YOSSAWAT » Interior Design

Fairfield House by Webber + Studio, Inc

Yossawat — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:03:12 +0000

David Webber, AIA, of the Austin-based firm Webber + Studio, jokes that the house in Austin’s Hyde Park neighborhood that he designed for himself and Ransom Baldasare, his business and life partner, is really just like everyone else’s. “It has everything anyone asks for when they’re looking for a new house: five bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, a kitchen open to living and dining areas, a place for guests—programmatically it’s pretty unremarkable.” What Webber says may be true, but the reason he can say it with a smile is because he knows that apart from the program, the house is anything but commonplace.

Hyde Park is one of Austin’s older, centrally located neighborhoods, and its proximity to the University of Texas makes it popular with UT staff. Since part of Webber’s intention with the house was to have a permanent suite for his 68-year-old father when he was in town, it seemed like the right area.

Webber bought a 1947 craftsman-style home with an average-sized lot (120 by 60 feet), and set about creating the house. “We never start a project knowing exactly what shape it’s going to take,” he says. “We knew a few things that we wanted, but mostly, as with everything I do, when you understand the history and geography, the things just design themselves.

For both Webber, who was born and raised in Austin, and Baldasare, who is from California, having a home that was linked to its context and climate was key. To create a 3,200-square-foot home that would not take over the entire lot, Webber designed the home as a series of interlocking volumes and voids that embrace the outdoors, indirectly defining outdoor spaces such as a small terrace, larger backyard, rear patio, and a dog-trot-inspired breezway.

“I was inspired by those dog-trot houses in the south,” says Webber. “In Austin you need to capture breezes where you can.” Clad in a rainscreen made of cypress on the front of the house, the interior courtyard, under the windows on the east and west sides, and double-locked, standing-seam metal roofing on remainder of the west side, the house is nothing if not fortified against the elements.

Walking through and around the house brings a new experience in every space. Webber started with a box facing the street, with a cathedral-like entry 25 feet high. That area quickly drops down to under 8 feet into a sitting area, then back up slightly for the kitchen and dining area. The box then ends in glass, as Webber carved out the center to create a patio.

Back inside, you climb the stairs to the second floor, take a moment to rest in a loft-like sitting area before seeing where Webber’s vision of pulling out one side of the box comes to life in a bridge with a translucent hallway with an eastern-facing polycarbonate wall connecting a study, two kids’ bedrooms (the couple plans to expand their family), and his dad’s guest suite, with bedroom upstairs and steps down to a kitchenette, dining, and sitting area. “It’s my favorite place in the house,” says Baldasare about Webber’s dad’s realm, “because both the upstairs and downstairs living spaces are directly connected to the outside.” Directly connected to the outside, yet still part of the main house.

The surprises continue on the home’s west side, where you notice that the three main upstairs bedrooms actually project out in bays, blocking harsh western sun and bringing in northern and southern exposure from strategically placed windows. Also on that side, a 12-foot cantilevered projectile, clad in metal roofing, creates covered parking.

With local materials such as cypress cladding on the outside, pecan cladding and floors on the inside and Texas limestone in the bathrooms, another connection to the area is realized. And although the house doesn’t look a thing like any of the smaller craftsman homes surrounding it, it makes you wonder why those other homes weren’t designed like this one. “I’m totally against the idea that a house should be one big mass in the center of the lot,” says Webber. “Defining spaces, whether inside or outside, small or big, can make every room feel surprisingly different and unique.”

Source : Architectural Record, Webber + Studio, Inc

Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan

Yossawat — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:17:43 +0000

Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure

From not enough space and too many things to not knowing what color to paint the living room walls, many of us struggle with our homes. Now Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, frequent makeover expert on HGTV’s Mission: Organization and Small Spaces, Big Style, shares the do-it-yourself strategies that have enabled his clients and fans to transform their apartments into well-organized, beautiful places that suit their style and budget.

Week by week, Apartment Therapy will guide you to treat common problems, eliminate clutter, and revamp even the tiniest space. Here is an eight-step process that includes:

A therapeutic questionnaire to help you get in touch with your personal taste and diagnose your home’s physical, emotional, and energy flow issues

A prescription with recommendations for each room based on your needs and lifestyle–including tips on how to use color, lighting, and accessories

A treatment plan, including regular maintenance schedules to ensure the ongoing health of your space

Illustrations of floor plans and decorative examples that allow you to visualize concepts before you begin

With surprising ease and without elaborate professional help, Apartment Therapy will help you clear a path through disorder and indecision–to reveal a home you’ll love.

Buy “Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure” or Read More @Amazon.com

Not So Big House Coll-2cy by Sarah Susanka

Yossawat — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:50:02 +0000

Not So Big House Coll-2cy (Susanka)

Sarah Susanka’s best-selling books, The Not So Big House and Creating the Not So Big House, are available for the first time in one slipcase set. These two volumes offer all of Sarah Susanka’s trendsetting architectural ideas in one handsome package. “The rooms pictured in the book are both practical and lovely”

Buy “Not So Big House Coll-2cy” or Read More @Amazon.com

The Comfortable Home: How to Invest in Your Nest and Live Well for Less by Mitchell Gold, Bob Williams

Yossawat — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:31:55 +0000

The Comfortable Home: How to Invest in Your Nest and Live Well for Less

Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams know that the key to comfort is how you set up your home.

For two decades, their home furnishings have been synonymous with relaxed style. For them, comfort and beauty work in concert; they are never opposing ideals. Gold and Williams’s elegant collection of home furnishings is often the first—and last—place people go when they want pieces that are perfect in scale, comfort, and price.

In The Comfortable Home, Gold and Williams share their insights, experience, and practical knowledge so that you can make your home one that is both designed—and designed for living. With a focus on spending money wisely—investing in pieces you will have forever and making strong statements with affordable “pretty little things,” Gold and Williams cover all aspects of creating a beautiful, inviting living space, including:

Working with color
Deciding whether to hire a decorator (or not)
Furnishing small spaces
Finding inspiration in the world around you
Creating flow from room to room
And much, much more

Taking the reader throughout the home—from the entryway into the bedroom, dining room, and all the living spaces—The Comfortable Home is apropos, whether your style is modern, traditional, or something in between. There is plenty of advice on everything, from choosing the perfect bedside table to displaying a beloved collection to deciding where to splurge and where to hold back.

Throughout, sumptuous original photography provides inspirational tours of real homes—including Gold and Williams’s New York City apartment as well as a revitalized ranch, country cottage, and Federal-style home in the city.

Whether you are starting from scratch or looking for a smart way to update a room with a few new pieces of furniture, The Comfortable Home reveals how rooms with different functions can merge into a perfect whole that is inviting and recharging.

Buy “The Comfortable Home: How to Invest in Your Nest and Live Well for Less” or Read More @Amazon.com

Saxo Bank by 3XN Architects

Yossawat — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:14:14 +0000

Saxo Bank is a young dynamic internet bank with focus on online-trade with currencies, shares and futures on the bank’s self-developed platform, Saxo Trader. Saxo Bank was founded in 1992 in Denmark and counts around 850 staff members of 35 nationalities who serve customers from 115 different countries.

Saxo Bank’s new headquarter in Copenhagen is designed by 3XN. Although the customers primarily encounter the bank in cyberspace, the physical premises of the head office is of great importance to the management of the bank who participate actively and are highly dedicated to the development of the building. The building is of great iconographic significance, and there is a strong conviction that architecture and design affect each staff member’s performance and awareness of the company.

The architectural design is based on Saxo’s cutting-edge profile and branding. The lines of the building design define a sharp balance between reliability and dynamic expressivity in dialogue with the local plan. The building is shaped like two blocks with the end walls pointing towards the canal, joined together by facades that are withdrawn from the end walls. The facades are shaped like double curved glass that wave like a piece of textile.

The interior of the building is open and transparent with a large sense of community. The open plans centre round a softly shaped atrium with a glass roof. In the atrium, the main stair case winds up to the top. However, the main room and largest attraction of the building is the so-called Trading Floor where share prices are monitored intensely and resemble scenes from American movies about stock exchanges. Furthermore, the building encompasses a large number of rooms for technical support, kitchenettes and recreational areas.

spiral staircase the main feature of the building, image courtesy 3XN architects

lobby, image courtesy 3XN architects

spiral staircase, image courtesy 3XN architects

conference room, image courtesy 3XN architects

Source : Designboom.com

Italian Rustic: How to Bring Tuscan Charm into Your Home by Elizabeth Helman Minchilli, Domenico Minchilli

Yossawat — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:29:59 +0000

Italian Rustic: How to Bring Tuscan Charm into Your Home

A celebration of Tuscan farmhouse style, with practical advice on how to bring the look home.
For anyone who has ever dreamed of living under the Tuscan sun, Italian Rustic is the next best thing—a step-by-step guide to recreating the romance and appeal of the weathered Italian farmhouse. This nuts-and-bolts guide to building Italian-style walks the reader through all the elements that make the rustic Italian home so unique, from the hand-laid stone walls to the artisanal stucco wall finishes.

Author Elizabeth Minchilli, an American design writer based in Rome and Tuscany, received dozens of questions from readers after publishing her last book, Artisan’s Restoring a Home in Italy. The queries went beyond the usual searches for fabric and couches. “People were hungry to know how terra-cotta tiles were laid, or how fireplaces were built,” she says. Italian Rustic, researched with the help of her Italian architect husband, is the user-friendly result: a book that explains, in clear text accompanied by photographs and drawings, how to lay a tile floor a la Italiana, or add a Tuscan-style pergola to any garden.

With more than 300 stunning photographs shot on location in Tuscany and Umbria, the book contains profiles of local artisans, engaging text on how the farmhouse style evolved, and targeted advice on how Americans can find Italian-style building materials and craftsmen close to home. This essential sourcebook will appeal to anyone building an addition or an entire house from scratch, or for homeowners who want to add just a touch of Italian style to their houses.

Buy “Italian Rustic: How to Bring Tuscan Charm into Your Home” or Read More @Amazon.com

Glamour: Making it Modern by Michael Lassell

Yossawat — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:12:43 +0000

Glamour: Making it Modern

Glamour. Itís hard to define yet most know it when they see it. Today, glamour may still invoke the sophistication and refinement of the golden years of Hollywood art deco, but country, industrial and even nature glamour have joined the more traditional modes.

The 21st century has brought glamouróand her sisters, decoration and ornamentationóback into home design news. Todayís most cutting-edge homes embrace design of every kind from every corner of the globe. Itís a marriage of disparate styles that finds no contradiction. Glamour is in vogue in homes that are castles (literally) and in one-bedroom rentals at the fringes of downtowns.

Looking at homes recently featured in Metropolitan Home, Glamour, Making It Modern reconsiders them through the following sections:

concepts: looks at the defining general notions of Modern Glamour, such as sheen and scale,
objects: examines elements of home decoration which are inherently glamorous,
rooms: tours homes where everything comes glamorously together.

With a directory of the designers, some of the best in the business, and a list of resources for available products, Glamour, Making It Modern is purely inspirational and absolutely accessible.

Buy “Glamour: Making it Modern” or Read More @Amazon.com

Nancy Corzine : Glamour at Home by Nancy Corzine, Robert Janjigian

Yossawat — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:47:41 +0000

Nancy Corzine: Glamour at Home

Glamour at Home is an inspirational design primer from Nancy Corzine, a celebrated and respected name in the fields of furnishings, textiles, and interior design. Corzine’s interiors reflect an elegant and sophisticated approach to life that conjures up classic Hollywood style. Her assemblages of mirrored vanities, silk-covered chaise lounges, and gold-leaf black lacquer armoires decorated with chinoiserie in gorgeous light-filled rooms are dazzling. To demonstrate the foundations of her design aesthetic, Corzine presents homes in a variety of settings—urban, rural, and coastal—as case studies. The book is divided into entryways, living and dining rooms, libraries and home offices, bedrooms and bathrooms, kitchens, and exterior areas. Sidebars cover such useful topics as choosing furniture or a textile ensemble that is appropriate for a particular style, how to incorporate mirrors to their best advantage to enliven a space, and artful ways to display treasured objects. These elegant and composed indoor and outdoor rooms are timeless.

Buy “Nancy Corzine: Glamour at Home” or Read More @Amazon.com

Design Rules: The Insider’s Guide to Becoming Your Own Decorator by Elaine Griffin

Yossawat — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:09:56 +0000

Design Rules: The Insider’s Guide to Becoming Your Own Decorator

Many design books are filled with lavish photography of perfect rooms that most of us can only dream of re-creating. Without any practical advice, the look is unattainable. That’s where Design Rules comes in. Here, Elaine Griffin, one of the country’s 100 top designers (House Beautiful), explains all the practical decorating standards that professionals use behind the scenes to create flowing, balanced, gorgeous design. Packed with helpful illustrations and hundreds of step-by-step tips, Design Rules includes essential advice such as:

• Pick a pleasing color palette (that really works)
• Correctly size their bedsize tables (so they don’t tower over their beds)
• Enhance the visual appeal of windowless rooms (so they’re not dungeons)
• Design furniture arrangements that function and flow
• Style up even the most forlorn kitchens, baths and yes, basements and laundry rooms (honey, no space is too dreadful to be made ultra fab)
• Brighten up their kitchens with a can of paint and a burst of strategically-placed color (location, location, location!)
• Figure out which styles of furniture go together (there is a rule and it’s easy!)
• Make their own personalities shine throughout their homes (because they should)
• And oodles more!

Design Rules is for the growing number of savvy, novice home designers who are well-versed in what good design looks like, but need advice on how to translate it into their own home. It is the home design bible people have been waiting for.

Buy “Design Rules” or Read More @Amazon.com

Restoring a House in the City by Ingrid Abramovitch

Yossawat — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:53:33 +0000

Restoring a House in the City

How to turn an old home into a jewel on the block.
What do a fashion mogul, a Williams-Sonoma executive, a museum curator, and a design-savvy actress have in common? Good taste, of course, but more than that: a shared passion to “bring back,” to carefully restore and artfully embellish, their houses.

They are among the twenty-one real-life renovations featured in this essential resource—from stately town houses to brownstone fixer-uppers—to give the true experience of creating an urban oasis on any street. Whether hunting for rare chandeliers, salvaging floorboards for new tabletops, or removing walls to let more light in, all the nuts and bolts of restoration are here. In Boston, a young family’s renovation takes three years and includes every modern amenity (a media room, home gym, elevator), but saves most of the original interiors (window shutters and seats, marble fireplaces). A Baltimore couple—both stars of the graphic design world—must reconcile their cutting-edge tastes with their traditional surrounds.

From furniture and color to rooftops and terraces, Restoring a House in the City offers a treasury of inspiration and ideas, as well as a lavish illustrated tour of some of the best done renovations in the business.

Buy “Restoring a House in the City” or Read More @Amazon.com