a skatepark of a house. The walls are curved, the kitchen counters can be skated on, even the furniture is designed to be used by skateboarders.
This summer a full-scale prototype of the inside of the house was on display in Paris. The skateboard house will be built in Malibu, California.
The Etnies website has amazing videos of skateboarders and cyclists in the PAS House prototype. A recent New York Times article includes an article with architect Francois Perrin about the skateboard house.
Senizergues’ current house, filled with skateboard art and artifacts, is pretty fabulous as well. In fact, the LA Times called it the “ultimate skateboarder’s place”. It’s almost as though Senizergues thought “I’ll show you the ultimate skateboarder’s place” – and commissioned Francois Perrin to create it.
Houses by Julia Baum Photography – Website Wednesday
In Cambridge, our matching houses are often triple deckers
This portfolio, Houses, by photographer Julia Baum documents the wonderfully varied appearances of tract houses in a Santa Clara California development. The houses were initially quite similar when built in the 1950s but now are showcases for their owners’ personal, sometimes quirky, choices. It’s great fun to scroll through Baum’s 13 images.
Wordle Word Clouds – Website Wednesday
I’m finally sending out postcards announcing (belatedly!) the debut of this blog. The image on the front was created with one of my favorite websites – wordle.net.
You use Wordle to create “word clouds” – enter text and it transforms it into a word collage. The size of the various words is determined by the frequency of those words in the text. “Randomize” your entry and you’ll get a seemingly endless variety of Wordles with different colors and fonts.
It’s enormous fun and once you start to play with it you keep thinking of ways to use it – fun texts to play with – perhaps a political speech – and fun things to do with your Wordles – birthday cards for example.
The front of my Centers and Squares postcard – watch for it in the mail! – was created using my first blog post. The Wordle below is the dinner menu from one of my favorite restaurants – the S & S in Inman Square.
Save The Pink Bathroom – Website Wednesday
Mine's Blue - But Pink Is Good Too
Save The Pink Bathroom – Website Wednesday Vintage bathrooms – of the 1940s to 1960s vintage that is – quite often are blue or pink. Completely blue or completely pink.
My house came with the blue version – blue floor, blue ceramic tile, blue tub, toilet and sink. Every accessory was blue too – shower curtain, scale, cup, etc.
Turned out the toilet was a goner when I moved in. The plumber looked worried, “I don’t think I can get a toilet that color”. I confess to replying “No problem!”. I was not yet an appreciator of the vintage colored bath.
It’s the pink bathrooms though that really seem to freak out homebuyers. Guys, in particular, typically can’t seem to get their head around the all-pink decor.
One of my favorite websites, Save the Pink Bathrooms, is just what you need to make that mental shift and see your pink – or blue – vintage bath as a feature, not a defect.
Save the Pink Bathrooms is an offshoot of Pam Kueber’s fabulous blog Retro Renovation and many of the links will lead you there (be careful – you may find yourself reading for a long time – it’s addictive).
So don’t run from that house or condo with a pink bathroom – embrace it. Play up its vintage fabulousness – or decorate it with complementary wallpaper (yes – wallpaper – it can be the perfect contrast to the colored tile) and accessories. Vintage baths from this era were installed when quality materials were the norm and many of them have a lot of years left.
Save the Pink Bathrooms! And the blue ones too!
Book Lovers Photoblog – Website Wednesday
Books As Art - Round Bookcase
Book Lovers Photoblog Book filled rooms are one of my all time favorite things. I counted once – there are 33 bookcases in my house – and the “excess” piled everywhere. If you’re a booklover you’ll want to check out Book Lovers Never Go To Bed Alone. It’s a mesmerizing collection of photos of books, libraries, bookstores, and book filled rooms.
More Website Wednesday
Found Magazine – Website Wednesday
Child's Drawing of a House - Found in My Driveway
Found Magazine – Website Wednesday I found this drawing in my driveway and it reminded me of one of my favorite websites – Found – the website for Found Magazine.
The drawing is the classic child’s version of a house – a square with a triangle on top. In real life it’s a very appealing house silhouette. I had to chuckle when I looked closely at the drawing – figures in the age of McMansions that a kid would draw a two-story house – mine never had an upper floor.
The Found website highlights things people find that give us a glimpse into other people’s lives – notes, letters, doodles, grocery lists… The best are truly hilarious.
I first heard Found’s founder, Davy Rothbart, on NPR years ago. The story of his first find is on the website – a rant left on his windshield, clearly meant for someone else. That note led to collecting more found notes, etc. from friends and eventually snowballed into a magazine, books, a website, and readings around the country.
Website Wednesday
Website Wednesday – Hippie Kitchens
It can't be a Hippy Kitchen without any hippies
Website Wednesday: Hippie Kitchens
Getting a little burnt out on granite and stainless steel kitchens?
I’ve found the perfect antidote:
Hippy Kitchens is an amazing photoblog of 1960s – 1970s kitchens. I’ll confess to looking at all 45 pages of photos on my first go-through.
Nothing fancy in these kitchens. Lots of happy people. Lots of funky kitchens.
Just take a look at all those meals getting cooked without benefit of the newest and shiniest kitchen gizmos.
Makes me nostalgic for the 1970s.
PS: the Hippy Kitchens website is sometimes a little funky but keep fiddling with the links and it should work for you.
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