Interiors
LustList >> Outdoor Showers and Baths
I’ve always loved outdoor showers, and seeing this article in Travel + Leisure about the “world’s sexiest hotel showers” has had me thinking about them recently. Out of the fifteen showers T+L selected, only a few were outdoors! I couldn’t believe it. I think an outdoor shower is one of the best bathroom-upgrades a house or hotel room could have… There’s just not much better than taking a shower under the blue sky (or stars) with a breeze grazing your skin.
At top, the Sossuvlei Desert Lodge in Namibia. Above, Cocoa Island, Maldives.
The article reminded me of a hotel I stayed at in Merida, Mexico, in the Yucatan, called Rosas y Xocolate on a work trip in the fall. My absolute favorite thing about my room was the giant outdoor stone bathtub seperated from the rest of the bathroom by only a large glass door. The image below is from another room in the hotel, but shows the concept. The outdoor space around the bathtub is actually quite large, so you didn’t feel too closed in.
Another hotel we stayed at in the Yucatan, Hacienda San Jose, also had outdoor bath tubs, but with a much different feel. While Rosas y Xocolate is urban, hip, and modern, Hacienda San Jose is jungle-y, exotic, and ancient feeling.
Click through for seven more outdoor showers…
The following images are from Remodelista…
Interiors
Milk Paint
Have you ever heard of Milk Paint? I just discovered it and am now obsessed.
It was created to be used as a paint for restoring antique furniture, so the colors are based on the colors used historically for both walls and furniture, and it has a totally flat finish. While I do love a good lacquered wall, on the other hand, I love paint with really rich pigment and a totally flat finish. Milk Paint actually comes as a pure pigment– in powder form– in a little brown bag and you mix it with water.
There are only 20 colors, which I think is brilliant, a la Farrow & Ball, because it means both that all the colors are good and that they all go well with each other. You can then mix any one of them with white to get other tints.
You can also mix it with a bonding agent they make and then it apparently will adhere to even non-porous surfaces, which for diy-furniture makeover types, is awesome.
And it’s self-priming, which is such a plus.
AND, as a bonus, it’s inherently totally non-toxic and environmentally friendly. All in all, pretty great product.
Website here.
Interiors
LustList >> Chalk Paint Walls
I love chalk paint walls. Beyond their practical use, I love two very specific things about them.
I love a highly pigmented matte paint, and chalkboard paint has exactly that quality.
Secondly, I love handwriting, so the fact that having a chalkboard adds handwriting as a major component to a room is pretty cool.
Don’t you love it when you walk into a restaurant and the menu is written on a chalkboard? That always seems like a signal to me that I’m going to like what’s about to happen. It just makes the whole experience feel a little more intimate and personal.
Above, in a modern setting, it looks perfectly clean and contemporary, while below, in a more bohemian room, when covered in tear sheets and lots of eraser marks, it looks casual and artsy. (Also, brilliant way to allow kids to write on the wall. Oh, and I love the shelf that goes above the door in the photo above.)
I think it actually gets even more appealing after lots of erasing has occurred and it has those milky swaths and swirls criss-crossing it, but it can also have a really graphic quality if kept clean and dark like the image below.
Click the jump for more…
This person takes the practical usage very seriously.
I think these two are actually paintings, but I kind of like the idea of hanging a giant chalk paint-covered canvas or board on your wall, as though it’s art, and then people can write and draw on it and it would continuously change.
It could even take on a very Cy Twombly-esque appearance, like this one below…
Chalk paint available here, or here’s a spray-paint version (never tried this), and you can use these to get any color you want.
Interiors
LustList Overload >> Paris Apartment
This Paris apartment has so many things on my LustList in one place, I’m dying! Though it’s not 100% my style, it’s freakish how many of their pieces are things I have either been collecting or am dying to have some day… I’m feeling like I’m design-soul mates with this couple.
Or at least now I know who my competitors are on ebay when I search for these things!!
A collection of portraits, chevron-patterned wood floors, a Saarinen tulip table with a marble top…
A Chesterfield sofa, built-in bookshelves…
Old leather chairs, old maps as art (look over the bed)…
(here’s a better shot of the map– it’s an old plan of Paris), salvaged industrial lighting and seating (see welder’s stool below, science lab lamp above, heat lamp below)…
… and even old luggage and trunks and wine crates.
I couldn’t believe it! Each picture I got to, I was like, “no way is that a ____ in that photo.” It just kept getting better. And that’s not even mentioning the fireplaces, huge windows, amazing molding, or the fact that it’s in Paris… because who doesn’t want all those things??
See more photos and the interview with the couple, Gabriel and Olivie Wick, here.
Interiors
Where the magic happens
Interiors
Treehouses
Love these incredible treehouses…
Aren’t they the fulfillment of all your childhood tree house daydreams?
Maybe my favorite interior shot from the book– love that the tree is coming through the wall, the cozy built-in nook, the bookshelf, the totally simple cushion and pillows…
Click the jump for more treehouses….
Another great looking built-in sofa… those pillows and the cushion in the simple ticking stripe look perfectly casual and comfortable.
A super posh one!! It has a chandelier!
Love the awning windows on this one, and the gingham pillows.
All images from the book Exceptional Treehouses.
Interiors
Styling Brilliance >> Desks
Good looking furniture, fabrics, and lighting are certainly essential, but the importance of accessories, art, plants, etc., cannot be underestimated. Styling is soo important in making a room look both lived in (rather than just a bunch of furniture gathered together) and giving it personality.
These three desks are taken to the next level by their wonderful styling. Styling takes a functional piece and allows it to add to the overall look and feel of a room. What if all of these desks just had a blotter and some pens? Their visual power would be much less effective.
In all three, note the use of books, plants (fresh flowers, architectural branch arrangements, etc), lighting (the top piece uses two lamps to great effect– not an obvious idea though), art, and actual desk necessities (writing utensils, paper goods, and organizational things) made to look appealing.
The arrangement of such items is also key– the books are both stacked and upright, objects are grouped together, art is both hung and propped, pieces are layered in front of and behind each other…
At top, Michael Bastian’s apartment (the whole thing is great.) (Also, no coincidence that someone in fashion would have a well-styled apartment, styling uses many of the same principles in fashion and interiors. See more about his fashion looks here.)
Second, unkonwn.
Third, David Hicks.
Interiors
LustList >> Bar Carts Pt. II
More bar cart and tray eye candy…
Above, an image from Tiffany Table Settings. Bonus points for the fact that it’s in front of a bookshelf with art hung over it! It’s a triple-point lustlist item.
Eddie Ross
Scot Meacham Wood’s apartment (aka tartanscot)
See the bar tray, right in the middle of the arrangement? Also, look closely– that is a mirror behind the sofa (I thought at first that somehow there was another room back there!), and that is a trompe l’oeil curtain swagged over it. Clever.
by Richard Lowell Neas, via Peak of Chic
Interiors
Bibliotheque – Now and Then
I still love the original “Bibliotheque” wallpaper designed by Richard Neas (read more about him here) for Brunschwig & Fils,
“Bibliotheque” in Nina Campbell’s home.
and I just discovered this new version by French design company homology…
I’ve also seen this version, in Gary Spain’s portfolio, but I’m not sure who it’s by:
I still prefer the old-school versions like this and the Brunschwig one at top, where it looks hand-drawn rather than photo-realistic, but I still thought the new one was worth sharing.
Also, I discovered homology because of this other trompe l’oeil wallpaper they are doing:
I’d never seen anything like it! You can wallpaper your walls so that they look button tufted!
My friend Rayna’s apartment in LA has the facade of the kitchen island that faces the living room, underneath the bar top, upholstered and button tufted in a cream just like this and it looks so pimp.
Interiors
Pretty.
I just love this little mudroom/entry hall by Gary Spain. It’s a pretty unusual color story, but it works!
