what are we redoing ?

Another Houzz glitch, I think.

Most people love to look at photos of how they'd really like their home to look. They take ideas from the beautiful pictures we have in abundance on this website and they take some of the ideas they see and incorporate them into their homes. We happily offer advice on how you or anyone else can do this. And we see enough before and after photos to know that our advice and our photos are a great help to thousands of people.

Hey, Pat - if it makes you feel any better, I included a pic of a dirty kitchen on my page. ;)

I add that the great ideas I have gotten on Houzz are guiding me toward deciding what works for me, something I have not done before, and that is heaven sent regardless of whether I like most the rooms I see in magazines, etc.

Yes, 8dog - I think part of the problem is that to photograph a space and to be in it are very different things.

Photographing the Ojai house was very difficult, because the spaces are all interconnected and the light changes constantly so part of what is fun about it is the movement. That cannot really be captured in still photographs. I have heard that there is a neurological difference between looking at things that require you to turn your head and looking at things that don't. I have also heard that Adolf Loos prided himself on designing buildings that could not really be photographed.

When I consider the concern that you mention above (and which I share) about things feeling impersonal - while there are numerous levels of information in play, the bottom line is that the photograph needs to be a good composition, it needs to feel spatial, it needs to tell a story, and it needs not to convey any significant misinformation. Having so many parameters in play makes it a tricky process. Also, having a lot of objects in the image makes it harder to compose and also harder to keep it feeling spatial.

Another issue is that, frankly, we don't often see the hand of the artisan or of nature in furnishings and decoration any more and I think that that fact makes our environments boring.

Re: the South Bend kitchen specifically - those people have 7 children, so, they are very quick to get the dishes done because if not, their lives might be unmanageable. ;)

Sorry, I deleted my first post because it could be interpreted as churlish and ungracious of me although intended more as a total amateur's self-examination than as critique.

On Houzz you can find budget-friendly projects - not a lot of them. As Ironwood mentioned, professionals want to show the best of their best. Lately, Houzz editorial staff have been writing featured ideabooks that have a broader appeal.

Here are a couple of budget-friendly projects by Bill:




:) Rhoda