Displaying posts from August, 2008

Andrea wrote us the other day looking for some advice, and instead of us emailing her back I figured this might be a fun one for our readers to help with as well.

“My partner is buying a lake house. There is a lot of room for improvement and I’m very excited about making my ideas come through. But there will be very little cash after the closing, so we might be doing some of it ourselves.

The house is very dark because of ceilings and walls are covered with dark stained pecky cypress. So I thought about either sanding it back to the natural color or white wash them. I know to white wash I’ll have to take the finish off, which might be very tiring. I think sanding is going to be very painful, even with an electric sanding machine. I heard of corn cob blasting, but I don’t know if that can be used for interiors. We plan to rip out the carpets, redo the floors, take off the wall paper, etc.

But what makes me sad is the kitchen. Although the sellers put good money on it having top appliances, new cabinets and countertop, the colors feel horrible to me. We cannot have new counter tops at the moment and I’m just unsure on how I’m going to neutralize the horrible corian bluish green countertops. I thought at first, about staining the cabinets in red and placing a backsplash with little mosaic glass tiles in white and light aqua blue. Then I thought it would be better do reverse for white cabinets and red mosaic glass tiles.

What I’m going for is a overall natural look with lots of wood, but on the lighter side. I hate darkness give by dark browns and red browns. It makes me feel sick. I was hoping you would have some suggestions about these issues. These pics were taken by me. The house is in Ringwood, NJ.”

Andrea, the house is AMAZING!!! It has a ton of potential. I am very excited to hear you are getting rid of the carpets (YUCK). I have a couple of suggestions for you, and hopefully our readers will have a few as well for you to mull over.

I LOVE painting wood white when the colour/effect isn’t so hot as it is. This lake house would look like a DREAM, IMHO, if all the walls were painted white and whatever wood flooring you chose was painted white as well (white-washing would be great too but would be ALOOOOOOT of work). It would add so much more of a modern feel to the existing rustic look. I’d leave all the beams and railing as is. I think the stone fireplace would look great against white. As for the kitchen, I would paint out the cabinets white. To me red works on glossy flat-faced cabinets for an ultra-modern feel. I don’t think red would suit the existing style of the doors. If there is any way you could remove the trim along the tops of the cabinets, because they are huge and break up the space alot, or replace them with something smaller. Also, the trim over the windows could go too. If you must keep the existing countertop (perhaps you could look into a laminate or butcherblock though, might be affordable), then I would select a tile that has that colour in it – like a mosaic of blues/greens, so the countertop makes a bit of sense and blends in. The appliances are incredible – you are so lucky to get to save money there.

That’s enough rambling for me. Andrea, I hope you and your partner have fun with it and if anyone has some suggestions, comments are always welcome.

Whether it’s the simple and care worn, the bright, light and breezy or the down and dirty glam (the D&G boys Portofino playground) what Rebecca Duke sees through her lens is special. How Rebecca Duke captures these images is even more special. Love the light, love the angles, love the movement. Check out her portfolios with their clever titles. Hmmm do I like “less is more” more than “more is more”?

One last look at Home Storage, House and Garden Guide to Organization and Arrangement, Leonie Highton, Conde Nast, 1975 before I put it away for another 30 years. With the growing number of retro books in my collection perhaps I should take a closer look at the bookcase ideas here.

I’m not going to be posting anything today. I just wanted to wish my twin sister Julia a happy birthday. And I wanted to thank my folks for procreating all those years ago and ending up with the 2 of us. In honour of this event, I thought I’d take a break and just post a couple photos I found. See ya tomorrow. (P.S. This time the photos were marked – I’m on the left in both).

WINKS – weekend links. Here we list what has come in during the week, things we’ve found and things we think you’ll want to see. If you’d like to see your blog or website featured email us and if we think it fits with our readers we’ll link you. So what’s in this week?

• Andrew Puschel shared Schumacher’s new website launch earlier this year. Now he’s let us in on the soft launch of the new Patterson Flynn and Martin site. “PFM is a boutique floorcovering company based in New York (and doesn’t yet have Australian distribution), but I thought you would appreciate its brand new website because it offers the best searchable database of any trade only carpet or rug company.” And it does!! Beautiful beautiful floorcoverings to covet. I was wriggling my toes into their luxurious pile in my imagination as I clicked from page to page. Check it out!



• Sale time! Jaime emailed, “We’re having a great sale at Vitamin D(esign) and we’ve also recently added our VERY popular notebooks and reusable shopping bags to the sale – they’re all 20-25% off for a limited time!” Love those eco shopping bags and LOVE a sale. Check it all out here.
• Have you been to the new website housetribe? Real houses from around the world and almost as much fun as roaming the neighbourhood and peering through open windows 😉 “The best place to see and show houses on the web! Post for-sale or rent and get worldwide exposure. Or post just for fun, and enter the House of the Week contest!” I’m off to lurk.



• Zinnias – new ideas/great looks/inspiration. I’m so glad Tina emailed and I found her blog. Lots of eye candy! Thank God it’s the weekend and lots of free time to go through Tina’s archives!



• Yeah! Another great blog to leisurely click through this weekend. Ill Seen, Ill Said created by Jane Flanagan, online media writer and now happily transplanted Irish woman in Toronto. I’m so glad you stopped lurking Jane and introduced yourself!



• Nicola from Coast New Zealand emailed with images of Coast’s outdoor beanbags. Made from Sunbrella fabric and 100% outdoors tough they are part of Coast’s luggage and outdoor furniture range. Perfect for lounging about in. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the view though Nicola (Waiheke Island). Just wish I had a spot like that on the edge of an infinity pool to threw down my beanbag….sigh.



• This too in our inbox. “Just a quick note to introduce you to Viewville…a new site dedicated to selling fine art photo prints at an affordable price. The brainchild of my brilliant family (official family PR girl here!), Viewville was launched by my photographer uncle, my tech geek brother in law and my design-snob aunt and mother to bring good art to everyone. No more bad poster art! Each print is from the personal archives of a professional photographer, and arrives matted and ready to frame, a simple way to introduce art into the home or office.” Love this rumpled bed black & white. So many more on the website though! Thanks Nora!