Welcome to a new series in which we round up the best Instagram photos of the week based on a theme.

We love photo sharing, and now we are sharing our favorites with you. Each week we will pick a theme, and bring you a round up of our favorite Instragram photos under that theme uploaded from users around the world.

This week we are exploring street art. Street art can be sprawled onto a building’s side or squeezed into the unlikeliest of places.  We especially love thoughtful street art that is a little quirky or comes with an inspiring message, but always brings something brighter into our day.

kcole716

lafemme_boheme

mrjohnson612

stephaniepresavoine

ryannworld

dymagate

sergiobang

sgsatd

bonbonlight

trinibad84

heathermariejewell

streetartnyc

paul3057

skevalley

jack_mochan

just1titus

featured image: bigpicturestuff

Have an idea or theme for next week’s Instragram roundup? Tweet to @spadesandsilk

See Also:

Graffiti Art Turns the Museum Inside Out

The Gentrification of Graffiti

The post Best Instagram Photos of the Week: Thoughtful Street Art appeared first on EcoSalon.

A look back at what made Shelter feel like home this year.

Shelter is a section where we deal with varied topics like interior and exterior design, architecture, art and truly pretty things. But there’s also a philosophy behind it. In our eyes, shelter is a refuge and a place to store more than your stuff – it’s your home.

It needn’t always be perfect like a box store catalog. Home is a messy, motley forum in which we debate, luxuriate, walk around naked and burp out loud. It’s a sanctuary for our memories and a think tank for our ideas. It’s a special place, and here are ten stories that set Shelter at EcoSalon apart from the rest in 2011.

Cleaning and Detoxing, The Green Way

One of our first orders of housekeeping business this year was identifying contaminants and other toxins in our houses that are making us sick. Then we got our hands dirty with greener ways to clean it.

(Un)Decorating

The release of Christiane Lemieux’s book Undecorate: The No-Rules Approach to Interior Design inspired us to reconsider the art of not decorating, which we did in a three part series. We went with our instincts here, here and here again, which you then tweeted, “liked” and Stumbled a thousand times over.

Slow Furniture, Artisanship and DIY

Per the Chinese calendar, this was the year of the burrowing rabbit. For us, it was also the year of the new artisan, the down-to-earth do-it-yourselfer and slow furniture maker.

Home-studding

We knew you wouldn’t be able to resist these guy gardeners, a.k.a. manscapers. They showed us the fun side of homesteading, unlike a certain lot who shall remain nameless.

Nostalgia for Nostalgia’s Sake

We pondered beautiful staircases, admired the A-frame, and studied the tragic beauty of Detroit’s abandonment problem. Above all, however, we longed for a simpler time: when yesteryear’s Brangelina were a pair of sweethearts named Eames who starred in America’s first truly contemporary design movement.

Terrariums!

This year you couldn’t toss a stone (or read a design blog) without crashing into the glass walls of a terrarium. We spoke with our favorite terrarium makers, Twig in Brooklyn. We later lusted for more.

Art That Made Us Blink

Curator, blogger and EcoSalon columnist Dominique Pacheco premiered her weekly feature, heARTbeat this year and wowed us with her stunning and at times provocative finds, exploring the intersection of eco and art. From confronting images of smoking children to Miru Kim’s nudes, heARTbeat was as much about the gritty as it was the pretty.

We Reused, and Reused Again

We gave you twelve reasons to never throw another cup away again, and if you were still short of ideas a dozen more ways to repurpose a glass bottle. Any questions?

We Changed Your Urban Outlook

We lent some perspective on cities way more expensive than your own (Oslo, anyone?) and some astrological data to consider for your next move.

We Globe Trotted

Our series Places & Spaces took us all over the globe, most memorably beaming us up into a tree house in Sweden.

In all, 2011 was an inspiring year to be home curled up next to EcoSalon on a screen of your choosing.

We’ll strive to do the same in 2012.

SEE ALSO:

2011 in Review: The Most Offensive Ad Campaigns Of 2011

2011 in Review: How Small Spaces Trumped McMansions

Images: Nurse Kate

The post The 10 Stories That Defined Shelter in 2011 appeared first on EcoSalon.