Italian for "The Rainbow," L'ArcoBaleno is a new magazine-style  retail site that launches today. Exploring "extraordinary" design pieces from across the globe as well as the creative minds behind them, the site combines content with e-commerce for unique pieces that won't be found anywhere else. 

In other news, micro apartments in Los Angeles explore how small is too small, and check out an extreme treehouse. See the headlines after the jump.

With a small space comes great responsibility...the responsibility of finding where to fit everything. Some decide to forgo owning a television completely, but even those living in the smallest spaces usually want a television for the occasional movie night, especially now that HDTV displays come in extremely flat form factors that allow installation in spaces where once no tube set dared to tread...

A ways back I posted about Yarn Bombing: The Knit Graffiti Movement and discussed the international stealth subculture of wrapping yarn around urban structures. This time, I'm diving a little deeper with one of the founders of the movement, Magda Sayeg. Follow me...

This morning I was one among many parents who waved goodbye as my oldest boarded a day camp-bound bus for the first time. I got less than five hours of sleep last night because I had a crazy case of the butterflies, but my son got on the bus with a confident smile. Whether it's a new camp, a move, a trip, or an event, I have worked really hard to ease transitions for our family and stolen good ideas wherever I find them. Here are a few of our strategies:

Here's kind of a cool thing. This steel-framed chair had seen better days. Enter Janusz, who has an abiding love for the world's most humble material — cardboard — and for bringing old furniture back to life. Click here to see what he did next. 

I have a friend who has more kids than me, whose husband works longer hours than mine, who cooks and bakes more than I do, and yet her house is tidier than mine, always tidier than mine. What gives? I decided that this week, it was time to get to the bottom of it: what are the dirty little secrets of those tidy families?

Name: Hillary Schuster, graphic designer and aspiring wedding stylist, and Michael Kiser, freelance writer, photographer, brand strategist, and founder of Good Beer Hunting
Location: Ravenswood; Chicago, Illinois
Size: 1,600 square feet
Years lived in: 2.5 years; Rented

Curios collected and lovingly composed unify the style of Hillary and Michael, a Chicago couple who balance home space with work space, and ephemera with plenty of classic, quality pieces. She errs on the side of pop and color, while he favors dark wood and vintage. They both love Michigan, great beer and spirits, and creating a contemporary space that feels simultaneously fresh and timeless.

What do you think about when you buy a new sofa? Probably you think about the size, the color, the style, how easy it will be to maintain. Almost certainly you think about the cost — whether or not it's a good value. But what about the human cost? Who makes the stuff that fills our homes? Where do they live? How are they treated?