WARY MEYERS, guest post on YHBHS

"I'm fairly sure if Sottsass hadn't designed it, still to this day, no one would have."

I've asked some interior designers, writers, & artists to guest post on YHBHS this week. I simply could not be more excited that Wary Meyers are writing today's post!!!

Their perspective on interiors is like no other. Their gorgeous coffee table book "Tossed & Found" explains what to do with all your pool noodles and pastry bags, who knew?

And their blog has given me so much joy, that it's just ridiculous to talk further about. (take a look at their current installation if you don't believe me...) Thanks Wary Meyers, and Happy Valentine's day to all!

Sottsass's boxes from Italy: The New Domestic Landscape. MoMA's fantastic 1972 book of the exhibition which unleashed the juggernaut of the Italian radicals.

WARY MEYER's guest post.......

"Probably the first Ettore Sottsass' work I ever saw was something Memphis, which is all so mind-blowingly crazy that it's almost too difficult to process, at first. Of course after looking at it for a bit (or longer) eventually you wonder, "what mad genius thought of this??"

What I like about Sottsass is exactly that madcappery- designing with carefree optimism. A few years before the introduction of Memphis, he designed the SUPERBOX which is a wardrobe, and my favorite Sottsass. Hard-edged, candy-striped, and on a pedestal , it seems like a simple enough modern reworking of a free-standing wardrobe, but it's monolithic and fun, like a Donald Judd at the circus. Straightforward enough, but I'm fairly sure if Sottsass hadn't designed it, still to this day no one would have.

I've always been a fan of boxes as a design element, which probably stems from a youth of blocks, Lego, and D&D graph paper. The Superbox, in all its wardrobe forms, is the ultimate box - a beautiful graphic element made three-dimensional and useful.

Sottsass on top of his Superbox,
from a 1974 Oui magazine article on the new domestic landscape.

Possibly (probably) related: Milton Glaser's giant type "stations" at The Big Kitchen, in the World Trade Center concourse, 1977.

A mixture of Sottsass and Glaser for a more customized wardrobe idea, but actually sketched for a typography project we're working on right now.


photo and drawing via Wary Meyers

A random photo of a garage in Europe, the striped tool chest looking very Sottsassed, which I'm sure is unintentional and probably based more on kilometer blocks or European traffic graphics (if anything); but a testament to Sottsass's design that I look at this and think how awesome the tool chest is. But to put this all in an Italian design perspective I think the same way with Superstudio furniture and anything with grids.











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WARY MEYERS are artists & designers who reside in Portland Maine. When they’re not re-imagining the interiors of brownstones and shops — or channeling the spirit of Lubalin and Dorfsman within the lobbies of ad agencies — they’re writing books, designing products, painting, drawing, sewing and tactfully trawling estate sales, flea markets and thrift shops for the ultimate finds.








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Y H B H S (card catalog) selection 28

Genevieve Dellinger, designer, Portland
"Pure weird castoffs get the same respect as iconic objects, and everything works together in a totally individual way, and has helped me to see beauty in the weirdest stuff. "












Wary Meyers Tossed and Found
by Linda & John Meyers




Genevieve Dellinger writes: I'll admit it, I am a total geek for these guys and their vision. As a longtime picker and resaler, retail and interiors junkie, and craftsperson I have looked to this book with so much admiration. The projects range from crazy simple to extra involved, but the main message is that there are no rules and that life is a total playground.

Pure weird castoffs get the same respect as iconic objects, and everything works together in a totally individual way, and has helped me to see beauty in the weirdest stuff. My husband is a fan too, but I'm not sure that he is a fan of the fact that I now bring home more random junk than ever and our basement is getting a little scary.

If ever I am just lounging around with nothing to do, I often grab this book just to page through and get excited about future projects and come up with fresh ideas. Their blog is also an almost daily stop, if only just to see the jealousy invoking stuff they score through their hunting, and to give me fresh motivation on my hunts."
















Shell Magazine Issue 2/3, 1977.


"My other book, Shell Magazine Issue 2/3, is something I recently dug out of my boxes (while finally building myself some new bookshelves 2 years after moving into my house). This was a really good find from when I lived in Upstate New York and combed through stacks of garbage and free piles and people's weird homes and yard sales and anything else to find the gems that all the intellectual New York City fallout that has trickled up into that area has had stashed away for 35 years, to resell at our storefront on Warren St in Hudson.

I saw a lot of amazing stuff during that time, most of which made it's way onto pastures greener than my own, but this one I couldn't let go...it's just too cool. I've never really been able to dig up any information on the publication (maybe because googling "Shell Magazine" tends to bring up an avalanche of gun sites?) so I just kind of let it maintain it's mysterious aura. I like to leaf through it when I need to feel really cool for a minute and fantasize about the New York City literary scene at the end of the 70's. (Additionally if anyone knows anything about this publication, I really would love to know more!)

Includes, among others, poems by Charles Plymell, Andrei Codrescu and Ira Cohen.
Short story and poems by William S. Burroughs!

Cover photo by Lucas Samaras.









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Genevieve Dellinger, in her own words! "I’m Genevieve, a DJ and designer working in Portland Oregon with my husband and one dear dog. In the day I work as a creative administrator at Wieden + Kennedy. Me and Matt (hub) and Ola (pooch) live in a tiny bungalow which we like to fill with music and friends, as well as a pile of nice stuff."

In YHBHS words: "To say that I am amazed by Genevieve Dellinger's precise talents & overall explorations is a huge understatement. Her blog Tell You Today is a daily read, her musical project LINGER & QUIET is on constant rotation at the office and home. We've built a friendship based on art, music, and email correspondence:) (truly a 21st century pen pal, I'd say!) I'm psyched and truly honored our paths crossed!"

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wary meyers!
new work.

"Off the wall and onto the sofa! Our latest project is a collection of hand-painted (by me) and sewn (by Linda) down-and-feather-filled painting pillows. The first collection is all Abstract Expressionist, inspired by the works of Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. Approximately 18" square, the acrylic paint is thick in parts (like the actual paintings) and nicely pliable. $145 each."

i'm always digging what these guys do.
check their book out here. one of my favorites.


go here!







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