Author Archives: admin

IDS 13 Toronto

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We had plenty of success in Toronto at the Interior Design Show Toronto.  Breakfast Television covered our booth on the live morning spot.  We made connections with industry partners in Canada.  Started a conversation about involvement in an experimental classroom in the Ontario school district.  Plus, we will be featured in

 

an article from the Globe and Mail, Canada’s equivalent to the NY Times.

Next we plan on the following:

  • Starting preparations for Design Week in New York City.
  • Placing pieces in stores in the Northeast and along the Mid-Atlantic.
  • Adding two big pieces to the line up
  • Improving upon our already high level of quality
  • Creating a more dynamic web site.
  • Launching the official online market of Playscapes Home with partner Paige Johnson.

Toronto was a great city and I am saying that after enduring 0 degree temperatures and snow, as well as border crossings.  I can’t wait to visit again in the spring or summer.

Thanks again to Tim and Vicki for good sleep and great food, Walt, Jinhee, and Lynden for hosting us in Buffalo, and Dylan Kane for being such a great help.  

Fixing A stair

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The owner had someone fix this stair with a piece of plywood and regular coated sinkers.  No round over edge and the edge is flush with the riser.  There also was no support underneath this stair tread.

The solution was to get two pieces of standard pine stair tread, edge glue them and use pocket hole screws for extra support.  Then put some supporting 2×4 in the stair cavity.  Cut the tread to size, remembering to give it a lip over the riser.  Add shims as needed.  Finally hammer in with finish nails and sink them with a nail set.  Voila!  Now the owner can clean and paint the whole stairwell.

Klimono!

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Hoping to finish a new project for the Interior Design show in Toronto.

The Klimono is an exploration of costume as a play structure.  The human becomes the armature for play enhancing the already present desire to climb and play on the adult.  Reinforced canvas/denim with grommets and rope pulls/footholds allow for children to climb the garment.  Where the traditional Kimono has a rectangular drapery on the sleeve, we have cut it into reinforced strips forming a loop for swinging or climbing.  While it is hoped that humans are used as the main supporting structure, the Klimono can be hung from a trapeze bar.  It also serves as an adult costume addition to dramatic play.  When not in use, the striking design acts as a wall covering and objet d’art.

I feel the symbol of Kimono represents to me the foreign and exotic. Costume transports us into a realm of play where we feel free to change our role and break the rules we have set for our self.

Foundations of Transformational Furniture pt. 1

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Growing up my mom was always rearranging the living room.  We had a green sectional coutch and I would often come back to a different arrangement of Furntiure, thus at an early age the notion that furniture was meant to transform was instilled.

My parents also had a healthy attitude towards jumping on the couch.  BLAME THEM!

Many days the couch became the topography of my play.  An ever adapting environmental landmark  of imagination.  Some days standing as a hill.  Other days crouching as a defensive line in a football game.  And as for rolling ottomans, where does one stop?

Interview with Helga Björg Jónasardóttir designer of the Playbl coffeetable

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Helga Björg Jónasardóttir is a design student at University of Gothenburg in the Child Culture Design department in Sweden.  Her piece, playbl, was shown in Milan this year in a group show of fellow students.  Playbl, as pictured, is a multifunctional coffee table that fosters the co-existing needs of adults and children at the same time.  Below is an interview of the designer by Playable Studio’s Willie Hoffman

You said that you used to change your parents furniture into toys.
What are some examples of how you changed their furniture?

Some examples of memories of play with furniture: My favorite furniture to play with was the coffee table, of which we put one end on the back of a big armchair to turn it into a slide. We put some chairs in a row and it was a bus, we also put some blankets over chairs and it was a tent or a house.  I turned a rocking chair upside down and it was the lions cage. One chair was my horse when it was placed on one side. The bed was a ship I sailed on among other things.



How often do you try to recreate the perception you had as a child
when you approach design?

I think I use it more than I realize, I really like the way young children think when their perception is not too influenced by adults and they are have not been told what to think.  As an example of that is a true story of three young children exploring a colorful spill of oil on the pavement.  After some thoughts and discussion of what that was, one of them suggested that it might be a dead rainbow. Adults would probably not get that idea.

Do you see yourself expanding on the ideas of furniture as play?

 

Yes possibly, I love to play and I like to create multifunctional projects, with play functions along with other functions.

What are you working on now?

I am working on a few projects at the moment, one is outdoor “hangout” sculpture for teenagers with possibilities of activity and play. Then I am working on one project of recycle or redesign focused on child culture and one project  for an exhibition in Sweden where the theme is “evil design” not focusing on children. I am staying in Iceland this summer and taking part in creating some projects there.

Can you explain the design program that you are currently in, as we do
not have anything like it in the United States.

The design program in Gothenbourg University in Sweden is focused on play and children´s culture. Both focusing on the perspective of the child and children´s rights according to UN child convention.  Also consideration of children´s development, health, pedagogy and their participation in shaping the society and environment.
Here is a link for more information.

Meet the New Blog, Same as the Old Blog

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Due to problems with my former blog host, thoughts.com, I have switched to wordpress which now exists through Playable Studios web domain.

I will be converting my old posts over, in the meantime check out an exclusive interview with fellow designer Helga Björg Jónasardóttir and her Playbl coffee table.