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An Italian idyll, a rural reverie, an historic farm house surrounded by olive groves. Could the daydream be more perfect? It could if the interiors are designed by Alexander Waterworth. Rustic and refined, rough and luxe, indulgent and spartan. Masseria Petrarolo in Puglia. Beauty in stone.

New York architecture and design firm Turett Collaborative Architects take tired, decrepit, poorly planned structures and brings them into the new millenium – turning them into glorious dream homes. This post includes photos from several of their projects, including a client’s desire for a helical slid to combine two penthouse condos.

The Line Hotel, Koreatown, Los Angeles. Hip and happening, housed in a mid-century building designed by Daniel Mann Johnson + Mendenhall in 1964. Restored, renovated and re-imagined with interiors by Sean Knibb. Raw, repurposed and rockin’.

A mix of contemporary and classic. Interiors layered with pattern and texture. Splashes of colour against warm neutrals. Quality not quantity. Practical luxury and functional beauty. Elegant and personal. Love this home by Washington DC interior designer Marika Meyer.

At the Ottawa Antique Show my husband and I were told by a fellow vendor that we should take a drive to Almonte, a town about 50 KM west of Ottawa. Jeff and I thought we had visited just about every town nearby as we love exploring and antiquing, but somehow we had never ended up in Almonte. Saturday morning we hopped in the car with some Tim’s coffee and steeped tea and headed to this quaint town…and fell in love. It was gorgeous. Almonte is a former mill town (coincidentally, the main road is called Mill Street) with the Mississippi River running through it. Had I known how beautiful it was and how much fun I would have shopping there, I would have brought a camera and planned a blog post. Since I ended up scoring some amazing finds in almost every shop we visited I decided to do a blog post despite only having had my iPhone on hand. 

One of my favourite stores was Tin Barn Market – an ever-evolving shop concept that brings together a stylishly eclectic mix of vintage, salvage, handmade objects and handpicked items deserving of a second chance. It is owned by Errin Stone & Vicki Veenstra (it was nice chatting with you Vicki!) and if farmhouse/industrial/rustic style is your thing then you would love this place.

Of course, we picked up a few things here 😉 – a vintage steel medicine cabinet (our current antique wooden one is WAY too small), vintage hangers, a pendant light cord and house numbers for a mailbox my husband is apparently going to build.

I wish I had of taken photos in some of the other shops but it wasn’t until one of our last stops in Tin Barn Market that I realized this trip was blog worthy. 🙁 Next time. I do have photos of my purchases I snapped when we got home. (I’ll have to get take more once everything is displayed around the house).

Our first stop was in a really cool shop called Hello Yellow – a one-of-a-kind little shop stocked to the gills with (cheerfully) made goods from paper products to bath & body, fashion accessories and home decor. Owner Emily was really sweet and she stocks some really fabulous handmade goodies (ie. Bookhou!). This is what we ended up purchasing:

cute straws, wasabi tape, a soy candle from Quebec, fluro gift tags, a toque for the hubby, and an awesome 8×10 print

Next was a beautiful and very well curated art gallery that had me gasping in delight every 5 seconds. General Fine Craft is owned by Chandler Swain and Richard Skrobecki (both recognized studio potters) and is a gallery exhibiting and selling the work of highly skilled, innovative makers. The bright, open space is designed to showcase functional and non-functional fine craft and art from artists working in Ontario and Quebec. It took me a while to narrow down my choices…

The mug was my husband’s choice – by Leta Cormier. He’s drinking a coffee out of it right now. 🙂 Next to that is an ebonized and oiled red oak candlestick by John Ward. Then I chose a super cute bud vase by Michael Doxey, and a bowl by Don Cormier. 

bud vase detail 🙂

The Almonte Antique Market is a 2 story building that had so much vintage/antique goodness. I could have spent hours in there. Here is what I found.

I KNOW, I was trying to sell my coloured West German pottery, but this aqua coloured vase in my favourite pattern was such a great price I could not resist.

In an antique shop on the main drag whose name I am not sure of because we can’t find the receipt, I found a gorgeous old frame (the photo freaks me out so I will be covering it up hopefully with the print I bought in Hello Yellow) and yet another West German vase, which again was a great price so I had to scoop it up. At least this one is neutral colours. 🙂

And lastly, we stopped at Gilligallou – ‘an oasis for birders’ and bought a plastic bird feeder to put in a window and torture our cats.