HillaryJohnson's blog
A Living Room Fort for Grown Ups
By HillaryJohnson
Something shockingly mnemonic about this art installation. I loved building forts as a kid, and seeing this I feel like I could happily live in it for the rest of my life.
My plan this summer is to make a fort in the back yard, out of a gazebo from Target, fill it with cast-off furniture, and leave it up for weeks, as a kind of fantasy haven. Found on Swissmiss.
TV Cozy
By HillaryJohnson
This Esme Valk TV cozy elevates the knicknack to fine art, especially if you read the artist's description:
I made this triptych after reading a short item in the newspaper.
It described a letter-box filled with unread letters and junk mail.
None of the neighbours knew the man who lived in that flat, he hardly
came outside and always had his blinds closed. When the authorities
broke in they found the man’s decomposed body in a chair. Open on his
lap a TV guide showed that he had died over a year ago.
Fine Art Quilting
By HillaryJohnson
I just bought this art quilt from artist Monica McGregor to hang in my living room. It is hypnotic, complex, and very jazz era cubist. If DeKooning were a quilter, I think this is what he'd come up with.
Home Office redo, on the cheap
By HillaryJohnson
My boyfriend's home office, in a corner of our bedroom, has long been an eyesore. Cobbled together out of pieces of metro shelving (odd-lengthed poles protruding every which way), sheets of formica, and mis-matched plastic drawers of all kinds, and strung with party lights, it always looked to me like a pike of wrecked bicycles. So while he was in Vegas for a bachelor party this weekend, I took the whole thing apart and re-did it.
The only thing I bought for the "new" office is the dark wood desktop, which I picked up from the Ikea "as is" bin for $49. I re-configured the metro shelving to provide more storage, and be more neatly configured. I edited out everything that didn't go with the black and chrome theme. I bundled power c » READ MORE
New PBS Show on Green Home Building
By HillaryJohnson
The swanky house you see here was built using $2600 worth of straw, and a few other things (steel, recycled wood, blue jean insulation, etc). The building process, start to finish, is the subject of a new PBS series, Building Green, which will be available to PBS affiliates to begin airing on June 5, and a companion website, of which I am the editor-in-chief (and a Curbly devotee).
Check out our site. The content is inclusive of everthing from high-end, contractor-driven stuff like framing and foundations, and more DIY-friendly ideas like earthen floors and the like. And if you'd care to leave me feedback and suggestions for how to improve the site here in the comments, I'm all ears!
What does the world look like if you're color blind?
By HillaryJohnson
I recently moved in with a color blind person. I have wondered what the world looks like through his eyes, and now, thanks to this handy online color blindness simulator, I have an idea. I now want to take pictures off all the rooms in our house and look at them all over again....
