Martino di Napoli Rampolla opened Numeroventi, a guesthouse and residency in the center of Florence, after living among the creative class in Barcelona and noticing the “lack of a contemporary connected community in Florence” by comparison. Back in Barcelona, Rampolla met designer Andrew Trotter through his project called Openhouse (then a gallery and store, now a […]
An Iconic Modern House in Woodstock Hits the Market
Tuscon-based architect Rick Joy grew up in Maine, where he studied music and worked as a carpenter before going to architecture school at the University of Arizona. Joy has earned a reputation as a master of desert rammed-earth construction (Steven Holl calls his work “transcendent moments of space, light, and matter” in Rick Joy: Desert […]
The Artisanal Apartment: Laura Aviva Creates a Mexico City Showcase for Her Design Collection
Laura Aviva collaborates with artisan workshops in Latin America to create L’Aviva Home’s lighting, textiles, and furniture. She approaches traditional craft as a springboard for sophisticated, entirely new designs and loves getting her collaborators to apply their skills in undreamed of ways. Her pieces land in impressive settings that are featured on the company website. […]
Kitchens of the Week: 5 Retrouvius Designs Composed of Salvaged Parts
“There’s an undeniable feel-good factor in reuse: something unloved becomes valuable again,” write Maria Speake and Adam Hills. The couple met in architecture school in Glasgow, where in the late 1980s, they watched in horror as many of the city’s Victorian tenements were razed. They’ve been neck deep in salvaged building materials ever since. Together […]
A Notting Hill Townhouse Tailored for Living by Charles Mellersh
“By the time I arrived on the scene, the home had been fully renovated and reconfigured, and while it had been finished to a very high standard, it was somehow stillborn,” Charles Mellersh tells us of his latest townhouse rescue in Notting Hill. An architect/interior designer (and member of the founding editorial team at Wallpaper) who typically […]
A Rustic Townhouse Remodel by London’s Masters of Salvage
“Reuse is not a design trend; it’s an attitude, a mindset, and a behavioral approach that isn’t just relevant today— it’s vital,” says Maria Speake. Back in the early 1990s in Glasgow, she and fellow architecture student Adam Hills watched historic buildings being demolished. “The madness of this process wasn’t just about unnecessary waste, it […]
Kitchen of the Week: French Mid-Century Style in Santa Monica
We like to check in on Los Angeles-based Commune Design from time to time. The multidisciplinary design studio (it works on architecture, interior, graphic, and product design projects) always seems to have something interesting in its portfolio. On our latest visit, we were rewarded with this distinctive kitchen in Santa Monica. It belongs to Hollywood […]
Rehab Diary: Finding Storage in Unexpected Places
As architects who have a penchant for being organized (are there any who don’t?), my husband and I are on a never-ending quest for more storage space. After Living Small in London for ten years with our two sons, we Sleuthed for More Space last year and upgraded our kitchen, taking the opportunity to create […]
Washington State Four Square: The Client Got Hired by Her Designer Thanks to this Project
Hillary and Jim Straatman weren’t planning to move—nor was Hillary looking for a career change. Three years ago, she was a cardiac nurse on leave with two young daughters when a real estate broker mentioned a well-preserved four square newly on the market in Bellingham, Washington. Jim had grown up in Seattle in a similar […]
Inigo: A New Agency to Put on Your Real Estate Stalking List
By now, our fondness for The Modern House, the UK real estate agency that seems to have no shortage of enviable listings, has been well-documented (for a sampling of recent posts we’ve written that originated from their site, go here, here, and here). So we were intrigued when their team sent word of a new […]
5 Tips for a Better Night’s Sleep from a Feng Shui Master
A feng shui master who hails from North Carolina, Katherine Anne Lewis studied under three grand masters and has had her LA-based global consultancy for more than a decade, specializing in the intersection of feng shui, design, and well-being. Feng shui, Lewis explains, is the 4,000-year-old Chinese art of placement, aimed at creating rooms that impart […]
Good Neighbors: In Ohio, an Architect Turns a Cottage Next Door Into the Family Guesthouse
This last week of August, we’re revisiting summery stories from the archives, like this one: Architect Greg Dutton came to our attention a few years ago, when he designed and built a 600-square-foot Scandi-Inspired Off-the-Grid Hut on his parents’ sprawling cattle farm in eastern Ohio. Recently, we discovered he’s helped them add another 600-square-feet guesthouse […]
Hotel Esencia: Secluded Splendor on the Maya Riviera
Located on a secluded beach off Xpu-Ha Bay (half an hour from Tulum, Mexico), Hotel Esencia is a 29-room boutique hotel that’s making a name for itself as a tastemakers’ haven (the hotel recently hosted the wedding of fashion designer Jason Wu). In 2014, entrepreneur Kevin Wendle bought the 50-acre estate (once a residence and hotel belonging to an Italian duchess) and […]
Good in Bed: 8 Tips for a Better Bedroom, from Designer Pernille Lind
We first became fans of Pernille Lind back in 2017, when we covered the opening of Hotel Sanders, an intimate Copenhagen property she designed with her Lind + Almond co-founder Richy Almond. Of all the warm Scandinavian furnishings the duo used to transform three late-1800s houses into a cozy hotel, one stood out in particular: […]
Kitchen of the Week: A Plain English Kitchen in a Brooklyn Brownstone, Space-Gaining Bay Window Included
After 11 years of living in their Brooklyn brownstone, architect Anat Soudry’s friends were ready: they wanted to replace the Ikea shoebox kitchen that came with their otherwise well-preserved 1889 townhouse. John and Danielle—he’s a magazine journalist; she’s an early education teacher and former fashion designer—are aesthetes who love to cook and have three young […]
Archival-Quality Danish Design: Hotel Petra from &Tradition in Copenhagen
When I was last in Copenhagen, I found myself picking up a daily coffee at Lille Petra, a cafe designed and operated by &Tradition and tucked into the courtyard of the brand’s showroom. Now, &Tradition extends its offering with Hotel Petra, a 40-room boutique hotel in a landmark building meticulously restored by the brand. Like […]
Earthly and Ethereal: An Apartment Makeover by Studio Oink
This apartment belongs to a fashion designer and a priest (you can chew on that, but the owners insist on anonymity). Here’s what we know: They live in a historic mill building on the outskirts of Mainz, in Western Germany, and they have very good taste. When they signed the lease on their flat—a single-story, 150-square-meter (1,614-square-foot) space—it was “cluttered […]
Block Shop in Bed: Lily and Hopie Stockman’s New Linens Collection
Last week we toured Block Shop’s Mod LA Headquarters. Today, we’re taking a look at the company’s just-launched bedding designs. Sisters Lily and Hopie Stockman, the company founders and in-house designers, spent two years working with master printers and dyers in Jaipur, India, to get every detail, down to the duvet corner ties, exactly as […]
A Kitchen for the People, Courtesy of Prince Charles
When Prince Charles collaborated with UK-based kitchen makers Plain English on a model house, he wanted to know: “How can we get this to the people?” The answer is the beloved kitchen company’s lower-priced British Standard Cupboard line, offered at “sensible prices for discerning folk of modest means.” A longtime campaigner for sustainable living, Prince […]
Adding Energy Efficiency and Revived Style to 1860s Quarters in Brooklyn
The 1860s brick row house in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill had a lot going for it: tall ceilings, lacy moldings, marble mantels, and a gracious floor plan that had served its residents untouched. The HVAC system was also more or less original. It presented the longstanding owners—an eco-minded couple who had raised their children here—with an […]
A Classic English Country House Receives a Mood-Lifting Injection of Color
London interior designer Nicola Harding was the right person to turn to. Her clients, a couple with two young boys, were leaving London for rural Berkshire and life in a Georgian brick manse. They appreciated the grandeur of their house—8,600 square feet, seven bedrooms—but how to downplay the stuffy formality and lend the spaces the […]
Required Reading: Daily Rituals
Does everyone long to find a daily ritual that unleashes new powers of invention, efficiency, focus–and hours of free time? As a habitual night worker (and morning sleeper), I certainly do. Which makes reading Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals a great pleasure, if only to find that none of us are alone in our oddball routines […]
Kitchen of the Week: Stylist Brittany Albert’s Cosmetic Kitchen Upgrade, Trade Secrets Included
Brittany Alberts’s lament is a familiar one: “If budget hadn’t been a consideration, we would have loved to expand the footprint of our kitchen. And we would have loved to put in new cabinets and appliances. Instead, we had to stick with—and enhance what—was already in place.” The wrinkle? Brittany is a stylist who works […]
Next-Level Flip: A Design Couple Lovingly Transforms a 1630s House in Antwerp
Architect Thomas Maria and designer Ann Butaye are a Belgian husband-and-wife team who have recently dedicated their practice to historic house flipping. In their designs, the two use only natural, eco-friendly materials and focus on restoration and renewal. After Ann had a serious health scare a few years ago, creating healing environments also became their […]
10 Easy Pieces: Best Cribs for Babies
With any luck, a new baby will spend the majority of his or her first year sleeping. So it makes sense that expecting parents start feathering the nest by choosing a crib. For me, I knew that my husband and I would be welcoming a baby into a small New York City apartment without a […]
The Architects’ Choice: Hix Island House in Vieques, Puerto Rico
Our architect friend Elizabeth Roberts clued us in a while back to her (and many fellow designers’) favorite winter escape: Hix Island House, a wabi-sabi, eco-friendly hotel in Vieques. Here’s her account. “Designed by Toronto-based architect John Hix, Hix Island House is a perfect blank slate for viewing the surrounding nature; the contrast of the rugged, […]
A Glamorous Hollywood Dressing Room from Alexandra Loew
Every page we tear out, every image we pin, we fantasize about the way we want to live. And if your personal fantasy is not available in print or online, then Los Angeles architect and designer Alexandra Loew can probably help you out. With a view that “fantasy is a critical dimension of contemporary life […]
10 Things Nobody Tells You About the Benefits of Wool
In addition to linen and cotton, wool is one of our tried-and-true, go-to textiles for all over the house. It’s both hardy (as in a dependable wool rug) and luxurious (as in soft sheepskin blankets), and we love the way it looks in all its forms. But wool has other benefits, too: It’s eco-friendly, water-resistant, […]
Kitchen of the Week: ‘Rustic Modernism’ in the Berkshires From the Team Behind Tourists Welcome
Five years ago, we wrote about the arrival of TOURISTS Welcome: The Hip Berkshires Escape Everyone’s Talking About. This summer, the TOURISTS team added to its growing compound, with two newly remodeled vacation home rentals (just a 10-minute walk “through the woods and across the river” from the lodge in North Adams, MA). Both homes […]
Kitchen of the Week: A Japanophile’s Handcrafted Kitchen on the Sussex Coast
Brothers Hugh and Howard Miller trained as architects before turning their attention, as the duo H Miller Bros, to kitchens, furniture, products and sometimes even gardens (they won a silver gilt medal for their Urban Foraging Station design for at the Chelsea Flower Show earlier this year). Their work is people-centered and their latest kitchen, […]
Dreaming in Color: 10 Sexy Monochrome Bedrooms
Do you dream of a colorful bedroom? Thanks to architect Jess Thomas we do. Her Brooklyn townhouse is filled with a lot of good ideas—see our post, the Sentimental Minimalist—but it was her pale pink-on-pink guest room that really piqued our interest. As her place demonstrates, a monochromatic bedroom telegraphs an inviting completeness and calmness. […]
Steal This Look: A Hushed Bedroom in Calming Colors
Lucky is the home that calls Nina and Craig Plummer its owners. The two are the founders of Ellei Home (formerly called Ingredients LDN), an inspiring online store based in Edinburgh, and the grand apartment they share is a testing ground for the beautiful products sold on their site. Only items that fit their philosophy […]
Steal This Look: A Spare and Simple Attic Guest Room in Denmark
One of our favorite Scandinavian spaces in recent years is the family home of Johanne Landbo and Lukas Filip Fernandes in Copenhagen. Their renovation consisted of “not much to fix except for the fun aesthetic things”, resulting in a series of rooms with handmade or vintage pieces. The attic in the townhouse serves as a […]
Steal This Look: A Tranquil Kitchen on the French Riviera
French architect Sabine Bell and British designer Lauren Jennings took on the update of a 1927 historic carved concrete dwelling originally built by Jacques Couëlle. While preserving the identity of the original structure, the team built out a kitchen extension, extending the slate floors of the living room, building out hand-painted Shaker-like cabinetry, and outfitting […]
Kitchen of the Week: A Sleek Modern Kitchen with a Hippie Heart
We are all trying to make more low-impact choices here at Remodelista, so it was with a particular thrill that we recently stumbled upon Sustainable Kitchens, a kitchen design and manufacturing company based in Bristol, England, that prioritizes ethical materials. Its core principles—a reliance on solid, responsibly-sourced wood and non-toxic materials; an emphasis on locally […]
Before & After: A Galley Kitchen Reinvented
Creative director Jakob Daschek is Swedish, fashion stylist Barbara Abbatemaggio is Italian, and their overhauled NYC kitchen, designed by architect Lauren Wegel, an Annabelle Selldorf protégé, caters to both of their sensibilities. “Jakob’s aesthetic is modern, while Barbara often prefers rustic, romantic spaces with lots of warmth and comfort,” says Wegel, “so we took a […]
Rehab Diary: A Dated Kitchen Gets a Modern Upgrade in Maplewood, NJ
After 15 years of renting apartments in Brooklyn and living with other people’s design decisions, it was a dream come true when my husband and I bought a 1,000-square-foot home in Maplewood, New Jersey—a suburb thirty miles outside of New York City. Our home, we jokingly say, is the smallest house in Maplewood—it might be […]
English-Style in Seattle: A Couple’s Longtime Home Gets an Anglo Update
Spending all this time in our own quarters leads to restless thinking—of making home improvements or of moving on, maybe to another planet. Today we’re spotlighting the longtime family home of a couple with grown children who felt very ready for a change but decided to stay put. Their place, a charming but compact 1915 […]
Under the Eaves: A Brick House Reinvention in South London by Simon Astridge
Architect Simon Astridge is best known for is his Plywood House, a South London row house that he resuscitated by weaving three additions into the existing framework (see Raw Materials in a Cost-Conscious Victorian Remodel). Right across the street, he and his team have left their mark on another abode. This one, a humble, single-story […]
Remodeling 101: The L-Shaped Kitchen
Looking for a kitchen layout, with space for multiple cooks and onlookers? Consider the versatile L-shape, a two-walled setup that tucks neatly into a corner while remaining open to the surrounding space. The L-shaped kitchen works especially well in lofts and open-living setups where it’s often wrapped around an island or dining table. Here’s a […]