Displaying posts from July, 2023

“Sometimes you just want a vacation in the city. This client wanted to evoke an authentic midcentury Palm Springs vibe in her early 1970’s house without having to get on a plane. The challenge was that the house didn’t have a vibe to start with.

We took a house with 5 small bedrooms and reimagined it to have a larger primary suite, a suite with study/lounge space for the teenage child, a guest bedroom, and a home office. We opened up the living/dining/kitchen to improve circulation. And we created an open hang-out space with a kitchenette on the lower-level walk-out basement for watching movies, ping-pong, games and hanging out with friends. Custom cabinetry with mid-century detailing was added throughout, including wood screens and casework that divide the spaces but let light flow through.

Materially we added large format terrazzo tile in the entry and bathrooms, concrete countertops, smoky mirrors, vintage furnishings, decorative lighting, Heath Tile, full height draperies in bedrooms, kitchen, living, dining and office. The entry powder was paneled in clear cedar with a floating custom cedar vanity and custom integral wood pulls (carved and applied). Because there were not many large art walls, the owner wanted to treat the decorative lighting as pieces of art.”

Fun and fabulous in Seattle this “mid-century” makeover is packed with colour and personality. Who needs to be in Palm Springs when you can have it all at home? Midcentury Broadmoor by Hoedemaker Pfeiffer.

Photography by ​​Haris Kenjar​.

A gut renovation project that included a new interior layout starting after the historic second room of the home, the owner chose to enliven the original front rooms by exposing the beams above and painting the ceilings a bold color. A reimaging of the second-floor loft included a new painted curved stair with skylights above, guest bedroom, playroom with an integrated kitchenette and a guest bathroom. The exterior restoration incorporated a large side porch addition of approximately 52’ long by 8’ wide, a series of wood French doors connecting the porch to the living space, repairs to existing wood windows and doors, and a new playful exterior color palette. Portions of the exterior of the home were repaired and replaced due to termite damage.
This house is adorable! The front and back porches, the pink shutters, the floor to ceiling bookcases, double sided brick fireplace….so many things adding so much personality! By architecture firm Studio BKA.

My backyard has gone through some changes over the past few years since we started working on it. One of the things we did recently was remove a tree and a badly designed catio in the corner of our yard and we ended up with this rather large area of essentially unused space. We laid some flagstone we bought for $200 on Facebook Marketplace and decided this would become a barbecue area. My husband was going to design and build a gazebo to put over the barbecue (for some reason he hates cooking in the rain LOL) but to my absolute delight, the folks at Backyard Discovery reached out about the recent launch of their new Canadian site, backyarddiscovery.ca, and offered me one of their products to test out. When I learned that among play structures, pergolas and gazebos, they had actual grill gazebos I could not believe my luck! Not that I didn’t think my husband could build one, but I am 150% sure this went WAY smoother and looks better than what he would have come up.

I went with the Saxony grill gazebo, which is perfect for an “average” size barbecue (up to 70″ wide) and really fit the space we had to work with without being too bulky. It comes ready to assemble in pre-stained cedar, with a roof made of steel so it can withstand our Canadian winters and the snow they naturally come with. It requires 2 people to put together so my husband and I tackled it together. He’s got a slew of tools in his workshop so we had everything we needed (and much more) to be able to put it together, but really it just needed the basics (ie. hammer, wrenches, screwdrivers, drills etc).

When we unpacked everything I got a little nervous because there were MANY bolts and screws and doodads as per the above photo, and the instructions did say it would take 2 people around 4 hours to put together. Realistically it took a bit longer than that with some sanity breaks thrown in, and went faster as we learned some “tricks” – one important one being that while the holes are pre-drilled, we discovered after stripping a few screws inexplicably that there was a lot of debris from the pre-drilling in the holes so we used a long screw to jam in to all the holes to clear them before drilling.
We started with the basic structure:

Then we added the side sections that included steel balusters and powder coated steel countertops (LOVE this extra space for serving and prepping food and hanging out and enjoying a drink – it’s almost like a little bar!):

Then we tackled the roof. My husband built the frame while I peeled off the very-stuck-on coating on the steel roof panels.

Husband was super excited that this grill gazebo came with the ability to have power, so he happily installed the PowerPort™ onto the back left post that features 3 electrical outlets and 3 USB ports, allowing him to install lights on the roof, a fan, charge his phone while grilling and plugging in one of his handmade bluetooth speakers (we always have one outside with us).

And there you have it, all done! We were sooooo happy with how this grill gazebo turned out. My husband stared out the back door for days in awe. We have a little bit of work still to do around that area but with some potted plants around the new gazebo, it really is looking fabulous already and we have been barbequing non-stop since we put it together. Before I share some photos of it looking cute and ready for some grilling, the kind folks @ Backyard Discovery are offering 15% off with the code DESIRETOINSPIRE15 on the Canadian site valid until July 15th. I could not recommend their products more – this was such a blessing and we honestly could not be more pleased with how it looks and functions.

“It was such a pleasure to design on such a unique block rarely found so close to the beach. A relatively flat block, it was the subtle level changes between the built forms and the gardens that enabled some creative design opportunities in the form of boardwalks and decks. These have been designed in a way that evokes a sense of the coast, meandering along a boardwalk with a body of water, grass or garden beneath you. That small, almost unnoticed separation makes all the difference. The pool has been comfortably nestled into a corner with limestone paving that also descends into the pool and throughout it, creating a beautiful water tone. The homeowner is fastidious about the lawn which is like a bowling green, and the garden needed to create holiday vibes where barefoot living is demanded as well as desired by anyone entering the Villa.”

It’s every Australian’s dream, a home by the beach and an amazing backyard. A truly fabulous lifestyle garden in Manly, Sydney by Landart.

Photography by Jason Busch.

With its post war modernist bones it would be easy to reproduce a retro 50’s decor or worse demo and create a bare modern interior. Instead Warsaw-based interior design firm Colombe celebrated the building painting everything white then appling pops of colour framed like works of art and filling it with a mix of midcentury and contemporary pieces. Fun, fabulous and fresh, a liveable, loveable family home.

Photography by Kasia Gatkowska.