What some view as trash, Linda and John Meyers see as raw material. The wife-and-husband team—subscribers to the “reduce, reuse, recycle” ethos—have perfected a design strategy that will save you money, help the planet, and provide hours of DIY fun. The strategy? First, visit a yard sale, construction-site dumpster, or even your own attic. Select something that somebody (even you) thought had outlived its usefulness. Then, transform that castoff into a piece that’s interesting and usable.
In this witty book, they apply their ingenious approach to seating (a chair made from pool noodles), lighting (a lamp from discarded pastry bags), storage (an umbrella stand from industrial steel pipe), tables (a wall-mounted table from a rusty basketball hoop), and all manner of decorative objects (Astroturf pillows, a pickle-jar terrarium). These super-clever authors show you that with a little ingenuity and elbow grease, everything old becomes new again.
Linda and John Meyers are the design team behind Wary Meyers Decorative Arts, based in Maine, and are also well known for their interior design business and for their customized pet portraits. They have been featured in the New York Times, Interior Design, Vogue, and Domino.
This review is from: Wary Meyers' Tossed & Found: Unconventional Design from Cast-offs (Hardcover)
I've been obsessed with these guys since their design column in Time Out NY, and this book takes their alchemy of discarded elements to a whole new level. Besides the fact that I have a crush on the little cartoon piglet handyman that guides you through the how-to illustrations, I am in love with the WaryMeyers' sense of style and eye for the beauty created by juxtaposition. They relish the patina and character of salvaged furniture and weathered materials, but then re-invent and collage these bits and pieces to make a new whole that is more sophisticated and snazzy than the sum of its parts. I'm already in the middle of remixing of a couple of their textile projects - quilting a pair of jeans with the pattern from a vintage silk scarf - making some molten gold pillows to pour over my couch - but the real gift this book has given me is a new way of looking at the old stuff in my life. It's got so much potential!
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This review is from: Wary Meyers' Tossed & Found: Unconventional Design from Cast-offs (Hardcover)
This is a phenomenal, one-of-a-kind design book that is not only chock-full of inspiring ideas and clever, clear, intelligent prose, but the book itself is a work of art. The sketches and artwork within these pages are as impressive as the brilliant projects that the Wary Meyers team have invented. In this age where people are talking a lot about "green" design, this book one-ups them all, in both form and function... what is more environmentally sound than finding already existing items and using one's imagination and creativity to give it a second (or third) wonderful life? I love this book! It doesn't just make me want to try and do the projects in the book (which it does...) but, it also is changing the way I think about yard sales and interior design and re-purposing items all around us. I've never seen a book as breathtakingly original as this one.
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This review is from: Wary Meyers' Tossed & Found: Unconventional Design from Cast-offs (Hardcover)
I love design magazines, and I love home improvement, but I'm so over feeling poor and out of it for not having a 'Dwell' budget. Thank you to this book for being with the times, and having their priorities in order. Enough with the excess. A beautiful home should be warm and reflect not just the aesthetic, but the soul of the person who lives there. So this is the design guide for soulful homeowners with a conscience.
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