Category: Coastal Style

A California couple hunted for years to find a sunny refuge . Finally they discovered a dilapidated cottage set on a 1-acre lot overlooking Monterey Bay, and revealed it to general contractor Harry Smeenk. “The bones are great; the price is correct,” Smeenk explained, “but it is going to take a lot of work”

The homeowners already had a nice place to live but desired a weekend escape with not much home but a lot of space for entertaining. They asked Smeenk to help reimagine and enliven the cottage’s rundown interior and exterior, and tapped Martin Ballesteros of Ballesteros Landscape to transform the 2,000-square-foot lawn. Following three years of landscaping and renovating, the few never wishes to leave the hilltop hideaway.

at a Glance
Who lives here: A few in the property management business
Location: Santa Cruz mountains, California
Size: 932 square feet; two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

Shannon Malone

The exterior was motivated by the glowing yellow cottages with red metal roofs and gingerbread trim that the owners saw on a holiday to St. Barts in the Caribbean.

Before Photo

The 1930s home belonged to a family that also utilized it as a weekend cabin. In 1950 they enlarged the arrangement to the two-bedroom house.

Once the present owners bought the house, the home was sitting precariously on a post-and-pier foundation and was sagging noticeably in back.

Shannon Malone

AFTER: Smeenk raised the home, poured a concrete perimeter foundation and put the house down onto it. The walls, doors, doors and mismatched moldings are all first. A brand new wraparound pergola covers the wooden deck.

The owners worked with Ballesteros to transform the barren yard into a superbly landscaped area for entertaining. “There was nothing until we began the project,” says Ballesteros. “There were only weeds, tall bushes and concrete”

Now a bocce ball court skirts one side of the bright wrought patio.

Toss some popular games into your lawn plans

Shannon Malone

The owners kept many of the home’s original features, attempting to honor and enhance them as far as you can. They kept the doors, wood paneling and single-pane windows, in addition to the exterior siding where it was in decent condition.

Shannon Malone

The living area has three distinct styles of original trim and window molding. “We rebuilt some of the timber windows to maintain them in style,” says Smeenk.

The owners opted to maintain and restore the wood paneling. Painter and artist Bill Mackin implemented a new layer of clear coat and painted the molding at a crisp, white semigloss.

Shannon Malone

Interior designer Jan Pfaff helped the couple furnish and decorate the space at a relaxed-meets-eclectic style.

Before Photo

The old kitchen was dingy and outdated, with lackluster cabinets, flooring and countertops.

Shannon Malone

AFTER: The “brand new” electric cooktop and oven were castoffs from a buddy’s remodel. The homeowners saw them as an opportunity to reuse and save money, so they gave the appliances fresh life in their own kitchen.

The curved storage at the end of the kitchen island was an original feature; the couple chose to maintain and enhance it.

Dishwasher: DishDrawer, Fisher & Paykel, Sears

Shannon Malone

Smeenk replaced the old carpeting and vinyl flooring with tile ; the dining room chairs were a lucky find from Craigslist.

Shannon Malone

Bill Mackin painted the master bedroom timber paneling a crispy white. As soon as it’s big, the space lacks closet area, so the couple got creative about where to save things — tucking many items under the mattress.

Shannon Malone

From their patio the owners enjoy taking a look at wildlife and magnificent views of the Salinas Valley, Carmel Highlands and south end of Monterey Bay. Ballesteros helped them select plants suitable for their environment. “The plants needed to be vibrant, deer resistant and drought tolerant — those were my three requirements,” the landscape designer says.

Ballesteros also designed and set up the irrigation method. “This was the most critical challenge we faced,” he says. “We needed to bring in fresh topsoil and rototiller the entire area, because water would not drain through the clay soil.”

Shannon Malone

The couple worked with Smeenk to convert an old redwood water tank behind the house into a whole outdoor bathroom.

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More: Take Your House Beautiful With Caribbean Chic

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Amy Tibbals and Kerri Fukui assessed off the top three must-haves on their home purchasing list when they bought this converted storefront in Utah: Open, bright and easy. “We walked in to clean, white walls; large ceilings; unfinished concrete floors and a dynamite kitchen, and we’re like, ‘OK, yes. Sold,'” says Tibbals.

Developer Geoff Tice remodeled the house, which was once a mom-and-pop grocery store, meat market and bookshop. He added glowing heating and energy-efficient windows, creating an perfect clutter-free decorating canvas for Tibbals, an editor in City Home Collective and Fukui, a manager and purchaser in a snowboard shop. “Our enthusiasm right now lies in the fact that we discovered a construction we adore, and that we make to do all these thoughts that will make it feel like our perfect space,” Fukui says.

in a Glance
Who lives here: Amy Tibbals and Kerri Fukui
Location: Fairpark neighborhood of Salt Lake City
Size: 1,300 square feet; 2 bedrooms, 1 bath

Lucy Call

“Neither of us cares for any level of clutter, nor are we attracted to dim spaces, so that it works really well,” says Tibbals. The floor-to-ceiling frosted glass wall has energy-efficient, low-emissivity, argon-gas-filled windows. “The space is pretty much flooded with natural light, so we sorta lucked out there,” she says. “Really, the house has been designed in such a manner which not only speaks to a natural, minimalist design, but sort of needs it; there aren’t lots of corners or nooks to fill in this house, and we prefer it that way.”

Lucy Call

“Facing east, it is absolutely full of bright sunshine in the evenings, which makes pretty toasty however is a lovely thing to wake around,” says Tibbals. “it is a great area to see in or have a cup of coffee.”

Chair: Milan 2-Piece Sectional, Lofgren’s; arc lamp: Green Ant; round table:Teak Side Table,Brook Farm General Store; windows: Serious Windows, Heliocentric

Lucy Call

Tibbals and Fukui worked through several possibilities from the layout of the primary living space. “With the kitchen lining the whole south wall, we had any questions over whether we should split the space into living and kitchen in a more obvious manner — say, with a very long, narrow table which may also function as additional counter space,” says Tibbals. “Ultimately we hated that idea, as the kitchen is actually an art piece of its own — with the timber and the apron-front farm sink. It is a fantastic view to get from the sofa.”

Lucy Call

Tibbals and Fukui’s friend, Laura Naylor, photographed this large black and white portrait of a man who worked in the Great Wall of China. “He was laughing in her attempt to speak Chinese, which can be kind of cool to know. He adds a genuine bit of happiness to the room,” says Fukui.

Lucy Call

Tibbals says they’re still deciding about the best place to get a table. “We want to avoid having too many large pieces in the 1 space, so it is kind of a practice in visualization,” she says. For now they generally eat out if the weather is nice or in the coffee table in the living area.

The floor is concrete and has glowing heating.

Lucy Call

Previous owners had remodeled the house before Tibbals and Fukui moved in. The developer, Geoff Tice, is behind the layout and finishes.

Lucy Call

“We’re newbies in the space — it has not even been a year since we bought it — so we’re still waist deep in thoughts and eventual additions that’ll put a more personal stamp on it,” says Tibbals. “That said, it feels just like ours, because the layout speaks so well to how we would like to live and serves as a daily practice in function and simplicity.” The main bedroom exemplifies that philosophy.

Bedspread: Cotton Sheet, Brook Farm General Store; bed: custom, Patrick Davis Design

Lucy Call

Tibbals and Fukui believe that everyone should feel a sense of calm and comfort at home, and they’re excited about all they could do to their space to constantly attain this sense. The guest bedroom is outfitted in mostly neutral colours and yet another black and white art piece.

Office desk: Tyler Millard Tuft, Walger and Millard Design

Lucy Call

The bedroom doubles as an office. A golden pothos blossom sits on the clerestory window. The frosted glass door contributes to a patio and a detached two-car garage.

Lucy Call

“A large want for us in locating a house was a garden and lawn of our own, so we’re thrilled to have it,” says Fukui (at left). She and Tibbals (at right) credit their close buddy Cody Derrick, Realtor, designer and founder of City Home Collective, for assisting them locate this particular home.

“A barbecue and glass of wine in the backyard with friends is a top-shelf day for us, and growing our own food has been vastly important. We’d ultimately like for our whole yard to be shrouded in green, make sure it plants, veggies, vines or trees,” says Tibbals.

Exterior paint: Day Hush, Behr

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Fantastic design comes in several types. However one recurring constant is that great design happens in the hands of more creative people. How else could something like a dilapidated and abandoned Pittsburgh row home be shockingly converted into an arty and eclectic home that perfectly embodies the couple who inhabits it?

This was the situation for Alissa Martin, the owner of a local clothing and shoe company, along with her husband, a psychologist. The creative couple spent a year working with mossArchitects and Botero Development in the first stages to personalize their run-down, two-bedroom space to seamlessly wed Martin’s modern-edged Moroccan design together with her husband’s penchant for studying and collecting. In the end, color and texture dominate by way of exposed brick and ceiling beams, a vibrant wall mural and casual-cool patterned wallpaper and bedding.

at a Glance
Who lives here: Alissa Martin and her husband, pug Milo and Alaskan Malamute–mix Lakota
Location: Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh
Size: 2,600 square feet; two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

Jason Snyder

Martin, right, along with her husband sit on the front steps of the newly remodeled house, which is just one of five in a once-dilapidated construction.

Martin is originally from the D.C. metro region but has called Pittsburgh home for the last 11 years. College friends from Penn State initially lured her to Pittsburgh, along with the design, character and affordability enticed her to stay and receptive Pavement, a clothing and shoe shop.

Jason Snyder

Jason Snyder

Martin requested that the reclaimed hardwood floors — rescued out of a Polish dance hall that has been torn down to make space for the Tower in PNC Plaza (charged as the greenest skyscraper on earth) — maybe not be “refinished in any way so as to preserve the aged patina and one of a kind color variants,” she says.

Jason Snyder

Years of jealousy meant the kitchen needed to be completely gutted. Exposed original ceiling beams, simple white subway tiles, open shelving and Ikea cabinets painted blue now underline the couple’s eclectic aesthetic. They spent additional time choosing the finishes in the kitchen as well as from the bathroom, because they felt these are much permanent investment.

Kitchen cabinet hardware: Anthropologie; cupboard paint: Sea Glass, Martha Stewart Living (Glidden); faucet: Ikea; shelves: Wade Caruso Woodworking

Jason Snyder

Reclaimed wood chandelier: Roxanne’s Dried Flowers

Jason Snyder

Background: Grand Game for Anthropologie

Jason Snyder

Underneath Lakota, the couple’s Alaskan Malamute mix, is a wooden console displaying travel mementos. The couple spend the majority of their time on this first floor entertaining friends and hanging out with their beloved dogs.

Jason Snyder

Milo, a 13-year-old pug, introduces unimpressed in the front of the living area’s reclaimed wood bookcases, made by Wade Caruso Woodworking.

Jason Snyder

This sitting room, which will be a work in progress, is home to the couple’s vintage record player, acquired in the set of the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Jason Snyder

The bedroom attic is on the next floor, where initial pine flooring was patched, sanded and sealed with polyurethane.

Jason Snyder

The bathroom includes imported Moroccan hand-printed ceramic flooring tiles by U.K. textile designer Dominic Crinson.

Jason Snyder

Reclaimed wood frames the door to the bedroom.

Jason Snyder

Skylights lend a modern touch to the original exposed beam ceiling.

Bedding, drapes, carpeting: Anthropologie; chandelier: Pottery Barn; upholstered Chair: Hot Haute Hot

Jason Snyder

Pictured here is the few shared office nook.

Desk: Flatiron, Restoration Hardware; folding seats: Terai, Anthropologie

Jason Snyder

The second floor includes a guest bedroom dressed in bold bursts of color.

Bedding: Anthropologie; wall paint: Sea Anemone, Martha Stewart Living (Glidden)

Jason Snyder

The second-floor bathroom is outfitted in white subway tile, while sexy Moroccan-inspired ceramic tiles out of Dominic Crinson line the floor.

Show us your remodeled attic

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Philip Johnson’s Glass House and Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House are very alike, but their little differences are magnificent. Each is a glass box with an open plan of roughly the exact same size on a large estate for an individual, but Johnson’s home sits right on the land, while Mies’ home for Edith Farnsworth is increased above it. The Glass House blurs the distinction between structure and glass framing, while the Farnsworth House clearly expresses the construction. And of course one is painted black and one is white.

Johnson may have finished the Glass House in 1949, two years before Farnsworth House was constructed, but having seen a version of Mies’ design at MoMA in 1947, he was obviously poised to Mies. While the two homes are strongly connected formally, for Mies the home is part of a bigger idea about universal space that he had been exploring for decades and that would discover much grander fruition in a number of residential and office towers in the 1950s. In this sense the Farnsworth House is an incredibly important home for the architect, a small-scale experiment in his ideas. Matters weren’t as perfect for the client, as we’ll see, but the view of the home as a masterpiece of a contemporary architect has prevailed to this day.

Edith Farnsworth House in a Glance
Year constructed: 1951
Architect: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Location: Plano, Illinois
Viewing info: Individual and group tours available
Size: 1,500 square feet

More: 10 Must-Know Modern Homes

Farnsworth and Mies fulfilled at a dinner party held by mutual friends in November 1945. Farnsworth knew of his buildings and requested him to plan a weekend escape to get her 9 acres she owned in Plano, roughly 40 miles west of Chicago. Mies agreed to do the project that evening.

Accounts of their assembly and following working relationship signify that Farnsworth respected Mies’s imagination and gave him lots of leeway with the plan. She also liked the thought that her home can serve as a prototype for a new American architecture.

The weekend home sits on the banks of the Fox River, on land which would eventually mushroom to 62 acres from the initial 9. The home sits inside the flood plane, therefore Mies lifted it about 5 ft above the level of the river. In addition, he positioned the rectangular box parallel to the river, to benefit from these views to the south and into the clearing in the north.

The house consists of three flat planes: the floor of the home and porch, the roof, along with the lower porch. The home and adjoining porch occupy a 28- by 77-foot rectangle, while the lower porch is 22 by 55 feet, roughly the exact same dimensions as the enclosed portion of the home.

The two porches give the otherwise regular home some asymmetry. They also make sure that people going to the home approach it in a specific fashion, walking from the east and then visiting the home frontally in the south and then up the steps.

By comparison, the north side of the home is so regular that it borders dull. Nevertheless 1 detail (and remember, Mies is known for saying “God is in the details”) which comes across nicely in this opinion is the way the floor and ceiling extend past the columns.

This detail gives the impression that the two airplanes are being held (barely) between the columns, while highlighting the way the floor and roofing are somewhat of these columns, as if they can extend even further. In fact the beams of the floor and roofing are stored between the columns, welded to them so carefully that they seem to just “kiss” each other.

Whenever the Farnsworth House was under construction, Mies was working on two apartment buildings on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. While the house’s construction can be expressed on the outside, in the Lake Shore Drive buildings and towers the structural steel needed to be fireproofed (encased in concrete), therefore Mies chosen for smaller steel pieces on the outside to stand out for the construction.

This photograph, of the opinion Fox River in the porch, illustrates how Mies accentuated the landscape as a picture during the parallel planes of floor and ceiling. We can also see the roughly 2-foot-square grid where he founded the plan; every piece lines up with the grid.

What we don’t see are the screens Farnsworth had installed once she transferred in. These along with a wardrobe inside were taken care of by Mies’ workers, but the architect and client weren’t communicating at the moment. He sued Farnsworth for nonpayment, and she countersued, saying the home was unlivable. The courts sided with Mies on both lawsuits, but the entire undertaking scarred him so much that he never pursued another real estate commission.

The house’s entry is between the dining area and room inside the open area. Beyond is a piece of millwork that extends form the floor to the ceiling ; inside are two bathrooms, the kitchen cabinets, a fireplace and a mechanical core. In front of the millwork is your living room, seen here. In the backdrop is the apparel which Farnsworth had made following moving; to the side is your sleeping area.

Mies believed that a home with large expanses of glass would link people to nature in a deeper way than smaller windows, or even being outside. Appreciating nature as a picture was so just as important as being inside it. A home in character, like the Farnsworth House, subsequently supplied the ideal condition for this appreciation.

Even though the lawsuits brought the connection of client and architect into a bitter near, Farnsworth utilized the home for more than 20 years. Peter Palumbo bought the home and land in 1972; he removed the screens, added air conditioning and made extensive changes to the bigger grounds. In addition, he opened up the home for visits once he wasn’t in town.

In 2003 he put the home up for auction. Preservationists and the National Trust for Historic Preservation worked together so the NTHP could Buy the house and operate it as a house museum, such as Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut.

2 higher-than-average flooding in the previous twenty years sent the Fox River’s waters nicely above the floor level. In 1996 the home underwent recovery following the oceans peaked 5 ft above the floor, and in 2008 waters climbing 18 inches above the floor needed some repairs that were less extensive. Rising waters are threatening the home this season, but the NTHP had heard from the prior floods and enacted emergency measures to protect the interior.

References
Blaser, Werner. Mies van der Rohe, Farnsworth House: Weekend House. Birkhäuser, 1999. Cadwell, Michael. Strange Details. MIT Press, 2007.
Farnsworth House + The Glass House. Modern Views. Assouline, 2010.
Farnsworth House, National Trust for Historic Preservation
Frampton, Kenneth and Larkin, David. American Masterworks: The Twentieth Century House. Rizzoli, 1995. More: 10 Must-Know Modern Homes

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Expectant parents Jen Migonis along with her husband, AJ, purchased their home three decades back, wanting room for their son to play and develop in. The location, only a 15-minute walk to the beach, and a good college system are just what convinced the couple to see the chances, despite a less-than-ideal inside. The home had dated and dark rooms untouched for years, zero insulation and flooring suffering from exactly what Jen explains as “nauseating linoleum,” but the industrious couple knew that using a great deal of DIY patience and love, they could create a bright location for their loved ones to call home.

in a Glance
Who lives here: Jen and AJ Migonis and their son, Drew
Location: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts
Size: 1,600 square feet; 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
That’s interesting: Although it’s located on chilly Cape Ann, the home had zero insulation when the family moved in.

Theresa Fine

The couple removed an present nonload-bearing wall that separated the initial bloated kitchen in the dining area. They added an island with a Carrara marble top, maintaining a bright and open-concept kitchen in mind. New stainless steel appliances plus a Maytag convection stovetop replaced the very outdated stove. “It was rather rough before. The 1950s stove took nearly an hour to boil water for pasta,” says Jen. “The brightness of the room today makes me happy every time I’m inside.”

Before Photo

When the couple moved in, the cabinets were painted a dull ” [The kitchen] was our first major renovation, because we’re going to have our first child, and we understood that it would be a key spot,” says Jen.

Theresa Fine

A silver faux pressed-tin backsplash gives the sink area a classic feel. “We ordered semicustom cabinets to fit our room but were cautious to not need to move windows and pipes in order to keep down the cost,” says Jen.

Backsplash: Shanko 309 Lacquer End Steel, Home Depot; cupboards: Thomasville; appliances: Home Depot; countertop: Bianco Carrara marble, Doyon’s Appliance; sink, faucet: Franke and Moen, Home Depot

Theresa Fine

Theresa Fine

The kitchen flows into the dining area, located to the right of the entrance. A turned-leg pine dining table found on Craigslist was stripped of its own glistening orange coat and awarded a black, distressed finish. The linoleum flooring went outside, and new hardwood floors were painted a dark warm walnut colour.

A classic window and inherited vintage lamp accent the dining buffet. “Like many people I love the gray-blue colour palette and think it perfectly reflects the sea,” says Jen. “I’m a huge fan of calming colors on the walls and using the rooms readily flow to each other.”

Rug: Malika, Pottery Barn; seats: Overstock.com and Harry, Ikea; deaint: Driftwood Gray, Martha Stewart Living and Ultra Pure White, Behr

Theresa Fine

To the left of the entrance is your living room, featuring many of Jen’s budget-friendly DIY projects. The blue and white drapes are actually shower curtains from Target which she cut in half and adorned with a white band of fabric to produce affordable window treatments.

Before Photo

The living room’s focal point was a outdated wood-paneled wall. The couple pumped out the far corner of the wall, adding access to the kitchen, opening the space up and generating flow in the downstairs space.

Theresa Fine

The few whitewashed the paneling, trim and brick fireplace, making what was a dark area feel open and cheerful.

Paint: Vanilla Ice Cream 2154-70, Benjamin Moore; armchairs: Tullsta, Ikea; pillows: HomeGoods

Theresa Fine

This door off the kitchen contributes to the basement, decorated for the coming of spring with a moss wreath. A glittery coral-colored “M,” another one of Jen’s DIY projects, stands to your household’s last name.

Theresa Fine

Upstairs, one of three small bedrooms has been turned into son Drew’s sea-inspired nursery. Jen credits her inspiration and style for her mum and her love of browsing magazines. “My mother has always loved decorating and shopping comparatively frugally,” she shares, “therefore I think that is partially where I get that gene from. Subsequently marrying AJ was like a continuation of how I grew up, just he had been renovation minded as well.”

Wheel: Christmas Tree Shop; bedding, carpet: Pottery Barn Kids

Theresa Fine

Seat: Ektorp, Ikea; stool: HomeGoods

Theresa Fine

Jen’s dad made Drew’s sailboat mobile by hand in main colors, adding a personal touch to the nautical design plot.

Lamp: Fisherman Table Lamp, Pottery Barn Kids

Theresa Fine

Baskets, buckets, along with a vintage red wagon corral Drew’s toys and books. Jen made the Migonis family plaque.

Before Photo

BEFORE: The master bedroom had low ceilings, aged walls along with the dreaded linoleum flooring. This chamber was the brainchild of AJ, that came up with the thought to vault the ceiling and did all the work himself. The transformation took nearly three decades and $3,000 to complete.

Theresa Fine

AFTER: The finished master bedroom.

Theresa Fine

The couple opened the bedroom ceiling to include stunning lines and make the room feel bigger. Jen repurposed shower curtains into window drapery as well as pillow shams. The tufted headboard is a DIY project that Jen made from pegboard.

Jen also whitewashed the mantel around a newly installed electrical fireplace and created a small sitting area. The once-gold mirror has been painted and washed white to fit the house’s neutral colour palette.

Paint: Moonshine 2140-60, Benjamin Moore; drapes: Feather Gray, West Elm; flooring: stained with Jacobean, Minwax; fireplace: Home Depot

Before Photo

The upstairs bathroom is the only one in the home, so the few needed to liven it up right away. It had old tiles, wallpaper and cheap shelving, and the toilet was sinking to the ground. The shower also had a mysteriously stubborn mildew no matter how many times they washed it.

Theresa Fine

The newly tiled shower, mirrored in the mirror, is outfitted with neutral variegated cent tiles. A white beadboard ceiling adds personality. The few came in under budget at $2,500, getting members of Overstock.com to obtain a 7 percent reduction on tiles.

Shower tile: Overstock.com; Paint: Harbor Gray AC-25, Benjamin Moore

Theresa Fine

Jen covered a kid-friendly security gate at the peak of the stairs with old maps.

Theresa Fine

Connected to the wall beside the entry is a handmade giant ruler for charting Drew’s height.

Before Photo

The house was hidden by big shrubs and painted blue.

Theresa Fine

While it’s snowy today, Jen enjoys that they reside within a mile and a half of the beach. “It’s amazing to run or walk from the sea whenever we want to. Our neighborhood is composed of largely capes or tiny ranches that people are gradually renovating or tearing down,” she says. “There is a good mix of kids and older folks who only love talking and turning to Drew.”

Paint: Cumulus Cloud MSL260, Martha Stewart Living

Theresa Fine

Here Jen presents for a picture with an energetic Drew. In terms of the household’s future renovation programs, Jen says, “We are starting the process of producing a nursery for our little girl, due on April 5, and turning the guest room into a more grown-up room for Drew.”

Your turn: Share your renovated home with us!

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Some houses have exteriors that are layered and light, looking lantern-like at certain times daily. The obverse of the notion is houses with heavy walls that are predominantly solid, rooting the building in place or at least giving the appearance of such. Beyond looks, buildings with materials that are heavy and solid exude existential character by inviting touch and creating intimate spaces that shelter us and our daydreams.

Yet not all significant buildings are cave-like. The three illustrations collected here are rooted in position yet also soaring in spatial openness and in views.

Leicht Küchen AG

Belgium
This house, close to the Luxembourg border in Belgium, looks particularly imposing from the road, though the large picture window on the bottom floor and the band of windows over hint at the willingness inside.

Leicht Küchen AG

The rear elevation is the antithesis of the front all glass between the good side walls. The organization of the interior — two walls parallel to the side walls — is apparent from this viewpoint, where each big window is a glimpse into a separate area; it is like a cutaway section of a house.

Leicht Küchen AG

Here’s the view from the kitchen to the ground floor to the backyard. The lines of the kitchen island and drop ceiling parallel those of the pool outside, reinforcing the direction of the view. Notice how the silicon glazing of the glass opens up the opinion substantially by removing vertical framing members.

B+g design inc..

Colorado
This house, near Denver, is made of airplanes of concrete and metal panels. In particular, the former and its tough texture give the house a weighty presence.

B+g design inc..

The concrete extends to parts of the interior, including this hearth. It helps to give the house some solidity, but this view hints at the views beyond the house.

B+g design inc..

When many elevations utilize glass walls to frame views of the hills, it is on the roof that the combination of rooted and towering occurs. This seating area — alongside a fire, beneath a patio and with a gorgeous view — could easily be my favourite place in the house.

Studio Schicketanz

California
A house need not be covered in rock or constructed of concrete to become massive and rooted in place. This wood-clad house near San Francisco does so by being bermed to the landscape.

Studio Schicketanz

Here we can see the grass on the roof over, but in addition the massive glass walls forming either side of what’s the living area.

Studio Schicketanz

Indoors, under the undulating roof, we could see why full-height glazing is utilized. The doorways are in a less-than-ideal location relative to the seating area, but they do provide simple access to the patio.

Studio Schicketanz

The bedroom can be graced with full-height glazing and a corner window. With the Pacific horizon, it’s easy to forget how closely stitched the house is to the landscape.

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This welcoming 1905 Arts and Crafts–style home once belonged to two elderly brothers who had never remodeled during their decades of possession. When bought by architects Ginger Sorbara and Douglas Birkenshaw, the century-old home had amazing period details, like a grand stairwell and nice background, that they could blend with more modern components. The couple place to function, extending and modernizing the storied house with a glassy improvement when retaining and relishing its amazing layers of patina wherever possible.

in a Glance
Who lives here: Ginger Sorbara and Douglas Birkenshaw, his daughter and their two sons
Location: High Park/Roncesvalles neighborhood of Toronto
Size: 5,000 square feet; 4 bedrooms, 5 baths

Great Five Lakes

From that vantage point in the end of the backyard, the century-old house and its glassy modern extension look like an island in a sea of green. However in need of landscaping, the inviting backyard supplies opportunities for outdoor dining and play.

Great Five Lakes

The rear extension’s floor-to-ceiling windows create a glass block that overlooks a big wooded ravine lot. Sorbara confined her silk-upholstered living area furniture to a cream wool rug so the set seems to float on the dark walnut flooring.

While there were numerous late nights renovating, working collectively on their family home was a simple collaboration for this couple. “We wanted it to be the best it may be; there was no room for ego or being right,” says Sorbara.

Furniture: Knoll

Great Five Lakes

Graphic, scientific and fine arts objects occupy a low bench running along one side of the living room. Sunlight pours through the sails of a version.

Great Five Lakes

The extension also features a modern fireplace plus a custom crosscut Eramosa rock mantel. Sorbara designed the wall to protrude and to shelter the rock.

Great Five Lakes

The kitchen flows down into the dining area, since the original house was previously grade. Thoughtfully mismatched chairs surround the table.

Great Five Lakes

In the kitchen, spacious shelves hold a range of treasured objects, including two lifesize felt rabbits around the upper shelf. The kitchen and main floor hall cabinetry is made from rift-cut walnut. Sorbara’s uncle and cousin — John and Dylan Barlow — did all of the millwork in the home.

Great Five Lakes

A multifunctional cutout on the left side of this kitchen offers sitting space, a perfect framework for flowers and art, and a glance in the home’s original Arts and Crafts staircase.

The home opens to a broad, classic front hall, with the original pocket doors resulting in the original drawing room on the right side.

Abigail Pugh

Sorbara had the storied interior recorded when the couple moved in. The pictures, shot by photographer Greg Pacek and Sorbara, were displayed at the Toronto’s Telephone Booth Gallery in an exhibition titled Call Home: Domestic Narratives. The photographs, combined with documentation of chosen missing items from the last homeowners, such as film stills and family snapshots, were published in a book that accompanied the display.

Pacek’s prerenovation photographs look in every remodeled room. This particular image, capturing yellowing oil-painted partitions and dim wood ceiling accents, is of the front room, which now serves as the kitchen.

Great Five Lakes

The original stairwell — the backbone of this house — unifies the three tales. Sorbara deliberately left the stairway as untouched as possible, letting its dark timber and hefty form comparison with the home’s blank white walls.

Great Five Lakes

These pale wood sliding doors beyond the master bedroom offer a stunning framework to the landing and staircase. The children’s bedrooms, a toilet and a guestroom are located to the left and right of this half-story rise pictured here.

Great Five Lakes

The 2 sons wanted to keep sharing a room when they moved into this new residence. Their bedroom space has a bed large enough for both of these, so each night is a sleepover. The room has plenty of wall storage in stylish plywood cross sections.

Great Five Lakes

Upstairs, Sorbara’s open-layout office space features heat-treated oak floors and alternately serves as a hive of activity for the boys and her harbor.

Great Five Lakes

A lengthy custom-built cabinet runs beneath one side of the roof. Colorful Plasticine clay testifies to just how much the 2 boys love here.

Since the house is on a ravine, the couple’s application to reestablish was initially turned down. “We needed a one time opportunity to consider and reconsider the drawings,” says Sorbara. This resulted in a beautiful coincidence of timing: The licenses came through 100 years to the day after the initial construction permits for the house were accepted. Pictured here is your building permit the couple eventually got for your renovation.

Photo courtesy of Ginger Sorbara

Great Five Lakes

The welcoming Edwardian exterior of the house is semitimbered from the Tudor revival style. The residence sits on a gorgeous 200- by 50-foot great deal near the peak of a little mountain, surrounded by huge sculptural old oak and maple trees.

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The French adore high-quality dining — but the caliber doesn’t start and finish with the meals; it’s about the whole dining experience. Long, leisurely foods are developed for spending some time over great wine and food with family, friends and their kids. My mum’s side of the family is French, and also my parents tell stories of foods in France of eight or 10 little courses over a period of five hours or so.

You may or may not buy into the more relaxing eating rate of the French, but you can’t resist the casual charm of this French farmhouse dining area fashion. Lovely rustic farmhouse dining tables and linens, fairly wild flowers gathered from the backyard and casual mismatched plates and bowls have a wonderfully casual and intimate feel.

Take a peek at those French farmhouse–fashion dining places to inspire your very own delicious fresh dining experience at home — perhaps you’ll want to linger a little longer.

Mustard Seed Interiors

Blue and white French chic. A white and blue colour palette is quite common in French layout. Use the classic white and blue French lines in odd ways, such as on upholstery for Provençal-style chairs or on a casual tablecloth.

Continue the shades of blue round the area with white and blue floral drapery, cabinets in soft shades of blue and art using blues. Add some heat with natural woods.

Add fine finishing touches to a table with alloy chasers under plates, simple pieces of fruit plus a jar of mixed wildflowers.

Dreamy Whites

Bright and airy with antique-style accessories. French style frequently comprises a classic or two, or cheaper Provençal-style chairs like these. Paint them fresh white for a classic look or have fun and use a more modern colour. A simple, delicate crystal and iron chandelier adds some glamour to a rustic area. This weathered grandfather clock (although more Swedish than French style) adds to the rustic appeal.

That I really like this simple table setting which uses java cups as little vases. Purple is quite common in French florals — attempt mixing lavender with yellow daffodils.

To keep everything bright and airy, paint the walls . Flood the area with natural light by using simple white sheers and prop up an oversized mirror to assist bounce light around the room.

Yvonne McFadden LLC

Warm, earthy tones. For a more sophisticated sense, use a palette of bright, earthy tones. This chamber just needs to hug you.

Banquettes are a great way to mix up dining seating, and they will be able to let you squeeze in just one more aunt or uncle at the table.

Straightforward linen seat covers in muddy colours add texture. Insert some organic patterned throw cushions for a more comfy seat and freshen the space with some unfussy green flower arrangements in terra-cotta pots.

Dreamy Whites

Fresh and diverse. Attempt a mismatched flea market style for something collected and relaxed. Paint the walls a soft grey and keep the trim white and clean. Paint wooden chairs at a washed-out colour (such as this distressed sage green) and display collected trinkets and flea market finds round the room. Display pretty vintage seltzer bottles colored glass with drinking glasses onto a simple tray, ready for an informal afternoon drink.

When you have soft furnishings, help them blend into your strategy by covering them in white sheets, and throw in a burlap accent cushion or two.

Dreamy Whites

Use soft shades of lavender. Create your very own purple haze of Provence lavender fields by putting simple purple flower stems in antique lavender glass bottles. Take it a step farther by badger amazing water (Perrier of course!) With abundant purple berries, such as blueberries or blackberries.

Keep it simple and unfussy. This chamber is simple and unfussy — the epitome of French farmhouse style. Re-create this look by using a palette of white and biscuit, then adhere to the basics.

Keep materials down to a minimum — attempt a table setting with white crockery and linens, white candlesticks in pewter candelabra or solitary candlesticks and a galvanized jug to maintain simple white flowers

Red and white gingham checks. With organic green walls, white and red gingham can make a very typical French café look. This is a nice, comfy color scheme for a relaxing evening meal.

Aim to get a palette of white and red checkered cloths for your drapes or blinds, natural pine country-style tables and chairs, and seat covers in striped red, green and cream cloth. I adore these French-style cockerel cushions, too.

Search for paintings or images of fruit — like those red apples — and a classic black and white clock. A bowl of genuine fruit can also be very welcoming. Last but not least, add a vase of bright yellow flowers, such as sunflowers, as a final bright touch.

Dustylu

Layer white on white on white. Plenty of white on white really brightens up any space. Begin by whitewashing all of your furniture and walls. Subsequently coat white textiles, utensils, plates and seat covers. Display an assortment of white crockery in open cabinets and soft-color flowers — like those pale pink hydrangeas — at a white enamel jug to get a rustic finishing touch.

More:
8 Parts of a Farmhouse Kitchen

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Interior designer Molly Frey did not always love the design of this cabin. Before the renovation, Frey recalls that the home has been a “designer’s worst nightmare” — a split-level floor plan with multiple, disconnected staircases and disjointed rooms. “The first things I did were reconfigure the rooms, open walls up, build a central stairs and create a functional flow between distances,” she states.

The designer layered in elegant decor inspired by the expansive ocean, sky and sand. “I love that this summer home has an air of sophistication. The cabin evokes a casual-chic sense of the household while they visit in the summer, but it’s also elegant enough for dinner parties and entertaining guests,” says Frey.

in a Glance
Who holidays here: A couple and their 3 kids
Location: Marblehead, Massachusetts
Size: 4,800 square feet; 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths

Molly Frey Design

Frey built a custom made stage to the 11-foot model sailboat from the entry and surrounded it with built-ins for extra storage space. But initially, the boat’s height posed a challenge.

“We moved the front door to a new location and produced a two-story entryway that is open to both the living room [foreground] and household room ]backdrop) — the most ideal location for the vessel screen,” Frey says.

The stairs visually opens the cabin and makes its different parts available to one another. Frey augmented the space economically, and the design — that started off as a nightmare — turned into a feature that the designer along with her clients came to adore.

Molly Frey Design

Frey opened up exactly what she describes as closed-off and dated rooms on the ground floor by eliminating a wall separating the rooms. She maintained the structural wall’s aid poles but incorporated them into custom cabinetry, therefore adding storage to the kitchen side and paneling detail (not visible) on the living room side.

Molly Frey Design

Molly Frey Design

White keeps the space looking as clean and crisp as a freshly ironed shirt at the eat-in dining area and the kitchen. Beadboard paneling provides a quaint, cottage appeal to the kitchen, contrasting well with the sleek marble countertops and stainless steel appliances.

Slipcovered armchairs by the window, throw pillows from cool coastal colors and inviting chairs lend a casually chic sense to the living room. Sunlight floods the distance by the surrounding windows.

Molly Frey Design

Molly Frey Design

In the living area is a great case of TV styling with wires and unsightly wires out of sight. The built-in offers drawers for a DVD player and media storage, and bamboo shades decrease glare on the track.

Molly Frey Design

The guest package’s reading corner welcomes day nappers. Framed cubes, a cushioned seat and a sandy colorway of khaki and white encourage guests to put their feet up and stay awhile.

Molly Frey Design

A dressed-down four-poster canopy bed feels completely suitable for the coastal setting of this vacation home, don’t you believe?

Molly Frey Design

The household entertains guests over the duration of their stay in the summertime, so incorporating additional sleeping places was crucial.

“We made great use of this space by adding daybeds and beds at nooks where guests could sleep comfortably while seeing. These spaces were designed to be more quaint, unique spaces that add character to the house in addition to being functional,” says Frey.

Molly Frey Design

Clad in a cooling colour of olive oil, the guest bathroom feels bright and airy. A tree gives colour and some solitude to the window-side bath.

Molly Frey Design

The master bedroom appears the only high-flair note in the house, with a mini Florentine chandelier perched above shabby chic furnishings and a casually made bed.

Molly Frey Design

Frey augmented the seafaring theme from the boy’s room with nautical flags along with a navy blue loft-style bunk mattress.

Molly Frey Design

Labeled wicker bins corral toys, making arranging and cleanup a cinch after a day of play.

Molly Frey Design

Personalized hooks offer an easy way for kids to hang their moist towels and clothing from the mudroom.

Molly Frey Design

The designer thinks she was meant to accept this project. After closing on their cabin, Frey’s clients arrived from California eager to hire a designer and clutching pictures of a home they saw at a magazine.

“They chatted with a friend who watched the photos and recognized the house immediately. It was my home,” says Frey, “just down the road from this cabin.”

More Tours:
Clean-Lined and Casually Coastal

A Summer Beach House Charms and Welcomes

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For quite a while, the term “prefab” had about as much architectural cachet as “double-wide” or “trailer park” But about a decade ago, that changed when a couple of gifted architects, engineers and designers started making beautiful, modern, eco friendly homes. Really houses, really.

It was a prefab revolution.

While they’ve become a great option for anybody considering building a home or adding an outbuilding, there are still many misconceptions about prefabs, both positive and negative.

If you are thinking of going prefab, here’s some stuff you need to understand:
They aren’t necessarily less expensive than traditional structure. Along with the actual house, you need to consider any site preparation and the base . Placing a prefab on anything besides a set lot can get expensive fast. They aren’t allowed everywhere. Many jurisdictions do not want them. It is a leftover bias from the pre-prefab-revolution era. But there you have it. They aren’t cookie cutter. At the same time you do picked from a bundle of choices, and each version has a set layout, there are a variety of approaches to personalize prefabs, based on the organization you’re working with. Everything from the amount of bedrooms into the amount of tales to the type of tile is left up to you. You can’t order the home and then put it up yourself with a few friends. The whole process requires professionals, and you’ll have to employ a contractor accustomed to prefabs to manage it all. Complications aside, they signify a wonderful mix of form and function, of thinking beyond the box and pushing design and architecture to work for individuals, the environment and the community. I am a little in love. Here’s the reason why.

Sett Studio

I have long fantasized about having a prefab plopped down in my backyard to function as a workplace. This 92-square-foot beauty is by Sett Studio.

Marmol Radziner

This is a customized desert home by Marmol Radziner Prefab, one of the leaders in contemporary prefab. It has established also the ability and designs to make a home that was fully customized.

Blu Homes now owns Michelle Kaufman’s prefab designs, such as the Breezehouse along with the Glidehouse. Its fixed-pricing includes everything but the website preparation, and unlike many other prefab companies, this company has its own mill.

Stillwater Dwellings

A two-story prefab by Stillwater Dwellings in Seattle. Stillwater’s fixed-price packages revolve around energy efficiency and environmental responsibility.

Resolution: 4 Architecture

This contemporary three-bedroom, two-bath prefab from Resolution: 4 Architecture isn’t what most men and women think of when they hear “Vermont cabin”

Resolution: 4 Architecture

You do not require a wide-open space. Many prefabs, like the Bronx Box by Resolution: 4 Architecture, are designed for urban infill.

Resolution: 4 Architecture

Here’s the deck of the Bronx Box.

Resolution: 4 Architecture

Open interiors, multiuse spaces and a connection with the outside are signatures of most modern prefabs.

Method Homes

Clean lines, minimalist stuff and a lot of lighting are another frequent characteristic of modern prefabs. This one is by Method Homes.

Izumi Tanaka Photography

The open kitchen in the C6, a renewable prefab home by LivingHomes in Santa Monica, California.

Izumi Tanaka Photography

The living room — open into the kitchen — of those C6.

More:
Creating Prefab Work for All

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