House in Catskills, assembled from kit

Don’t you just love taking a tour through someone’s house?

I find myself silently critiquing elements, “Yes, that works …. Nope!  Ugly!”  Here’s a modern prefab house made of galvanized steel.  It is loaded with eclectic pieces that work so very well together.  I found myself nodding approval all through this  tour.

NY Times:  House in Catskills

The color yellow says its “Spring time”

Every year I wrestle with deciding on which season is my favorite time of year.  I hear myself respond, “Fall”, due to leaves turning brilliant orange, crimson and gold.   Then I immediately hear myself say, “Spring”.  Spring comes with it own brilliant colors, varying greens bursting from new leaves dancing on each branch, accompanied by the yellows on the forsythia branches, daffodils and tulips.  Here are a few things you can use to bring spring  into your décor.

I left my heart in San Francisco..

My family and I have traveled to San Francisco and driven over the iconic Golden Gate Bridge.  First, I have to admit my husband  drove us over the bridge due to my fear of  suspension bridges.  What struck me at first glance of the bridge, the color of the bridge was not golden as the famous song implies.  It was a red rusty dull brown color.  But as we crossed over the bridge, the sun came out of hiding to reveal the bridge’s beautiful golden color.

You can own part of the famous historic bridge.  The company The Golden Gate Furniture Company has turned part of the handrails from the bridge into beautiful pieces of furniture.  Here is an example of a side table using the bridge's reclaimed handrails. http://www.ggbfurniture.com/designs/breakfast-table

Sometimes Good Design Shouldn’t be Seen

We’ve been thinking about installing a solar power system.

My husband wants to leverage rebates and thinks of solar as an investment. My only requirement, as you would expect, is that the panels be aesthetically pleasing.  During our research, we found that our house gets maximum sun coverage through the day on our low pitch hip roof in the back of the house.  The panels cannot be seen from the ground on that part of the roof. Our panels will be invisible!

It occurred to me that  sometimes the best design includes elements you can’t see.

So we both win.  My husband gets his the return on investment.  I get a clean simple house facade.   Sometimes everybody gets what they want.

Here’s more about our journey to consider a solar system.

Turn up the heat in style!

Every building has one of these. Tired of guessing? The answer, the ugly square beige color thermostat. A former Apple executive created this stylish, easy to use thermostat.

Trunks

Converted metal trunks have never looked so good!

Creativity

Bike Valet

The Bike Valet. It is made from 1/8″ cold steel initially designed in Sketchup and later transferred to CAD. Its elegant shape is cut using a laser cutter. It is heated and bent by hand to the appropriate spec’s and  then powder coated for a durable long-lasting finish in red, blue, black, cream white, pale green or grey. You have your choice of either a leather or neoprene pad to rest your bike on.

Hanger Chair

Philippe Malouin creates “Occasional furniture”.

“The name should be self explanatory, but it is somewhat incorrect in most cases. These pieces tend to lie around the house, stacked in a corner, or in an unused room. When space is an issue, as is the case for most European city dwellers, an object such as a folding chair will clutter up the precious available space. The Hanger Chair is a folding chair based on one of the ultimate storage systems: the modest hanger. It allows us to store clothes in an orderly fashion. Most houses or flats are equipped with a wardrobe to receive the object. By morphing the function of the hanger with that of the folding chair, a new hybrid is born: a Hanger Chair that has a function, even when not in use, to store our clothes in an orderly fashion.”

Beam Kitchen

Beam kitchen, designed by Tom Dixon in collaboration with Lindholdt Studio.  Established in 2002, Tom Dixon is a British design and manufacturing company of lighting and furniture.