Home Owner Nut » Living Rooms

Fireplaces with panache: Soot-free alternatives add warmth to your home

Woodrow — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:25:07 +0000

Got money to burn? Crave the aesthetic and romantic warmth of traditional fireplaces without the dust? For at least a decade, those civilized bons vivants across the big pond have led the way in creating fireplaces that double as furniture without the soot and smut of our Yankee-made fire pits. Now they lead the way in energy efficient, green fireplaces that are low in carbon emissions and easy on the gas bill.

Beat seasonal flue

Photo by West County Fires

This Flueless Landscape Novo fireplace by England’s West Country Fires mounts on the wall, requires no chimney (provided your room has natural ventilation), and runs on natural or LPG gas. Frames come in Chrome, Graphite or in Brilliant White.

Fireplaces as furniture

Photo by Gizmodo

The ARKIANE ICOI is a French mounted-fireplace, with a design modeled after an Inca queen who, legend says, left the Earth in the form of a blazing butterfly.The ICOI is also sold as a recessed model with only the façade and steel frame visible to the eye. A heat recovery unit and ash pan are in the wall interior. If your French is decent, check it out at ARKIANE.

Fireless pit

Photo by Misty Mountains

If you’re more the vinyl siding type than a darling of the uber-French bourgeois school, if you love leather and own a Harley, may I recommend this heat-less, maintenance-free wall treatment by Misty Mountains? Imagine a dreamy, prosaic night at the tattoo studio with just your sweetie, the latest edition of Ink Junky Magazine, a six-pack of Rainier Ale, and the two of you nested like Chinese soup spoons in front of this nougat of art.

The fireplace for windows

Photo by ImperiaSoft

Finally: the no-muss, no-fuss way to build a roaring fire. It’s the 3D Realistic Fireplace Screen Saver programmed by Geliosoft, makers of the 100 Happy Money Screensaver that animates bills and Euros raining down from the heavens. Mount a wireless monitor and you’re set. The fireplace screen saver comes with the sound of crackling wood, three different flame colors, burning logs, smoke and sparkles — and it’s password protected. (No way you want your teenagers to boot up this baby on prom night!)

New chair designs reflect our need to play

Woodrow — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:48:12 +0000

None of the greatest historians and anthropologists can pinpoint the date when humankind built the four-legged chair with a solid back to lean against. From 40,000 B.C. in China to 2680 B.C. in Egypt, men and women apparently made do with sitting on the ground or on raised mounds, stones and animal hides.

The earliest remnants of backed chairs were found in the tombs of Tutankhamun, wooden seats made with expert craftsmanship. It took until the American 1940s before Barcalounger began making the first recliners suitable for vegging in front of the television.

We’ve come a long way from Pharaoh seating. The old King would simply tut-tut these modern examples of furniture.

Designs that make a splash

Photo by Yanko Design

Designer Michael L. Wendel has found a way for anyone to perform a cannonball right in their own living room. The Splash Lounge Chair is molded from pink insulation foam and then slathered with four coats of Elmer’s glue. Spray on chopped fiberglass and finish with a coat of Bondo…and presto!

The handiest chair you can buy

Photo by Design Home Online

Many of the newest Ukranian designs are user-friendly, witness the warm greeting you get from this chair created by Oleksandr Shestakovych. Check out his portfolio at Behance.

The Russian crossover

Photo by Design Milk

Designers in Russia are also dashing out curiously playful furniture. This cross-legged chair by Vladimir Tsesler is actually a tripod. You’d have to try it out to see if it’s comfortable. I can imagine a fur coat draped across the back (faux mink, of course).

In the clover

Photo by Design Milk

This White Clover Chair by Driade was designed by Ron Arad. The seats, made of polypropylene mono-block, can be used inside the house or outdoors, where you can match them in a selection of hues to match your house siding colors. View more examples of Arad’s designs at Unica Home.

You may now be seated!

December 29, 2011

http://www.homeownernut.com/unique-home-designs-end-the-year-on-a-up-note.html

Tags: unique, designs, conversions

December 31, 2011

http://www.homeownernut.com/new-chair-designs-reflect-our-need-to-play.html

Tags: designs, furniture, chairs

Billed

Window mistreatments and ugly valences

Woodrow — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:22:12 +0000

Window treatments add more than decorating touches to your home. You can deploy treatments strategically for energy efficiency, changing to thicker curtains and drapes in the winter months. People with historic homes use period treatments to preserve their theme and value. Tasteful prints, colors and designs can absolutely transform a room. Now forget everything I just wrote and look what these homeowners did:

Is this ugly, or is it me?

Photo by Ugly House Photos

My favorite blog of the disagreeable and dreadful, Ugly House Photos, hosts this monstrosity. Are these truly window accessories, re-purposed shower curtains, or torture aids used by the intelligence service?

Bed, bath, and the great beyond

Photo by Ugly House Photos

I hope I never get to see these window treatments in the flesh. Window replacement costs being what they are, why would you cover your light on the world with coffin liners?

This decorating goes to eleven

Photo by Work Room Intelligence

Certainly rich and ebullient, this monumental valence is a tad busy. I think my sweetheart of the rodeo wore this to Woodstock.

Valence with a vengeance

Photo by You Paid More Than Me

If you’re into the dingle-ball era of home exteriors, this valence may be the right choice to grace your period sitting room. Taken as a whole, I can’t take it at all: there are no curtains or drapes to complete the look. On one hand, it appears that the vampire bat has made it through the window. With its brevity, it lends the overall affect that you’ve been pantsed.

Liberty Valance

Photo by Weird Wild Realm

If your window treatments are terrorizing your home, you need to take them out and shoot them.

Bring the gift of green into your holidays

Woodrow — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:02:04 +0000

It’s the time of year that people all around the world fill their homes with greenery. While the Christmas tree is associated with the Yule holiday, the origins of the ritual date back to the Egyptians, who celebrated the winter solstice and the return of the sun. To honor sun-god Ra, they brought green palm rushes into their homes.

In December, Romans celebrated the solstice for Saturn, the god of agriculture, by decorating their homes with evergreens. Pick your own reasons to celebrate. But no matter your beliefs, please, please do not decorate your home with objects that look like these:

Getting the decorating brush-off

Photo by Apartment Therapy

I really don’t need to know the spiritual connotations behind this holiday tree. I suppose you can fit empty beer bottles over the brushes and clean them for constructing a larger tree.

How refreshing, how green

Photo by Ugly Christmas Trees

See, just stack your freshly washed beer bottles into this glass obelisk to celebrate Bacchus, the god of headaches and projectile vomiting. Check out the more of offensive year-end shrubbery entered into a bad-taste contest at Ugly Christmas Trees.

Ugly or unique: You decide

Photo by Xigre

Let’s put it this way: either this tree was constructed by designers who emptied the green beer bottles into their gullets or by quirky aficionados of the tuba school of home decor. If you like this, Xigre has more to show you.

My tree

Photo by Philadelphia Weekly

You don’t complete seven years in college studying literature without learning how to arrange your bookcase to honor the equinox. The volume at the top, The Collected Novels of Henry Miller, is probably inappropriate.

If you’re going to grandmother’s house, then pac, man

Photo by Xigre

The cultural savvy of how to choose your decoration is passed down through generations. If you were skipped over, Reader’s Digest can tell you how to pick the perfect tree.

One last thing: No matter your choice, please use safe and non-toxic Christmas tree preservatives this year. If you don’t, yule be sorry!

Cats on the linoleum and other furniture woes

Woodrow — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 04:25:29 +0000

Dr. Marty Becker of Vetstreet.com received a recent plea from a homeowner: “My cat is always jumping up on tables and kitchen counters. When I think about where those paws have been, I know he needs to stay on the ground. What can I do?”

Dr. Becker blames the cat’s counter-top mountaineering as part of the animal’s predatory disposition to seek high ground. Perhaps, the doctor added, it was the homeowner’s fault for leaving water trickling from the tap, storing food in open containers or by not providing an adequate climbing roost for tabby.

Decorating disasters

Photo by Leather Revive

Practically everyone who has owned a cat knows that even if you have a nifty, carpeted climbing tree, kitty may still prefer to attach itself to the side of a beloved piece of furniture and turn it into a fez tassel. What’s a homeowner to do, encase a favorite chair in vinyl siding?

Pets and furniture aids

Photo by Drs. Foster and Smith

Before you introduce your lil’ kitty to the neighbor’s pit bull, consider cat-training products like the Scat Mat, a $70 water-resistant pad that emits unpleasant but harmless electrostatic charges to any intruder. Of course, you’ll have to turn it off before Aunt Gertie plops down for the afternoon soaps. Get all the details from Doctors Foster and Smith.

But wait, there’s more!

Photo by Drs. Foster and Smith

Doctors Foster and Smith also retail the Sofa Scram mat that keeps Fluffy off of your favorite napping chariot. The battery-powered sofa mat ($30) emits a nasty alarm that sends kitty racing for a dark corner under your bed.

You tattle tale, you

Photo by SafeHome Products

The Tattle Tale Vibration System runs on a 9V battery. You set the device on your kitchen counter, your couch, or your unstable atomic stockpile, and it emits a loud alarm when disturbed by a furry paw. Either the cat scampers, or you do, alerted to its presence in your personal Area 51. Check it out at Safe Home Products.

Beat decorating stress

Photo by Kitten Cannon

If all else fails, release any residual feline resentments with a visit to Kitten Cannon. Then find your cat under the bed and cuddle with it on an approved piece of furniture.

Understated house exteriors: Life in the Florida dunes

Woodrow — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:08:15 +0000

I recently saw a $1.2 million listing for the 1,500-square-foot Dune House on Florida’s Atlantic Beach that really caught my eye. Actually, what gripped my imagination was how little of the house there was to see. The home is a duplex, built into the dunes and employing a grass roof-line as a natural part of its architecture. The house was built in 1975 from the designs of owner William Morgan, a celebrated architect of the Atlantic shores.

Looky-look architecture

Photo by William Morgan Architects

Gazing out like the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg in The Great Gatsby, the twin windows of the Dune Home peer out to the shore. The unique enclosure keeps the interiors at a lovely 70 degrees around the year. Morgan received honors from the American Institute of Architects in recognition of his lifelong research into architectural creativity. You can view his dazzling portfolio at William Morgan Architects.

Designs that get out of the way

Photo by Yahoo Real Estate

You have to love the unobstructed view of the sea from the home, currently rented out as twin 750-square-foot apartments, each with a two-story living area, single bedroom and bath. Morgan wants to get out of having to find suitable renters, so he’s selling the place. Yahoo Real Estate rounds up the details.

Splendor in the dunes

Photo by Yahoo Real Estate

Atlantic Beach comprises the northernmost line of unspoiled beaches heading out from Jacksonville. The Dutton Island Preserve offers residents a fishing pier, wending threads of hiking trails, and a floating dock for kayaks and canoes. The last U.S. Census reported that the community has 25,398 residents, with more women than men, and a higher level of post-secondary education than the national average.

If Mr. Morgan would like to donate the property for development of a very small writers’ colony, he can contact me here at the blog.

Elemment Palazzo: A design breakthrough for practically nobody

Woodrow — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:41:24 +0000

With the much-ballyhooed release of Marchi Mobile’s $3 million, 40-foot mobile mansion, I began to wonder how many of our regular readership would plunk down the cash for this re-emergent dinosaur representing pure gluttony. Austria’s Elemment Palazzo land yacht constitutes one of the more unconscionable developments in (you pick) housing or motoring. (Pay attention, they’re now accepting orders.)

Celebration of insatiability and ugly designs

Photo by Marchi Mobile

The design of the Elemment Palazzo appears to reflect the mutant offspring of a Ferrari and a Winnebago. According to Tecca, this greenhouse-gas-spewing nightmare comes complete with fireplace, a bank of large-screen monitors, rainfall shower and a pop-up bar with under-floor heating and party lighting that, when activated, increases the rolling 430-square foot interior space by 80 percent. (Pinch me and tell me this is just another Disney attraction.)

Environment, what environment?

Photo by Tecca

You’ll sleep with a clear conscience knowing that the Elemment Palazzo, while weighing in at 20 tons, uses one-fifth less fuel than vehicles of its size, according to its manufacturer. That savings, they say, come from its sleek aerodynamic designs. (Is there another vehicle of its weight and size that people use for recreational travel or vacation housing, or are the rest just moving vans and mobile missile launchers?)

Life in the fast lane

Photo by Marchi Mobile

From the captain’s chair the sordid rest of the world is at your command, rushing by on the Autobahn as you throttle up to speeds over 90 miles an hour. (I do like the rotary windshield wiper.) If this vehicle had only come out sooner, California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger could have used it for his governor’s mansion. Read more about the Elemment Palazzo at the Daily Mail. By the way, the price in England is only £1.9 million.

No explanation necessary

Photo by Marchi Mobile

As the builders at Marchi Mobile explain, “Marchi Mobile as an automotive brand represents exclusivity and extravagance that requires no explanation.”

Enough said.

More nauseating rug designs to avoid

Woodrow — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 22:46:00 +0000

I get a lot of mileage from a well-made carpet. I like my tones warm, understated and cozy. I don’t get people who love rug designs taken from 1970s polyester sports coats. It’s over, people. My feet aren’t large enough to cover the carpet while I watch Sports Center or talk to a house guest. But, no matter how you try, some people just have to take it all the way to the edge.

Carpeting that absorbs spills

Photo by Colorado Guy

Steve, our Colorado Guy, was staying with chums in Delta when he dropped his open soda can on this rug. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find the wet spot in the midst of this mess.

Band on the runway

The House of Area Rugs is the repository of this animal print rug that completes a practice room “where you can let your funky side go wild”. Dazzling, boys. Pass the vomit bags.

Designs that cannot save Lauren’s heart (sigh)

Photo by Save Lauren's Heart

Lauren’s feet, pictured here on the doctor’s waiting room carpet where she’s come for appointments for eight years, show the complete futility of office design consultants. She’s the author of Save Lauren’s Heart blog, and our hearts go out to her.

A sea of confusion

Photo by Zydecocruiser

The author of the Zydecocruiser blog took a fancy to this atrocity of a carpet installed on a Carnival Dream Ship. It’s enough to send the passengers out to the deck for a healthy yurp at the rail.

Don’t gamble on these designs

Photo by We Waste Time

I recently blogged about Chris Maluszynski’s Las Vegas Carpet revue, but it’s worth a second look if it will spare you a few hours at the slots. You’d think rugs like this would keep gamblers away. Don’t bet on it!

A triumph: Green homes that echo traditional architecture

Woodrow — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:33:47 +0000

Green architecture doesn’t have to cancel out traditional community designs or striking good looks. EcoHome magazine’s second annual design awards announced this week went to breath-taking examples that mixed innovation with traditional appeal. I like to poke fun at platitudes. But it’s tough to play the comedy card when home designers create such exquisite homes that advance our culture. Here are four of the winners:

Architecture that looks great and acts green

Photo by EcoHome Magazine

Samsel Architects of Asheville, N.C., came up with the designs for the Celo Residence, a 1,538-square-foot home that captured an EcoHome Grand Award for its sustainable 3,750-gallon rainwater catchment cistern, low-flow toilet systems, and low-VOC interior paints. Read the details at EcoHome.

There was an old home in Nantucket

Photo by Inman News

Take one 264-year-old home on Nantucket Island, restore it to the charm of its original architecture, add a kitchen and bath – and do it all while meeting LEED insulation and air sealing requirements. Kudos (and a Grand Award) to Rosenberg Kolb Architects of New York City. Read more about the winners at Yahoo .

Aloha by Design

Photo by EcoHome Magazine

The trick was to build the 45 subsidized homes of the Kumuhau Subdivision on Oahu using solar power and rainwater drip irrigation, earning LEED-Gold certification. Praise for architects Armstrong Development of Honolulu. Inman News offers a comprehensive write up on these homes that reflect traditional plantation architecture, honoring nature.

Going, going, green

Photo by EcoHome Magazine

The award-winning GO Home in Belfast, Maine, is only the 12^th home in the nation to earn the “Passive House” designation, and EcoHome predicts its solar, south-facing orientation will recover $170,000 in energy costs over three decades of use. The house, designed by architects at GO Logic Homes of Belfast, has a pending LEED-Platinum certification.

Bravo!

Green architecture for book lovers

Woodrow — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:07:08 +0000

Every time I move, I make an earnest effort to sell, trade or give away several boxes of books. I collect them by the bushel. Some have deep emotional ties in my psyche and I’ll never give them away, books that opened my mind and soul, or books that are signed by friends and authors. I have cartons of books I have yet to read or that I store under the bed and in closets. Shelf space is a premium since I fill whatever space I have.

I was awestruck by the “Shelf-pod” house in Japan, built by architect Kazuya Morita. The 557-square-foot home in the Osaka area has bookshelves on every wall, from floor to ceiling, and it can hold ten tons of books. Take that, Kindle fans!

Architecture for book lovers

Photo by Inman News

The Shelf pod house exteriors are modest, lending no real clue to the amazing spaciousness inside for any bibliophile. The shelving, Yahoo reports, is strong enough to hang the entire house on it. Morita claims the pod is designed to resist earthquake damage.

Books, boots and beyond

Morita Architecture Studio

Morita says he loves the challenge of combining traditional Japanese architecture with sustainable features. His Kazuya Morita Architecture Studio is dedicated to making comfortable domiciles in small spaces.

Paying homage to architectural influences

Photo by Yahoo

The Shelf-pod is a harmonious combination of designs from a traditional Japanese storehouse and Kumiko woodcraft schools while using deft touches of Islamic calligraphy and Turkish patterns.

Bathtub reading permitted

Photo by Huh Magazine

Even the bath is supported by a wall of shelves. In an Inman News interview, Morita says his creations are perfect options for large cities in China, New York and England.

As resources continue to dwindle–along with usable space–it’s comforting to think that humans and their books will abide.