A couple weeks back Maureen shared with us a home featured in the Modern Home Tour in Austin. This time it’s a home from the Outdoor Living Tour that is a DREAM!
As described by the architect (Cass Cheesar Architects): One of the main objectives of this project was to celebrate sustainable design while making the elements esthetically intriguing. The cypress rain screen was allowed to gray in it’s natural time and the steel was left to create a seal of rust. Another objective was to site the project so the clients could experience the urban nature of their backyard while maintaining a small carbon footprint.
He called it The Screened Living Room. How I wish I had the space for something like this in my yard. WOW!! (Photos by Andrew Chan)

We’ve got a new advertiser in the house – NoteMaker, Australia’s leading online stationery shop. Since I was a kid I have been a sucker for anything having to do with stationary. I need funky pens, markers, paper, notebooks etc. in my life. And NoteMaker has all sorts of classic and fun stuff to suit all your needs – diaries, notebooks, pens & pencils, albums, paper, stamps, tape etc. The folks at NoteMaker have kindly provided a discount code to our readers, so enter DESIRETOINSPIRE at checkout to receive 10% off. They offer free shipping to Oz for orders over $65 and they do ship internationally (to selected countries). I went through their website and found a bunch of my favourite products, seen below:

I’d like to share another beauty from Shoot Factory with you all today. After a chaotic day at the office, how lovely it would be to come home to a place like this – white, bright, minimal, slightly rustic, and just completely calming. Except maybe for the burnt out attic (after the jump). YIKES. Charred walls make for some gorgeous photos though. Imagine one of those blown up and framed in a simple thin black or white frame.

I have been a HUGE fan of interior designer Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz of BNOdesign since I stumbled upon his website back in ’07. I’ve blogged some of his projects in the past (here, here and here) and it’s about damn time I blog his latest works. His designs can border on bizarre, but they’re always fun, funky and bold – either completely bathed in shades of white, or wild colours like pink and turquoise. I think it’s a hoot that he uses birds, feathers and fur often in his spaces. You need some talent and ballz to make those items work and not have the result be completely trashy.

Today’s reader request comes from Beverly: I am considering painting my kitchen cabinets black, at least the lowers. Most likely will do the uppers, which are doorless, in white to keep the room from being too dark. There is no natural light. Do you have any inspirations? I sure do!! I LOVE kitchens with black, whether it be just an island, or a wall, or cabinets. Now without natural light maybe painting the uppers white is a good idea but if you have a reasonable amount of wall space and you paint that white, then you likely could get away with painting all the cabinets black. Plus whatever you are displaying in the door-less uppers will show so nicely against the black. I couldn’t find many photos with black lowers and white uppers but you’ll see in many of these photos that white uppers maybe aren’t necessary.

Canadian House & Home

Amok

Sunset

McGill Design Group

Apartment Therapy

Bricault

Sköna hem

Coburn Architecture

Elle Decor

Folio

Lagerlings

Melanie Acevedo

Nuevo Estilo

Rue Magazine

Søren Rose Studio

Piet Boon

Kelly Hoppen

Country Home

Freunde von Freunden

Stuart McIntyre

Bauladen