A designers' dilemma: The story of Stuff

This short film was made in 2007, and is still very relevant today. Even more relevant, i would say, with our collective cellphone addicition (the Iphone came out somewhere around the time this movie was made)(feels ancient, right?).

What to do as a designer?
Should we stop creating stuff altogether or is it our responsibility to keep designing, but do it smarter and make a difference?
Is that even possible?
Can we make a difference by adding more stuff?

More about this and more video's can be found on thestoryofstuff.org.
Feel free to share your thoughts.

These treehouses by Jedediah Corwyn Voltz

Treehouse by Jedediah Corwyn Voltz
photograph courtesy of monglo.tumblr (Jedediah Corwyn Voltz)

The tiny scrapwood Jedediah Corwyn Voltz had left-over after Stop-Motion modelling projects, lead to these little fantasy-dwellings. Read more about it in this article by Designboom, or check out Jedediah Corwyn Voltz's website (for more 2D-projects) or Tumblr (for more of this).

Treehouse by Jedediah Corwyn Voltz
photographs courtesy of monglo.tumblr (Jedediah Corwyn Voltz)

Waterworks according to Dipty Wonen

Photograph by Mies / Dipty Wonen

This lovely interior is the home of blogger Michelle of Dipty Wonen.
Spot the Waterworks? Michelle wrote a really nice piece about our design and shot many more pretty pictures.
Read the full (Dutch) blogpost here.

A few snapshots of Designkwartier

We visited Designkwartier in Den Haag yesterday. Here are a few snapshots of the Plant Power pop-up shop (via Instagram).

Since the weather wasn't all that we ended up spending a lot of time taking shelter in a restaurant and didn't see nearly all the things we wanted to see.
On the up-side: the Pasta Kantine (where pretty much everyone ended up, judging by the full house) was a great place to have lunch. They're in Rotterdam too, check out their website.

For something completely different: Panamarenko

By House of Thol on Instagram

Don't have any plans this weekend?
Get yourself to Antwerp to see the Panamarenko Universum exhibition at the M HKA: it's your last chance!

By House of Thol on Instagram

We were there semi-coincidentally this Sunday, and it's definitely worth a trip to the Belgian Diamant city.

For more information, check out the M HKA website.
By the way, here's a little (Dutch/Belgian) video about the exhibition by Arttube (and check out this short video about two nine-year-old boys visiting the exibition):

Pretty rocks @ Naturalis

Two of the more solid natural beauties we encountered during our visit of Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in Leiden last weekend:

Sulphur | Naturalis Biodiversity Centre Leiden | Photograph by House of Thol

Iron | Naturalis Biodiversity Centre Leiden | Photograph by House of Thol

The Fairs & The Greenery | 2 Urban Jungle reviews

The past few weeks were all about The Fairs: First, there was IMM Cologne (18-24 January), in the Koeln Messe, directly followed/overlapped by Maison & Objet in Paris (23-27 January), and followed in the Netherlands the small indy tradefair Show Up (1-2 February).
Then there's the Stockholm Furniture Fair (3-7 February) and the Ambiente Fair in Frankfurt will follow soon (13-17 february).

Wow! What a programme! Imagine being a buyer for a design shop...

Anyway: we've thought long and hard about participating in one of the fairs this season, but decided we'd wait until we have a bigger collection of consumer goods to present. It's quite an investment, and we'd rather do it right the first time round (or kinda right..).

Although it would have been great study-material to visit the fairs, we just didn't have the time to go. - Luckily a lot of other people did, and they spotted loads of greenery in and around the boots.

Photograph by Igor Josifovic / Happy Interior Blog

Igor, for example, from Happy Interior Blog, wrote this lovely post with his green highlights from the fair in Cologne.

Be sure to check out the full post by Igor with lots more greenery and design.

His partner-in-crime on Urban Jungle Bloggers, Joelix (Dutch born / France living Judith de Graaff) visited Paris fair Maison & Objet and wrote this lovely piece.

the Phytophiler by Studio Dossofiorito @ Maison&Objet 2015
Photograph by Judith de Graaff / Joelix.com

I totally share her love for this Phytophiler by Studio Dossofiorito. - read her full blogpost here.

We'll be sourcing the web for more. Will keep you posted!

The other blog: World of Driftwood

Did you know we have another blog?

In our House of Thol blog we try to stick to the topic: House of Thol, our projects and everything surrounding that.

But, we also have a place for all the miscellaneous beautiful things we come across: design, photography, art, interiors, architecture, DIY's, pretty icepops...

All that inspirational prettiness is collected in our other blog, our online scrapbook: World Of Driftwood.
Make sure to check it out if you like pretty things (like we do).

Here are a few of the things we collected last month:
(a click on the photograph should bring you directly to the blogpost)

Pinterest Love | Follow us!

We've been loving Pinterest so much lately... - From party-scenes to stylish interiors and from childrens' toys to art and photography, there is no stopping us when it comes to pinning.

Curious? Follow us here.

Let's get this New Year started.

About a lovely shop in Heemstede, named Homestede

Photograph courtesy of Homestede.nl

Once there was a lovely town in the west of the Netherlands, situated between Haarlem and the Sea, with the lovely name Heemstede.
And in that lovely town there was a lovely shopping street with lovely shops and one of those lovely shops was named Homestede.

Homestede was always great, but since last Friday it became even better: that's when they started selling Waterworks!

So if you're living close to Heemstede and are looking for a sustainable gift, check out Homestede on Raadhuisstraat 86!

For more, check out the Homestede website.

Photograph courtesy of Homestede.nl

Waterworks now for sale @ Edwin Pelser Design store

Screenshot of the Edwin Pelser website

The collection of Edwin Pelsers' design shop in central Den Haag revolves around products with a story.
Edwin Pelser manages to bring all these stories from all those very different designers together in a harmonious unity in his living-room style store at the Piet Heinstraat.

We're very proud to be adding the story of Waterworks to the mix.

Edwin Pelser Designstore
Piet Heinstraat 123
2518 CG Den Haag

For more information and opening times check out Edwin Pelsers' website.

photographs courtesy of Edwin Pelser

For more Waterworks points of sale, click here

Design By Craft on Waterworks

What a lovely showcase of Waterworks on Fair Dutch Design Platform Design By Craft (full article).

Design By Craft is an alternative webshop that focuses on hand-picked unique and customisable products with inspiring stories.
Their website is definitely worth a moment of your time.
Check it out here.

Spice up your wrapping #02 - Glittery gift-tags in 3 minutes

After this tutorial to make your own wrapping paper, you must have been eagerly waiting for the promised Glittery gift-tag DIY.
Not?

Well, here it comes anyway:

What you need:
-Basic gift tags (buy them anywhere, or make them)
-Glitter
-Glue
-Brush
-Something to put the glitter on (i used a little plate)

Now, pay attention, because it all goes pretty fast...

1. Put the glitter on a little plate.
2. Brush glue on the lower part of the tag (both front and back).
3. Dip the glued areas into the glitter until fully covered.
4. Let dry.

Got it?
Takes three minutes. Tops.

NB: I tried glittering the entire tag and didn't find it that pretty, but feel free to try for yourself.

Happy gift-giving!

Spice up your wrapping #01 - Gift Wrap Tutorial

Wrapping packages in kraft paper is an all-time favorite.
For the Holiday season however, there's a perfect excuse to spice it all up a it, perhaps even add a bit of sparkle to the mix...

First things first: How to easily create your own wrapping paper.
Here goes....

Things you need:

- Kraft paper
- Rolling pin
- Tape
- Paper
- Scissors
- Foam stickers
- Paint (i would recommend acrylic paint because of the short time it takes to dry)
- Paint roller
- Christmas treats (alright, you don't really need those, although they do help set the tone)

Get everything ready to go.
You might want to protect your table a bit, since there's paint involved.

First thing to do:
1. Cover your rolling pin with paper.
Why? Well, firstly because you might want to use the rolling pin again (to bake cookies), secondly, because the foam stickers stick better on paper.

2. Cut the foam sticker into a gazillion little dots (or any shape you fancy really, i went for snowflakes/dots).
Mind you: this is the most annoying part of the whole thing, feel free to finish your Christmas treats while you're at it.

3. Stick the foam dots to the covered rolling pin, making sure you space them out evenly and randomly.

4. Paint and roll!
Use only a little bit of paint and re-apply after every 'roll' to achieve a natural and even result.

If you've used only a little paint like i adviced, the paper is ready to be rolled up again almost immediately after finishing.
Feel free to store it in waiting of the fab glitter-gift-tag tutorial we'll add Friday as a little week-end treat.

Enjoy!

Material love: Ceramic textures

Textured - By Lone Skov Madsen

 Layered - Utilitarian collection by Ben Fiess

Naturally crude - by Kazuhiro Katase

Pretty - By Lenneke Wispelwey

Tense - by Juz Kitson

Woolly - Soft Forms by Mariko Wada

Spotted on World of Driftwood blog