Industrial Farmhouse with a touch of Romanticism

Aug 232012
 

The Indus­trial Farm­house of Esme and Kobus van Heer­den is one with a real touch of roman­ti­cism and it has cap­tured my imag­i­na­tion since I first came across it on The Pretty Blog.  The cou­ple had been liv­ing on the prop­erty for 17 years before they decided on a com­plete redo in 2010.  The leak­ing roof they’d finally had enough of, plus the major changes they wanted lead to the brave deci­sion to demol­ish the orig­i­nal house.

Over the years they had col­lected a lot of old pantry cup­boards & other fur­ni­ture and planned the house around the pieces they had.  Esmé says they tried to recy­cle wher­ever they could. “Our son, Lau­rie trans­formed old, solid Ore­gon pine kitchen tops into a work­ing area for the office, roof beams were machined down and changed into shelves for the pantry and the linen room.”

The fam­ily moved into their new home just 7 months ago. “What a joy to move back to a brand new house, but still com­ing home to the big old trees we knew so well and the piece of land where the foot­prints of our chil­dren were embed­ded”, says Esmé.

They man­aged to mix old and new per­fectly.  It is edgy & fresh, but still man­ages to reflect the per­son­al­ity of its own­ers — just gorgeous.

Industrial Farmhouse

 

The lovely images was taken by Yolandé Marx.

 

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Contemporary family home with a space for all

May 282012
 

Old Bernal House in San Fran­cisco, ren­o­vated and expanded by Feld­man Archi­tec­ture is a fam­ily home with space for all. It is Con­tem­po­rary with an under­stated beauty. The firm kept the facade and enve­lope of the exist­ing struc­ture and added a con­tem­po­rary, but unob­tru­sive, addi­tion:  a nar­row, ten-foot-wide wing con­tain­ing a garage, bed­room suite and stu­dio office spaces on two lev­els.  The roof and upper floor in the cen­ter of the house were cut away to cre­ate a cen­tral light core that washes a stone wall and illu­mi­nates the kitchen and liv­ing room.

Large new win­dows cre­ate a con­nec­tion with the back­yard and care­ful mix­ing of rough stone and wood with clean glass and metal breathes new life into the once-neglected structure.

 

http://www.feldmanarchitecture.com/

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Modern makeover for an Edwardian house in Melbourne

May 172012
 

In this mod­ern makeover, owner and archi­tect Clare Cousins revived her family’s Edwar­dian house with a mod­ern sculp­tural exten­sion.  The result is a house that is airy and light-filled, with plenty of char­ac­ter and pops of color.  Floor to ceil­ing win­dows allows nat­ural light in and bright col­ors com­pli­ment the over­all neu­tral scheme.  Black sub­way tiles in the kitchen cre­ates a focal point and nice coun­ter­foil for the white walls and coun­ters.  Beau­ti­ful light wood ceil­ings round off the over­all picture.

Modern Makeover by Claire Cousins

Black sub­way tiles pro­vide a strik­ing focal point in the open-plan kitchen

Modern Makeover by Claire Cousins

A slid­ing divider is used very effec­tively to hide kitchen essentials

modern sculptural extension

modern sculptural extension

Bright pops of color break up the over­all neu­tral scheme through­out the house

Modern Makeover by Claire Cousins

modern sculptural extension

modern sculptural extension

modern sculptural extension

modern sculptural extension

modern sculptural extension

modern sculptural extension

modern sculptural extension

 

 

 

Woodland Retreat, a Mid-century modern gem

Apr 122012
 

Fea­tured in the March/April issue of Lonny, the mid-century mod­ern home that Hillary Thomas dec­o­rated for a sin­gle mother of three appears tucked into a for­est of sycamore and euca­lyp­tus trees and boasts a kind of low, grace­ful archi­tec­ture.  It is located in Rus­tic Canyon, LA - per­fect for ras­ing a fam­ily.  The house has a stream­lined mod­ern style with beamed ceil­ings, con­crete floors and full length win­dows.  For the remake, the designer chose to down­play the mas­cu­line con­no­ta­tions of this style of house, and chose to empha­sise its softer elements.

Source: lonnymag.com

 

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Face-lifting a beauty from a bygone era

Apr 092012
 

Park­town North is one of Johan­nes­burg’s most sought-after sub­urbs, but it wasn’t all that long ago that the jacaranda– and oak-lined streets of this pretty enclave were open farm­land and unde­vel­oped acres. If the walls of archi­tect Patrick Henry and part­ner John Houliston’s home could talk, they’d have almost 100 years of the area’s his­tory to divulge. ‘The house was built in 1922,’ explains Patrick, ‘and was orig­i­nally set on a small­hold­ing.’

Over the years, the orig­i­nal struc­ture had been con­nected to sev­eral out­houses. ‘It was known as “The House of Seven Buildings”’,says Patrick. While the cou­ple ini­tially made do with the his­tor­i­cally accu­rate house they’d bought, they were soon itch­ing to make changes that would be sen­si­tive to its his­tory but also add soul and warmth. Today the house is a jewel tucked up a pan­han­dle, sur­rounded by an immac­u­late gar­den. ‘The gar­den,’ says Patrick, ‘is eclec­tic like the house; it responds to its lay­out.’ Café au lait-coloured exte­rior walls and white win­dow frames have given this colo­nial dwelling’s exte­rior a con­tem­po­rary update, while local inte­rior designer David Muir­head has worked his magic on the interiors.

Boast­ing a new pool sur­rounded by raised deck­ing and flanked by a pavil­ion, it is the ulti­mate enter­tain­ing spot, and even with its mod­ern aes­thetic still works well with the old-world style of the house. It’s a great place for doing very lit­tle – other than soak up the sun. ‘It has a casual essence about it, but with an under­ly­ing sense of glam­our that echoes the com­fort of a bygone era,’ muses David, sum­ming up the spirit of this property.

Newly installed doors fold back to open the lounge out onto a koi pond, sur­rounded by wooden deck­ing, which cre­ates another enter­tain­ing spot.

The pavil­ion in the back garden

A tiled path­way leads vis­i­tors from the front gate, through a per­fectly man­i­cured gar­den to the front stoep.

John Houlis­ton (left) and Patrick Henry in the lounge of their ren­o­vated Park­town North home. Inte­rior designer David Muir­head used lots of stripes in the decor as they ‘really epit­o­mise casual chic’.

 

 

 

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