Decorating with Colors
Mary McDonald's book is coming out on October 5th and we can't wait to get a hold of it. For those of you who are not familiar with her work, check out her portfolio below. She does amazing work in mixing colors and patterns together...
Check out her interview with the Wall Street Journal for some decorating tips...
An Idea Worth Stealing
A few weeks ago I found the perfect bouquet at the thrift store for $1. What makes it so perfect? 
with the heads of faux flowers glued abundantly on top.
It's stunning because it can be plopped atop almost anything and
it looks gorgeous.
It's simple yet stunning.
Simple because it's made using a half round piece of styrofoam 
with the heads of faux flowers glued abundantly on top.
It's stunning because it can be plopped atop almost anything andit looks gorgeous.
A silver ice bucket.
A white pedestal vase.
An old copper pot.
On top of moss rocks inside a huge hurricane.
A white pedestal vase.
An old copper pot.
On top of moss rocks inside a huge hurricane.
And it's easy to store away when the season, or your mood, changes. It's definitely an idea worth stealing (or buying at the thrift store for $1).
Residential Garden Design in San Francisco
This is a beautiful garden design and cool. One way to enhance the beauty of the home is to attend a garden in our yard. Houses become barren and gives the impression of calm. Especially when summer comes. For this reason Lutsko Associates made a garden in an urban housing in San Francisco.
The concept of this project is an open architecture for daily life, maximizing the impact and experience of a small space. The breakthrough of this sunlight can park with ease because there is no roof in this park. Another advantage is that we can enjoy the garden from the balcony of the second level instead of the inside of the house. Design pays attention to the sensory experience of materials and planting, which contributed to the richness and beauty of the park.
Description:
This city park in the Pacific Heights district of San Francisco around a single family home. The house was designed in 1990 by noted Bay Area architecture firm EHDD under the guidance of the late Joe Esherick. When viewed from two house sites overlooking the balcony, the park is a graph of the composition of space, materials and planting. From this perspective much of San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz Island slip into the views of the city spread out below the property. This park is designed to bring a sense of urban city fabric into the site. From inside, the garden intimately experienced as a sequence of outdoor rooms, their space and design features hidden sequence and expressed as a threshold passing each other in composition.
This park is divided into a series of three enclosed garden room, each tightly defined by the architecture and / or planted edge. Various treatments translucent-edge glass, hand troweled plaster, bronze curved walls, and planting-explore the relationship between the viewer and the adjacent off-site conditions. The walls between rooms consisting of Prunus caroliniana hedge cut, fit within the framework of structural steel. Thresholds between rooms create a sense of mystery and discovery as one moves through the park.
Each room is different in shape and quality. The first room, which requires light and privacy, defined by clear glass that transmits light and reveals the subtle shape of the outer edge of the garden. edge is reinforced by a steaming Pelargonium tomentosum and cacaliifolia Salvia to bring the natural flavor and fragrance into the room otherwise constructed. Osmanthus fragrans sculptural form branched multi-wall plaster, clean end to end view this space. The second room is dominated by the most dramatic elements of the park, a large curved wall made of bronze. From the slot in the wall, water cascades into the basin cut into the pavement beneath. Placed against the wall of the adjacent buildings, water features create a sensual edge with space, quiet introspective. In the third hall, visitors got a surprise vista of the city, bay, and the Trans-America building through the open window like a translucent wall panels. reeded panel's glass-covered walls of the Beaux-Arts fence neighbors recognize pastiche of the city, and is a reference to changing the architectural style from time to time. A lemon tree, espaliered plaster wall, in line with the axial views of the garden.
Park employs a large patch of contrast material to make a bold graphic composition: limestone paving of light that shines in the fog of San Francisco is interspersed with bands of wool thyme; dark granite stone engraved with a spiral pale to generate a mosaic. Restrained planting palette, shades of green and Grey with white flowers give priority to form over color. Bold-textured foliage contrasts dramatically with the materiality of space. The combination of material selection and composition of the structure to respond, simpler forms of home distilled. Park became home to a literal extension of everyday life while still associated with adjacent urban forms. [via]
The concept of this project is an open architecture for daily life, maximizing the impact and experience of a small space. The breakthrough of this sunlight can park with ease because there is no roof in this park. Another advantage is that we can enjoy the garden from the balcony of the second level instead of the inside of the house. Design pays attention to the sensory experience of materials and planting, which contributed to the richness and beauty of the park.
Description:
This city park in the Pacific Heights district of San Francisco around a single family home. The house was designed in 1990 by noted Bay Area architecture firm EHDD under the guidance of the late Joe Esherick. When viewed from two house sites overlooking the balcony, the park is a graph of the composition of space, materials and planting. From this perspective much of San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz Island slip into the views of the city spread out below the property. This park is designed to bring a sense of urban city fabric into the site. From inside, the garden intimately experienced as a sequence of outdoor rooms, their space and design features hidden sequence and expressed as a threshold passing each other in composition.
This park is divided into a series of three enclosed garden room, each tightly defined by the architecture and / or planted edge. Various treatments translucent-edge glass, hand troweled plaster, bronze curved walls, and planting-explore the relationship between the viewer and the adjacent off-site conditions. The walls between rooms consisting of Prunus caroliniana hedge cut, fit within the framework of structural steel. Thresholds between rooms create a sense of mystery and discovery as one moves through the park.
Each room is different in shape and quality. The first room, which requires light and privacy, defined by clear glass that transmits light and reveals the subtle shape of the outer edge of the garden. edge is reinforced by a steaming Pelargonium tomentosum and cacaliifolia Salvia to bring the natural flavor and fragrance into the room otherwise constructed. Osmanthus fragrans sculptural form branched multi-wall plaster, clean end to end view this space. The second room is dominated by the most dramatic elements of the park, a large curved wall made of bronze. From the slot in the wall, water cascades into the basin cut into the pavement beneath. Placed against the wall of the adjacent buildings, water features create a sensual edge with space, quiet introspective. In the third hall, visitors got a surprise vista of the city, bay, and the Trans-America building through the open window like a translucent wall panels. reeded panel's glass-covered walls of the Beaux-Arts fence neighbors recognize pastiche of the city, and is a reference to changing the architectural style from time to time. A lemon tree, espaliered plaster wall, in line with the axial views of the garden.
Park employs a large patch of contrast material to make a bold graphic composition: limestone paving of light that shines in the fog of San Francisco is interspersed with bands of wool thyme; dark granite stone engraved with a spiral pale to generate a mosaic. Restrained planting palette, shades of green and Grey with white flowers give priority to form over color. Bold-textured foliage contrasts dramatically with the materiality of space. The combination of material selection and composition of the structure to respond, simpler forms of home distilled. Park became home to a literal extension of everyday life while still associated with adjacent urban forms. [via]
Fabulous Kitchen Designs
We had a dinner party the other day and we found that everyone just gravitated toward the kitchen, and stayed there! If you think about it, the kitchen is probably one of the most used rooms in the house. Well, in our house anyway.
Since we're feeling lazy this week, we thought we just lift material from other sources and show you some amazing kitchen designs. Hope you'll enjoy them!
Since we're feeling lazy this week, we thought we just lift material from other sources and show you some amazing kitchen designs. Hope you'll enjoy them!
Source: myhomeideas.com, elledecor.com.
Designer To Watch-Stephen Gambrel
You probably have seen Stephen Gambrel's work before, as he has been featured in several magazines. We thought we'd do a quick show of his portolio--Just so you'd have some eye candy for the day...
Images from Stephen Gambrel