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Another option is to paint the outer trim to match the surrounding siding. The thick bands of the dark red sash and built-in trim don’t appear as chunky here because the surrounding elements are the same, or similar, in hue. They help knock down the thickness of the sash and its matching framing trim piece.
Homeowners’ request: Elegant, bohemian style full of color and comfort, and reflecting a love of travel. Style points: Custom island designed to look like an antique Asian buffet piece. Grasscloth wallpaper backsplash in a flame stitch pattern, sandwiched between glass — it can be slid open to reveal storage behind it. Lanterns hang from an antique Chinese lattice over the sink. Designer secret: “Sandwiching the backsplash wallpaper in glass gives you the ability to transform any wallcovering into a backsplash that can resist spills and stains,” designer Andrea Monath Schumacher says.
Johnson crafted the 16-foot-long table for McLeod’s art studio. Originally, the splatters were incidental, but now they’ve become something beautiful. He’s coated the table with boat varnish many times to give it a beautiful finish and now uses a drop cloth over it when he’s working. He painted the interior of the cabinet to match the turquoise paint.
Adding personality to the staircase is another recent project completed by McLeod, who is an artist. “I wanted it to look like a series of sturdy boxes with beautiful illustrated lids,” he says. “The existing plywood was like a gift I could play with, and I had a lot of fun with it.” He used a very strong boat varnish to finish them. Varnishing was the last thing the couple would do before leaving for their home in the city of Vancouver so that they didn’t have to live with the fumes. Tip: Paint every other stair so that you can still get up and down during the project.
15. Go play outside. Artists are well-known for their creative use of reclaimed materials; some artists make their entire livelihood sculpting with scrap metal and other recyclables saved from the landfill. For this xeriscape yard in drought-prone California (part of a home dubbed Art House), road signs work in concert with rusty steel elements for a look that’s desert highway chic.
5. Bold backsplash. For this backsplash, “the owners selected signs from streets with tree names, and they were cut into tiles and assembled in a random pattern on the wall,” the Fivedot designer shares. The result is a completely personalized, unique expression of individuality that will never grow stale. The hardiness of the material makes it well-suited to do its job in the kitchen without much fuss or additional treatment.
4. Think creatively. Most of us haven’t used a milk crate as a piece of furniture since college, but in these bright colors and next to this contemporary home they look like something Warhol would have conjured up as an art piece. They are also easy to move around, stack and even use to carry things outside. The bottom line is to let these simple crates — or another budget piece — inspire you to get creative with furnishings beyond typical patio sets.
The piano and the dining table are the two pieces of furniture that the homeowners tasked Connell with incorporating into the new design. She chose traditionally shaped dining chairs with a contemporary gray wash stain to both complement and modernize the table. The gray damask upholstery that covers the backs of the dining chairs was the first fabric to be selected. “It’s those little dots of cobalt blue in the fabric that inspired the entire space,” Connell says.
Hoosier cabinets are so named because most of them were made in Indiana. The first Hoosier cabinets appeared in 1898, made by a furniture company called Sellers, based in New Castle, Indiana. Between 1899 and 1949, there were about 40 different manufacturers of Hoosier cabinets. However, the top two companies were Sellers and the Hoosier Manufacturing Company. McDougall, Boone, Nappanee and Wilson were also popular Hoosier cabinet manufacturers. (Wilson was in Michigan.) The popularity of the Hoosier cabinet started to wane in the late 1940s. That’s when manufacturing records for the cabinets became scarce, says Brandon Fyffe, manager at Kennedy Hardware in Zionsville, Indiana, which supplies about every Hoosier cabinet replacement part you can think of. (Fyffe’s grandfather also wrote the book Hoosier Cabinets.) A modernizing world with built-in kitchen cabinets is the likely reason for the decline, as there wasn’t as much need for them. Hoosier Cabinet SaveEmail What makes a Hoosier cabinet so special? You might think they’re just simple cupboards, but they’re so much more. Yes, they store staples like flour, sugar and spices, and utensils. However, they also have workable part...
A collection of nearly 87 hats artfully hangs in the hallway.
Another bathroom features the same black pebbles and a semiprivate wall of dry vines between the sink and toilet. The stone sink “was meant to be a birdbath or something,” Price says. She had a custom concrete base made to elevate and give new purpose to the bowl.
hutch
steps
BANANNA PAINTING
reclaimed wood
MIDCENTUARY COUCH
HALL CLOSET?
ceiing color
shelves + couch
pillows
railing
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