This week, in the spirit of savoring every last bit of the season, we’re revisiting some of our favorite summery stories, like this one: Tucked away on the banks of the Loiret river is a storybook Swiss chalet that was built in 1862 by the Swiss Delegation as a representation of traditional carpentry. The building […]
Before & After: A French-Inflected Townhouse Renovation in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
When Parisians Celia and Rodolphe bought a 1910 townhouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the plan was to do a light remodel: new flooring in the basement and parlor, a kitchen on the main floor, and a refurbished upstairs bath. It’d be four to five months, tops. They got the permit and started work right away. Then […]
The Case for Cozy: Designer Lonika Chande’s Family Cottage in West London
London interior designer Lonika Chande’s Queen’s Park family home had been stripped of its history by the time she and her husband, Theo Hall, came along. Located in an enclave of Victorian affordable housing not all of which survived the Blitz, the 1876 brick structure was built for a railway worker. Many occupants later, it […]
A ’60s Ocean Lodge Redux: Timber Cove on the Sonoma Coast
When architect Richard Clements Jr. designed Timber Cove Lodge on the coast of Sonoma County, California, in 1963, he took inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright: His hotel would be a tall A-frame, whose height would optimize ocean views, and whose materials—dark wood, stone, and glass—would make the building look at home in its surroundings. Timber […]
Object of Desire: Hand-Embroidered Mohair Blankets from Jupe by Jackie
Designer Jackie Villevoye launched Jupe by Jackie in 2010 to celebrate the art of hand embroidery in Uttar Pradesh, India, a craft passed down through generations that can take upwards of 15 years to master. After success in women’s, men’s, and kids fashion, as well as a four-year-long collaboration with Comme des Garçons, Jupe by […]
Quiet, Please: A Stylish Apartment in Bustling Jackson Heights, Queens
Take a stroll on Roosevelt Avenue in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, and what you’ll encounter is movie-perfect New York City in all its loud and colorful glory: the din of the elevated subway line, pedestrians rushing to catch trains, and clusters of food trucks serving cheap and delicious foods. But walk just a […]
Architect Visit: Nick Noyes in Sonoma
San Francisco architect Nick Noyes looked to local barns and farmhouses for inspiration in the design of this weekend retreat in Healdsburg, California. Located on a 40-acre vineyard in West Dry Creek, the house is composed of two copper-roofed gable wings, connected at the entry by an aluminum storefront system; shade is provided by sunscreen […]
Object Lessons: The Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket
Native Americans aren’t generally associated with sheep, especially not sheep dotted about the limestone villages of the English Cotswolds. Yet the Hudson’s Bay Point blanket owes its existence to both, with the Hudson’s Bay fur trading post in Canada acting as a halfway point between the two cultures. The 18th century Plains Indians valued the […]
The Rose: A Singular Seaside Inn on the English Coast, Color Edition
The Rose is a just-opened, eight-bedroom seaside inn in East Kent, England. The owners—who all have holiday homes in the area—had their eye on the run-down High Street boozer for years before taking over the lease last summer. Since then they have worked in collaboration with interior designers Harding & Read and stylist Michelle Kelly […]
Jacky Winter Gardens: An Artful Retreat Outside Melbourne
Like so many people who come upon a dream fixer-upper, Jeremy Wortsman searched for a compelling reason to buy the needy midcentury house minutes from his family’s own place in the lush Dandenong Ranges, east of Melbourne. An American transplant, Wortsman, who grew up in NYC, traffics in creativity and quickly came up with an answer. […]
A Glamorous Farm for Rent, Belgian Edition
The small Belgian town of Wevelgem in West Flanders was once devoted to flax cultivation (weavers would soak their crop in the De Leie river running through town). Today, the area, within biking distance of the French border, is known for its old churches, WWI cemeteries, cycling and walking trails, and Heerlijkheid van Marrem, a historic […]
DIY: Wallpaper Headboard by Emma Cassi
London-based French jewelry designer and stylist Emma Cassi sees unusual things with her stylist eyes–things that might pass the rest of us by. When her grandmother passed away leaving boxes of antique lace, Cassi transformed the lace into what has become her signature line of handmade jewelry. (The blogosphere is full of admirers, from fashion designer Pearl […]
A Bespoke Parlor and Kitchen in Boerum Hill
Brooklyn-based Workstead’s latest project is what they call “a case study in addition and subtraction.” The house in question, which belongs to a young Boerum Hill family, had undergone a contractor-led renovation that gave it solid walls and new floors but no personality. “The home definitely lacked soul,” said design lead and project architect Ryan Mahoney. It […]
Steal This Look: Midcentury-Modern Luxe Guest Room at Hotel Sanders in Copenhagen
When we first featured the new Hotel Sanders in Copenhagen with interiors by London-based Lind & Almond, a reader commented, “PLEASE do a Steal This Look for that guest room.” Here, our answer, with a list of sources kindly shared by the designers—including their new line of Hotel Sanders furniture available through Lind & Almond. […]
Hotel Panache: The Power of Jolie Laide Style
Dorothée Meilichzon is an inventive Paris designer who dares to explore the concept of jolie laide, or unconventional beauty. “I’m not a gray-beige person,” she tells us. “I like layering colors, and finding—and setting—the limits of what is ‘too much.’” Trained as an industrial designer (who was an exchange student at RISD and received the Maison & Objet Designer of […]
Sleep and Storage from Father Rabbit, in Auckland
We’ve long admired the curatorial eye of Claudia Zinzan and Nick Hutchison of the Auckland, New Zealand, housewares store Father Rabbit Limited. The shop began online and expanded into a storefront next to the owners’ own home (see our post Shopper’s Diary: Father Rabbit Finds a New Home). Now the duo has taken curation a […]
Cuisine de la semaine : La cuisine Ikea d'un couple créatif en noir et blanc, y compris le garde-manger en carreaux de faïence
The clock was ticking. Lena de Casparis and Scott O’Donnell had six months to overhaul their terrace house fixer-upper in East London. “We could only afford to rent somewhere for that time, and we have two young daughters, so living in a building site wasn’t practical; we had to make the project happen,” says Lena. […]
10 Easy Pieces: Bin Pulls in Brass
Looking for an easy, high impact way to transform your kitchen? Consider replacing old cabinet hardware with new. A can’t-go-wrong-choice for classic kitchens: brass bin pulls. Above: A kitchen in Stockholm via Interior Stockholm. Above: The Cal Crystal Solid Brass Cup Pull comes in eight finishes (shown here in polished brass); $6.30 from Pulls Direct. […]
Before & After: Remodelista Contributing Editor Izabella Simmons Shares Her Scandi-Inspired Remodel
The first time I walked into our home, I remember immediately shifting into remodeling mode: I saw the potential, while ignoring the downsides of an 80-year-old house that hadn’t been updated in decades. I recall trying to quiet my fussy newborn and telling my four-year-old not to touch a thing. The realtor gently suggested we […]
Hand-Hewn Cabins at Dunton Hot Springs in Colorado
Not too far from the groomed slopes of Telluride, over a mountain in a remote valley of Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, lies Dunton Hot Springs. This former ghost town has been painstakingly restored, with many original features preserved; in addition, several historic structures have been hauled in from other parts of Colorado. Many of the […]
The White Album: 27 Serene Bedrooms in Shades of Pale
Who doesn’t long for a bedroom that acts like a lullaby? If you’re sleep-challenged—isn’t everyone these days?—consider creating your own cloud chamber. Fans of all-white bedrooms use words like “tranquil,” “blank slate,” “no distractions,” and “Zen” to describe the appeal. There’s also an automatic tidy look that comes with opting for all white: a single […]
Christine’s House: Living Small in London
Whenever my architect husband and I embark on a remodeling project in our modern London terraced house, we morph into truffle pigs, sniffing out storage opportunities in the most unlikely places. And when there’s no more to be found, we create new opportunities. A little ingenuity and a great deal of flexibility means that over […]
Reinventing the Mattress, Silicon Valley Edition
What happens when programmer guys go shopping for mattresses? They toss and turn at night and dream up schemes for disrupting the industry. Two sleep startups are seeking to reinvent the way mattresses are made and sold, streamlining the options and cutting out the middlemen. Casper Above: “We looked at the hotel industry, where they […]
An Apartment in Taipei: A Childhood Home, Updated for a Newlywed Couple
Homework, an upstart interior design firm in Taipei, Taiwan, specializes in using plaster finishes and vintage furnishings to create hushed, self-contained worlds. A year ago, we featured a Tea House Built from Sentimental Objects and Homework’s own Bohemian Photo Studio. Today, we’re spotlighting an apartment in a 1990s building in downtown Taipei that the firm […]
Kitchen of the Week: A Vibrant Family Kitchen in North London
Another hard-to-ignore Uncommon Projects kitchen, this time in cheerful shades of coral and hot orange. This kitchen belongs to Rachel Kay, her husband, George, and their two daughters, Seren, nine, and Eira, six. It’s on the ground floor of a three-story Victorian terraced house in Stoke Newington, North London. They moved in just before the […]
New Kid on the Block: A Skinny-Luxe Lower East Side Apartment Hotel
The slender tower that spans the block between Allen and Orchard streets on NYC’s Lower East Side is a recent build designed to fit in, and, in typical New Yorker fashion, to make a style statement. The building is set on an in-fill lot with an extremely narrow footprint, and architects Matthew Grzywinski and Amador Pons of Grzywinski […]
Ikea Elevated: Kitchen Cabinet Fronts Made of a Surprise Sustainable Material
Who knew bamboo could look this good? Of late, we’ve seen an array of cabinet fronts designed to elevate Ikea kitchens. Ask og Eng’s of Oslo, Norway, are our latest favorites—and among the only to approach the challenge with high-style green design in mind. Like so many small workshops, owners Kine Ask Stenersen and Kristoffer Eng tell […]
Midcentury Modern Meets Medina
For Emma Wilson and Graham Carter it was love at first sight—with Morocco, that is. The result of their romance? Dar Beida, an 18th-century villa by the sea, where the couple offers visitors an original mix of 1960s retro and ethno/Moroccan architecture and design. Wilson and Carter visited this Northern African kingdom at different times […]
World’s Tiniest Spa Bath: A Grecian-Inspired Guest Suite in LA
In designer Michaela Scherrer‘s all-white Pasadena bungalow, the guest suite comes with the ultimate minimalist spa bath, ancient Greek-style sunken bathtub included. Michaela is a member of the Remodelista Architect/Designer Directory, and we got to know her when we photographed her surpassingly calm quarters for the Remodelista book. Her style is meditative but far from monastic: She’s a master at using […]
Quiet Beauty in Edinburgh: At Home and Work with Nina Plummer
When Nina and Craig Plummer left London for Edinburgh, they came seeking soulful living. The two met as psychology students at Dundee University and they take an analytical approach to interiors and the feelings rooms impart. Self-taught design aficionados, they share a love of antiques, quiet spaces, and applying care and intention to their quarters: […]
New for Summer: Hay’s Été Line of Striped Linens
Made of 100 percent cotton, with wide, sun-bleached stripes, Copenhagen-based Hay’s Été bedlinen, designed by Amanda Borberg, adds a nautical note to the summer bedroom. For dealer information, go to Hay. Here’s a look: Above: The Ete Collection in warm yellow; the bed cover is the Crinkled Bedspread in cream. Above: A detail of the warm yellow […]
Kitchen of the Week: Frama’s Freestanding Components Made By Top-Drawer Swedish Cabinetmaker Kvänum
A decade or so ago, when Niels Strøyer Christophersen founded his celebrated Copenhagen design firm, Frama, he used his living quarters in a restored 1905 watchmaker’s shop as a showcase for his studio’s work. Extolling natural, unpretentious materials, ease of use, and reverence for the old, Christophersen went on to created refreshingly simple elements for […]
Kitchen of the Week: Commune of LA Designs a Culinary Space in Paris
Edgy Southern California style meets French luxe in a Paris artist’s garret remodeled by Commune of LA. The commission came from Paula Nataf and her two sons, Franck and Alexis, who together founded Exquisite Surfaces, the LA-based tile and flooring company that offers several Commune-designed collections. The transcontinental family (Paula grew up in Tunisia and raised her kids in Paris before […]
Retreat for Two: A Lakeside Rental Cabin at Settle in Norfolk, England
Guests at Settle, a vacation enclave in Norfolk, on the east coast of England, are invited to make themselves at home in a range of accommodations, including canvas safari tents, converted railway carriage (see our recent feature Getaway Cars), and a lake cabin. All are the result of the combined talents of owners Jo and […]
Copenhagen Clubhouse The Audo: A New Creative Hub with Hotel Rooms Under the Rafters
Set in a shipping merchant’s quarters in Copenhagen’s waterfront district, The Audo is an ambitious new multi-use gathering place. It was dreamed up by the founder of furniture company Menu, Bjarne Hansen, to serve as the brand’s new headquarters, and also to showcase its designs put to use—in a concept store, restaurant and cafe, co-working […]
Kitchen of the Week: A Flemish-Inspired Contemporary Farmhouse Kitchen
The client grew up in the area riding ponies in the fields that surround his Georgian house near Belfast, Ireland. He returned after many years in London and purchased a farmstead in disrepair. Wanting to turn his place into “a tribute to craftsmanship,” he worked with Artichoke, a UK design-build firm specializing in bespoke, top-drawer […]
Kitchen: Teragren Bamboo Countertops & Cabinets
Founded in 1994 by Ann and David Knight, self-described “avid environmentalists,” Teragren is one of North America’s largest manufacturers of environmentally friendly bamboo flooring, stair parts, trim, panels, veneer, and butcher block countertops. “We control production from harvest to distribution of all Teragren products,” the couple says, “specifying only materials and processes that meet stringent […]
Kitchen of the Week: A Japanese-Style Upgrade for Ikea Kitchens
Taking inspiration from traditional Japanese architecture as well as her own Nordic roots, 39-year-old Danish furniture maker Chris Liljenberg Halstrøm detailed her new kitchen design with intersecting bands of solid ash: The shoji screen meets Danish minimalism. The goal, she says, was to create cabinetry that can be “perceived as a piece of furniture.” Surprisingly […]
‘Resourcefulness as a Design Principle’: A One-of-a-Kind Remodel by Two Artists on a Budget
Amy Dennis studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art and then went on to work in curatorial roles before returning to painting full time. Her husband, Neville Rae, has a degree in environmental art from Glasgow School of Art and worked as an artist and technician before launching Old School Fabrications, a metalwork, carpentry, and […]
Kitchen of the Week: A Modular Kitchen in Stockholm with a Seasonal (and Swappable) Palette
Designed by Perniclas Bedow of Bedow Design Studio, this small modular kitchen is designed to change colors with the seasons and is located in a 1909 house in a leafy neighborhood in Stockholm, on Bjorkvagen Street (which translates to Birch Street). “Instead of imitating a hundred-year-old style, I wanted to contrast the house’s history with […]