Urban Palimpsest: Design Day Trip

Muji's New York in a bag.

I had to head up to New York on Friday for a quick trip and once the work was complete, I made some stops into my favorite design stores. First up was Muji in Soho. I've been wanting a few basics from their office supply collection. Everything they produce is simple, well made, and well priced. I love the craft CD holders:

I also found a glass measuring cup shaped like a beaker for $4. I wish I'd bought more to use for containers in the bathroom. Muji has everything from furniture, to essential oils, to clothing. And I just learned they are launching an online U.S. store, which is great news.

Essential Oils

Olive wood mortar and pestle.

Tea pot for one.

Organic cotton jacket.

Simple sofa.

After Muji, we stopped into Pearl River, with its miles and miles of Asian ceramics, housewares, foods, clothing, paper. My husband, Matt, fell in love with this battery-free flashlight shaped like a pig (we just had an experience at our home that involved a mouse, a dark corner, and a flashlight that ran out of batteries, so Matt was primed to love a light source that runs on human power.)

The pig flashlight.

Click a button on the side to release a pump that generates electricity.

Battery-free lighting.

Then on to the Taschen book store for racks of architecture and art books.

Looking down into their light-filled office area.

From here we hit the new Design Within Reach accessories store, where they have a lot of things that remind me of Muji for three times the price. But I sure love this scale.

After DWR, we popped over to the Storefront for Art and Architecture to see their new exhibit, 49 Cities (you can read more on that in a different post). We did not have time to swing by the Whitney to see the new Jenny Holzer exhibit, unfortunately.