Want to get a feel for what’s hot in the world of home decor these days? All you have to do is visit a couple of model homes in your community and take a good look around. You’re sure to recognize a recurring theme.
The cabinets you saw in the high-end kitchen closely resemble the furniture in the adjoining breakfast nook, and the ceiling molding in the dining room matches perfectly as well. These days, designers are going out of their way to carry a single theme throughout the entire house. It’s a design trend called unification. (more…)
The hothouse colors, the hand-painted tiles, the lazy drift of hammocks and mosquito netting: If you visit Mexico, it’s hard not to fall in love with the look and the lifestyle.
But unlike a craft or curio that you can pack in your suitcase, Mexican style isn’t always easy to bring back home. And if you do, it may not look the same. Hibiscus pink, you may say to yourself. What was I thinking?
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It may have been an overexposure to early Frank Lloyd Wright, or perhaps too much time spent in boats, but when I was young, and until very recently, I was horrified by furniture. I always thought that a perfect domestic architecture would be heavy on the built-ins. Shelves, benches, various seats and berths—these were the things necessary to finish a space, to tune it for living, to show at least that the designer was not entirely ignorant of how and by whom a house would be used. Also to anchor it. An uncle of mine lived for many years in a very cool Anglo-built adobe in Taos, New Mexico. At the center of the main space was a large circular pit, dug out of the ground and contoured for sitting: a brutal sunken living room, it seemed so much more profound than the loose, impermanent wooden furniture orbiting all around it, sliding this way and that, imported things ready to take up any position, or be replaced. (more…)
With rising energy prices and a growing demand for eco-friendly construction, more and more people are coming around to round homes.
When Yosh Schulman and his wife, Nili Simhai, decided to find an environmentally friendly option for their new home in Millerton, N.Y., they chose a prefabricated circular home for some of those specific reasons.
“My wife runs an environmental education center, so we wanted a home that made wise use of natural resources,” says Schulman. “Circular homes use fewer building materials. Their footprint’s impact on the environment is minimal. There are heating and cooling benefits, as well.”
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The Emmons complex, which consists of the original Emmons and the Emmons Jr., is not only of great historical significance to Huntington, a city that is losing its great landmarks, it is a beautiful work of art. The two buildings were created in an age where quality was not a buzzword, but a true concern of most architects and builders.
Sadly, many architects, builders and building owners focus more on finding low-quality material for use in new buildings or renovations rather than the solid work that made buildings such as the Emmons buildings.
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