“Reinventing one's life is very similar to restructuring one's home,” says interior designer Gail Green, a vendor on Vedere. The interior designer who has worked with such illustrious companies as Hermes, also works closely with many people who are looking for decorator to help them in restructuring their lives to effectively make a fresh start.

(Photography Credit: Brian Stauffer)

“I love to problem solve,” says Green. “Turning the wishes and desires of clients into beautifully functioning and aesthetic environments, which in turn makes the client feel good about themselves is the endgame.”

(Photography Credit: Woman Around Town)

As Vedere mentioned in its promotional piece on "2012 Start Over Smart Expo," décor for the recently divorced has become a recent trend as the economy strengthens and more people are feeling empowered, ready to take their lives into a new direction. For these types of clients, Green helps to make the laborious process easier, creating a new home environment for entertaining friends and spending time with children. 

“I'm working on an apartment for a gentleman [in New York City] who is recently divorced and needs to provide a part-time living arrangement for his children,” Green says.  For Green, imaginative and clever design have played essential roles in this project as there is an economy of space. Green designed the owner's bedroom to house an adjunct area for his son, who can both sleep and do his homework there, while maintaining a sense of privacy for both.  “This is real problem-solving because walls need be manipulated in order to maintain a bright, airy, open feel,” she adds. “As the divorced individual's life is reinvented, as is the space!”

(Photography Credit: Gail Green)

For Green, 'divorce design' can serve as a positive reinvention. “It is a turning towards the future, albeit different, yet hopeful one, suggests Green.  As one leaves behind the turmoil surrounding divorce, one can use this period to institute changes for the better, creating a comfortable, cheerful home that makes one feel good about themselves. “It is a fresh start!,” Green simply states. “Sometimes, even a new coat of paint or a new sofa can evoke these happy feelings. “And, a quickly transformed home from dull and drab to peaceful and serene helps create reinvention in one's life.”  

Have you ever had to re-design your life for the better? Tweet us at @VedereOnline! 

A growing number of vendors on Vedere are giving back to their community in big ways that are helping to make our world a better place. As a social commerce website that regroups creative communities while showcasing new talent, Vedere has launched, Good Works on Vedere, a new weekly column, spotlighting our vendors' contributions to worthy causes. Each Thursday, follow #GoodWorks on Twitter to track how industry leaders on Vedere are making the world a better place, one charitable project at a time. Then join our discussion group on Twitter #GoodWorksDesignChat Thursdays at 12noon!

On May 17 at 6pm at Ramscale in New York City, the non-profit organization, Kids of Kathmandu, will host their 2nd annual gala and auction in celebration of their fund-raising initiative called The enLIGHTen Project. In the meantime, an online auction has begun on May 1 and will continue until the day of the gala.

 (Photography Credit: Kids of Kathmandu)

Founders, husband and wife team Jami Saunders and Andrew Raible, a vendor on Vedere, invited 17 of the best lighting designers from across the world to design and donate a light for The enLIGHTen Project. Designers include David Weeks, Lindsey Adelman, Jason Miller, Paul Loebach and Rich Brilliant Willing.

(Photography Credit: Rich Brillant Willing)

Kids of Kathmandu is a non-profit organization that utilizes photography, art & design to raise awareness about the needs of orphans in Kathmandu, Nepal.  To Raible, Kids of Kathmandu was born out of their realization that the world is a whole lot bigger than NYC--a sentiment that soon resonated within the design world.

(Photography Credit: Kids of Kathmandu)

“When we got back [from Nepal] and decided to raise money, we thought that a school desk to be auctioned off would fit nicely with our goals,” explains Raible. “We soon had several other designers on board, and eventually ten others,” he continues. “Knowing that the kids desk designed and sold here in New York would be putting several kids in desks at the school, felt great.”

(Photography Credit: Kids of Kathmandu)

Raible, a furniture designer for the past 19 years, has received much attention for his furnishings, which have been featured in New York Times, Interior Design Magazine and more.   His custom-made works, which include beds and tables, have been successfully sold to homes and hotels throughout the country but what drives Raible the most creatively is the belief “that we haven't exhausted all of our ideas on what a table, chair, sofa, credenza is in the modern world."

(Photography Credit: Kids of Kathmandu)

But when Raible is not creating beautiful works of home decor, he is helping to feed children at least six bags of rice a day with Kids of Kathmandu.

The organization's fundraising efforts in May 2011 allowed them to move the children from government schooling to a private school, affording the youngsters the chance to receive a more challenging and enriching education. Raible and team are working to bring computers into the school, as well as connecting students with teachers in America who can proof simple essays via email.

(Photography Credit: Kids of Kathmandu)

Currently Nepal is without electricity for up to 16 hours a day and most people use candles as their primary source of light. The enLIGHTen project will help the organization to purchase solar panels, batteries, 4o solar lanterns and a water filtration system.

The initiative also helped to increase productivity, while the children learned about renewable resources.The generosity of the designers and the community that the project is fostering, is helping us grow and believe that this is a sustainable model for the future,” says Raible. “We are planning several more of these auctions in which a direct relationship can be established between what the designers do best and what the kids need most: Tables for food, fashion for clothes, etc."

Other than the Kids of Kathmandu Projects, Raible, who is a 6th generation woodworker, is most proud of his “Taible,” which he considers to be a higher end outlet for his designs.

(Photography Credit: Taible By Andrew Raible)

"I shamelessly used our last name to name my newest venture concentrating on more unique tables only,” he says. “I love tables and the community they create.”  Raible is planning an online store to continue and to grow the Kids of Kathmandu projects.  “The response from the design community has been overwhelming.  I think this model can grow and we can support many more orphanages"

(Photography Credit: Kids of Kathmandu)

"Knowing that we can truly help these fantastic kids for not that much money in the long run makes it impossible not to try as hard as humanly possible to continue to make this grow."

What drives you to try as hard as you possibly can to grow as a person? Tweet us at @VedereOnline!

Last week, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano unveiled his newest addition to the site of Le Corbusier's Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France. A city has been a place of pilgrimage since the 4th century, it plays host to Notre Dame du Haut, located atop a verdant hill and is famous for its distinctive roof.

 (Photography Credit: Ivan Baan/New York Times)

Piano was commissioned in 2008 by the Association Oeuvre Notre Dame du Haut to design a small visitors' center and convent for the Poor Clare nuns who live on the grounds. The firestorm that broke soon after Piano was hired centered around The Foundation Le Courbusier disapproval of the new additions to the site.  An online petition in support of The Foundation Le Corbusier, denouncing the $16 million project, featured such big design luminaries as Richard Meier, Rafael Moneo and Cesar Pelli.

Built in 1951 by Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, Notre Dame du Haut is considered to be one of his most daring designs with its soft-form composition and deep windows, offering one of the most beautiful places for meditation in the world that attracts countless visitors, religious and architectural alike every year.

A home is a living space for respite, comfort and protection. Colombian artist Miler Lagos enjoys challenging the concept of living space and influencing viewers to question our daily life. Recently, the artist constructed of a 9-foot domed sculpture, called ‘Book Igloo,' made entirely from a collection of books sourced from a defunct US Navy base library. It's a sculpture that's part of a larger installation called ‘Home,' which Lagos constructed at New York City's MagnanMetz Gallery in late Fall 2011, using carefully stacked books, creating a compact dome that is completely self-supporting.

 (Photography Credit: Miller Lagos)

In an interview with Vedere, Lagos credits the “forces of nature” as a direct influence on his project. To Lagos, it is our knowledge about what the forces of nature can do to our homes that informs our need to create advancements in shelter and protection.

 (Photography Credit: Miller Lagos)

“I recognized the shape of an igloo as a symbol of [that] knowledge,” shares Lagos. The artist points to the Inuit communities who live in igloos in order to feel protected from harsh weather. However with nature as capricious as it has been over the years, Lagos suggests that we must begin to rethink the idea of shelter. “As humans, we think we know it all,” says Lagos. “Yet nature can challenge our knowledge and teach us even more that our human vanity can be challenged by the force of nature.”

(Photography Credit: Miller Lagos)

Currently Lagos is working on a new project with street plants in Havana, Cuba. “It is called VISTA EN PLANTA (meaning ‘View In Plant') and this title has two Spanish meanings,” shares Lagos. “First one is an architectural expression [called] ‘UPPER VIEW' and the second one is a popular expression ‘LOOKING AT THE PLANTS, referring to the action of recognizing growing plants in architecture.

(Photography Credit: VISTA EN PLANTA. 2010. Intervención Urbana. Registro Fotográfico. Valparaíso - Chile)

Lagos is interested in establishing situations where he can see the conflict between nature and the preservation of culture. “In this specific case how nature takes place of abandoned architecture. Each plant will be labeled in the street as an urban botanical garden with its taxonomical name, history and origin. This is a collateral exhibition to the Havana Biennial, and will take place in May and June of this year.”

(Photography Credit: Miller Lagos)

A growing number of vendors on Vedere are giving back to their community in big ways that are helping to make our world a better place. As a social commerce website that regroups creative communities while showcasing new talent, Vedere has launched, Good Works on Vedere, a new weekly column, spotlighting our vendors' contributions to worthy causes. Each Thursday, go to #GoodWorks on Twitter to track how industry leaders on Vedere are making the world a better place, one charitable project at a time. Then join our discussion group on Twitter #GoodWorksDesignChat Thursdays at 12noon!

A new vendor on Vedere, interior designer and fine artist, Carol Crawford, has always been a conservationist, passionate about preserving the environment. “When I undertook a Master of Science degree in Interior Design at New York's Pratt Institute in 1991, I first focused [my studies] on global warming,” she shares.

 (Photography Credit: Carol Crawford Environments)

As a vehement supporter of sustainable design, Crawford became a Licensed New York State Interior Designer as well as a LEED Accredited Professional. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and it is an certification program that's redefining the way we think about the places where we live, work and learn, supplying designers with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

(Photography Credit: Carol Crawford Environments)

In 1997, she founded her own design firm Carol Crawford Environments, furthering her commitment to creating innovative ways to decrease our impact on the environment, specializing in sustainable interior design, planning and murals.

(Photography Credit: Carol Crawford Environments)

“In my view, creating a truly sustainable, healthy and humane environment is inextricably linked to beauty, says Crawford, who has also been teaching Sustainable Design at Pratt Institute since 1998. “I believe beauty heals.” Some of her inventive, green design solutions include using recycled nylon carpet with tackless installation and no PVC backing. “More than half of half the stuff in landfill is carpet,” Crawford adds.

(Photography Credit: Daily Journal of Commerce)

As a professor, Crawford believes that teaching students sustainable design principles helps to connect the designers-in-training in practical terms to the primary goals and responsibilities of any interior designer: To protect the health, safety and welfare of the public. To Crawford, being knowledgeable in sustainable and green living is an integral part of interior design. “Studies have shown that there is higher productivity, fewer sick days among workers whose environment is designed with daylighting, safe materials, clean air, and thoughtful color and layout, states Crawford.


(Photography Credit: Carol Crawford Environments)