which has a storybook look with its simple porch, front gable, and double hung windows — easy to imagine at the edge of a cornfield or down a country lane.
The 1,000 square-foot plan is simplicity itself — a wide open main living area and kitchen; the bedrooms are upstairs.
Walker is the author of several influential architecture books including the indispensable classic American Shelter: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Home (Overlook Press).
I am in the midst of house hunting with my mister (fingers crossed about today’s outing…) so I definitely have homegoods on the mind. And I don’t know about you, but these pillows from Jess Wrobel put me in a state of home-decor lust.
Stitched from vintage Oriental rugs and stuffed with a blend of recycled cotton and conventional polyfil, these would be perfect for plopping down on in front of the fireplace that will (hopefully) soon be mine.
Liz Grotyohann is a co-founder of cosa verde, a marketplace for handmade, environmentally-conscious goods.
Part II of this post actually addresses garden-related topics.
Brief Meditation on the Market
We celebrated Thanksgiving with a Harry Potter movie marathon, courtesy of our web-savvy son. We were driven to watching pirated, poor-resolution versions from the computer, because we had typically failed to plan ahead, and you couldn’t rent a Harry Potter DVD in this town for any money. We figure that everyone else, like us, was trying to remember the plots before going to see the penultimate installment, in a theater near you now.
Our Malian friend Abdoulaye will be happy to learn that we watched all of this on a new, 32-inch flat-screen television. Yes folks, we are moving up. As I wrote a while ago, when this potato specialist from central Africa came to the United States, he found himself living in a log house without cell-phones, cable, or a wireless internet connection, with a family that had never heard of 24. <
A bed set that delivers both charm and comfort…that’s what most people want from what they sleep on and that’s what this set of French Laundry Home bed set delivers.
These come with coordinated brown and plum hues, with shams to match. The set also comes with ruffle trims with bird, leaves and greens in one set and striped lines to contrast it.
- Ruffled trellis pillow is made of polyester and has a feather/down fill. Dry clean. – Ruffled bird-print pillow with contrasting mini flange is made of cotton. Dry clean. – “Pompon Knit” throw is by A Soft Idea. Made of polyester and finished with fringe. 50″ x 60″. Imported. Machine wash. Read more…
Follow Share this story Story tools Q.The carpenter that built my deck used joist hangers to hold up the joists along the house and at the end of the deck. Are these steel joist hangers approved, and will they stand the test of time?
I’m worried that the joists will fall out of the hanger or pull away from the house. Is there a right and wrong way to install these framing connectors? Is there a way to build without using joist hangers?
A. If the joist hangers your carpenter used are approved for use with the newer ACQ treated lumber, you should have nothing to worry about. These metal framing connectors have been around for years and they are code approved. The biggest problem I’ve seen with joist hangers of all types is if the wrong nails were used when installing them.
All too often, rookie carpenters or do-it-yourself homeowners will install joist hangers using roofing nails. That’s a recipe for disaster, as roofing nails are not structural nails. They Read more…
The news that some stores are opening at 3:00 am on the day after Thanksgiving has made me a little panicky, so here are some early and random design-oriented gift suggestions. I’m a big fan of personalized gifts, like luggage tags that incorporate your own imagery (a faster way to distinguish one black bag from another on the carousel)…they feed my obsession with stones, thanks to the easy upload process on Shutterfly:
Coasters are another item that shows off your eye for design. Here’s what I did with Houseplans.com Chief of Design Nick Lee’s elevations for the house we’re building in Sonoma (Ranch House Plan 508-1):
(This view is from my Shutterfly project page.) A nice way to dream about the house you’re hoping to build as you sip that holiday cocktail.
Or to continue the agricultural theme of the house, how about a prefab chicken coop. The subject
I love the sweet color saturation ring featuring in this modern switch by Philips Lighting and Philips design in collaboration with co designer Tom Pelzer. It looks very intuitive and the lighting is called the To Be Touched Range. Available in four different models of On/off/dim (IR), Color Temperature (DMX), Color (DMX), On/off/dim (Dali), the new sweet lighting switch can automatically turn the light off in just 15 seconds when there are no human being detected by this cool lighting switch.
The ring color saturation as I mention earlier isn’t just showing color saturation, in fact, it will adjust to the way how bright you set the lighting. The dimmer you set the switch then the deeper color saturation you will get. It’s really interesting how today’s interior design really influence even up to lighting switches. I must admit that the color will beautify and act more than just a switch unlike in the traditional common switch we found.
How does this thing works? Then