Outdoor Space Inspiration

Check out these awesome ideas for the backyard!

Check out more from the smart folks at: Home-Designing.

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HMK

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company

Now this is pretty sweet.

Built in less than 500 square feet and using plans from the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company this small, energy-efficient North Carolina home is totally built to International Building Codes. The plan features a loft, home office, kitchen, bathroom, living room, and deck. The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company sells this plan for $695 and estimates material costs at about $33,000.



Now all one needs to do is find the perfect lot!

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HMK

Thanks to Jetson Green

Your Ideal Home

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HMK

Nice Shelves

Totally digging these concrete, poured on site, built in shelves from the Waldfogel residence designed and built by Ehrlich Architects.

And the rest of this 8,000 square foot Palo Alto, California home is quite stunning as well: Ehrlich Architects

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HMK

Splashdown!

Safe at home!

In college, a friend asked Armstrong if he wanted to be the first man on the moon - "No," he answered, "I want to be the first man to come back from the moon"... Genius!

At 12:15 p.m. EDT July 24 the Apollo 11's command module Columbia splashed down in the mid-Pacific, about 24 kilometers from the recovery ship U.S.S. Hornet. Following decontamination procedures at the point of splashdown, the astronauts were carried by helicopter to the Hornet where they entered a mobile quarantine facility to begin a period of observation under strict quarantine conditions. The CM was recovered and removed to the quarantine facility. Sample containers and film were flown to Houston.

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HMK

SHIFT Cottage: Superkül Inc.

Totally digging the SHIFT Cottage from Toronto architects Superkül Inc.

The site for this 2000-square-foot family cottage on an island in Georgian Bay was chosen for its topography and orientation. Nestled into the exposed, washed granite of the island and against a line of trees, the cottage is sheltered against the strong winds off of the water.

The graphic lines of the cottage are designed to further marry it to its site—highlighting through contrast the wind-sculpted trees and craggy rock of the Bay that make its landscape unique.

A glass link bridges between the cottage’s two volumes—one containing living spaces, the other sleeping and washing areas—and a wood deck terraces down to fold into the island on three sides.

Wicked nice. Check out more shots and info on this fabulous place: Shift Cottage.

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HMK

Thanks to Blue Ant Studio.

ModKnobs

ModKnobs is a brand new little company producing some really hip and modern door knobs.

As the story goes, Mary & Jeff, founders of ModKnobs, were remodeling their home and were having a really hard time finding cool, affordable doorknobs.

So, Jeff decided to design his own door knobs—with sleek lines, earth-friendly materials and superior lock sets, using, that's right, blue hockey pucks!

Everyone that came over to their house absolutely loved them, so they decided to start making them for other people, too. Like you.

My only gripe is the the 150US price tag. Ouch. I love the fact that they started out looking for an affordable solution, found one and have done a great job turning the concept into a nice little business with a simple, elegant and informative site - nice job, but as far as making them an affordable alternative for the masses, if that in fact is their intent, I think they sort of missed the mark.

Overall, ModKnobs, is a very cool and smart idea. But considering the state of the planet, and most people's budgets right now - let's just file this under: Design Out of Reach...



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HMK


Gracias to Design Milk.

DieFabrik Storage System

I'm digging the simplicity of this hip and smart interlocking storage system from the folks at DieFabrik in Germany.

"Sehr schön - ich will das für unser Haus!"

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HMK

Sneak Peaks

The cool and smart folks over at Design Sponge have a really nice and inspiring section of their site aptly tiled Sneak Peaks. The above images are Sneak Peaks from the interiors of Sulu Design (above), Brave Space Design and Louise Fili (below).


Nice stuff!

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HMK

The Just-Right Desk

Penelope Green, a reporter for the New York Times Home section, set out with a budget of $1,000 to try a number of new and old desks, seeking professional advice along the way.

Blu Dot's Desk 51 above was named after Area 51, the Nevada military base beloved by UFO conspiracy theorists, because the designers thought it looked "alienish." One feng shui expert called its color "super yang."

I''ll be doing the exact same thing within the next month or so but with about half the budget - stay tuned for my results. Meanwhile, check out In Search of the Just-Right Desk.

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HMK