Each year about this time I get the bug. I wander on Saturdays through all nurseries near my house, from Home Depot to the neighborhood mom and pop store. I get the urge to fight my otherwise air-plant-only-loving black thumb and give dirt a try. Each year I was usually only moderate successful at growing some unsuspecting harmless seeds to full plant-hood, but I’ve found the key to my success of growing spring greens.
If you’ve been in Target or Gap lately, you’ll know that bright colors are back this season. So the new Joie de Vivre hotel, The Saguaro Palm Springs has either timed its debut perfectly or is destined to be out of fashion before Palm Springs sizzles this summer.
Reviews for the delightful palette of the new Saguaro have been strong, all photos highlight the rows of cellular rooms each painted in a different color like a rainbow against the blue desert sun. But at a stay there in February right after its opening, the sometimes contrasting, sometimes congruous colors of the grounds will make it outlive the hype after the surface colors may fade.
On my first academic trip to Los Angeles over ten years ago I visited the Eames House in Pacific Palisades. Frozen in time, preserved in the way Ray Eames left it upon her death in 1988, I peered through its steel framed windows to find it standing still in design and time except for one thing: the plants.
I have a new obsession, perhaps stemming from architecture school and years of making my designs in small scale, but lately I’m so obsessed with everything miniature and it’s uncontrollable. I had-it-bad to begin with, but I may be hitting the creepy stage if you ask my office mates. The recent spike can be attributed to the awesome Emily Henderson, as I’m participating in the I’m a Giant! Dollhouse Competition alongside other design bloggers like Erin Loechner from Design from Mankind (check out her recent tile floor that I would kill for in my own real house!). But the above miniature home by artist Krista Peel literally gave me a mini green thumb as she includes plants in all her work. I got to thinking…wouldn’t it be better if they were REAL (no plastic here please) PLANTS? Real MINIATURE plants? And better yet…in MODERN PLANTERS? No run-of-the-mill ceramic pots will do. The challenge was on as I’m always searching for cool modern ways to make my own or my clients real home’s incorporate plants. So why not make a few of my favorites? I give you… the Mini Wall Wally modeled after the Wally Woolly Pocket and a few more modern design mini knock-offs!
This is all I can show you of my garden wall. The embarrassingly sparse, white, windowless stucco back wall of my 60s modern box house has sat there patiently, silently asking for some adornment. But what to do? I’ve been in search of the perfect addition to the blank garden wall for five years now. For this month’s MilkWeed column, I’ve come up with three finalists for how to dress up a blank garden wall. Design ideas that with just minimal intervention and a small budget could be added to your own abode. It’s a toss up for my favorite. What’s your preference? Perhaps I just need a little color like this wall I found in Silver Lake, California.
Editor’s note: Please welcome our newest contributor, Kara Bartelt of kara b. studio and toHOLD. She will be taking over the MilkWeed column, which focuses on how to incorporate modern plants in and around your home, garden trends, plant care, and more. Learn more about Kara on our About page.
I love concrete, glass and steel as much as the next modernist, but too much black, white and gray make a boring home. When I saw filmmakers Guy Mossman and Lisa Hepner’s modern hillside home on Mount Washington in Los Angeles, I knew I had met kindred spirits. Guy and Lisa moved from Brooklyn in 2010, purchasing a “fixer-upper” and went about the daunting task of finishing and furnishing a bare glass and steel box. Long stairwells and landings line the home inside and out, so Guy and Lisa created colorful compositions with an assortment of Gainey ceramics pots.
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