Summer's Ovah!

Now that the summer is essentially over I'm so excited to get back into the swing of things!

Posted with Blogsy

My Truro Beach House Project Feature in Cape Cod Magazine

I'm thrilled to share my Truro Beach House project that is featured in Cape Cod Magazine's September 2013 issue. It's one of only two outer Cape projects featured and we truly span the gamut of interior design and architecture on Cape Cod. Photogtapher Paul Blackmore, a gifted nature photographer, truly captured the spectacular views outside every window in the home. There are a few small errors in the article - for instance the main living area is upstairs, not downstairs, and the dining table and chairs are Restoration Hardware, not Room & Board. But those are pretty small. I am truly thrilled to have been included and thank my clients for being wonderful to work with on this fun project. The house is available for rental throughout the year, click here for more information.

If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks! Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

WWMD - What Would Miles Do?

 My latest on Williams-Sonoma Designer Marketplace - read on here

By the way, are you on Instagram? You can follow me here where I post lots of local photos, things I'm working on and more.

If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks! Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

Cover Girl!

Here's my project on the cover of Cape Cod Magazine! Still waiting to see the rest of the story - I'm dying!!

Not to push summer out the door, but here's a sneak peek at our Sept. cover... http://t.co/LbYluMnwie
— Cape Cod Magazine (@CapeCodMagazine) August 26, 2013

If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks! Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

Double Duty: Dining Rooms and?

Well, I know summer is drawing to a close, suddenly, my days are filling up with deadlines faster than I can get them written on the calendar!  I have a few things to share...

On the Williams-Sonoma Designer Marketplace blog, I have a new article called Turning the Dining Room Into a Multi-Functional Space.  I love a formal dining room - but they are not always practical in many homes and today's lifestyles. But the value of having a truly "grown-up" space where the family can celebrate holidays and milestones and guests can feel celebrated as well is inestimable in my opinion. So, rather than thing of them as expensive spaces used sporadically, make them do double duty!

Like a library: 

Mark Badgley and James Mischka's Kentucky library

 

Windsor Smith - House of Windsor for Veranda Magazine

Or a music room like I did for clients with a very large dining room and no need for a huge dining table:

Linda Merrill

In my Dream House, I am planning on a library/dining room that could serve as a meeting and entertaining space for clients as its right off the home office and the kitchen.

This is very rough, I still need to work on the cabinetry design, but just go give an idea what I'm thinking of. The home office is behind the double doors and the door to the back hall and kitchen is on the right, opposite the window.

Anyway, have a read over at Williams-Sonoma and let me know what you think!

I spent much of last week updating my website - I still have some work to do, but I'm excited about making this change - it feels fresher somehow!

I'm headed off to Chatham today to meet up with a design friend to do a little shopping. On Tuesday I'm headed to the Boston Design Center to find some fabrics and other items for a couple of client projects. And, hopefully, by the end of the week I'll be able to share the cover of the September issue of Cape Cod magazine, which is featuring a project I did in Truro, MA. I haven't seen any of the photos - so am waiting with baited breath!!

If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks! Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

Solitary Soul by Sandra Goroff

I wanted to share a new book (coming soon!) by fellow Massachusetts gal Sandra Goroff called Solitary Soul

A long time book publicist, Sandy has been exploring her artistic side for a while and has pulled together a collection of photographs that both capture our New England region, but also the personal moments of the people who live here.  As a publicist, Sandy has worked on many art and antiques projects including including the Kovels, Skinner Inc., Brimfield, art and collectibles expert Judith Miller, Provincetown artist Ann Packard, the MFA, MOMA and the Smithsonian.

Publisher's Weekly wrote of the book: "The photos—of a lone boat, a line of laundry, a little girl with her stuffed bunny—exhibit what Anthony Mason of CBS News describes as Goroff’s “keen eye for the subtle, but telling, details of life.” Comments novelist Caroline Leavitt, “Goroff’s brilliantly original photos get at the heart of what it means to be human.”" Read more of PW's article here.

Congrats Sandy! You can visit her book site here.




If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks! Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

Linda's Dream House: 2nd Floor Plan and Master Bathroom Design

As I've had time, I've been pecking away at my digital Dream House. I finally got the 2nd floor plan nailed down - I think!  Not surprisingly, I wanted to have a fabulous master (mistress?) bedroom suite, but also wanted decent guest rooms. While the house looks big, it's only about 2600 sq. ft. so things can't get too enormous.

Sorry this is a little messy looking. The software I use - Live Interior 3D Pro for Mac - doesn't generate really fantastic floor plans. The grayed out lines are the first floor walls. There is some kind of glitch that forces the upstairs to be slightly smaller than downstairs on three sides and I just don't know why. Learning process.

Anyway, as you can see, the master suite is on the back of the house. When I lived in Newburyport (the future location of my fictional dream house) I lived on High St, which is the main drag through town. Loved the street - but it is noisy. Since all the houses sit right at the street, the master in the back is preferable. My condo's master was in the front, but after a while, I moved to the smaller back bedroom to get away from the street noise. In order to get everything in, I've ended up with an upstairs hall that has no direct natural light, which bothers me, but I'm not sure how to avoid it. Light would come up the stair well from the front hall and the stairs to the attic would be open and I think I'd want to try to force some natural light down the stairs via sky lights in the attic. The space behind the stairs is the chimney, which is why it's boxed in.

I still have to work on making sure all the doors are at least 3' wide since I'm trying to maintain as much universal design principal as possible. Since this is a plan for me, I'm considering the fact that if I were to build it (sponsors anyone? lol) I'd want to be here the rest of my life. So, I am in fact planning room for the addition of an elevator in the rear of the house. It would be accessible from the back yard and garage, into the downstairs and then it would open on the 2nd floor in the hall between the master bedroom and bath. So if this were a real house, it would always be accessible.

Of course, I've had fun planning the master bathroom. Not sure if I'd do so much marble (it might fall off the house!!!) but a girl can dream. And to be honest, it's easiest to just lay in a "material" in this software on the whole wall vs. dealing with wainscot, etc.

Because I have an entry way below in the home office, I was able to push the tub area out from the room - which I love. I also love that I am able to get a vanity table in with natural light. There would of course be window treatments, but I haven't gotten to those yet. I played around with the tub configuration quite a lot. I like the symmetry of the faucet being in the middle, but it's hard to reach across the span to use them. However, the fact that they can more easily be reached when sitting in the tub made the center installation a winner for me.

 

The shower isn't huge - 4'6"x4'6" - but it's fine. There is a niche in the rear wall for shampoo, etc. Ignore the fact that the glass shower walls and door are just floating - I know there would be hardware, but I'd want it as minimal as possible.  The door next to the shower would be a sliding door to the toilet closet. The opening is a linen closet. Decided against a door there and would either use a curtain, or just really nice baskets to hide the usual linen closet stuff.

I like the mix of old and new with the simple vanity, Federal inspired mirrors and Jonathan Adler sconces.  The doors would be mirrored - possibly with antique mirror inserts. I'd also have a rug. Not yet sure about the floor, thought it won't probably be all black like this.

Here are some of the fixtures I've chosen: 1) Capiz Shell Chandelier via 1st Dibs 2) Jonathan Adler Ventana 2 Light Sconce 3-4) Virage Faucets by Brizo for tub, sinks and shower 5) X-Table vanity via 1st Dibs. See all links on my Pinterest Board here.

Working on this project really reminds me how important it is to bring in a designer early on in a building project. While I know I shouldn't get into too many fine decorative details while still figuring out floor plans, it's important to understand how someone will be living in the house, the size of furnishings, layouts, physical needs now and in the future, etc. Too often, houses are built without planning for real life needs and the rest just needs to be squeezed into the available spaces. It all needs to be done in tandem for the best outcome.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, etc. Also, what would you want in your dream master bathroom?


If you would like my help on your dream house design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks! Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

Book Review: "Designers At Home" by Ronda Carman

 

I've been remiss by not posting about © Designers At Home by Ronda Rice Carman (Rizzoli, New York, 2013) which came out a couple of months ago. Ronda's blog All the Best has been her jumping off point into the world of interior design for many years. Over that time, she has forged deep and clearly personal friendships with some of today's biggest design stars in the US and UK. Though based on Scotland, Ronda (an American) has had her finger on the pulse of the American interior design world like no one else and she was really the only one who could write a book about how designers live in their own homes. The book's tag line is: "Personal Reflections on Stylish Living" and over the course of 300 pages, we get inside glimpses of some of our favorite interior designers. As a blogger and member of the design industry, I've had the opportunity to connect and meet many of the people profiled in the book, so it's been especially fun to see how they decorate their own homes and their individual thoughts on design. Each designer provided their thoughts on the following five topics: 

       - Making an Entrance

       - Creature Comforts

       - Flowers and Fragrances

       - A Beautiful Bed

       - Entertaining Thoughts

And in typical fashion, each designer has his/her own take on each. With a forward by Martha Stewart, the book features the homes of fifty professionals (sometimes more than one house) including Barry Dixon, Brad Ford, Brook and Steve Giannetti, Celerie Kemble, Mary McDonald, Scot Meacham Wood, Bunny Williams, Charlotte Moss and many, many more. 

I selected a few of my favorite images to share and it appears my idea of stylish living consists of dining & outdoor (yet undercover) entertaining and sleeping spaces. Yup.

Celerie Kemble

Ken Fulk

 David Oliver

Bunny Williams

Aside from being able to go inside our favorite designer's homes, the range of the design styles is broad as is the geographic regions they cover, which is a lot of fun. Overall, the rooms shown range from traditional to eclectic, casual to formal, with no truly modern design shown (which will certainly be a downside for some). One criticism I have is that for the designer's who show more than one house, the photos aren't marked as to which house each is from.  Maybe I'm lazy, but I'd rather the photo be marked than have to figure it out based on context of the text, or foliage outside the windows. But that's a very small criticism. 

The size of the book is notable in that it's smaller and lighter than the average "coffee table" design book and as a result is easy to handle and read. While the photos may be smaller than some of the larger, glossier tomes on the market, I found this size much easier to deal with and more likely to be read entirely through.

So, a big congrats to Ronda - this is an amazing accomplishment! Ronda has been touring the US all summer doing book signings, which are noted on her blog.

You can buy Designers at Home: Personal Reflections on Stylish Living here.


If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks! Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

Pillow Talk: Reviewing DownLinens' Pillows

The folks at DownLinens recently sent me a pair of pillows to test their new Plush Perfect Gel Fiber Pillows. I'm always on the lookout for decent down alternative pillows since not every client wants, or can use, down/feather blend pillows.

Their new lines comes in Soft (for stomach sleepers), Medium (side sleepers) and Overstuffed (back sleepers and propping up in bed). The sizes are either Jumbo (20"x28) or  King: (20"x36"). I requested the medium density for side sleepers and I actually think it's possible I received the Overstuffed version because they are very full and a bit difficult to slip into my pillow cases. The first night, as with any new pillow, was a little hard as these are much fuller and denser than the ratty old pillows I was used to. I do tend to go back and forth between being on my side and on my back, so once I got used to these, I find them very comfortable in both positions. 

The Plush Perfect  Gel Fiber pillows are sold in pairs and rage from $44.99-$54.99. DownLinens also carries natural down pillows, comforters and bed toppers. 

::Surroundings:: readers can receive a 15% off discount at DownLinens. Just use the code
ITSGELTIME15.

If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks! Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

York (Maine) Decorator Showhouse 2013

Yesterday I had a lovely day trip up to New Hampshire and Maine. My first stop was to meet my photographer Michael J. Lee to scout a recently completed project near Exeter, NH. Then I headed off to Maine to visit the York Decorator Show House. This is the 24th show house benefiting the Museums of Old York and each year thousands of people make the trip. The Museums of Old York maintain nine historic house-museums, collections and provide educational opportunities to thousands of school children each year. This year's show house is on Kittery Point, ME with amazing water views over to New Castle, NH. The house was built in 1996 in a sort of "Contemporary Federal" style. It was built into the hill the rolls down to the water and has six levels to accommodate the landscape. The street side of the house is pretty unremarkable but from inside you'd never know there was a busy street nearby. The "show" is definitely the back of the house which faces the water. This year's group of designers included several of my New England design and blogging buddies and it was a lot of fun to visit their spaces.

Below I'm sharing some of the 100 photos I took yesterday! Needless to say, I couldn't share them all, but tried to pick the highlights.

Barbara Elza Hirsch was with me on the BlogTour trip to New Orleans and the Brizo Blogger19 trip to Memphis. I love her screen porch - the shapes and textures are unique and yet the whole is perfectly integrated into the landscape beyond the screens.

Yvonne Blacker is a long time blogging buddy. She works for Designer Bath in Salem and put together two stylish and sophisticated bathrooms filled with gorgeous fixtures. A fellow member of the Brizo Blogger 19 (she was in Memphis too!), Yvonne of course used some gorgeous Brizo fixtures. The top bathroom features their RSVP Collection. The bottom features fixtures from Jason Wu for Brizo. Apologies to Yvonne - these photos didn't come out well - the only light available in this bathroom came from the gorgeous lighted mirror that she installed. 

Designer Meredith Bohn designed several rooms including the kitchen, dining room, sitting room (featured above) and a ladies retreat. She integrated a mix of antiques along with comfy upholstered pieces, Audubon prints and stylish accessories. 

A standout space for me was the private Guest Cottage designed by Anne Cowenhoven. I guess I just love pink and green! She installed a bright pink sail over the entrance which made the interiors just glow. The floor was splattered with pink paint and the textiles are just gorgeous. Feminine and girly, but not babyish. 

Designer Frank Hodge created a masculine study which has spectacular views - hard to imagine getting any work done. Again, apologies for the poor photography - it's hard to balance the bright light coming in from the outside against the darker interior palette. The space is cool and a nice respite from the brightness all around. 

Designer Valerie Jorgensen decided that an old tool shed on the property would be a fun challenge and she turned it into a cabana of sorts with sitting area and changing rooms.  Valerie also decorated around the pool area (shown at the bottom of this post). She decided to make this a truly eclectic space, as if everything was found in the attic and used in the space "as is"  - and it works! She used fence pickets as a continuing theme in the space, including the custom chandelier that her intern made for over the table.

New England blogger and design friend Katherine Hawkins created a teenage girl's hangout space that features a vibrant purple, pink and teal color palette with a mermaid theme. The standout is the gorgeous crystal and shell chandelier which came from Lucia Lighting & Design. 

A small space was made very special when designer Pauline Vastardis brought in decorative painter Susan Marshal to create a custom wall mural that depicts the local Maine scenery and a screen (which will be auctioned off later on) depicting the various house museums which are part of the Museums of Old York. Pauline filled out the space, a woman's retreat, with beautiful fabrics and vintage furnishings.

Blogger and designer Rosanne Palazola created the "Poolside Portal" as a kind of updated mudroom which stocks various items needed for poolside enjoyment such as books, glassware, etc. The ceiling fixture, from Lucia Lighting, is a kind of modern "onion" style with recycled glass drops.  All of the rooms done by Rosanne, Katherine Hawkins and Yvonne Blacker were done individually and as a team they called Trio Designs where each took the lead on a space, but they also worked together on the details and coordination. Great job ladies!

This final photo shows more of the grounds, which are really amazing. This is not only a great tour for interiors fans, but for gardeners as well. The mature landscaping is lush and really quite amazing. There are, of course, many other spaces which I'm not showing here. Don't want to give it all away! Coastal Living magazine was shooting the master bedroom (by Patricia Finn) which is a feat of re-creation from the original space.

This house is currently on the market and you can see the "before" photos here.You will be amazed at the changes these talented designers have brought to the house.

The show house is going on through August 15th. Information here.