lisahesse123's ideas
10. Store heavy items down low. You should never have to balance on a stepladder while trying to lift something heavy. Keep heavy items at or below waist height, including boxes, kitchen equipment (those dutch ovens and stand mixers weigh a ton!) and anything else that takes some real effort to lift. And if you live in earthquake country, this is doubly important: You don’t want heavy items falling out of high cupboards and landing on someone’s head.
Create a way station for items in transit. We all have a certain amount of stuff that’s constantly in transit: library books waiting to be returned, our bag and keys, the dog’s leash, the casserole dish a friend left after your last party. Instead of allowing these random items to pile up, create a dedicated space that can handle them and keep them neat. If you have room by the main entrance to your home, this is the most logical spot — a few baskets on a shelf and some wall hooks should do the trick.
Make open storage beautiful. Every home can use a combination of open and closed (i.e., hidden) storage. But what you choose to store on your open shelving should be visually pleasing. In the living room, this is a good place for books (arranged by color if you’re feeling artsy) and pretty objects, not beaten-up board games and stacks of video games. Likewise in the kitchen, open shelving is the place to put your matching sets of clear drinking glasses or favorite teacups, not the plastic food storage containers.
The barn includes this colorful office. “You feel like you are in a room in the house more than a barn,” Gany says. The desktop has been refinished in a bright yellow. The tufted leather sofa is one from Anthropologie that the couple’s English mastiffs had dirtied and damaged. “I investigated whether or not you could paint leather, and it turns out that with the right coatings you can. It turned out beautifully and has held up well,” she says. The Spoerleins made the geometric shelving arrangement with plywood to keep books, trophies and keepsakes organized.
transom and beams vaulted ceiling Homeowners’ request: A casual and comfortable gathering place for family and friends. Pattern punch: Ikat patterns blend chocolate and citrus green, accenting the neutral sofas and patterned sea grass rug. Other special features: Reclaimed heart pine floor. Reclaimed cypress wood ceiling. Designer secret: “The use of the mirror above the fireplace mantel, trimmed in painted wood, provides additional light, adds to the expanse of the room and reflects the exposed-rafter and wood-plank ceiling,” architect Stephen F. Smith says. “It was a detail that the owners questioned at first, and now is one of their favorites.” Also on the team: Burk Clark of Sinclair Group (builder); Alvie Casey of Marty Sears Interiors (interior designer)
The country feel of the home continues in the expanded galley kitchen. The wood dining table already sat in the nook at the end of the room, and architect Anne Sneed suggested building a reclaimed-wood banquette around it. Two wood hutches in a custom stain break up the white kitchen and the more rustic breakfast nook, while still tying in with the overall theme of the room and home. The stain continues in various rooms of the house.
Architect Steve Zagorski helped transform the home to fit the family’s modern lifestyle but also preserved its character by leaving some original features. New higher ceilings retain the iconic midcentury slope — and make the living spaces feel airier — and new glass walls replace many of the solid ones. Original terrazzo floors flow through the house.
This view of the banquette from the living room shows four storage drawers below the seats. A crystal chandelier hangs above. A couple of mini crystal pendants that provide illumination over the new peninsula between the kitchen and living room have a similar style. The glass cabinets above the banquette show off more of the dinnerware collection. Another special addition: At the end of the base cabinet to the right of the banquette is a niche with a dog bed for the couple’s beloved teacup poodle.
1. Look for the undertones. It can be a challenge to create a cozy atmosphere in a room with white walls and high ceilings. The trick is to use a white paint color that leans toward ivory or has subtle peach undertones. These types of whites pair well with honey-toned wood finishes, and together they can add a surprising amount of warmth and calm to a large space.
Lister suggested opening it up to a dining nook and sitting room. The ceilings were raised 2 feet and coffered, which distracts from the fact that the lights are a few inches off-center due to some ductwork that couldn’t be moved. The homeowners didn’t want an all-white kitchen, so they went bold with a lime-green laser-cut stained glass mosaic tile as a backsplash. The cooktop and hood now sit in place of the window and sink in the former layout. A more linear layout with a central island allowed the homeowners create a more social space with a TV room and a small eating area.
bridge love it.
In one of the home’s most luxurious spaces, a major renovation combined two bedrooms into one expansive, nearly 1,500-foot suite consisting of a bedroom, a sitting room, a dressing room and his-and-her bathrooms. Designer Samantha Williams says her team took their cues from the home’s architecture to create a space that felt in context with the house. Soft blue and white with touches of gold dominate the palette.
Despite having large windows, the property lacked light, particularly in the hallway,” Lee says. “We removed walls between the hall and living area, kitchen and dining room and replaced them with [glass] screens to allow the rooms to be flooded with light.” The flooring in the hall is white marble, which helps to bounce the light around.
Because the building had been used for commercial purposes, most of the original period features had been removed, but Lee found replacements. “The windows are original, but they’re the only things that are. We chose period cornices and ceiling moldings to reflect the age of the property,” she says.
The large living space is divided into a formal sitting room around the fireplace on one side, and a relaxed TV-cinema area on the other. “We didn’t want to actually partition the space, but the introduction of a single step shows that they are separate areas,” the designer says. The flooring is antique French oak.
A river-rock floor adds to the spa-like feeling in the shower. The stall is so roomy that there is plenty of space for a bench. Eversoll added an additional handheld faucet next to it for uses like a quick shampoo, rinsing off just feet and giving the pups a bath. Delfino stone Arctic topaz honed natural stone mosaic wall tile (on shower floor): American Olean, Lowe’s
Inside, VanderHorn used all the siding, timbers and floors original to the barn. He repurposed the original exterior siding to use as planks for the ceiling. The original floors are 2½ inches thick, and show their history through scratches and nicks. “You could still drive a tractor on them,” the architect says. The walls are covered in a rustic plaster treatment that has hay in it — a nod to the barn’s history. On the top right side of the photo, a loft with a bedroom and full bathroom is illuminated by light from the new cupola. Pine trims the new custom windows. “We tried to design windows that were as simple as possible to match the era of the barn,” VanderHorn says.
Still love an island? You can have the best of both worlds by extending it. Sure, sitting at stools placed along one side of the island is a good way to keep the cook company. But when a family of four or more sits together in a line, it’s not great for conversation. Remember that episode during the last season of Seinfeld when the crew couldn’t score a booth at Monk’s and got frustrated trying to talk to one another at the counter? It’s can be like that when more than two people are sitting in a row. Keep the island feeling with an extension that’s open underneath, where people can sit around three sides.
Have you noticed how many restaurants have taken down the wall between the kitchen and dining room? I have a theory that popular shows like Top Chef are bolstering this trend. Combining the kitchen and formal dining room is a great space-saving solution when square footage is tight. Adding a chandelier or pendant lights over the table will allow you to switch the mood from casual to more forma
No-reach corners. Galley kitchens remove the need for corner cabinets. But if an L- or U-shaped kitchen better suits your space, make the contents in corner cupboards easy to reach with one of the smart corner solutions on the market.
Richard unloads clean dishes from one of the two dishwasher drawers located on each side of the sink. “They didn’t enjoy having to reach so low to load and unload a traditional dishwasher,” Pangaea says. “The kitchen’s dish drawer is directly across the dishwashers for easy transfer of dishes.”
open
no lines, love the view
ceiling to floor glass
beams
The drawers are solid ash with traditional dovetail join
The kitchen has lots of drawers. “More and more people are requesting drawers for their kitchens,” Kirby says. “They make accessing everything so easy. The runner technology is so good now and they are really strong.” The flooring is ceramic tile that looks like oak boards. “Using this was the owners’ idea, and we were unsure about it at first,” Kirby says, “but it’s brilliant!” Rye Harbour flooring in Old Oak: Fired Earth
colors, design is what I love with balcony/bridge at entry and
mirrors
A Nod to Tradition Antiques are an integral part of traditional interiors for these designers, who write: ◦Antiques are evocative. ◦They add atmosphere, age and patina to a room. ◦They endow a room with a feeling of the familiar — the emotional and visual comfort of forms and materials that are tried, true and trusted. This traditional eat-in kitchen features comfortable dining chairs and an adjacent seating area. An oval-shaped English hunt board (traditionally used for serving breakfast after a hunt) takes center stage but allows for ease of passage. A playful artisan-made zinc chandelier from the 1920s hangs over the table.
Splurges and savings: “Plumbing fixtures were kept simple,” Rehkamp Larson says. “We splurged on hiring an artisan to create and apply a custom finish for the wood walls and ceiling. It is, satisfyingly, both rustic and refined.” The nitty-gritty: Floor tile: Medina pewter hexagon, Exquisite Surfaces; walls and ceilings: pine boards with resawn texture and custom white finish; ceiling trim: log with custom stain finish; cabinetry: custom; cabinet paint: Strong White, Farrow & Ball; countertop: Olympian White Danby marble with honed finish; island cabinetry: custom plain-sawn white oak with custom finish; island countertop: Lagos Blue limestone with honed finish; cabinet hardware: Ashley Norton with white bronze finish; sink: Shaw’s Original, Rohl; sink faucet: Tara in platinum matte finish, Dornbracht; lighting: Punch flush-mounts in polished nickel with bronze accents, The Urban Electric Co.; pendant: Double Prismatic Industrial, Urban Archaeology; rug: Aubry Angelo, Minneapolis (to the trade only); counter stools: custom-made locally Team: Nor-Son (contractor); Alecia Stevens (interior designer); Bunker & Associates (structural engineer); Frost Cabinets Furniture & Design (cust...
master bed
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