HOUSE HUNTING CT

This weekend my hubby and I went house hunting in Connecticut. We been traveling there once in a while checking out the area and looking for houses without any serious commitment. Sometimes we consider of finding a get way weekend, where we can mellow out life, after hectic weekdays in the city. This weekend we moved one step forward. We met our real estate agent, Ileana Santore from Marrin Santore Realty, LLC. What I nice lady! And she drove us around from 10am to about 5pm on Saturday showing a bunch of houses, and she even paid lunch for us! We looked at a lot of cottages, capes, ranches, colonial types; all generally surrounded by a good size of land with a lots of trees, grass, and even a stream. Almost all of them need to be fixed, or need great updates. Mike, my husband, is not happy about it; but for me this is kind of an exciting the idea… saving a lost house or fixing it up and making into beautiful home. Today I my post is about exercising the idea of fixing up a house with a new paint coat, adding some features here and there, cleaning it up like removing the old carpets and wallpaper, and adding charming furniture and accessories, and of course planting a lot of flowers. I choose one of the houses we looked at (one of my favorite) and started imaging what that could be transformed into without spending too much. First, I took pictures of the house when I visited. Now I found beautiful images of well done rooms that I like that kind of assembly in some features with the “potential house”, then try to image the possibilities…

I would paint the exterior of the house in white, the doors in back, the windows and doors' frame the color that is there, which seems to be a warm gray....  Then get some black pots fill with lavender... and lot's of hydrangea around the house.  Ah, and one lantern of each side of the door!

 

Living room before...

After...

The sunroom before...

After...

The dining room before...

Dining room after...

The kitchen before...

The kitchen after...

The Master Bedroom before...

After...

Guest Bedroom before...

After...

The backyard before...

After...

And then if we could afford later... much later...

maybe we can extend that porch... to...

And then... if the baby comes...

Let's keep looking...!  And letting the universe undersdand what you are looking for!

INTERIOR DESIGNER JAMES HUNIFORD’S HOUSE IN NYC

This week while flipping one of my old Veranda’s magazine I came across again with James Huniford. At this time the article was about his Greenwich village house in NYC. When I flipped the first page of the article I fell in love again (I say again because I had this magazine for a long time and I have seen these photos a while ago); with the serene and neutral palette of the house, filled with full of personality objects and art. In the article he says “I love found or natural things as art. Especially natural things from the sea”. There is a mix of old and new, modern and traditional that personally attracts me a lot. I believe that’s an interior to inspire… if you are into that kind of combination of styles. My tip is: if you like to collected things as James Huniford I would advise you to design an interior that is clean and simple with elegant major furniture pieces, and let your found objects stand out as pieces of art in an embracing gallery.

All photos credits to photographer William Waldron

GET THE LOOK SERIES: If I had a house in the country…

I always that this love for stone houses… I dream that one day I will live in a stone house. To keep my dream alive I look for stone houses all the time and fantasized living there. I imagine how I would decorate them… how I would create the interior complementing the exterior. Here I would like to share one of my favorite stone houses (but believe me_I have a lot of favorites). If you link to my Pinterest page you would see that I have been building a board with all of the “stone beauties” that help me keeping my dream alive. By the way, for those who don’t know what is Pinterest… it’s my new “obsession”; and as I know an obsession of many other ones. So, BE CAREFUL!
Anyway, if you are curious: check it out!

Going back to my dream house… and how I would decorate it… The photo below is one of my favorite as I said before. A house designed by Stan Dixon Architects.
As lovely as it is I am creating a warm and welcome entrance interior, follow by the first living room.

FOYER

SOURCES:

TABLE LAMP

LIGHTING PENDENT
RUNNER

WOOD BENCH
DARK PILLOW

LIGHT PILLOW

MIRROR

CONSOLE

WHITE STOOL

ART WORK

 LIVING ROOM

SOURCES:

 DRAPERY

RUG
COFFEE TABLE

CONSOLE LAMP
CERAMIC PIECE

SOFA

WING CHAIR
SIDE TABLE

FRENCH CHAIR

FOLDING STOOL

CONSOLE

LIGHTING PENDANT

REMEMBER: RG Art & Design can help you to create collections of furniture according to your taste and space dimensions.  If you want to learn more about it check our website at E-decorating.

THE MULTIPLE FACES OF A TINY POWER ROOM

“The best perfumes are in the smaller containers”… I don’t know who said that, but I always love it because that would make me feel better when sometimes been “petite” did not sound or look so attractive. Well, at least in the culture where I came from. By the way, I don’t know if you ever heard this phrase either! Well, the message is… “Small is not a document”! This is another one that I always liked! The tiny powder room that I am working on it has been quite a challenge, which is ok. I like some challenges once in a while. Challenges make you think, make you be more creative, make you explore… Here are a few ideas for the 3’6” by 4’ powder room trying to keep the same wallpaper that the client is in love with. It’s good to be in love with something… during the design process. Been in love with means that we are alive and there is emotion involved. Emotion is always good to both parties; the client and the designer.

I wonder which one is your favorite…?!?

Surface Finishes: Pattern Wallpaper, Dark Wood, Antique Gold Tile Glass, White Ceramic

Close up of the concept above

Surface Finishes: Pattern Wallpaper, Dark Wood, Gray Stone, White Ceramic

{Concept with large mirror mounted inside the stone wall}

{The same concept from above with a smaller mirror}

Surface Finishes: Pattern Wallpaper, Dark Wood, Gray Stone, White Ceramic
{Close up of the concept below}


An the general idea for all of them is to mix the traditional with the contemporary, warm and cool materials

Or maybe... should we try a surface mounted mirror with a large antique gold frame?

Another sample of the same size space with another kind of wallpaper

I AM BACK! BATHROOMS CONCEPTS

I have disappeared again! I haven't posted for more than a month?! The combination of a lot of things had stopped me blogging the past last weeks. The holidays, friends on town, busy with work and problems… and problems... not been motivated enough, been lazy… and on and on. I am not going to start complaining because that is so attractive. I want share one of my firt accomplishment of the year of 2012 (which still under development). Maybe I should say my 4 accomplishments: one is to have started learning SketchUP (a 3D software). The other ones are designing 3 bathroom concepts for a project that I am working on, in partnership with Building Equity.


Here is the master bathroom concept drawing and materials: space approx. 10’x5’



Here is the guest bathroom concept drawing and materials: space approx. 5'x8'



And here is the tiny powder room: space approx. 3'6"x4'