Add color and interest to your white walls without jeopardizing your security deposit.

A freshly painted apartment with white walls is a clarion call for new beginnings. It’s also a deafening reminder that you’re a renter, not an owner. Because if you owned the place, you would be doing some serious color slinging to offset that clean (almost institutional) look of your newly leased property. You needn’t fly over the cuckoo’s nest, not with these five solutions for livening up your rental.

Framed Colorblocks

Here’s a great idea from the renovation blog Young House Love. Look at how stark those white walls were when they moved into their most recent renovation project. Using framed colorblock posters, the room was completely transformed.

Another option is painting large pieces of wood or canvases the Pantone shade of your dreams, as per this clipping from Elle Décor.

Tagging

Street artists often tag buildings with a special type of goo called “wheat paste.” Do not put that on your own walls. Portal stickers, screen prints and posters from the art collective called Wheatpaste (in homage only): yes.

Rocking Vinyl Art

A London-based company of the same name sells album frames for displaying record covers as art.

Exposed Circuitry

Globs of plugs and wires bunched up around power outlets is another giveaway that you’re leasing, not owning, because if you did you would put the necessary resources into de-uglifying that mess. Compliment exposed circuitry with these abstract information giclée prints from Brooklyn-based graphic designer Eric Frommelt.  

Traditional Prints

Dwight Hwang of Fishing for Gyotaku creates original and reproduced prints from rice paper rubbings of fish, most of which he caught himself. His technique is based on the traditional art of Japanese fish printing, the fisherman’s way of memorializing his (or her) best catch without taxidermy. His prints can be had for a decent price, and add a touch of intentional Japanese minimalism.

Images: Al&Koko; Michael Cuffe

The post Renting? You Can Still Get Creative With Color appeared first on EcoSalon.

Flagrantly admitting to our not-so-secret blog crushes.

Sometimes it can be hard getting up in the morning, especially if your job is to wake up (literally and consciously) and produce clickable, provocative, enlightening, relevant, visually evocative content about sustainable design, travel, culture and ideas. We love it, no doubt, especially when our brain machines finally kick in with a mighty roar. But like some rely on coffee to get their motors running, we rely on inspiration. Lots of it. Mug after mug, after mug.

Funny how the topic of coffee can segue into just about anything. From A Cup of Jo with Design Milk to a Bloesem of Freshome air, here are twenty websites we mainline for design news, ideas, eye candy, expertise and – straight from the tap – inspiration.

Blog Stars: 

A Cup of Jo

If you’re not a reader already, you should be. Joanna Goddard’s lifestyle blog covers fashion, babies, motherhood, weddings and design in a way that’s both beautiful to behold and approachable to enjoy.

Oh Joy!

Designer and blogger Joy Cho delivers inspiration on her favorite topics: design, fashion, and food.
Decor8

Founder and Editor Holly Becker is a best-selling author and interior design consultant who ditched her 9-to-5 to live a life more beautiful.
Design*Sponge

Brooklyn-based Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge started her blog in 2004, and has since grown it into an empire of sorts.  She’s got a book, a scholarship and mentors other women on achieving it all.

Goop

We love Gwyneth Paltrow’s newsletter loud and proud. Dish it out on the go or at home. Sometimes luxe, and occasionally refreshingly down to earth. All around, we’ll bill it aspirational.

Essential Reading: 

Fast Company Design

Essential, daily reading for cutting edge design news and way “outside of the box” concepts and ideas.

Houzz

A real nuts and bolts site for home design professionals, renovators, and enthusiasts.

Design Milk

Trust us, Jaime Derringer knows how obsessed we are with her art and design blog.

It’s Nice That

“It’s Nice That has one main mission in life,” they say: “to champion great creativity.” Sweet.

Colossal

He knows how massive our crush is.

Nuts & Bolts: 

Remodelista

Your sourcebook, your city guide, your everything for “considered living.”

Freshome

Their philosophy is “a calm, healthy, beautiful home is a necessary foundation for happiness and success in the world.” We couldn’t agree more.

Core 77

A go-to resource for industrial design related intelligence.

IKEAHackers

Personalizing and repurpose IKEA products into that one perfect thing? We’re always up for a good hack.

Eye Candy:

BloesemLiving

Ideas for design and leisure, “for the love of handmade” and “soul-soothing interiors,” BloesumLiving keeps it all streamlined and simple.

Bright.Bazaar

Self-described “young guy from the UK in my twenties who kinda has a thing for colour.” We kinda have a thing for you.

Sweet Fine Day

Jenna & Mark helm a blog that is pretty and personal, and own a Brooklyn confectionary called Whimsey & Spice.

The Selby

Photographer Todd Selby captures the character of our personal spaces, post after post.

Pinterest

More and more, a daily resource (make that hourly) for all things beautiful and inspiring. When not surfing, find us pinspotting.

Image: Black_Kat

The post 20 Shelter and Design Websites That Inspire Us appeared first on EcoSalon.

The top stories of the week at EcoSalon.

All that cash spent on campaigning against clean energy – and it’s a lot. Here are 8 things we could buy with all that money.

We can’t stop pinning other people’s design discoveries (and more) to our boards on Pinterest, the latest craze in social media – and since we want to share the pin-love, check out our 25 favorite Pinterest boards.

If you’re hunting for your next big buy in self-help literature, The Insider’s Guide has a few suggestions: they’re not real, mind you, but…give it time.

Incapable of grabbing more than a few winks of shut-eye at the moment? Try out these 20 foods that help you sleep better.

Finally, if you’re searching for the mojo to get that body you always dreamed of, any of these 30 inspirational quotes about health and fitness will light a fire within!

The post The Friday 5: Acquiring Edition appeared first on EcoSalon.

Come on, pin a little.

There’s nothing quite like a good inspiration board pinned with memorable quotes, tears from magazines, friends’ recipes, and pictures, but we live in the digital age, where we’re constantly finding inspiration that we can’t physically put anywhere (well, not without printing paper). Which is why we’re Pinterest fans. The online pinboard allows us to find and share daily inspiration, across a variety of categories. You can see what we’re currently looking to for creative inspiration by following us.

Where do we go to find new designs, recipes or just a good daily quote? We’ve rounded up some of our favorite Pinterest users and boards that the EcoSalon team follows for daily inspiration.

Fashion & Style

Crosby Noricks: Colorful, edgy and modern.

Fashion by Lisa in Love: A good eye out of Portland, Oregon.

Style Stalking by Melanie Bender: A collection of inspiring street style.

Dressed by Jessica Steeber: We would wear every single thing on here.

Jewelry by Erin Duffey: From simple to intricate.

Fashion by Elouise McGill: Classic and feminine styles.

Sasha Duerr: Textiles and colors that we can’t get enough of.

HonestlyWTF: Colorful and edgy designs, as well as some top notch DIY.

Tiger: Tiger is a blogger at Elle Decor Sweden, and she certainly has an eye for style.

sfgirlbybay: Bohemian modern style from San Francisco.

Shelter

Interiors by Arch Daily: A diverse selection of clean and modern spaces.

Habitats by nd+: All kinds of interiors and living spaces.

Smarchitecture by Myan Duong: Examples of smart design from around the world.

Frida Ramstedt: Frida runs the top Scandinavian decor blog Trendenser and has a great collection of everything Nordic.

Design Milk: A look into the inspiration behind one of our favorite design blogs.

Food

Big Girls Small Kitchen: BGSK is one of our favorite blogs, and it’s no surprise that their Pinterest page is just as inspiring for cooking a good meal.

Heidi Swanson: Author of 101cookbooks, Heidi keeps an excellent collection of everything that fuels her recipes.

Synapse: For any lover of food porn.

Food52: Simple, straightforward but beautiful food from a community of food lovers.

Gilt Taste: From the brains behind the online resource for gourmet and artisan goods.

Gastronomista: Films, infographics and art that all incorporate a culinary element.

A little of everything

Traveling Green: A wonderful collection of outdoor landscapes, nature photography and global pursuits.

Holstee: The conscious lifestyle goods brand has a great collection of quotes, gorgeous bicycles and images to fuel your wanderlust.

Caitlin Bristol: Green inspiration, from fashionable reusable bags to outdoor eating.

PortlandiaTV: What can we say? They’re good at “putting a bird on it.”

The post Daily Inspiration: 25 Pinterests We Love appeared first on EcoSalon.

Sustainable style news from EcoSalon’s West Coast fashion correspondent.

Style, savvy? — Don’t miss Treasure Island Flea on Saturday, June 25, from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m on — where else—Treasure island, San Francisco. In addition to the spectacular views from the Golden Gate to the Bay Bridge, you can pick your own stylish plunder from hundreds of local Bay Area resellers. Alongside antiques and collectibles, there will be independent designer merchandise, vintage clothes and accessories, art, specialty eats, local California wines and entertainment.  As you are already half way there, why not drop by Berkeley’s Rue Atelier for a Red Hot Trunk Show from 1-5 p.m., featuring the locally made designs of jeweler Alison Rutherfurd and milliner, Jasmin Zorlu?

PinBoard Wizards – Okay, Angelenos… As you will agree, looking good is serious business. The organized style seeker knows that keeping on top of inspiration, finding the season’s must-haves and planning a killer vacation wardrobe requires the help of Pinterest, a great new site that allows you to track all the beautiful stuff you see on the web. Come meet the talented folk at Pinterest for a drink at their first LA meetup at Urbanic Paper Boutique on Abbot Kinney this Thursday, June 23^rdfrom 6-9 p m.

Sample Sale — Check out Portland’s up-and-coming designers at Make + Show + Tell this Friday, June 24. The gallery event will be hosted at NW Portland’s Warehouse Loading Dock area from 5-10 p.m. Daring to venture beyond the limits of your GPS has its payoffs, with first access to local designers and their latest work including furniture, jewelry and accessories at sample sale prices. Designers including Moonwoods, Merkled Studio, Fix Studio, Logan laboratories and Askew Designs.

The post Eco Style West Vol. 14 appeared first on EcoSalon.