It seems like Japan often leads the way when it comes to small but innovative housing. It’s no surprise of course, since this island nation has a large population and often limited land. However, Japan has long been known for its impeccable aesthetics. Combine that with an efficiency obsession and you’ll find that some of the best tiny houses in the world are from Japan.

This house (via Apartment Therapy) is especially cool–squeezed between two highrises, it still manages to have five stories and gardens on every floor. It might not be the most practical house, but it sure is a beautiful oasis in the middle of the city!

Images courtesy of Apartment Therapy.

Here are a few cool products we’ve seen featured around the blogosphere. Share some of your recent favorites in the comments below!

The Pebble Collection from Karim Rashid (via Design Milk): Karim’s at it again with a fun new Post-It dispenser for 3M.

Want a super sleek-looking toilet or just want to save some space? Geberit’s tank goes inside the wall! (via Re-nest)

If you want a modern-looking garden, then you’ll like Terra Trellis’s cool shapes! (via Dwell)

When it comes to gardening, planting and growing is only half the battle. Too often, insects, rodents and weeds spell the demise of a late summer’s harvest.

For those who prefer chemical-free gardening – no pesticides or herbicides – DIY Life recently featured tips on companion planting, a gardening strategy that thwarts common pests by pairing specific plants together. The most common garden defenders include:

• Marigolds – ward off animals, mosquitoes and aphids
• Peppermint - prevents ants, white cabbage moths and aphids
• Garlic – repels Japanese beetles, fleas and aphids
• Basil – fights flies and mosquitoes

From the same article, expert gardener Patti Moreno showcases the “three sisters” gardening method, a planting strategy credited to Native Americans that groups corn, beans and squash alongside one another take leverage each plant’s unique benefits. Corn absorbs nitrogen from the soil and beans take nitrogen from the air and add it to the soil while squash provides shade to cool the soil.

Companion planting is about putting your plants to work. The result? A delicious late-summer harvest that’s completely organic and free of chemicals, pests and unnecessary labor.

[photo]

Spring has sprung and it’s time to get cracking on beautifying the garden! Our Charles and Hudson friends have two great DIY ideas that we wanted to point your attention to.

Did you know that you can make elegantly simple window boxes on your own? All you need are some simple tools (boards, sandpaper, screws and drill to name a few), the ability to measure and a little basic building know-how. Check out the post for detailed instructions on how to go about this. Oh, and if you do build your own window box, don’t forget to let Charles and Hudson know; they want to see!

Have some PVC gutter materials that you don’t know what to do with? How about a hanging garden? It’s a green way to use extra materials and creatively use space in your garden. Veggies and fruits such as chard, strawberries and carrots are suggested as some of the ideal plantings in your “gutter garden.” Intrigued? Then check out Charles and Hudson’s tips on building a hanging gutter garden.

What are your favorite DIY garden fix-ups?

Images courtesy of Charles and Hudson.

The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Gardeners
The Daily Green
“Gardening for the first time? You can’t go wrong with these time-tested techniques.”

Making tax time a little more bearable
Design*Sponge
Maybe these tips will help you be more efficient next year: “Confession: this year I’ve become a total tax failure. It’s April 12, and I still haven’t filed. I’m only halfway through my receipts and feel like I need to psych myself up. In an attempt to rally, I rounded up just a few things that would make tax time a little more bearable.”

The Worst Paint Colors for a Home Exterior
Charles and Hudson
“We’ve all seen them. Maybe you’re out for a leisurely stroll, or a relaxing drive. You decide to check out some of the nearby neighborhoods. And then, without warning … you encounter one of THOSE houses. You know what we’re talking about–a home painted with a color so garish, so horrible, that you can’t help but admire the homeowner even as you laugh and question his or her mental reasoning skills.”

5 Examples of Bigger Being Better (In Small Spaces)
Apartment Therapy
“Bigger is better for many circumstances in life. Take umbrellas for example or how about bank accounts or a theoretical big heart? When it comes to small spaces it’s easy to scale back on size, but we’re here to reassure you that these 5 things arealways better bigger when it comes to home decor!”

Concerned about the state of your lawn and garden after this hard winter? Looking for a way to go green? Oh boy, have we ever got a solution for you: goats! Yes, goats, the adorably mischievous ruminants.

According to The Wall Street Journal via MSN, goats are becoming the new way to keep your lawn in tip-top shape without having to fire up the lawnmower or the weed whacker. Goats will eat almost anything, will work tirelessly at clearing lawns and are a great conversation starter!

Unless you live on a farm, you probably don’t want to invest in a goat, let alone a herd (and local code probably wouldn’t allow city dwellers to), but there are rental options, such as www.rent-a-goat.com. And what about the “fertilization” the goats naturally provide? Reputable goat rental companies will clean up after their animals.

So if you are seeking a unique, green way to clear your yard, how about letting some adorable hard-working goats do it (homeowners should check their local codes to find out if livestock rental is permitted and for what purposes)? Would you rent some goats to spruce up your yard? Let us know in the comments!

Image courtesy of Michael Vincent Miller on Flickr.

In honor of our last post of 2010, we’ve decided to round up our most popular posts ever. Below are the top 10. Enjoy and we will see you next year for more great home living information! Thanks for reading this year.

• Built Around You: Laundry in a Closet
• Remodeling Using ‘Quality Over Quantity’
• Unusual homes: Cool conversions
• How To: Grow Tomatoes Upside Down
• Space-saving ideas for small spaces
• Built Around You: Stylish Bathroom Overhaul
• Small on Space, Big on Style
• New Uses for Old Windows
• Amazing Windows Created By Amazing Artists
• myMarvin Architect’s Challenge: Lake Cottage

It’s that time of year when we maybe get a little introspective and start to take stock of how the last year has gone. Did we lose that weight we wanted? Read all those books? Finally get on board with this whole Twitter thing we’ve been hearing about?

Since home is, for many people, an important extension of self, Apartment Therapy recently featured five home resolutions they’ll be keeping in the next year. Great ideas, and it inspired us to think about what resolutions we want to do, home-wise. Here goes:

• Organizing: We’re going to rid ourselves of extraneous paper and shred old bills, as appropriate. We’ll also be organizing our closets and not just shoving the mess into there. New closet organizers, boxes and bins may also be pressed into use.
• Cooking: Eating out and supporting local restaurants is great, but cooking at home not only saves money, but allows you unprecedented control of the food you put into your body. Plus, you can flex your culinary muscles and become known for sparkling hosting and fabulous dinner parties.
• Curb appealing: With all the zeal over interior decorating, it’s easy to forget the home’s exterior. No more! This year, we will be painting, repairing, refreshing and landscaping to make our houses the envy of the neighborhood. New walkway? Flowerbeds? Our only limit is our imaginations!
• Greening: We want to make this year the greenest ever. So we’ll be looking at ways to make our homes — and our lives — more energy efficient. We’re going to try to re-use stuff more, evaluate whether we really need something and think of ways to buy locally as needed.
• Learning: We’re going to attempt to pick up some sort of DIY skill this year. Whether that means something like learning some home repair basics, or a softer skill like making our own throw pillows, we’ll be doing it for ourselves.

New Year’s resolutions are notoriously difficult to keep, but we believe that if you start small and have a purpose, it can be done. What are your home resolutions? Let us know in the comments.

We like to think of our gardens as an extension of our home. And just like any room in the house, sometimes you just want a few new things to brighten it up. For your reading pleasure, here are some fun products and ideas that can liven up any outdoor abode.

The Lluna planter by Serralunga is a cool modern planter as you can see:

But if you find yourself needing a cold drink instead of more greenery, this planter obliges. It would work well for a large backyard soiree!

Speaking of that garden party, if you are looking for a use for the empty beer bottles you stashed in the planter/ice bucket, look no further than Design*Sponge’s bottle garden idea.  It’s an easy idea for a really cool garden…and it’s a great way to re-use without recycling!

If the bottle garden inspires you to find a way to re-use objects in your garden, then consider Re-Nest’s idea to turn your chandelier into a planter. Where the bulbs would be, you put small pots of flowers instead. It’s unique, funky, and classically quirky.

What are some fun ideas you’ve tried for “re-decorating” your garden?

All images are from blogs linked to above

Apartment Therapy recently featured some self watering planters — perfect for those of us with irregular schedules or who can’t quite remember that all living things need water! Now, they’re not completely maintenance free — you will have to put water in every so often. But once the water is in, you can sit back and watch your plants grow.

There are quite a few options out there, but our favorite is the Grobal Self-Watering Planter designed by Karim Rashid (see some of his work for the myMarvin project here). The Grobal comes in enough colors to satisfy any decorating scheme and features Rashid’s signature curvy lines. With something as easy as this, there’s no excuse not to try growing something this summer!

Photo courtesy of A + R