shelterblog

currently watching

A glimpse of things I've been watching this past week:

First, a trailer for Charlie Hoxie's film about the Passive House building standard, found via the well-made and oddly-named txchnologist blog, which has a few more excerpts if you are interested in knowing more about Passive House.

Passive Passion trailer from Charlie Hoxie on Vimeo.

 

 

Next up, a time-lapse of the 2-day site assembly of a prefab shell for the New Norris House, recently built and designed by UT students, and aiming for LEED Platinum certification. Also be sure to check out Ken McCown's lovely flickr set with photos of the finished house.

 

 

Last but not least, I stayed on Hoxie's site and really enjoyed this gem about the Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz. Looking forward to the related book, Breaking Through Concrete.

Homeless Garden Project: Robert from Charlie Hoxie on Vimeo.

 

 

 

Some chalkboard paint inspiration:

 

I'm liking the idea of a full chalkboard wall—the unused wall across from the stove which is the entry to the pantry. An expanse of matte black seems like a nice foil to all the white and wood in the rest of the kitchen, and I know we'd use it daily. I'm not even bothered by the idea of all the chalkboard dust!

Images: Amanda Prior, Light Locations, Per Gunnarsson, Per Ranung, The New York Times, all discovered via Remodelista and Emma's Designblogg, I believe.

restored antique lighting

Rejuvenation has been restoring vintage lighting for as long as I can remember, but now they are offering these great antiques on their web site. As you might expect, a lot of the selection consists of highly ornate pieces of the leafy and floral variety. Beautiful stuff, but our tastes are a bit more simple and understated.

Luckily there are some great mid century pieces to be found too. I suspected the pendants section would be the place to start. I should note that most of these items are available in limited quantities – I'll provide links, but these lights may be gone before long.

Here's a great matte white pendant from the 1950's. One of these would be great over a kitchen sink, or pair them up at an island for task lighting:

This unique pendant with a flat disc shade hails from the turn of the 20th century:

 

My favorite is this industrial shade converted to a pendant. Love the white enamel, with just a few chips to let us know this fixture has been around:

 

How about this fun 1960's pendant? Built from nesting black and white cones, there is a cleverly hidden gap allowing light to shine through behind the black section:

 

And finally some whimsical choices – A schoolhouse igloo and a green fire escape shade:

 

open shelves

Searching through some photos of my past projects, I rediscovered these custom open shelves. I thought it would be fun to share some of the inspiration and concept drawings. These were designed for a small media room, part of a whole-house remodel in NW Portland.

It is a 1922 house, but the clients wanted a more contemporary look for these built-ins. Ideally they wanted all of the shelves to be open (no cupboards) and able to accommodate a 42" flat-screen television.

Stephanie found this great inspiration shot, scanned from Martha Stewart Living:

 

I really love the mix of different cubby proportions in this photo. The short spaces are especially fun, and work great for stacking oversized books. Instead of Buddha as the centerpiece, we'd plan a wide space for the TV (Attachment jokes are welcomed in the comments).

The ceilings in my clients' space are shorter than in Martha's photo, so I wanted to play down the horizontal nature of such a wide built-in. I thought it would help to add in a few truly square shelf spaces at the outer edges. I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

 

authentic door designs

Trustile has a handy new tool for selecting doors to fit the style of your home. I've seen plenty of misfit six-panel doors  on craftsman houses — Authentic Designs aims to help avoid those glaringly bad choices.

(image from Trustile.com)

Choose from one of 12 architectural styles, and they'll suggest door profiles along with a handful of door types. Trustile's selections for each style category are not always spot-on, but they are a nice start if you are choosing a new door without the help of an architect or designer.

Inspiration: Paumes Publishing

Hello!

Sorry to have been absent from this space. We are in the thick of the boring, but crucial, phase of renovation as we tackle the wiring, plumbing and ductwork. It has required a few sub-contractors and a lot of mess and moving things around. Balancing our work, family life and the remodel hasn't been easy, but we're finding our rhythm. I will be closing my shop for the next month, so that I can give more energy to working on the house. Expect more regular posting around here!

We are excited that Typepad is now offering threaded comments. We hope this will allow us to better answer questions while keeping the discussion open.

I wanted to mention one of my favorite sources of inspiration, Paumes books. They are a Japanese publisher of books featuring inspiring interiors from around the world. My friend Cindi gifted me with their Stockholm Kitchens book a while ago, and it has informed many of our choices in this remodel. I'll be sharing some of the photos soon.

Today, I'm really excited because their latest publication, San Francisco Kitchens, features none other than my sister Lisa* on the cover! I can't wait to get my hands on this book.

*and her dog, Wilfredo. I'd be in trouble if I left him out.

Letting it all hang out.

Just a few of my favorite images of kitchen open shelving. I found both of these at Remodelista's great open shelf roundup a while back.

I prefer open shelving for the ease of use (who hasn't been clocked in the head by an upper cabinet?) and the ability to see my collections of dinner and cookware, but I know many would prefer to have their clutter hidden away and worry about exposed items accumulating dust. Tracy mentioned in the comments that, living in California, she worries about earthquakes. I had not thought of that!

Check out Geninne's lovely shelving and white dinnerware.

I think it's time for some pretty pictures.

Renovation isn't always pretty. Especially when you add in a case (or two or three) of the flu, but we're recuperating and trying to get back on track around here.

To keep my eye on the big picture, I wanted to share some of my inspiration. These are some of the first photos I sent to Jack when we began the design process. They came from the website of Swedish stylist Eva Lindh.

My notes to Jack:

• Open shelving (no upper cabinets, please!)
• A simple palette of white and wood
• The use of siding as a design element
• Farm sink
• A nod to our former vintage kitchen, but with more streamlined cabinetry, surfaces and hardware.
• Painted wood floors

We were able to integrate all of these elements into our design plan. I am really excited to start seeing it come together, but we have a lot of work to do. In the meantime, I'll continue sharing some of the beautiful spaces that inspired us.