Category: Eclectic Homes

You’ve noticed the stunning architectural photos of sparkling glass windows and doors on , and now you could be wondering how to get your own glass surfaces clean, gleaming and ready to their own close-up. “Not all of glass windows and doors have been created equal,” says interior designer Anne DeCocco. “There are several alternatives in glass, and some need special cleaning and care. My primary advice to clients is to read the glass installment literature and talk to the installer for specific care instructions, and also do your job with daily upkeep.” Apart from this, these general tips and suggestions will help keep your glass windows and doors sparkling and clean. Birdseye Design Shower Doors and Windows The glass shower doors and windows in this Vermont home provide unobstructed sightlines to surrounding scenery. The vista would blur. For soap scum and film: DeCocco suggests using a product called Bioclean…

Tammy and Logan Strobel’s house is the size of a parking space. In 2005, after watching a movie on the Tiny House Movement, the couple chose to radically downsize their lives. “At the time we were living in a 1,200-square-foot apartment with two cars, Tammy recalls. “We offered our cars and slowly pared down by shifting to smaller and smaller apartments.” Both Tammy and Logan were enamored by the idea of microliving. Tammy says, “It disturbs what simplicity means to me personally. It’s beautiful, cheap housing, and we could take it with us when we want to move.” Tammy and Logan hired Dee Williams and Katy Anderson of Portland Alternative Dwellings to construct their house. They moved in October 2011 and couldn’t be happier with their small house, which contains a front porch, a kitchen, a bathroom with a composting toilet and convertible shower, a living area and a loft…

After Mark and Debbie Clausen bought their San Diego townhouse, they had been seeking a change of scenery from their mountainside Craftsman at Mammoth Lakes, California. They sought sea breezes and minimalist design, and bought the 1973 home as an occasional shore retreat and a place to their 24-year-old daughter, Tessa, a teacher, to live year-round. To integrate flexibility and function using their outdoorsy design, Mark and Debbie aimed for a clean, hotel-inspired look that wasn’t overly stark. “If a couple of grains of sand creep in front door, it’s all part of this aesthetic,” Debbie says. The townhome underwent an eight-month renovation such as new flooring remedies, bathrooms and furniture, and retextured ceilings and walls. “Our Mammoth home is mountainy and dark, so we needed it light, airy, open rather than a lot of stuff on the walls. Clean and simple, but maybe not supermodern,” she says. in a…

Christian Louboutin, shoe designer of the stars, celebrates his company’s 20th anniversary with the start of a capsule collection at the close of the month. Before you take a look at the shoe-inspired spaces below, here are a few -related tidbits about the craftsman behind the towering, red-soled stilettos: his father was a cabinet maker. And his partner? A landscape artist. I am not much of a stiletto fanatic, but I am motivated by beautiful things, and also the Louboutin has got me thinking: What if the shoe had been a room, a part of the home or a piece of furniture? What could it look like? Only for fun, I used a couple of pairs from the collection to learn. us.christianlouboutin.com Louboutin’s capsule collection is an homage to his love of cabaret and showgirls, and also the Pensee, in this lovely mimosa colour, calls to mind the iconic black,…

Nine out of 10 professional photos documenting architecture from the daytime seem to get taken when the sun is shining. Sure, on sunny days, the components may give a photographer reason to not shoot, but the perfect is to show a landscape or building in the best light. Sunlight allows materials and forms to stand out and be read more clearly against its backdrop, creating a reasonably consistent aesthetic within architectural photography. Therefore it is refreshing to see evidence that embraces other environmental conditions, especially fog. Comparing sunny and foggy days, the former is bright, vibrant, and eloquent, although the latter is muted, gray (mostly ), and indefinite. Or to put it another way, sunny photos present crystal-clear graphics, but foggy ones let the imagination fill in the blanks. Fog exists as a layer between our eyes and certain pieces of advice: architecture, landscapes, distant vistas. This ideabook celebrates foggy…

If you live in a pretty major city, chances are you encounter old mattresses on the sidewalk almost daily. It is one of the things that’s not possible to eliminate readily, and often the easiest choice would be to leave it to the sidewalk or toss it into a dumpster. The issue is that almost all these mattresses end up in landfills, where they take up a great deal of space, create rancid air pockets, and damage compression equipment. On average, 300 mattresses and box springs arrive in one landfill in one day. Have a look at these tips to see ways to avoid sending your mattress right to the landfill. But , be sure you truly should eliminate your mattress. Often a good memory foam mattress pad or a different support platform can make all of the difference — not only conserving the environment, but also saving your cash….