Women at Work

Domestic Construction Interior Design Services

Construction Zone 1: Huge cranes waver from above as you dodge jackhammer racket, degrading whistles, and lewd cliches with illustrative hand gestures.

Construction Zone 2: Two young, soft-spoken designers turn random found objects, scraps of paper, and fabric swatches into (quiet and safe) handmade interior installations.

Calling themselves Domestic Construction, the duo transforms living rooms and retail spaces into cozy environments with a touch of craft and class — thanks to a background in fibers, a love of textiles, a nod to recycling, and a stint coordinating displays at Anthropologie.

Past projects include a school of tiny fabric fish individually pinned to a wall, chandeliers made from golden hair dryers at Shears Hustle & Blow, and reading lights made out of orphan tea cups.

They’re ready to bring the handmade to the homestead.

And you know you want a piece of that.

Available online at domestic-construction.com.

Fantastic Voyage

Jan & Äya Boutique Opens

You were totally getting a cabin in the Berkshires, hitting up the equator, and adding some après to your agenda.

But you’re not much of an organizer when it takes more than a subway ride.

Fortunately the MTA can be your chariot to Jan & Äya. Run by a Swiss-American miss and mister (Carolyn and Kai Krienke) and named after their francophone bébés, it’s that pristine boutique (whitewashed floors, breezy space, designy accents aplenty) you’ll swear you’ve seen in guidebooks.

Peppered throughout are knitted jewelry pieces from the UK, leather goods from Germany’s Nuit Blanche, and Skinny LaMinx tea towels out of South Africa. Locally crafted offerings (Loyalty & Blood tees, Therapy’s handmade spa line, and Brooklyn honey flights) add authentic Americana.

Weekends bring out-of-this-world confections by Sarah Magid, and soon they’ll start hosting events with sights and sounds that’ll put your average multicultural center to shame.

Now, go get yourself a souvenir.

Jan & Äya, 99 Franklin Street, between Greenpoint Avenue and Milton Street, Greenpoint (718-609-1404 or janandaya.com).

To Illustrate Your Point

Charmingwall Gallery

Those days: pencil doodles, petty vandalism
These days: pie charts, blueprints

Those days: cartoon portraits thanks to a bat mitzvah in ‘93
These days: enchanting hand-illustrations thanks to Charmingwall

The wee new West Village gallery run by printing press family Paper Slam showcases the best emerging illustrators from NYC and beyond.

Works are open edition (not limited) at three price points (including tax): $20 alone, $40 matted, $80 framed. In-house printing (high res on photo-quality paper) keeps costs low.

Wow. The idea of good art sans price-gouging makes it impossible to choose. Bailey Saliwanchik’s bohemian women or Fred Chao’s streetscapes? Evan B. Harris’s maritime pieces or Andy Kehoe’s nostalgia?

The Tiny Art Show, their current exhibit of four-by-four inch works, showcases one-of-a-kind pieces by fifteen artists starting as low as $40.

These are the days to collect them all.

Charmingwall, 191 West 4th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues (212-206-8235 or charmingwall.com); buy prints online at etsy.com.