Displaying posts labeled "Wood"

Melissa of CCS Architecture emailed the other day with some photos of an INCREDIBLE retreat in Aptos, California designed for a couple with 6 children. Located on 20 acres, the property (with ocean and mountain views) includes 2 primary buildings. The first is a 2800-square-foot main house that is composed of a ‘live building’ and a ‘sleep building’ that overlap at their roofs to create a linkage and sheltered outdoor space. The second is the Barn, a 1600-square-foot, rusted steel warehouse outfitted for use as the property’s “clubhouse.”  The first floor is set up for ping pong and large-screen TV watching, and houses surfboards and other recreational beach equipment. The loft level is set up with a billiard table and sofa beds all around for additional slumber party needs. Folks, this sounds an awful lot like my dream home. And after devouring the photos below, this looks like my dream home. Brace yourselves…..

Here are a few things that really do it for me: plywood used as a material for cabinets/walls etc., an incredible view out of floor to ceiling windows, vaulted ceilings, quirky shaped windows, the perfect red door…and I found all these in the portfolio of New Zealand based Parsonson Architects.

Lee-Anne from Toronto wrote us looking for help: “I love your website and thought you might be able to help me with my design dilemma. We recently bought a home that was built in the 40’s that’s a bit of a fixer upper. It has wooden baseboards throughout and lots of wood trim. I am still hanging onto my old furniture but I am sooooo ready to redo this room!! I want to modernise it and add colour and texture!! My dilemma is that in almost all of the design pictures that I see, the baseboards are painted white. My sister has told me in no uncertain terms that I am NOT to paint the wood trim in the house. I am looking for inspiration where people have kept the baseboards a natural colour.” Below are some photos Lee-Anne included of her home.

At first I immediately thought “PAINT!!” but if I had such beautiful baseboards and trim, I would be terrified to paint it. So after looking at the photos, I would listen to your sister. But I would get out the paint can for a few things. I would paint out the fireplace (and lose that huge mirror above), the risers on the stairs and maybe the balusters (a photo below shows this). That’s it. But keep your walls light and if you were going to get rugs, I’d keep those light too. Or you could go with a warm bright wall colour (see the yellow wall below). So the following are photos of spaces with unpainted trim (except the last one but imagine it’s a dark wood).

Better Homes and Gardens	Better Homes and Gardens
Caroline Beaupère	Alexandra Rowley
Todd Oldham	Fox-Nahem
Canadian House & Home	The Selby

And to make your decision even harder Lee-Anne, here are some photos of spaces with painted trim, you know, to keep your options open. 🙂

The work of Lake|Flato Architects is jaw-dropping gorgeous. Architecture merges fluently with landscape. Spaces that leave you with a sense of serenity. Land, light, sustainability and community are all crucial principals they follow. The amount of windows and views they take advantage of are stunning. I’ll take them all.