Decorating Guides

Accessories 101: Staffordshire Dogs

Staffordshire dogs are some of the very traditionally sought after ceramic décor. Dating back to the 1700s for working class families to decorate their houses, the pottery comes from companies in the County of Staffordshire, England. Staffordshire spaniels are available in many sizes and color combinations, with the all-white figurines being the hottest.

While the appearance is quite conventional, today’s designers are combining those figurines in much more contemporary and contemporary contexts. The prevalence of this Staffordshire has carried into important retail outfits, which have generated updated versions of this appearance. Obviously, the original antiques are equally hard to find and expensive. However, reproductions may look just as good and are readily accessible. In any event, the puppies are sure to bring a little timelessness to any space.

Ann West Interiors

Here, the puppies are placed where they were meant for: the mantel. You can see why. They look good flanking another parts of ceramic. The oversize glass boats which hold thistles are radically contemporary compared to this Staffordshire, all which make a nice mixture of styles.

Philip Clayton-Thompson

In this tropical all-white space, the accession of this big white Staffordshire puppy on the table, paired with the dark shade of this lamp, adds warmth and formality into the differently casual room. The contrast between the loosely slip-covered chair and the traditional ceramic generates an authentically diverse aesthetic.

LDa Architecture & Interiors

The red and white Staffordshire dogs are a surprise element to this room. By placing them under the red lacquered table, the designers may be referencing a style without putting it fully on display. The area remains contemporary, with a key inclusion of Victorian glamour beneath the coffee table.

Astleford Interiors, Inc..

The casual positioning of these dogs onto the table amid the rest of the ceramic sets creates a layered appearance. Clearly, there’s a high-low element to the group.

What’s nice about putting a piece of Staffordshire in your desk is you really get to appreciate it every time you write a letter or work. And, in this instance, the porcelain spaniel goes nicely with the fun yellow lamps and old fashioned telephone. It seems absolutely retro.

Furbish Studio

Black Staffordshire Dogs – $72

These are not actual, but they seem it! The black and white blend is classic, and the puppies’ small size makes these suitable for practically any space.

Jonathan Adler

Jonathan Adler Staffordshire Spaniel Lamp-left at Table Lamps – $395

The matte finish and angular design are contemporary and fresh.

Porcelain Dog Pillow Cover – $12

This pillow is a perfect way to bring this appearance without needing to acquire the porcelain.

Carleton Varney Set of two White Staffordshire Porcelain Dogs – $16.99

You could have this traditional all-white appearance with the gold chain at a very affordable price.

More: Great Dogs in Style

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Eclectic Homes

Guest Picks: 20 Affordable Area Rugs

The floor in the front of my sofa is looking awfully bare. The requirements? A fun patterned rug that doesn’t cost more than $1,000. — Melanie from You’re My Fave

Overstock.com

Hand-Hooked Chelsea Southwest Multicolor Wool Rug – $264.34

I don’t usually go for Southwest themes, but I saw this rug in a bedroom that was not themed and the colors and patterned seemed fresh and modern.

West Elm

Gradiated-Stripe Cotton Rug – $19

Classic stripes in three different colors with a accent trim? I am sold.

Urban Outfitters

Bead Silhouette Printed Rug – $50

A contemporary pop of pattern and colour. It’s about the small side but might make a great addition to a kitchen or laundry area.

Crate&Barrel

Island Graphite Chevron Rug – $199

A nice neutral rug with a subtle chevron pattern can be easily added to any area.

Anthropologie

Up-Close Cranesbill Rug – $398

This modern abstract pattern will add colour and interest to your flooring. I enjoy that the most important colour is a nice shade of gray instead of a white that dirties simpler.

Anthropologie

Expanding Colorscape Rug – $698

My husband is concerned with all the coziness of this rug we select. This will provide him the softness he needs while not compromising about the pattern that I need.

Home Decorators Collection

Rosa Area Rug – $69

I enjoy the safe color of the one. It would not be hard to fit and it sill conveys interest.

Home Decorators Collection

Chrysanthemum Area Rug – $119

Although florals are often regarded as girly, the large-scale pattern and navy colour of the rug make it a bit more masculine. At least that is the argument I would give to my spouse.

Garnet Hill

Bogart Flat-Weave Wool Rug – $68

If Oprah recommends it then it has to be useful. I really like the deep teal one.

Garnet Hill

Droplets Hooked Wool Rug – $98

This droplet reminds me of this classic stem pattern from Orla Kiely. That’s a win in my book.

Garnet Hill

Houndstooth Flat-Weave Wool Rug – $188

Houndstooth is one of these classic patterns I don’t think I’ll ever tire of. If you stare at it for too long it might cause a hassle though.

Cost Plus World Market

Nomad Sculpted Rug – $349.99

I typically don’t go for red, but combine it with a nice gray and it looks sharp enough to blanket the floor.

Dash & Albert Rug Company

Spinnaker Woven Cotton Rug – $30

Dash and Albert have stripes down. I really like how brightly colored this rug is, as well as the very affordable price.

Rugs USA

Firouz Shadow Ikat Ivory Rug – $209

This ikat pattern looks way more lush and expensive than it really is. It almost looks like something from the pages of a magazine.

Overstock.com

Handmade Alexa Modern Damask Wool Rug – $205.27

Just how long has the damask pattern been about? Long enough to know that it’s always going to be a classic.

Overstock.com

Amy Butler Hand-Tufted Ivory Floral New Zealand Wool Rug – $499

Amy Butler knows how to operate a blueprint, and this flowery rug is no exception. It’s a great cost for your designer look.

Dash & Albert Rug Company

Tattersall Black/Ecru Woven Cotton Rug – $33

I feel like this one would fit in well at a cabin. It kind of cries “mountain man.”

Overstock.com

Handmade Alexa Pino Suzani Rug – $295.79

I haven’t really considered lavender, but I am thinking it might certainly work paired with navy and gray.

Rugs USA

Cenon Ikat Black Rug – $209

Another ikat pattern that looks luxe in more manly colors.

Rugs USA

Homespun Modern Trelllis Charcoal Rug – $59

Gray is my preferred neutral, and this trellis pattern feels classic yet fresh. Is that possible?

Next: More guest product selections

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Fireplaces

Modern Gable-Style Homes

At its origin, modern structure is a break in the past, and in terms of the roof, that fracture is explicit. Pitched roofs that traditionally serve to shed Snow & Ice Removal Services Anchorage and rain are generally eschewed in modernism for flat roofs, which occasionally serve as terraces for regaining the land the building occupies.

But modern structure isn’t only flat roofs. Pitched roofs of various types can follow in the ease and innovation that drives the modern style — motivated by the vernacular but also modernist leaders such as Gunnar Asplund, who functioned in a context where flat roofs have been untenable. This ideabook concentrates on gables and that which makes them modern and different than traditional ones.

Browse modern home exteriors | Find an architect

The gable within this home is obviously unique in how the second floor jobs beyond the first floor at one end, creating a covered patio in the process. Gray predominates from the exterior’s walls and roof, however, the gable end is made more distinct by being stuffed with timber boards.

Birdseye Design

A similar projection occurs in this two-story home, but here it extends down to the first floor also functions together with all the canopy to demarcate the entrance. Wraparound windows make the most of this slight projection.

HP Rovinelli Architects

The prominent gable on this home in Maine sits above a screened-in porch. The tapering horizontal slots make some intriguing lighting at the open space and also help to ventilate it.

HP Rovinelli Architects

The garage for the exact same home in Maine also features a gable top, an almost platonic prism that appears to float above the stone walls and timber columns below. The ease of this roof and wall materials above, in addition to the sharpness of the edges, make it especially modern.

HP Rovinelli Architects

The flared gable for this poolhouse seems to be a development of 3 scenarios from back to front: decorated with shingles, semi-enclosed with shingles, and then open rafters in the patio. This development makes it appear as if the gable is deconstructed from 1 end to another.

Don F. Wong

At first glance this house looks traditional, and also for the most part it is, but the gable end has modern touches: the horizontal banding at the bottom of the first floor and top of the next floor, the asymmetry of the first floor, as well as the carved corner entrance. Notice how the last is also highlighted by a tree-trunk column.

David Vandervort Architects

This gable end follows the rest of the home in being wrapped in corrugated metal. A large opening to inside belies the semi-industrial character of the little house.

Eck | MacNeely Architects inc..

The large openings of the gable end seem to comparison with the traditional form and skin. The first-floor windows give a glimpse into the huge living room inside.

Martin Hewitt

This gable end is really a floor-to-roof glass wall that sits behind a chimney; the latter punctures the roof extension, a move that necessitates the inclusion of steel-tube columns into the side.

Lane Williams Architects

The conclusion of the house also includes a chimney facing the gable, but here the roof is notched round the circular flue.

Charlie & Co.. Design, Ltd

The architect of the house labels it “Modern Shingle Style I,” a moniker that seems fitting together with all the Siamese gables on the long front porch.

Hufft Projects

“Flattened gable” is an proper description for the conclusion of the home. The lower profile is highlighted by the good wood infill in the conclusion, a continuation of the wall below, but it is an expression that reads as a triangle with an notched porch and horizontal window below.

From a distance the numerous parts of the house take on an exaggerated look: the massive glass wall in the bottom end, the tiny random openings round the corner, the roof extension overhead, along with the canopy that extends out of the roof and overlaps with the perpendicular volume. See a closer look next.

This view shows how the “+” shaped home is rendered in 2 ways that attract the gable vernacular into the modern. This white aspect, explained in the previous photo, is compared with the dark metal panels that wrap the walls and roof, and the normal grid of windows that provides a strong logic to another quantity.

More: Updates of Classic Roof Designs

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Coastal Style

Modern Icons: The Anziano Chair

This modern classic seat relies upon a seat originally designed by the Greeks sometime around 400 B.C.. They were called Klismos chairs, and they regained popularity in the 19th century when classical architecture and design came back into favour. The seat we’re celebrating today, the Anziano seat, takes this real classic and mashes it up with modern materials and methods. The end result is a gorgeous piece with classic Greek roots, mid-century modern flair, along with a futuristic feel that will endure for several years.

Introducing the Anziano Chair: This pair of ivory lacquer chairs with black legs dancing atop a coordinating checkerboard floor.

Mark English Architects

The seat in the corner of this chamber is a Klismos chair more in the tradition of the original Greek chairs. Attributes include.

Donghia

Anziano Chair | Donghia

This modern interpretation of this Klismos by John Hutton for Donghia uses bent timber, simplifies matters using a plain T-back, also celebrates the form of the legs using an outline crafted of tubular steel. Hutton designed the seat in 1989, and it is already a part of the Brooklyn Museum’s Decorative Arts Collection.

Options include organic, warm cherry, brown mahogany, ebonized, ivory lacquer, midnight leather along with cognac leather.

LDa Architecture & Interiors

The combination of wood and metal coordinates nicely with various elements of this kitchen; the mild wood increases the mixture of timber finishes, while the dark legs play the cupboard dark and hardware windowpanes.

Eleven Interiors

An all-black pair of chairs retains the dining area from being consumed by this mild and open space.

A pair of warm, cherry Anziano chairs paired with a very simple farmhouse table produces a pleasing and unexpected combination.

Eminent Interior Layout

While based upon an ancient design, the seat works well into the near future, fitting in perfectly with contemporary elements.

Cathy Schwabe Architecture

When dining, a complete collection is never mandatory; this built-in dining bench and three chairs provide for an assortment of dining adventures.

Sroka Design, Inc..

Not only for diningroom, the Anziano makes a great occasional chair in a living room, den or study, and doesn’t take up much visual distance.

Eleven Interiors

It also introduces its striking shape to this sleek and luxurious bedroom.

Curious? Locate a showroom near you which carries Anziano Chairs

More: Modern Icons: The Cherner Chair
Modern Icons: Eero Saarinen’s Executive Chair
Icon: The Beautiful, Classic Windsor Chair

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Eclectic Homes

Lose It: CDs, DVDs, Cassettes and VHS tapes

As we continue to get our audio and music on the internet, we develop from an increasing number of types of technology. That the CD was the press storage solution of the long run. Now, it is becoming nearly as obsolete since VHS and cassettes. While streamlining your stuff makes for a more ecofriendly potential, what can you really do with your leftover tapes and CDs when you are done?

While plastic casings and covers can at times be recycled, the CDs themselves and the tape in VHS and cassette tapes requires a special recycling procedure. It might require a little additional work, getting the excess crap out of your house and rescue it from filling landfills and polluting air and water is a fairly wonderful benefit.

Use It!

Unfortunately, aside from re-watching and listening to them, there are not many practical applications for worn out VHS tapes, cassette tapes, CDs, and DVDs. There are some quirky crafts for things beyond repair, however your best choice for tapes and CDs that nevertheless work would be to give them. Odds are there’s somebody out there who will believe that your trash is an absolute treasure.

Give them to the Goodwill, the Salvation Army, or the Alternative Community Training organization. ACT provides work for handicapped people who work on erasing and repacking donated VHS tapes, cassette tapes, and floppy disks. Usually tapes still in good shape following erasing are resold, whereas the plastic portions of the rest are recycled.

Give them to the local library or school if the content is applicable. Some schools will also utilize cassette tape for crafts (there’s a rumor that it creates great puppet hair).

Try giving them away on Craigslist or even Freecycle. You would be amazed by how many people would jump at the chance to get a bit of music/media history.

When you have a particularly impressive collection, try selling them on eBay or Amazon.

Lose It!

VHS and cassette tapes:
Check with your town’s recycling guidelines. Some cities will allow you to recycle the plastic casing with the tape taken out, which means you can throw them in your recycling bin.

Mail things in to GreenDisk, Back Thru The Future, or Nationwide Recycle by Mail. Each company has different shipping rules and regulations, but provide easy options that you mail in your old VHS and cassette tapes, and have them disposed of correctly.

CDs and DVDs: Much like VHS and cassette tapes, CDs and DVDs will need to be recycled at special facilities. Most of these discs contain aluminum, lacquer, gold, dyes, glass, silver, and nickel — one of other harmful substances and substances. Throwing them from the garbage or recycling can be harmful. A number of the facilities that procedure VHS and cassette tapes will also procedure CDS or even DVDs.

The CD Recycling Center of Americahas a record of places where you are able to mail in small quantities of DVDs and CDs — along with their jewel boxes — such as processing. For bigger quantities of disks, there’s a separate collection of facilities nationwide where you can fall off boxes and boxes of old CDs and DVDs.

When you have a fantastic collection, try selling them on eBay or Amazon — you’d be amazed by how much people will pay to get a CD of some vague’80s band.

More Use It or Lose It tips:
Lose ItWhat To Do With Leftover Building Materials
Lose It: The Way to Get Rid of a Mattress
Lose It4 Ways to Get Rid of Your Carpet

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Coastal Style

Spectacular Prairie Retreat

A simple idea executed well may lead to a number of the most tasteful and evocative compositions. Whether architecture, style or perhaps cuisine, inspired and creative restraint drives focused designs that don’t rely on superfluous adornments because of their own substance. Instead, every choice strengthens the central theme of a strong idea. For architect Matthew Hufft, a client’s natural fascination with curves sparked the concept of her house, leading to a house that accommodates its owners while revealing unique uses of the curve during.

Hufft Projects

This isn’t a job that began with a name and cried all layout decisions to follow in its wake. By comparison, states Hufft, the design process is really what dictated the shape and form of the house, like a sculpture. What starts as a good concept produces a job that neatly joins all attributes. Often, it is just after the design is finished that the theme clearly show itself to Hufft.

Hufft Projects

When Hufft was hired to the mind the design of the house, the family had purchased this two-acre plot in the center of a 13-lot subdivision in Springfield, Mo.. The house has been designed to be inward focused, to accommodate future growth on all four sides.

Ultimately, the customers decided to purchase the entire development and conserve the surrounding open space. While the house had been designed, this abandoned boundless possibilities for its landscape.

The landscape design of the Curved House starkly contrasts the hyper customized and designed nature of the structure. Landscape architect John Galloway planted the remaining 13 acres of property with native prairie grasses.

A natural berm planted with sumac trees lines the approach to the house. As the trees mature, they will create a good screen along the entry road, making the house visible only through Galloway’s aperture installment.

Although the courtyard no longer functions as the only landscape feature of the house, the demand for this central core is equally as vital as when it was designed. It anchors the house and the customers’ place within the landscape. Rather than using this room as an exterior escape, it may serve as sheltered refuge to get a house that drifts in 13 acres of prairie.

Hufft Projects

While the courtyard was intended to be enjoyed outdoors, it was also necessary to think about the climate of Missouri prohibits being outside yearlong. Planted directly in the center of the house is a flowering dogwood — Missouri’s state tree. Despite harsh weather, the progression of the tree during the entire year will connect the interior with all the landscape.

Hufft Projects

In tune with Hufft’s design philosophy, the Curved House elegantly reaffirms its theme throughout the house. The shelves that line the hallways hug the contours created by exterior walls.

The steps to the pool gracefully arc in unison.

Even right angles are rounded out.

A unique aspect of Hufft’s workplace is that along with a full service design studio, in addition they possess an in-house fabrication shop — making many of these ultra-custom facets possible.

The customers’ interest in sustainability and low-energy options prompted Hufft to implement alternate energy sources for powering the house, as well as using local and reclaimed materials to construct it. The entire pool cabana is powered by photovoltaic cells, and a geothermal system on the property cools and heats the house.

The light gray color of the locally-sourced Spanish tile roof reflects solar heat, keeping the house cool. Neighborhood black Endicott brick using a Manganese finish creates a superbly subtle sheen which nicely highlights the curves of the walls. Oiled Ipe wood, a sustainable substance, accents the brick, richly contrasting the green of the prairie grass.

Hufft Projects

Abundant natural light fills the house, which lowers the demand for artificial light and excess energy intake.

Hufft Projects

Commercial-grade aluminum windows complement the aesthetic of the house and require next-to-no maintenance.

Hufft Projects

Low-VOC finishes were used through the house. In the kitchen, the cabinets are reclaimed and the countertops are glass.

Hufft Projects

Hufft designs distances meant to inspire, but ultimately he intends to create houses that actually make you feel comfy — from the inside out. The Curved House is filled with warmth and light, and leaves you feeling as if you’ve just had a big breath of fresh air.

See more photos of the Curved House

Photography by Mike Sinclair

More:
Stunning Berkeley Courtyard House
Home Designs: The U-Shaped House Plan
The Case for Interior Courtyards

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Eclectic Homes

Regional Modern: Oregon Homes Respond to the Landscape

It could be easy to argue that what pushes architecture and design from Seattle, Washington is the same from Portland and other areas from Oregon to the south, developing a general Pacific Northwest modern fashion. There could be some truth because in regards to landscape and climate, but every metropolitan region is unique in cultural and other aspects. This leads to idiosyncratic if similar modernisms in each region.

Portland is known among people interested in architecture and urbanism because of its dense core and varied transportation, a consequence of strong top-down planning that is forward thinking in its sustainable objectives. Here, the greenfield suburbanization of all farmland that is the favored clinic around the USA is eschewed in favor of preserving a greenbelt around the city. While this general plan has led to some quality interventions in the urban core, the houses that follow clearly fall outside that region — and into other parts of Oregon — and therefore are indicative of style that reacts to landscapes rather than city life.

More regional modern structure:
Chicago | Boston | Austin | NYC | NY Metro | Seattle | No. Calif.. | San Francisco | L.A. | Coastal L.A.

SRM Architecture and Interiors

This holiday home (which afterwards became the client’s most important home ) is at the Hood River Valley east of Portland. This photograph indicates a solid natural setting marked by trees but also vineyards.

SRM Architecture and Interiors

On both sides the house is built into a hill, but on the opposite side it opens upward towards the distant Mount Hood. Here the plan follows an L-shape to cradle the outside area, which can be indicated by planters, pavers along with a pool.

SRM Architecture and Interiors

The house itself is a mix of industrial and natural materials.

This nook near the pool comes with a timber roof and walls of Corten steel, wrought iron, and metal louvers in front of glass.

Each material responds to specific conditions (cover, fireplace, windows) and can be closely written at a human scale.

Skylab Architecture

This house is also built at a hillside, making it a split-level design with three floors on the front but two on the rear. The center floor cantilevers dramatically at the far end of this picture…

Skylab Architecture

… creating a strong statement about the house in relation to its own landscape. The patio at the tip of the cantilever offers and experience such as sitting at the trees.

Stillwater Dwellings

This prefab house is situated in Bend, southeast of Portland. It takes advantage of views of the nearby Cascade Mountains. While prefab and modern might not bring pleasing graphics to mind, this design reacts to its site gracefully through a subtle butterfly roof form and terrace using this view. To boot, it just took approximately 8 weeks from start to finish, including 6 hours (!) To erect the house set up after it was manufactured off.

Another prefab by Stillwater Dwelling, this time in Portland, uses similar kinds but on a smaller scale. The butterfly roof form helps to ensure that outdoor walls have more generous glazing. The low point of the roof can be used to catch rainwater for graywater recycling.

2fORM Architecture

This escape is located at Vida, much south of Portland, near the Willamette National Forest outside Eugene. The surrounding hills and trees are only stunning, and in this way it appears appropriate that the architect and customer built upward. This minimizes the footprint of the house and gets up the occupants to enjoy the environment.

2fORM Architecture

The substances are rather functional, chiefly CMU and timber. It is worth noting here the way the rainwater is collected for reuse, an off-the-grid move that is essential in distant locations like this.

Giulietti Schouten Architects

Mainly closed out of the road, this one-story residence opens up in the trunk to visually link the house to its environment and supply space for outside dining and pleasure. The cantilevered patio is a wonderful touch that emphasizes the slope descending from the house.

Paul McKean architecture llc

This previous house returns to the place of this initial, the Hood River Valley.

This escape is significantly more small, and it truly attempts to minimize its footprint by lifting itself above the landscape.

It is clear that natural beauty is something cherished in and around Portland and other areas of the nation, extending from urban plans to the floor plans of houses.

More regional modern structure:
Chicago | Boston | Austin | NYC | NY Metro | Seattle | No. Calif.. | San Francisco | L.A. | Coastal L.A.

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Wine Cellars

Great Space: A Plush Nook for Sipping Wine

Can you imagine a more perfect place to sip wine on a fall evening? This warm, walnut paneled nook is tucked into the wonderful pool home at designer Jamie Beckwith’s Nashville home. The pool home itself is a whole work of art, but this tucked-away area is what really tempts us on a crisp day. Fluffy pink pillows and soft lighting make this the perfect spot to curl up with a friend and a bottle of your favorite red wine.

See more of Jamie Beckwith’s Modern Gothic Pool House

Beckwith Interiors

This cozy nook sits right outside a chilled wine basement within the pool house. Walnut paneling lines the walls, while the floor is a patterned wood block (made by Beckwith) that is completed after installation. The corner was created in a warm, bright pink to contrast with the freezing blue wine cellar. “We wanted it to be a cozy area to sit and enjoy a bottle of wine, because the wine cellar is cooled,” says Ashleigh Farrar, an Interior Design Assistant with Beckwith Interiors.

Wall art: A New York artist, purchased at the Nashville Antique Art & Garden Show
Side Effects: Tony Table by Oly Studio
Cushion cloth: Shibori Circle by Schumacher

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