Home on Nantucket

Three sisters share this house by the sea on Nantucket. J. Gwynne Thorsen was in charge of the architectural and interior design. Unfortunately there are not many photographs of the interiors so these will have to do.

The entrance façade features a pergola covered with New Dawn roses.

An oil by Ben Austrian, which introduces the living room’s rabbit theme, hangs above the mantel.

Displayed in the bedroom of the upstairs tern suite are 18th- and 19th-century dog portraits.

The red hummingbird suite on the second floor opens to a private balcony. A pair of hand-colored 18th-century botanical prints are near the banquette.

Dutch doors allow a view from the kitchen, at the south, through the house to the ocean.


Antique kismos chairs around the dining table.

Photography by Peter Vanderwarker

All images and information from Architectural Digest.

You know it's bad when...

... you pull in the driveway and see your kid's tricycle and consider painting it. 

Or even getting another for Christmas...  

We found Christian's tricycle in the trash by the side of the road a couple of years ago (yes, I pick from the trash) and it's missing that cool thing in the back where we could have pushed him so it didn't get much use until he learned to pedal it on his own.  The colors are totally faded but the fact remains that it works and he loves it.   It's now parked in the front of the driveway (which is in front of our house) because he uses it so much and I have to be honest, it's irking me.  Not driving me crazy by any means, but every time I pull into the driveway and wonder if I should just spray paint the thing black or something, anything to get rid of the faded plastic and blue that just stands out like a sore thumb to me.  As much as I would love to say we could put it away in the shed every night, I know we won't.  Life just isn't like that for us right now.  

I know this is one of those things to let go, but it has my OCD-design head twitching.

We also have a toddler plastic slide/ gym thingy in our back yard...  it too makes me a little nutty and I can't wait to replace it.  

I know toys will be part of our lives for a while now...  and I have to say that I'm so much less bothered by the classic toys than the new plastic ones.  It's crazy that I care but seriously, I'm so much more okay with a bunch of cute little wooden cars on the ground than a bunch of plastic ones...

{Christian's trucks}

We try to limit the toys coming into our house...  When new stuff comes in, something else leaves.  There just isn't room and we don't want our kids to have a million toys they never use.  If something's not getting played with enough, we put it away and take it out a few months later. 

I know I sound like a freak.  What are your thoughts?   (Not on my freakishness, on toys ;)  And, any tips for spray painting a plastic bike?   Maybe just the blue parts???

 

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Modern Vintage House

Before taking today's tour, I suggest you play a Beatles song which I think would go perfectly well with the style of this house. Spanish interior designer Teresa Abaitua combined mostly modern and vintage 1960's furniture with a few restored antiques and it is interesting to see how she made this mixture of styles work. Looking at these pictures really takes me back in time and, although not extremely psychedelic, I even expect to see Austin Powers in one of them!

















Loving the backsplash in the kitchen.









All images from here.

Villa on Bali

Put on your flip flops and flower necklace as we are going to the island of Bali to visit Annelies and Jean-Jacques Audureaus's home. This weather beaten house is actually quite new. Three very old typical Indonesian houses which originally stood on the neighbouring island of Java were taken down and the materials were used to build this home. Even the roof was made with old tiles from a mosque, where they happily let the couple have them in exchange for a brand new roof.



Dining and lounging area on a deck around the pool. Notice how they replaced some of the tiles of the roof for glass to let more sunlight through. Mold on the wall evidences Bali's humid climate.


European wallpaper and ethnic items found on Annelies's many trips to Asia.


Annelies in her kitchen where glass jars and containers are displayed on shelves and wooden hutches.

Detail of kitchen utensils hanging above the cooking range.


Very feminine room with floral fabric. The door openings have an angled top which adds interest to the rooms. I'd really love to lie down on all those pillows on the rug.


Small Indian style boxes.


Ornate Indonesian woodwork.


Black, white and grey bathroom. The tiles were custom made in Java.


This emerald green vignette with matching umbrellas and tin containers is in the porch.


A welcoming porch with a weathered dining table and different coloured wicker chairs.

Sweets, I really hope you enjoyed this tour. Thanks to all of you for your lovely comments. I really look forward to them. Have a pleasant Tuesday and I'll be seeing you tomorrow.

All images from here.

Photographer Donna Eaves

Today I'd like to introduce you to the work of London based photographer Donna Eaves. She photographs interiors and still life and has worked for high profile magazines including Delicious, Tatler, Vanity Fair, Country Homes & Interiors, Aga Living, Sainsburys and Utopia.
















Hope you enjoyed my selection but if you'd like to see some more of her work go to her portfolio right here.

My mom's birthday

My mom's birthday was this past weekend so we decided to do dinner at our place.  The weather was perfect and we moved the massive harvest table Dave made out of old barn wood to the center of our back yard:

{sorry about the pics but something funny was going on}

It is insanely heavy and won't be moving anywhere for a good long while...  my back still feels it.

I added pumkins & gourds and eucalyptus & hydrangeas to give it a Fall vibe even though it was so warm:

I'd never gotten fresh eucalyptus before... Trader Joe's was selling it for $6 and I love how it looks just gathered simply in an urn:

I didn't notice any bugs so I think it definitely helped keep them away.

Here's the birthday girl with Christian and my little sister Morgan (13):

My mom's a special lady.  She's the kind of mom I could always tell anything to...  even my friends would confide in her in high school.  She was a single mom (until she & my stepdad, Tom, got married when I was in 8th grade) but still managed to be super-involved & spend a lot of quality time with me: Girl Scouts, festivals & musicals & plays & events...  She's amazing with advice and rarely judges. 

We've had our battles (oh my gosh would we yell!!) but I think mostly it's because battle alike:  get it out and get over it.  (No moping or stewing here!)  She's always coming through when I need her: babysitting, food, help at home, advice and also those "mom" hugs.  We're very alike but very different.   She's lower-key than me, yet supported me going into a creative field/ being self-employed even though it's not something she would ever do and scared her when I started because she understood me.  She had my sister late in life but still manages to be as involved in her life as she was in mine  (if not more so!! :)   I love her so much and she is one of the few people I actually lean upon.   

Here's my gorgeous cousin Jen who just got engaged & will be getting married in Puerto Rico next summer!!  (I'm her maid of honor ;) ;)

And my mom informed me it was time to pull up the carrots Christian & I planted back in March.  (Um yeah, I really know nothing about growing veggies -or anything for that matter- and thought that the time was right to pull them up when they were long like you see at the grocery store.)  So as we all enjoyed some cider (I'm a huge fan of woodchuck haha) and some hummus & pita chips, Christian and I pulled up the carrots:

And they really reminded me of those screaming baby-root things from Harry Potter (mandrakes)... especially the double ones:

(Justin enjoyed the food too as you can see from the bits on his face}

I didn't get any pictures of the food (besides that beautiful bag of pita chips) but we did grilled tilapia and shish kabobs with rice & salad.  We ate just as it got dark & there's something so awesome about eating outside with candlelight.

We finished up with s'mores by the fire where I proceeded to fall asleep. 

And that's a good night for me.  Most of our meals are "normal" and don't include special flowers or table settings and I know I couldn't handle this on a nightly basis, but I would like to do a pretty/ special table at least once a week.  It encourages lingering and laughing and talking on & on.  That's interesting to me...  that our environments really do affect our experiences.  Check out my friend Seleta's recent post to see the gorgeous table setting she created last week with her kids' help. 

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

If you have a pretty table setting you'd like to share, feel free to link up!!