Homebody

What I Love About It: “If you have tall ceilings, break up the wall with paint.” No! Paint is boring! It has its uses, but it can only go so far. When I first dipped my ignorant little toes into interior design, I was amazed at available wall treatments and space dividers that had nothing to do with color blocking or semi-gloss. Bamboo, fabric, stone - dozens of potential uses for material on walls to give the same color punch as a paint can while adding visual interest to the extreme. I love the depth a room is given when large chunks of wall are taken up by a solid material. Also, major design boner for those abundant, skeletal windows.

What I Don’t: Art that’s leaned instead of hung is one of my major design pet peeves. I’m also wary of this trend re: bathtubs inside the bedrooms, though only because I worry what the steam must do to decorative stuff!

What I Love About It: Visually, it’s easy to look at. It’s a clean, pretty room with a clean, pretty view.

What I Don’t: Pretty is all that it is. The reliance on the room’s surroundings, in this case, is not artistic or complementary to nature, but representative of a lack of skill or creativity. It isn’t design, it’s luxury. It’s an expensive room in an expensive house on an expensive plot of land. There’s a very, very big difference between design and luxury.

georgianadesign:

Gisele Taranto, Casa Cor Rio de Janeiro 2012.

What I Love About It: Details. Specifically having to do with lighting - in the back toward the ceiling, a cluster of bulbs is collected in a hanging net. On the nearest table, a lamp without a shade is both unexpected and inviting - points of interest that welcomes inspection. I honestly can’t tell if that floor is made of several squares of rough wood or a collection of factory-faded geometric throw rugs, but either way, it’s fulfilling to the eye.

What I Don’t: Again, details. Potted centerpieces distract me, I can’t help wondering what these people do when they order a pizza. Sit in the dining room, or put all their coffee table baubles on the ground? Stools operating as end tables which are both excessive AND lacking - having two is unnecessary, but they’re both too short.

(via interiordecline)

cabbagerose:

b-707 fuselage room divider

via: belmortimer

Breaking the rules a little bit, here, but my geeky obsession with interior fixin’s cannot be contained to just the final product.

What I Love About It: That I’ve never seen anything like it before. That it makes private home functionality out of the (oh my god, am I about to use this word?) mystique of the industrial. That absolutely everyone who has one will get a different result.

What I Don’t: That it will take a very specific and more-intentional-than-it-looks skill with decorating to pull off, no matter how much money you’ve got.

What I Love About It: Almost everything. Indulgent, obscene - you could roll around in that low, soft bed for hours. You can stare at the shot for a long time; things will keep popping out at you. Standing candleholders in the center of the room. The ottoman separated from its partner chair to make another seat. The armless sofa.

This space was designed to be fucked in, vigorously and with the kind of intense, possessive filth-talking you think only exists in movies.

What I Don’t: See that scrawny motherfucker there by the deliciously masculine wood chest? Personal thing - I hate him. Him and all chairs like him.

Also, for such an impressive pair of rooms, I’m disappointed that they chose a mirror, rather than actual art.

What I Love About It: This is literally a dream house - a house belonging to a place where something doesn’t have to make sense to make sense. I love the cluster of solid square windows in the misshapen roof and that there’s so much more bulk to the top than the bottom. A wall-to-wall system of curtains to control the light, as opposed to blinds or shades or even, in some spots, -walls?- Brilliant. *_*

What I Don’t: What are you even doing giving a house like -this- such a lackluster yard.

What I Love About It: First of all, let me talk to you about how much I love wood. Not in strict, streamlined floor planks or cut into a cherry-glazed photo frame, but wood like this, presented in its natural roughness and warm asymmetry. It steals the shot every single time. It took me a minute to realize there were -chairs- at this table, and how often can you say that the clunky metal centerpiece overflowing with decorative accents wasn’t the thing your eye was drawn to?

Secondly, there are crumbs of so many different styles successfully at work, here. It’s modern but natural, romantic but functional, efficient but well-loved. A cottage-style ceiling, a lodge-style dining table, a contemporary-style smoky concrete floor. I am in love.

What I Don’t: Only the peculiar … -collection- of ovens, and three distinctly different light fixtures all cluttered together that are clearly attempting what the rest of the room accomplishes so well, but failing at. Too close together, too for-the-same-function.

What I Love About It: Nothing. Even if the -intent- with the use of shape and texture on the furnishings was “obscene,” my reaction would still be no. Same goes for the forcefully, inelegantly vaginal … art … thing.

The scattering of electronics and their components, the undressed builder basic floors (which may well have been selected by the owner, but still give the appearance of being builder basic) and the choice to face everything away from the only redeeming feature I can find (hello, gorgeous windows!) make this one of the least successful rooms I’ve ever seen.

What I Love About It: It’s a treasure hunt! Is that a little iron pig?! Is that a bench made … made out of a slab of concrete?! From the massive windows to the faraway brick wall to what essentially amounts to silhouette porn in those crisp little chairs, there’s no part of this place I don’t want a closer look at.

I’m curious as to whether the decision to leave the windows undressed is -intentionally- mirrored in how little eye-level clutter there is, here, or if it simply worked out that way by (really attractive) coincidence. A decorator this skilled in the art of doing nothing is a rare treat.

What I Don’t: It is a long, sad, drab couch.

What I Love About It: Three distinct things - bottles as a light fixture, a baby carriage repurposed as a place to store firewood (the Childfree proponent in me is both amused and delighted), and one of the most unique stacked-stone fireplace concepts I’ve ever seen. Everything is clean, bright and utilized fully for impact - have a look at their ascending tower of CDs!

What I Don’t: As with so many well-designed spaces, the only comfort to be found is what’s there to look pretty; a plush carpet, a close seating arrangement. If you walked into this space for the first time as a guest, your instinct would probably not be to drop into one of those dental-office-waiting-room chairs and have a friendly conversation.