20Aug

Traditional American Architecture by Gil Schafer

I always wanted to be an Architect. As a matter of fact, I registered under architectural studies in Collage. For reasons I can’t even understand today, I decided to switch careers and went into international business and eventually interior design instead. My dream was to design, build, and oversee constructions of buildings. The most magical thing about design is that it allows us to build the life we always dreamt of. This latter, award-winning architect Gil Schafer does effortlessly. He designs new homes that look as if they were old, but classic and well-designed old houses.

“I design houses to be comfortable, gracious, and understated, and to stand the test of time,” architect Gil Schafer told AD. Good design runs in his family, Gil Schafer is the grandson and great, great-grandson of architects, so Gil grew up experiencing first hand what a well-built, thoughtfully-designed home feels like and what it takes to build it. He’s been designing beautiful homes for the past thirty years. Following undergraduate studies in Growth & Structure of Cities at Haverford College and its sister institution Bryn Mawr, Gil graduated from Yale School of Architecture with a Master’s Degree in 1988. While at Yale, Gil studied under several noted practitioners including Thomas Beeby, Robert Venturi, Josef Kleihues, Frank Gehry, and Benard Tschumi and was the recipient of the H. I. Feldman Prize, Yale’s highest honor for studio work, in his final semester. Gil Schafer served as the President and then Chairman of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art from 1999-2006 as well as in many other nonprofit boards.

This Nashville home was restored by Gil and decorated by David Netto. This entryway has everything I believe in, classic architecture, a beautiful graphic floor that adds a modern touch, ornate furniture and modern expressionist art by Jean-Michel Basquiat. I love everything in this entryway.

01Jul

Jean Louis Deniot’s Los Angeles Home

Jean Louis Deniot's LA home, 1930's architecture

Jean Louis Deniot’s Los Angeles home is nestled in the hills above Sunset Boulevard, and it’s a 1930’s fairy-tale. “When the weather is nasty in Paris I jump on a plane and come to beautiful La La Land,” he told AD. It took Deniot two years to complete the renovation of the over 2,000-square-foot home. The charming house has Tudor style exteriors, and Spanish-style interiors, many homes in L.A. share a Spanish-style interior architecture. Jean Louis is known for his dramatic while livable interiors, but for his Los Angeles home, he kept things more on the relaxing side.

In the living room, a 17th-century Spanish chandelier hangs from a pointed vaulted ceiling. Klismos chairs and Moroccan add to the eclecticism of the room.

06May

Design Element: The Architectural Power of Trellis, Trelliage or Lattice

The secret garden at the Ritz, Paris via Town and Country

If you’ve been to Paris, then you may be very familiar with the Architectural design element known as trellis, lattice or trelliage. You may have seen lattice all over Paris’s parks and exterior building walls. Originally created as a garden element for mainly the separation between the more wild areas and the formal ones, trellis eventually took a more functional role as structures for grapevines, climbing roses and ivy plants to climb on. Nowadays their most modern use is more for the decorating aspect rather than for its function so much so that we can see it very often indoors covering interior walls. When lattice is used inside the house for covering the walls in intrinsic design its architectural effect is even more of a statement.

lattice, dining room with lattice on walls and ceiling

A home in Palm Beach with lattice on walls.

29Oct

Exposed Ceiling Beams: 12 Warm And Rustic Rooms With Ceiling Beams

Exposed ceiling beams can immediately add warmth and charm to any dull room. Mostly used in country or beach homes they can also be used, when painted, in more urban rooms. Either painted or left in natural wood color, its architectural statement even though pretty impressive, is down to earth and relaxed. We were lucky when we found our home, it came with a room with original beams in the ceiling. As most of the things in the house they had a very 70’s feel, they were in natural wood color, the same as the paneling in the room. I painted them in a dark white paint the same color as the rest of the wood trim around the house.

For any room with no architectural details, exposed beams can be an easy way to add just that missing element that will make that room more interesting. Real solid beams could be costly but when compared to the permanent architectural difference that it brings to the room, it’s worth every penny. There is also the less pricey option of faux ceiling beams.

So many different elements combined in this room above, gorgeous wooden bookcases, white painted thin ceiling beams, black and white floor, dark metal furniture and brass… Love it! The beams in this charming room works as the element that ties all together.

15Aug

The Resurgence In Classical Design From Architecture To Interiors And Other Stories

To our delight and comfort, there is a resurgence in classical design from Interiors to Architecture. The elegance and comfort that classical homes provide are hard to emulate in a modern setting. Classic Architecture, as well as classical Interior Design, is never dull, and they provide a sense of belonging and gracious living. Now when most homes in social media look strikingly the same, it’s very comforting to see this revival of new classical style. The beauty of a Georgian Home, one of many traditional styles in Architecture, is indisputable.

Recently I came across this very interesting article Inside Architecture New Classism Boom. In designing a northern California stone house for clients who wanted to make a grand yet livable house for four children, Eric J. Smith—who collaborated with legendary designer David Easton for 25 years—looked to Irish Georgian houses and also old stone houses of America. An abandoned old quarry in Connecticut was the source of stones with a rich patina. He points out that classicism embraced the use of natural light and the prevailing breezes. “An enfilade of natural light connects one room to the next,” notes Smith. The paneled library is a masterpiece of wood carving. And indeed, Smith suggests that craftsmen are unsung heroes in classicism. “We are not embracing the role of the craftsman as much as we should,” he says. “We are always trying not to copy the past, but to interpret it and reinterpret it as artists often do,” Robert A. M. Stern

Some people prefer to combine classical Interior Architecture with a more straightforward decor. Modern living in a traditional interior. That is the case with this 18th-century architecture apartment in Copenhagen which is decorated in a monochromatic palette of grey and simple furniture. An All-Gray Apartment That’s Not Blah, But Not Hygge Either. Read More…

26Jun

My Favorite Painted Brick Exterior Paints

If you love your home but not so much the brick exterior? You can paint it. Painted brick exterior homes are timeless although popular these days. If you are into decorating and design, you might already be a fan of brick painted exteriors. If not, then you may convert by the end of this post after we go over our favorite three exterior colors to paint brick exteriors.

Slurry technique via Wolterinck

Tag: Architecture

Traditional American Architecture by Gil Schafer

Jean Louis Deniot’s Los Angeles Home

Design Element: The Architectural Power of Trellis, Trelliage or Lattice

Exposed Ceiling Beams: 12 Warm And Rustic Rooms With Ceiling Beams

The Resurgence In Classical Design From Architecture To Interiors And Other Stories

My Favorite Painted Brick Exterior Paints

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