Displaying posts labeled "Wood"

… you’re in for a big surprise. Sometimes mother nature wraps you up in her beauty and takes your breath away. Sometimes architects get this. Sometimes they wrap you up in the beauty they create,  in buildings that address the wonder of the site in which they are placed. I think I am in love with this Dutchess County, New York guesthouse by Allied Works Architecture. Located in a mature deciduous forest of oak, hickory, and birch.  A continuous structural steel frame blurs the boundary between forest and house. It seems to meander, to wind in and out capturing views of the changing seasons.

Before a weekend of holiday parties, almost last minute shopping, and other seasonal chaos (or in my case studying), I thought I’d provide you with a little visual respite via some gorgeous photography by Swedish (but now based in NY) photographer Paul Brissman.

Photographer Simon Whitbread generously sent over his latest photo shoot. (See me posts on Simon here and here.) A small 2 bedroom house on Sydney’s Northern Beaches sits snugly on a tight block but screens and walls, awnings and orientation provide privacy, shade and cross ventilation. More importantly this Curl-Curl home by Clifton Cole of CplusC Architectural Workshop uses light and shadow to help define spaces, to bring the outside in and to make a small home seem larger. I love the way that Simon’s photography plays with light and shadows to emphasis this design feature. He seems to “get” a building and plays on this in his work. Simon you weren’t an architect in a previous life?

I was thinking about doing a blog favourites post today as I typically do on Sundays but I am a bit too distracted to spend the time blog surfing. You see, back in April I mentioned (ok, bitched about) a French oral test I had at work. Unfortunately I did not get the grade I needed, and since then I have had no French training (due to lack of a training budget). All of a sudden on Tuesday I found out I am permitted full time training for the month of October, then I have to take the test, and once again I need to pass the freaking thing or potentially lose the position I have been working towards for the past 8 years. No pressure or anything. So if I have any spare time for the next several weeks, I need to have my nose buried in my French notes. *insert expletives here* The joys of working for the government of a bilingual country.
I was trying to figure out what post I could do relatively quickly, and realized I had some photos saved of “wood walls” – inspiration for my house when it finally gets renovated (on that note, we’re now considering tearing it down and rebuilding, which has thrown me for a loop, as that was never the plan when I bought this house). I want a rustic touch to the place, and what better way than a wall covered in wood slats…or maybe panels, but I’m leaning towards slats. Here are some photos with walls of wood that I really like. (See also this post on wood panelling)

House To Home

H&D Homes

Le Journal de la Maison

Design*Sponge

Avotakka

Design*Sponge

Yatzer	Apartment Therapy
Deko	Katarina Malstrom Brown
Design*Sponge	KITKA design toronto

Dwell

Twig Hutchinson

Design*Sponge

Style At Home

La Vallée Blanche

RUM

Dana Meilijson

MESH Architectures

Design*Sponge

Design*Sponge

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about my huge home renovation and addition project and my need for finishes for the bathrooms (and the almost non-existent budget we will have). Well, I am in the same boat with flooring. I would like hardwood flooring (could be engineered wood) throughout the house with the exception of the front entrance and bathrooms which will be tile. The flooring is another aspect of this renovation where we may be stuck with subfloor for a while if there are no funds for flooring materials – which is why I am hopeful that someone out there can help us out with a great deal on flooring with blog mentions etc. in return. I am thinking I would like to do something fairly light. I am a huge fan of Scandinavian/mid century/industrial styles and hope to mix these in my new home with lots of greys, black and white. I also have SEVEN cats and refuse to do white floors (been there, done that, didn’t work out so well) or really dark floors. Both of these would be a complete nightmare to keep clean. We can always go back to the flooring we recently put down upstairs that you can see in this post.

I found some inspiration in my stash of photos, and my favourites are below. I did include one sort of dark floor (Luce Rosso) which I would reeeeeeeally love but if it were lighter. I love the idea of a light grey stain to show off the wood grain. And it’s a bit unusual instead of typical clear sealed natural hardwood. If anyone has any suggestions for sources of flooring, or types of flooring you think would work, I’d love to hear about it in the comments or via email (desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.com). Thanks!

Bo Bedre	Sköna hem
Bolig Magasinet	Luce Rosso
Maison	Deko
Sköna hem	Katarina Malmström Brown
Vårt Nya Hem	Guts to communicate

Elle Interiör

Hus & Hem

Per Magnus Persson

Magnus Marding

Hus & Hem

Indenfor & Udenfor

Sköna hem

Allt i Hemmet

Oak Management

Sköna hem