interior design ideas: March 2010

Loft Room Divider

We're in the process of downsizing from a 4000 sq ft home to a 1200-sq ft loft. Do you know, loft living sounds more romantic than it actually is? We find that we really miss the traditional division of space. We miss having rooms. We miss the privacy!

We've been looking into options of dividing the space. Drapery is one, but do you have any idea how expensive a piece of fabric with four stitching is? It's quite a mystery actually, how much drapery can cost. The other option is to go with a company like the Sliding Door, but they are really pricey too.

We found this company, Loft Wall, today and we thought it might be a good option. They make portable dividers that you can customize the sizing and the panels. They are not cheap but they are not too expensive either. You can visit the web site to download the price list. Keep in mind that the published prices are retail, and no one pays retail!

Here are some samples:

To see more product specifications and pricing info, visit the Loft Wall web site.

Modern Planters

When we go to a really cool restaurant in Miami or Los Angeles we are always envious of the huge, modern planters that they have. It's really hard to find them. Most of the pottery places that we have in our local area sell the traditional planters. If you have a modern home you are kinda out luck.

Anyway, we just found a great source today for huge, commercial modern planters that we thought we'd share with you. They are so cool! We have no idea how much they cost, sorry. But if you are interested drop us a line and we'll get pricing info for you.

Here are some samples:

These are made by Green Form. To see more see their web site.

Structural Insulated Panels

If you are interested in building an energy efficient home, insulation is your top consideration and probably the most important component of the home. The design of the home, and in particular the kind and amount of insulation specified, can have a dramatic effect on the energy efficiency of a home by reducing or eliminating the need for heating and cooling.

For this reason, our architectural firm prefers to design homes with Structural Insulated Panels (SIP panels). SIPs, sometimes known as stress skin panels, are made of an insulating foam core with OSB (oriented strand board) bonded to either side. There are two popular types of foam cores – EPS (expanded polystyrene - photo, right), XPS (extruded polystyrene) -- ranging in R-Values from 13 to 40 (R-value refers to a materials ability to resist transferring heat), far above what conventional wall construction with fiberglass or cellulose insulation can deliver.

SIP panels address the efficiency of the home and can be used in any climate. The structural insulated panel enclosure system creates an energy efficient building envelope, keeping your home warm in the dead of winter and cool in the hot summer months. (SIPs were even supplied for the International Science Station at the South Pole, where summer temperatures average minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit!)

A SIP building envelope provides high levels of insulation and is extremely airtight, meaning the amount of energy used to heat and cool a home can be cut by up to 50 percent (visit the Structural Insulated Panel Association website at http://www.sips.org/).
Do you have questions about using SIP panels in your project? Let us know!
For information on the importance of ventilation in a SIP panel home, check out these blogs:
Structural Insulated Panel blogs found on the Post and Beam & Timber Frame Blog.

Color Story: Red

A pop of red home accessories to brighten up your day...

Red coral statues from Made Goods, Red Silk Flowers from New Growth Design, Shikaro Red Fabric from Fschumacher, Red Garden Stool from Urban Trend, Red Carpet from Chandra, Red Pillow from Caroline Cole, Red Chair from Jessica Charles, Red Artwork from Art Frame Source, Red Mirror from Made Goods.

All can be found under our home decor section.

Black and White Artwork

We usually have a really hard time finding artwork. Mainly because we know nothing about art and when you know nothing about something you tend to be really insecure. We suppose art is like wine, you can pretend to be a connoiseur or you can just decide you like what you like and that's that.

It's easier that way, no?

So here are some artworks that we just picked up for our own personal loft lately. It's a modern loft with very dark floors and white paint, so we thought we keep it simple by sticking to black and white theme. We really like them in person. They are made professionally for commercial projects so they look really nice and expensive, even though they are quite reasonable.

For more information on pricing and sizes, you can check out our artwork section. They are on the first few pages of the category.

Barbara Barry Home Accessories for Global Views

We haven't seen much from Barbara Barry for a while. She was huge a few years back, with furniture for Baker, fabrics for Kravet and so on. Her stuff was always so expensive though, so it was a nice surprise to see her home accessories collection for Global Views. They are actually reasonable!

The accessories has her signatured subdued colors & clean-lined styles. Here are some examples:

These items run between $100-$250 each. They will be posted in our home decor section shortly.

Friday Favorite: Vintage Children's Clothing

Last year I took Liam vintage clothes shopping for the first time. What I realized is, that its not easy to find vintage clothes for kids. (I also realize it isn't easy to preserve clothes worn by little munchkins) So, I was so excited to find these fab pieces on Bluebird Vintage. The site has great clothing for everyone, but I love picturing my little guy in a vintage Member's Only jacket:)

Modern House Hall Way Design furniture by Hulsta

Designing by Hulsta, you can administer some of these choices for your anteroom way space. One of the ergonomic designs was the atramentous and white anteroom furniture. Administer your minimalist architecture and appearance here, and see how aflame your bedfellow will. Another abstraction was the abreast alley architecture idea. You can administer the copse abstracts for this space. Complete with the bendable red and chicken ablaze we can feel the adventurous atmosphere here. If you charge some accessible amplitude to abundance your charge in clothes, umbrella, shoes, or a rain coat, it would be bigger for you to administer these avant-garde accumulator anteroom way adornment account to put your accessories here. Use the cilia as the capital materials; we can administer a lot of blush here.

Livin' La Dolce Vita

Photo via So Ninion

I'm very excited today! The lovely Paloma of La Dolce Vita invited me to be part of her "10 Things I Can't Live Without" series. This couldn't have come at a better time, because I've been in such a blogging funk. Sitting and writing about what really matters to me is a great way to get my creative juices flowing again. So, check me out here!

Moving Right Along

This week marks Liam's 5th birthday! I'm having trouble adjusting to not having a "baby" around, anymore. He's growing and changing so much. Thanks to Grandma, he now has his own car to drive. Yikes! This things is so big, it needs its own garage. Thanks Mom, I think.
Speaking of growing up, at his birthday party I saw him holding hands with one of his little girl friends! Yes! For a second I thought I saw my life flashing in front of me...my baby!!!! Just last week he told me he was "in love" with a different little girl. Help me, Lord!

Stylish & Practical Shower Drain Designs

FOUND: Shower drains that are not only beautiful, but smart, as well.

If you haven’t seen the new StyleDrain collection by California Faucets, take a look at these innovative, stylish designs!

As residential architects, we love the square shape design which makes installation much easier than traditional round-shaped drains. Plus, its flush grill features smooth edges and no visible screws, ensuring foot comfort.

A functionality benefit is that the drains have a fast-draining capacity that handles water flow at the highest level of efficiency, even when using simultaneous body sprays, rain bars, and multiple showerheads!

Check out more on these patent-pending designs at California Faucets.

Interior Design Ideas Luxurious by Marcel Wanders

Marcel Wanders make Interior Design Ideas Luxurious congenital these affluence home autogenous designs appropriate for those who adulation in aesthetic and avant-garde architecture of a house. Come to the aboriginal amplitude of this room, we will see the affected architecture of active room. This abstruse amplitude was complete with the bisected annular appearance daybed set in red color. Abutting to this bright and beauteous active room, we will begin a balmy ancestors allowance complete with daybed and the set of carriageable cushions. Separate with the bottle wall, we will host by adult dining allowance furniture. This dining allowance was complete with the set of dining table in atramentous color.

Interior Design Ideas Luxurious by Marcel Wande

This avant-garde dining allowance was accurate by a atramentous and avant-garde chandelier on the top of the dining room. Come to the capital bed room, we will see the gold blush amalgamate with white ablaze blush the capital blush of this room. This comfortable bedchamber decorating account accommodate with the accessible ablution allowance architecture that abutting in one space. This capital bed allowance was complete with the angle blaze abode and the set of ablution basin abutting to the angle ablution up. Here, we can both relax and adore our avant-garde live. The additional bed allowance was use the agnate affair with the capital bed room.

Artist Bridge Studio by Architects Safdie Rabines

Artist Bridge Studio

Arch Flat created by California based architects Artist Bridge Studio Safdie Rabines congenital in 111.48 sq meters areas. This activity is a flat for two artists adulatory to actualize a new assignment amplitude while aspersing the appulse of any new architecture on the accustomed mural of their property. The flat is amid to the rear of an absolute house, abutting it to a admirable allocation of the armpit which above-mentioned to the accession had not been accessible. To actualize the flat and library after advancing the surrounding area, the flat was conceived of as a “bridge” spanning a baby approach adjoining to the house, accouterment the befalling to acquaintance the coulee from the best of all accessible locations in and aloft it.

Artist Bridge Studio by Architects Safdie Rabines

The arch is accurate on two accurate piers on either ancillary of the coulee and is spanned with two trusses fabricated of top and basal glulam chords with animate cantankerous members. Spanning beyond the arroyo, the ablaze amphibian actualization of the architecture is acquainted central and out. Not alone does it arise to bewitch aloft the land, on the interior, it additionally interacts with the elements by aperture itself to the elements via colossal sliding doors, which add to the activity of abeyance while aperture to abduction ocean breezes.Artist Bridge Studio by Architects Safdie Rabines

Earth Hour for Climate Change

On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people, organizations, corporations and governments around the world will come together to make a bold statement about their concern for climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. In the U.S. where we are already feeling the impacts of climate change, Earth Hour sends a clear message that Americans care about this issue and want to turn the lights out on dirty air, dangerous dependency on foreign oil and costly climate change impacts, and make the switch to cleaner air, a strong economic future and a more secure nation.

Participation is easy. By flipping off your lights on March 27th at 8:30 p.m. local time you will be making the switch to a cleaner, more secure nation and prosperous America. View the Earth Hour toolkits, to find out what else you can do to get involved including leading the Earth Hour movement in your community.

Since its inception three years ago, Earth Hour’s non-partisan approach has captured the world’s imagination and became a global phenomenon. Nearly one billion people turned out for Earth Hour 2009 – involving 4,100 cities in 87 countries on seven continents.

Last year, 80 million Americans and 318 U.S. cities officially voted for action with their light switch, joining iconic landmarks from around the world that went dark for Earth Hour, including:

Empire State Building

Brooklyn Bridge

Broadway Theater Marquees

Las Vegas Strip

United Nations Headquarters

Golden Gate Bridge

Seattle’s Space Needle

Church of Latter-Day Saints Temple

Gateway Arch in St. Louis

Great Pyramids of Giza

Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens

Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro

St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City

Big Ben and Houses of Parliament in London

Elysee Palace and Eiffel Tower in Paris

Beijing’s Birds Nest and Water Cube

Symphony of Lights in Hong Kong

Sydney’s Opera House
Source: https://www.myearthhour.org/home
See what it's all about and why you should get involved:

Yellow Fever

Sending you a little bit of sunshine...

Yellow Dress by Sari Gueron (via Style.com), Silk Flowers by Inside Avenue, Rug by Thomas Paul, Garden Stool by Emissary, Indian Vogage Wallpaper by Scalamandre.

Chinoiserie Chic

Just a few pretty, Asian-inspired motif in our favorite color, green.

1) Mirror Wallpanels from Made Goods-each panel is 24" square
2) Silk Orchid from New Growth Design (it's 60" tall!). Soo pretty in person too.
3) To die for green chinoiserie wallpaper from Scalamandre WP88216-0005 $92 (discounted from $132 for single roll 5 yards x 27 inches) sold in double rolls only.

White Bookends from Made Goods

We are loving this pair of bookends from Made Good. It is made in ceramic and finished in a glossy white.

Perfect for a beach house, don't you think?

Where Did You Get That? Gold Sunburst Mirror

You problably have seen this mirror quite a bit. It's quite versatile, and we find it adds a little touch of glamour whereever you decide to hang it.

Image via MyHomeIdeas.com

Image via PointClickHome.com

You can find a better version of this sunburst mirror here. It is made by Global Views and comes in both gold and silver. The mirror is 39.5"' in diameter and costs $498 including shipping.

In The Mood for Turquoise

Just a few pretty things in turquoise...

Images via MyHomeIdeas