Nestled on a quiet street is an unassuming slate blue garage facade, behind which exists a rare courtyard house with industrial roots. The two-story house was designed to serve the dual purpose of the client’s home and working space. Creating a dialogue that connects the private and public zones was the main consideration in approaching the design for this two bedroom and two and a half bathroom residence. A focus was to also enhance the ease of flow between the multiple living spaces presented by the circular architecture of the courtyard. The indoor and outdoor; private and communal blend seamlessly with generous access to light and air. Each area within the home, with its own design identity, is interconnected. Here lies the beautiful balance of unity in a courtyard house.
I could not be more smitten with this home, by Melissa Lee of interior design firm Bespoke Only. I adore courtyards, and homes that aren’t what they appear from the façade. Photos: Alice Gao

I got my hands on a few new books as of late, which is always an exciting mail day when a book shows up, and this first one, French Blooms, was my favourite. (Author Sandra Sigman Of Les Fleurs, with Victoria A. Riccardi; Photographs by Kindra Clineff; Published by Rizzoli)
As Sandra Sigman learned while living in Paris in her twenties, the French consider each floral arrangement a unique work of art filled with passion, movement, texture, and surprise. In French Blooms, Sigman shares the distinct design principles she learned from her favorite Parisian florist, and offers tutorials, with images and instructions for creating French-inspired arrangements for different areas of the home. With chapters on choosing the right containers—from vintage stoneware crocks to baskets and white ceramic footed vases—and flower care and tools, along with lush photographs, many taken in Paris, Normandy, and Provence, this book is both inspirational and practical. It’s also a love letter to France—from Parisian sophistication to the simple grace of provincial life.
The pairing of gorgeous flower arrangements with the exquisite beauty of scenes from France make this a delightful dose of eye candy.

Next up is a book by someone I’ve admired for many years, since we first began this blog and I started to become familiar with design icons. Creative Interior Solutions by Vicente Wolf and Margaret Russell, published by Rizzoli, is a classic book featuring past and present projects by this master of interiors and was fun to spot spaces I hadn’t seen in years. If you don’t know, he’s the king of mixing whites with modern and antiques.

In this book, celebrated AD100 designer Vicente Wolf shares the expertise he has honed over forty plus successful years in the business. Wolf’s work is characterized by a passion for integrity and simplicity; a sophisticated sense of space, color, and ease; masterful handling of furniture, fabrics, and art; and the use of rare antiques and exceptional handcrafted pieces (many acquired on annual globe-trotting adventures). Organized topically and illustrated with Wolf’s own photographs, the design principles are engaging, absorbing, and above all practical—from coping with the challenges inherent in life transitions to overcoming space and budget limitations to working with art and other collections and remaking outdated spaces.

And lastly I received a book by an architecture firm that admittedly is new to me and whom we have not featured on the blog before. New York based Stelle Lomont Rouhani are responsible for designing some really spectacular modern, clean-lined, homes that look like works of art amidst the landscape. Some of the spreads in their first book, Stelle Lomont Rouhani: Architecture and Interiors (published again by Rizzoli), really took my breath away. A perfect coffee table book.

Modern houses that are timeless, thoughtfully detailed, marked by innovative and environmentally friendly design, and inevitably situated close to nature—by the sea, on the bluff, upon the dunes—are the hallmark of Stelle Lomont Rouhani. With thought to an ultimate experience of comfort, to space and light, to views, and to a way of living beside nature that is considerate of nature, the architects open walls toward the sea and position decks to allow for the enjoyment of morning sunlight and scented breezes redolent of bayberries and pine. Ultimately it is a kind of harmony the architects are after and doing more with less, a Zen-like quality that renews the spirit, offering serenity and repose—and which, in the houses featured here, they so warmly, so quietly find.

Introducing Blairlogie Castle in Scotland, said to date from 1513, with a sitting room with an arched 16th century stone fireplace, wine cellar, AGA in the kitchen, an adorable butler’s pantry, a drawing room with decorative panelled ceiling and stone fireplace and 16th century oak door and a studded door to spiral stairs up to the library, library at the top of the house with a ceiling made of ship’s timbers, 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms. On the property there is a cottage, former stables, garages, stone summerhouse, a terrace with a garden store and a large greenhouse.
This sounds and looks like a dream castle and the location is breathtaking. Where do I sign?! Currently under offer @ £1,450,000 via Savills.

HALLELUJAH!!! Designer Anne McDonald did not paint the wood work in this home! That along with the moody wallpapered dining room, the classic European-style kitchen and the dramatic eye-candy bathrooms, is how you totally nail a 1880’s renovation. I AM IN LOVE! Photos: Wing Ho.

It is a reform of an existing house in ruins, which had already been built with sandstone walls sourced from a local sandstone quarry. The house is located on the outskirts of Porreras, a town located in the center-south of the Island of Mallorca, on a plot with a certain slope and views towards the town surrounded by the northern part of an oak grove and a cultivated field where traditionally they grow apricots. Raw materials are used to build the interior of the house.
Simple, modern, bright and blends with the landscape. What a work of art this is. Designed by munarq architectural studio. Photos: Silvia Foz