Alt Design – Interior Hair

This is the first post in our weekly Alt Design series, where we find alternative interior design uses for common designer products and random objects.

Decorating walls should be fun and relaxing, but sometimes the pressure of putting together the perfect room can be overwhelming. Bedazzling bare walls should never feel like a chore, so don’t pull your hair out wondering which paint shade goes better with your Christian Bale poster collection. C’mon now, he goes with everything.

Regardless of Christian Bale’s ability to look good with everything (when he’s not assaulting family members), you can use that extra hair you pull out during panic attacks to solve your wall decoration woes.

First, gather some of your detached hair and bundle it like a phantom pony tail. (NOTE: Make sure to choose a visually pleasing elastic or twine!) Get a shadow box picture frame from your local arts and crafts store and hammer a nail in the top-center of the backboard. Now drape the hair over the nail in any style you prefer.

Voila! This looks great alone, but if it doesn’t quite match the aesthetic of your room try surrounding it with a few related objects that bring it all together.

Does framing a lock of your own hair seem a little too weird? Give it to your significant other! Giving a lock of hair remains a timeless symbol of romance and devotion. He or she will admire your creativity.

Still single? Take it out of the frame and hang it above your bed like a dream catcher. No one messes with dreaming dozers who sleep with their own hair hanging over their heads. Trust me.

Does the thought of human hair as an interior design medium gross you out? Share your disgust at the RealTalkDesign.com forum

Design on Film – The Dark Knight Legacy

This is the first installment of our new weekly series Design on Film, where we look at interior design as portrayed in some of our favorite cinematic adventures

A lot has changed in the past decade, but one thing’s still certain: people love Batman. The 1995 production Batman Forever was hot…when it came out.

A recent look at Bruce Wayne’s (Val Kilmer) Oliver’s People glasses and power ties sent me running back to Christian Bale and The Dark Knight. But not everything is dated; set director Elise ‘Cricket’ Rowland kept Bruce’s office spacious and sleek. Neutral color palettes are the smartest choice for an office, but all the gold shades were a little too glitzy for me. I think the light shades of Bruce’s office and corporate life were meant to contrast with the dark, cavernous bat world. This contrast in interior designs is subtle but important in setting the mood. It’s a little more obvious in the disparity between the ritzy, uptown sections of Gotham and the rundown back alleys: Wayne Enterprises’ ball versus Robin’s joyride and street brawl mishap. All the neon lighting used in the city, especially the glow stick creations that the city-people wore, reinforced the contrast between the uptown corporate and downtown worlds.

In Dark Night they made Gotham look more like normal Chicago, but the design inside Wayne’s inner sanctum had this wonderful minimalist-industrial look that I can’t resist (well done Peter Lando). Batman’s underground equipment room, where all the gadgets came to life, was simply an empty, fluorescent swathed garage. Usually, movie “equipment rooms” are plastered with clutter and animated thingamabobs (think Back to the Future or James Bond films) so the use of empty space in Dark Night was surprisingly effective.

Wayne interiors have this wonderful dark and sophisticated edge. To bad the outside view of Gotham looked so boring.

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