Lighting is a strip tease

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These are the Olympic gymnasts of lights. They’re tiny, flexible and shine bright.

The new Invisiled lights from WAC Lighting look a bit like narrow pieces of fancy tape embedded with lots of little LED lights. Make that really, really narrow pieces of tape. The light strips are less than 1/8th inch tall which means these words stand taller. And they’re less than 7/16th inch thick. (There are papers out there envious of that slim physique.)  They’re easily tucked under cabinets to brighten counter tops, the better to see those carrots your chopping. Or slipped behind crown molding for drama worthy of a Hollywood movie set.

Interior designer Lori Dennis

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Lori Dennis is one of the top interior designers specializing in green and sustainable design for residential and commercial buildings. A year after graduating from UCLA’s design program in 1998 she established her own company in Los Angeles working on residential and commercial interiors nationwide. Her work has been featured in several publications including Dwell, House Beautiful, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. She also serves on the National Sustainable Council and is the author of Green Interior Design.

Meeting Oregon’s Livability Challenge

by Emma

The Pacific Northwest will add millions of people over the next 25-30 years, impacting the environment, urban infrastructure and social services. How should we as a community accomodate this growth, and what role do planners and designers have in this?

Portland’s Better Living Home and Garden Show

by Emma

better-livingPortland’s Better Living Home and Garden show is returning March 25-27. Head over to the Northwest’s largest sustainable living show at the Expo Center for some free spring break fun.

Up: This is not a toon

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balloon_house-thumbTie a bunch of helium balloons to a house until it lifts up and floats away. The idea was whimsical in the Pixar animated movie Up. But is it possible in real life?

A National Geographic team decided to find out. They hooked hundreds of colorful weather balloons to a brick house weighing a ton. They even included a grumpy old man. (Actually, he appears to be a perfectly nice youngish man.) The result?  Up, up and away.

Oregon Home magazine’s remodel

by Robin

2011AprMay_EditorsPage_RobinIt’s true in the best of homes: One day you wake up and realize it’s time to spruce things up. Maybe fix the steps or replace some dated furniture. Definitely ditch the wallpaper. That’s what we’ve done here at Oregon Home: taken stock of what’s working and what’s not and made some changes.

Amazing space

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A human hand appears to sink into a solid brick wall.  Giant people seem to scramble up a tall building faster than you can say Spiderman.  Another building looks as if it is transforming, ala a click-and-turn toy, into an entirely different structure. “Projected light media” doesn’t quite capture the wow-factor of this relatively new … Read more

Time for a makeover?

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Psst, have you considered a makeover?

Never mind your wardrobe, although Spice Girls concert T-shirts make fine window rags, we’re talking home here.  Some brainiacs at Harvard University report that annual remodeling expenditures will likely increase at an inflation-adjusted 3.5 percent in coming years. That may not sound like ground-breaking news until you consider that since its peak in 2007 the remodeling industry was on a double digit decline.