After a long hard winter, it’s finally outdoor season! More daylight hours mean enjoying evening gatherings outside with friends and family. Entertaining is easy and relaxed. If you have your own porch, deck, balcony, yard or patio, these are the ideal months to enjoy being outside at home.

Maybe your outdoor living area could use some enhancements, and the money you didn’t spend on vacationing last year is going to an improvement project this year. That can have great returns for your well-being and your wallet; outdoor improvements have the potential to increase the value of your property and definitely your enjoyment of it in the meantime.

Nature Connection

“Spending time in nature has many benefits,” shared Folsom, California-based psychologist Forrest Talley, Ph.D. in Wellness by Design… Read the rest

We’ve seen digital artists and programmers develop methods allowing anyone to convert images into sound before. Scanlines is a new algorithmic system developed by Turf Design that takes the concept to another level, one that adds a tactile element, translating any image into sound-absorbing PET felt panels rendered as dimensional wall art.

The secret sauce is TURF’s proprietary algorithm, a system programmed to measure the intensity of color shades within an image and convert it into a quantified degree of depth that is then in turn used to cut TURF’s acoustic PET felt to different depths. As its name implies, the resulting panel art exhibits an aesthetic reminiscent of the scan lines of a cathode ray tube (CRT) television programming – a two dimensional panel rendered with line-by-line dimensionality.

… Read the rest

At the furthest southern tip of China in the South China Sea, just across from Vietnam lies Hainan, an island province where the warm, humid climate surrounded by a forested, mountainous interior envelopes all who come to get away to this tropical destination. The Sanya EDITION on Hainan Island is one of the region’s premiere resorts lining the coastline, a sedately grand resort spanning a lush 50 acres.

With architecture and a scale somewhat reminiscent of the modern monolithic oceanside resorts lining the Pacific coast in Los Cabos in Mexico, this South China Sea Ian Schrager helmed resort embraces a contemporary organic design, with neutral hued textiles and wood-clad surfaces throughout. The resort’s teak lattice combing with an immersive tropical landscaping contains the Sanya’s horseshoe-shaped grandiosity from becoming imposing, instead operating as a structural framework to the oceanside landscape hosting 900 different tree species across the terraced hillside site.… Read the rest

This week’s DMTV Milkshake guest is workplace interiors expert Manuel Navarro, design director and a principal of the Austin office of IA Interior Architects.

For this week’s Milkshake, we asked Manny to pull out his crystal ball – specifically, a sizable wedge of selenite – and look to the near-term future: Will the office of 2022 look like the office of 2019 – or something else entirely? “The open office workplace is really going to have to become much more flexible and agile than it ever was before,” Navarro says. “Typically we weren’t designing open-office workspaces that could accommodate a ton of virtual collaboration and online calls. At least in the short term, [that will mean] creating spaces that are good with acoustics. Great lighting for when you’re on camera, so you don’t look like crap. And the equity within the experience of [some] people being in … Read the rest

Happy birthday to us! Our 15th anniversary celebration is underway! Stay tuned for more special 15th anniversary content and fun surprises as our celebration continues!

Are you as surprised as we are that in July Design Milk turns *15*!?!? Fifteen! It’s hard to believe that we’ve reached a decade and a half and there’s no better way to appreciate it than to look back and revisit the journey. To kick things off, we’re taking a look back at where it all started and that’s our editorial content, so we crunched the numbers and now present to you the top 15 posts, the most read, most beloved articles we’ve posted over the last 15 years. Read through to find out which post is #1!

15. Chain Link Fencing As Art: Unwoven Light Installation
American artist Soo Sunny Park took over Rice Gallery, part of Rice University in Houston, Texas, in … Read the rest

Every other week we’re inviting one of the Design Milk team to share five personal favorites – an opportunity for each of us to reveal the sort of designs we use and appreciate in our own lives from a more personal perspective. Senior Editor Kelly Beall returns this week for our Take 5 series…

1. In2Green Eco Huey Throw by Susy Pilgrim Waters
Know those people who can’t fall asleep without a blanket covering them? I belong to that club. In2Green’s throws are incredible in both pattern and design. This one is part of their Saturday Green collection that’s designed by females and manufactured in the U.S.A. Made of 75% recycled cotton and 25% polyester, that’s also mostly recycled, this throw is the ideal weight for summer snoozes.

2. Dona Masala Chai Loose Leaf
As a longtime coffee lover who can no longer stomach the stuff, my tea consumption has … Read the rest

Based in San Francisco, industrial designer Shujan Bertrand uses the art of origami to create products through zero waste design and manufacturing. Through her culinary design company, Aplat, she hopes to grow awareness for responsible design, as well as create new partnerships with sustainable companies and organizations who care about people and the planet. Aplat’s products are centered around sharing food, wine and flowers. They’re meant for people and the planet, and they aim to alter the way we live at home and change the way the industry manufactures. Shujan is an advocate for sustainable local manufacturing, supports local organic farms and food producers and donates 1% of Aplat’s profits to environmental and non-profit organizations.

Today Shujan is joining us for Friday Five!

1. Husband + Kids
My husband and kids are my inspiration for everyday design and living. I’m always problem solving, hacking and prototyping life around … Read the rest

DUO-HUE by Amelia Ayerst is a unique digital embroidery stitch developed by Ayerst while at the Royal College of Art. The multilayered stitch allows complementary colors and differing stitch densities to be combined, creating an eye-catching, color-morphing effect in textiles as the product moves.

I have always been fascinated with color. Whilst studying at RCA, I focused on the nature of color and how to create color illusions through my work. I am interested in how color communicates with people—how it can transport and transform our thoughts and feelings.

– Amelia Ayerst

Ayerst, a designer, maker and entrepreneur, finds her sweet spot at the intersection of craft and technology. With a commitment to sustainable design, she looks to technology as a way of further serving her creative process. Through DUO-HUE, the focus is on making bespoke, long-lasting, collectible home and lifestyle products.

DUO-HUE’s collection includes cushions in a number of … Read the rest

With an aerodynamic carapace, the Bowlus first captivated the public in 1934 as a futuristic example of form in harmony with function, promising early automobile travelers a way to experience America’s highways from the comforts of their own accommodations – the first aluminum riveted travel trailer that in time would inspire other streamline trailers like the iconic Airstream (more about its history here). The Bowlus has returned, just in time when many of us are itching to return out into the world to enjoy the great outdoors, this time outfitted with all the contemporary technologies and accoutrements a modern day traveler would hope for.

The newly appointed Bowlus is sedately luxurious from an aesthetic perspective, keeping attuned with an interior that says “modern cabin” more than “fancy hotel”. The features and finishes are beautifully appointed, with an earthen and warm color palette complementing the wood panel interior, but the … Read the rest

If nothing else, the past year plus has given us all a newfound appreciation of the outdoors. Inside~Out in the Garden is a newly opened outdoor design show that’s part of NYCxDesign’s Design Days curated by Kin & Company.  The show explores the role of outdoor design in human interaction in the post-pandemic world through the works of 22 American designers. Their fresh ideas offer up some much needed optimism for rebuilding human connection.

… Read the rest