Clean lines and a minimalist design aesthetic define Mid Century Style. The house set the tone for much of mid-century modern architecture by incorporating indoor and outdoor spaces. Mid-Century Modern explores the interior decor of this seminal decade, concentrating on all aspects of a home’s decoration-walls, flooring, surfaces, lighting, and, of course, furniture. (more…)
Bathroom storage has evolved from over-the-toilet shelves to today’s sophisticated furniture pieces with pullout drawers and removable trays.
It’s a response to a common dilemma facing homeowners with new or newly remodeled bathrooms: How to provide bathroom storage without sacrificing style.
“In contemporary bathrooms with the sink mounted to the wall, there’s no place to put anything, said Kurt Schnakenberg, vice president of sales for Chicago Brass, a wholesale dealer in Highwood. “It looks great, but living (with) that bath doesn’t work because you can’t perform your daily activities in there.” (more…)
Every year, The Washington Post Home section is sent dozens of books about decorating and design. Too often they disappoint. Doomed-to-look-dated rooms or a text full of meaningless superlatives do not deserve a long shelf life among my treasured books.
A library on the subject of home should be part dream, part down-to-earth: It should tempt me with glamorous kitchens, cite the definitive method for removing red-wine stains, inspire me to reimagine my living room and help develop my taste in color and style. The selections below, from me and my colleagues, touch on those topics and many more. (more…)
At a time when many people her age are pulling up stakes and traveling the world, Amber Nussbaum is spending her Saturdays at home, cleaning and arranging her 1,000-sq.-ft. house. The recent college graduate scours yard sales for mid-century modern furniture. She regularly visits design websites for new ideas.
Ms. Nussbaum is one of the many Americans who have made “nesting” a top priority in recent years. Whether it’s a reaction to feelings of insecurity brought on by the war against terrorism or the lure of low-interest loans to upgrade the kitchen, Americans spent $155 billion on home improvement projects in the past year, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. (more…)
Outdoors is going upscale across United States
America is moving out.
We’re creating outdoor spaces with all the comforts of indoors, right down to the area rugs and chandeliers. Thank modern materials for that — and quite possibly, the high cost of housing.
“Americans are looking outdoors and saying, ‘Hey, I have a lot more room than I thought I had,’ ” said P. Allen Smith, a garden designer who has both a TV show and a book titled “P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home.”
Creating a garden room, those homeowners reason, is a lot less expensive than adding on, or pulling up stakes. And with expansive choices and opportunities for customization, “you can get the same level of design detail for the exterior” as you could for the interior, he said. (more…)
