Roommate alert: the bamboo skewers on the Magistral Cabinet will protect your most precious possessions from unsanctioned intrusions.

You might consider yourself a bit ornery in the morning, but try this on for prickly: 80,000 bamboo skewers cover New York-based artist and designer Sebastian Errazuriz’s Magistral Cabinet, on view as part of his solo exhibition “Beautiful Premonitions” at the Cristina Grajales Gallery.

The skewers are meant to serve as an armor protecting your most valuable and personal objects, including your unmentionables. The doors and cubbies inside of the storage unit are concealed behind the bamboo-fortified sliding doors, which took twelve woodworkers six weeks to construct by hammering each individual skewer into the previously carved wooden structure.

A bit more arty than practical, we love the Magistral for its ingenuity in promoting the oft’ misunderstood porcupine.

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

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Can paintings live outside? Would it be possible to have a garden live within a painting? In an exhibition called Inside Outside, Fabric 8 challenged local artists Daniel James Burt and Romanowski to re-think painting from an outdoor perspective. The artists jumped right in (jumped right out?) in creating unique indoor and outdoor found object and plant assemblage and sculptures.

Beautifully integrated into the artwork are bits of chia pet plants and air plants that derive their water from the air, requiring little to no maintenance. The artists collaborated with Flora Grubb Gardens to determine exactly what type of plants would be best suited to this new art environment. “We do not have green thumbs,” Fabric 8 co-founder Olivia Ongpin explained, “So we knew that if we could keep these pieces alive, anyone could.”

Fabric 8 started out as an Internet business selling unique items by urban independent designers. Their small retail store located beneath a San Francisco Victorian residence in the Mission has now expanded to include a gallery in the back as well as a backyard garden gallery. When I stopped by earlier today, they were preparing the space for a wedding reception over the weekend.

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