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A few weeks ago, we noticed that a lot of our collective pins on Pinterest were coming from a Tumblr blog called Remain Simple. As far as sites go, it's very simple (how fitting) - plain white background, two columns on the main page, largely photo driven with user comments / responses under a few postings. The content, however, is what's remarkable on this particular blog - every post aligns with our aesthetic almost perfectly. She posts art, architecture, fashion, jewelry, interiors; you name it. Clearly we love it, so we started following her somewhat regularly. That's when we discovered the one-two-punch behind this particular blog - Kathryn, the mastermind behind Remain Simple, is a 16 year old girl (she's a junior in high school). Um... what?! We're just that much more impressed. Here's a small sampling of what Kathryn has posted in the last week. Click the link below to check out what else inspires Kathryn (and us): remainsimple.tumblr.com.

All images via Remain Simple

It rained this past weekend in LA (finally!) but it snowed up in the mountains and admittedly, we're jealous. Curled up on the couch with a steaming hot mug of cocoa, we found ourselves searching for cabins in the snow on Pinterest, desperately wishing we were there.

Images via:

1. Miss-Design  2. hauteproject via Tumblr  3. Trendir  4. Vintage Home via tumblr  5. The Life of Polarn Per  6. The Pursuit Aesthetic via Tumblr  7. Epundit

Today's post was inspired by the 2011 film Eames the Architect and the Painter. Begun as part of The Case Study Houses Program in the mid 1940's, The Eames House in the Pacific Palisades represents the very best of Californian design. To pay tribute to this iconic piece of Californian architecture, House Industries and Heath Ceramics collaborated on a line of ceramic tile house numbers inspired by the Eames House. Check out the beautiful tiles here and the movie trailer here.

To learn more about the Eames Foundation (and how to visit), click here.

Images via:

1. Mid-Centuria  2, 3, & 4. Moon to Moon  5. IMP Awards  6. CA Home+Design  7 & 8. Freshome

Photographer Anne-Laure House sees illuminated windows at night as living pictures. Her Pictures of Intimacy series includes windows in New York City, Paris, Amesterdam, Ile De Re (France), and our favorite, Prague (below). Anne writes: 

"At nightfall, the windows of the flats that are lit up attract more attention than the façade of the buildings that frame them. Lit interiors become real tableaux vivants. The interior takes precedence over the exterior, and we can glimpse moments of people’s intimate lives. I am not actually interested in their intimacy as such, but rather by the space itself – the warmth of a particular light, the twinkling of a Christmas garland or the shimmering glow of a television, the corner of a painting. All these details stir my imagination and inspire my work. When I gaze at these windows, I like to tell myself a story. I capture these intimate moments and build my own structures.” - Anne-Laure House

Image via Wall 30 and Kateoplis

What happens when you have four distinctly different events to put on within a few months of each other (that all require different interior venues for maximum effect) and a team of highly creative architects that frequently collaborate with Italian fashion label Prada? Born out of this intriguing circumstance in 2009, the Prada Transformer in Seoul is one of the most interesting architectural concepts we've ever heard of. A four-sided enclosed "cube" of sorts, the Transformer was designed to rotate, flip, and transform into four distinctly different interior spaces that meet the needs of the four events (a fashion show, art exhibition, cinema showing, and special gallery event). This idea, the brain child of designer Miuccia Prada and Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, goes beyond our normal perception of "creative". Four distinct spaces combined in one single structure, and all you need is a few cranes to flip it over and change the scenery? Genius.

Images via 1. Hip Seoul (flickr)  2. Phat City blog  3. Interior Design Magazine

Article via Interview Magazine

We love our office building in downtown Los Angeles, but after seeing pictures of the new Mlicki Offices in Columbus, Ohio, we're definitely jealous! The building houses the strategic design firm of the same name - more than enough proof they know what they're doing!









Images via freshome

We're feeling inspired by blues today! Whether it's in architecture, fashion, interior design, or jewelry - we're loving the multiple tones used in these photos that create such a blue mood.



Images via
1. VonMurr (Flickr)  2. Brettastic (Flickr)  3. Anne Miek Bibber (Flickr)  4. Concorde Hotels Resorts (Flickr)

When I was visiting Stockholm, I saw a dollhouse exhibit at the Nordic Museum that I absolutely loved. A few days ago, I was flipping through the pages of Elle, and voila! There was an awesome, modern, and totally inspiring dollhouse in the decor section - The Emerson House by Brinca Dada.

Traditionally, dollhouses functioned as cabinet display cases and were used primarily by the women in the home - children were not allowed to touch them, for fear that the delicate, expensive trophies would be broken. In the early 19th century, dollhouses evolved into toys for little girls to play with. Today, dollhouses exist as toys, but also as collector's items and design inspiration. I'm especially loving modern dollhouses, including The Emerson House and The Kaleidoscope House (below).



Images via
1. Elle Magazine  2. Bump to Bean

Stahl House: Case Study House #22 (1960)

1635 Woods Drive. West Hollywood

Architect Pierre Koenig put himself through architecture school at USC in the 50's by working nights at an aircraft company. Being aware of the potential of steel he encouraged himself to use it to built his own house after he purchased a small steep hillside lot. His background and experience building his home contributed to his design philosophy; economy was the governing factor in his design, and he took inspiration from industrial materials and the surrounding landscape.  

By the time he built the Stahl House in 1960 he had proved in many ways the applicability of steel in residential architecture. Framed, walls, roof and sometimes floors where made of prefab steel. The location of Stahl House is the most calculated and critical part of the whole design (a level building pad in the hills of West Hollywood with a sweeping view to the South) interplay with glazed walls and full spectrum views of the city from the interior. Koenig also articulates volumes with surrounded pools making water an integral structure and landscape element.

I recommend not only to visit the site, but to also see the documentary "Visual Acoustics" a film about Julius Schulman life, the photographer who was responsible of most of architectural images in LA. He defined the way we look at modernism architecture by framing the most iconic homes of Los Angeles thus showing his particular and precise view of the times.  

With many appearances in popular media, most notably the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner, the Bradbury Building in downtown LA is a preserved relic of commercial architecture from the late 1800's.

The mundane facade, visible from the bustling corner of Broadway and 3rd streets, doesn’t represent the relevance of its interior.

Architect George Wyman designed the building for Lewis Bradbury, a mining millionaire in 1893.Wyman was especially influenced in constructing the building by the 1887 science fiction book Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy, which described a utopian society in 2000. In my opinion, the building is a monument to architecture. A perfect combination of experimentation with form, space, light and materials proving to be a very modern concept for those times. By exposing the construction materials, techniques and central operations, Wyman invites the viewer into the belly of the building, and experience that allows us to relate on a different level. I believe that this building had been responsible for remarkable innovation in terms of commercial architecture in Los Angeles.