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Archive for May, 2010

This Willow Glen Cottage Had Me at the Yellow Door: Lookiloos.

A Los Feliz Mansion Left Intact Since Murder-Suicide in ‘59: Atlas Obscura.

Tina Fey Selling Upper West Side Apartment: HuffPo.

Kate Gives Her Laundry Room a Fabulous Makeover: Centsational Girl.

Decorating with Vintage Mirrors: A Beach Cottage.

I’m Loving these Retro Diving Girls: Outer Banks Trading Group.

The World’s 10 Most Fascinating Castles & Palaces: Oddee.

Got $3.3 million? You Can Buy Anne Rice’s House in California: Dream Homes.

Win This HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam Edition Netbook: Coupon Mountain.

“Sex and the City 2″ Has Decor Galore: CasaSugar.

Interior Design Recipes for Your Kitchen or Bath: Design in a Bag.

Need Inspiration? Gallery of Remodeled Kitchens & Baths: CalFinder.

Kinda Creepy! Ryugyong Hotel, the World’s Biggest Ruin: Obvious.

Have a Great Memorial Day Weekend!

Kariouk Associates have designed the Echo House in Ottawa, Canada; which involved renovating an existing 1924 Victorian-style house into an updated contemporary home.

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The Echo House by Kariouk Associates

Task:
To marry eighty-four years of history by integrating a contemporary, open and functional living space inside a 1924 landmark that overlooks the Rideau Canal.

Project Challenge:
The starting point for this renovation was a modest Victorian home in poor condition, whose rooms with small windows and dark interior spaces were separated from one another, as was typical of homes built in an era when privacy was a cultural priority. In another gesture to Victorian public decorum, the arrangement of the existing interior spaces reinforced the antiquated ideal that work life and family life should be kept distinct.
Although the client required the renovated space to welcome work life in the home while continuing to maintain clear separations from their family life, it was also important to create a modern, bright space that, albeit small in size, would still appear spacious and visually connected.

Project Response:

Echo: noun; “A sympathetic or identical response, as to sentiments expressed; a lingering trace or effect”

That the house had scarcely been changed since it was originally constructed was both a virtue and a challenge that enabled design opportunities. The footprint of the house is small (approximately seven-hundred square feet). It was therefore not possible to create a loft-like setting on the ground floor that seemed simultaneously open and provided the required distinct work/living spaces. The house was re-envisaged as a vertical loft – an open, four-storey volume reaching from the basement to the ceiling of the new roof. The new main level and former basement level are opened to each other by a wide stair that highlights views to the home’s original stone foundation walls. Hence, the former Victorian main living level, once segregated into four separate rooms, is now made open and spacious. The small, original windows are replaced with large windows both at the front and rear of the new parlour, visually extending that space into the front yard and the back yard, and, finally, enabling views from the back yard (all the way through the house) to views of the Rideau Canal.

The remaining spatial requirements included very private spaces: a study that could accommodate several thousand books, a den, and a master-bedroom suite. In order to achieve the seemingly paradoxical request for a loft-like home but with spaces as private as the former Victorian ones, the study, den, and “book vault” are designed as distinct volumes suspended inside the larger, four-storey volume. Because these volumes “float” high up within the now-emptied shell of the original house, they achieve the required visual privacy from the parlour below and the street outside (despite the expanded areas of windows). Though these spaces are small, they are bright and airy and seem large since they all have visual access to both windows and other interior spaces of the home.

The very most private areas of the redesigned house (such as closets, toilets, and stairs) are arranged along the south wall of the house and are shielded by a three-storey hickory “modesty screen.” At the top level, the master-bedroom suite cantilevers over the front facade and yard and also appears as a distinct, floating volume, and forms a canopy over the entry. In this way, the former attic space of the Victorian house is redesigned to provide for light and views where none existed before in the original home, and due to its elevated position, it does so while maintaining privacy. At the initial request of the clients, this renovation allows the values of a bygone era to be given voice in the current era.

Visit the website of Kariouk Associates – here.

Photography by Photolux Studios (Christian Lalonde)

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As we already noticed, glowing pots and planters are awesome decoration for any outdoor and even indoor space. There are some of such translucent pots and planters among simple, stylish and yet sustainable products by Rotoluxe. The company creates objects of interior design from recycled content and use low watt CFL/LED lighting to provide them with an ambient glow. The Vazon Magnum is the company’s most popular series of classically shaped pots with a modern twist. They comes in different sizes, are eco-friendly and could be used in an endless amount of ways to decorate your space. Imagine how cool that space would look at dusk…

Similar Posts:

	Modern Planters for a Balcony Or Any Other Space with Railing		Wall Mounted Flower Pots – Off The Wall by Thelermont Hupton
	Hanging Flower Pots With Horns From Which They Hangs		Decorative Planters Made of Old Recycled Books
	Best Product and Furniture Designs of April 2010		Lechuza Sub-Irrigation Planters with Modern Design

Continue reading about Translucent Glowing Pots and Planters – Vazon by Rolotuxe…

SAA collection is one of the latest collections for spring/summer 2010 season by French company, Bleu Nature. It represents the cutting edge of eco and nature inspired design. The collection is designed by Frank Lefebvre and Bastien Taillard, and inspired by “blue ice”. It consists of a table and two different types of matching chairs that as usual has quite unique designs. The table is made of white lacquered steel, glacier blue bull calf and extra white tempered glass. Chairs, besides white lacquered steel base have driftwood armrests which look like they weren’t polish a lot. The good thing that the table and chairs don’t feature popular materials like leather. That makes them a very interesting for those who doesn’t want a standard decor at their homes. { Bleu Nature }

Similar Posts:

	Stylish Contemporary Shower Cabin – B-Zone from Blu Bleu		Modern Tables with Molded Outline from Emmei
	55 Glass Top Dining Tables With Original Bases		Slim Futuristic Tables from KREATY
	Small Contemporary Folding Table – M’Ovo from Lapalma		Modern Minimalist Dining Table – Irons by Meridiani

Continue reading about New Nature Inspired Table and Chairs – SAA by Bleu Nature…

Simply Scandinavian by Sara Norman is a beautiful new book published by Ryland Peters and Small that brings together two of my all-time favorite things: Scandinavian style and peeking into interesting homes.

It takes us into 20 homes in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark that range from city apartments to seaside cabins, belonging to artists, chefs, designers and others.

The book explores four styles: elegant simplicity, vintage-inspired, pared-down modern, and contemporary rustic.

While these are distinct, there is still a common thread that runs through all of these homes.

They all celebrate comfort, simplicity, elegance, light and natural materials, which makes them all so very Scandinavian.

Remember this page from my moodboard earlier this week?

These images are just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re a fan of Scandinavian interior design, Simply Scandinavian is a must-have.

Thank you so much for all of your support this week – for all the nice comments on yesterday’s news, taking my poll (which is still open if you’d like to cast your vote), and entries for the Golden Bamboo Table giveaway. If you haven’t entered yet, there’s still time! The winner will be announced Monday.

Have a great (long for us Americans) weekend!

(Photos: Ryland Peters & Small)

*For the record, I was provided a review copy but I only recommend books I genuinely like.