Displaying posts labeled "Rustic"

Rustic barn meets exuberance and style. Quirky meets practicality. Concrete and chandeliers, modern art and aged oak beams. A barn conversion in Burgundy by Joséphine Gintzburger is pastoral perfection. It’s rough luxe and bucolic drama and all the modern comforts. A weekend retreat to be shared with family and friends.

A huge thanks to Deb who sent us a link to an Italian magazine “Le case di Elixìr“. They feature gorgeous homes in several styles they call shabby chic, meltin’ pot, classic and contemporary. I am most definitively drawn to the rustic, “shabby chic” homes in Italy that speak of history. I found one that made my heart melt. This is how I always imagined living in Italy (it’s been a dream of mine forever, as my mom is Italian), in a rustic villa with stone/brick walls and floors and wooden beams, with bits of modern furnishings thrown in for shock factor. This villa is going to haunt me (delightfully) for a long time.

… if you will. I have always wanted to find an old cottage, some place that hasn’t changed in all the years it has stood. A time capsule. The simple life. A few spartan rooms stained with history, heavy with memories. A place like Railway Farm just outside of Malmsbury in Victoria. I have been real estate stalking and found a rough gem. This 3 room hut, let’s face it it’s hardly a cottage, was built around 1865. Slab and tin, brick floor, walls paper in old newspapers, hot in summer, cold in winter and wonderfully beautiful in its own way. A pioneer hut unchanged except for ever thickening coats of paint on ceilings and walls. 56 acres of land, a well, stone walls and no electricity. Perfect for weekend getaways for those who crave the rough luxe… minus the luxe. Perhaps I can bring that along each weekend. Dreaming of how I would furnish it. Thank for indulging my daydream. Back to normal programming soon. Link here while it lasts.

Sitting in a meadow of flowers, surrounded by fruit trees, not far from the Baltic Sea in Germany is Haus Otteni. This old farm workers’ house has been lovingly restored by its photographer owner. It’s a family home of interconnecting rooms, clay plaster walls, rustic beams and a dark cave like feel. Interesting sight lines and the play of light and shadow reveal the photographer’s eye. A special place that is made even more lovely by its everyday practicality. Precious but not precocious. Even better it is available for holiday rent. Sunbathing in the meadows, relaxing in the shade of a fruit tree, soft breezes blowing in from the coast. Lazy, blowsy summer days with family or friends.

I’m fascinated by the spaces that architects call home, by the designs they create for themselves. Today I am posting the homes of the principles of Italian architectural studio b-arch. This is the Florentine home of Alessandro Capellaro. 300 old ballot boxes were used to delineate space, provide storage and formed the basis of furniture pieces inside an old carpenter’s workshop. Capellaro’s home explores the nature between the historic and the contemporary, between the empty and the filled and between the new and the re-used. It is a story of what has gone before, what can be re-imagined taking on a new life and what is necessary for the present. It is downright cool.