Materials

Fixtures & Appliances

Lighting & Furniture

Accessories

For more from designer Rose Uniacke, see our posts:

• A New, Natural Paint Line from Rose Uniacke in Shades of Pale
• Object of Desire: A Minimal-Luxe Water Carafe and Glasses from Rose Uniacke in London
• To the Manor Born: Luxury and Elegance in a Restored 18th-Century Home
• Among the Orchids: Designer Rose Uniacke at Home in London

N.B.: This story originally ran on January 2, 2024 and has been updated with new products, links, and pricing.

We recently featured a West London kitchen–see Party in the Back—that opened our eyes to a sustainable, newish terrazzo spinoff composed of wood scraps bound in bio-based resin. Two UK companies currently offer what one calls Timber Terrazzo and the other TreeAzzo. Made by hand for use as counters, backsplashes, and flooring, they’re available in a wide range of colors, all durable, scratch-resistant, and patterned in a confetti of wood castoffs.

No two sheets of wood terrazzo are exactly alike. After the resin and wood are mixed, they’re left to cure then sanded to expose the wood, polished, and finished with a food-safe, natural hard wax oil or lacquered for use in high-traffic area. Unlike stone-based terrazzo, wood terrazzo can be drilled or cut to size with wood-working tools. Foresso uses a CNC machine to make tongue-and-groove flooring and wall paneling.

It comes with a backing of plywood or fiber cement (for use as floor or wall tiles); pricing on request. Havwoods is UK-based but available in the US and has an open-to-the-public NYC showroom at 151 West 18th Street.

Based in Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico, the  design studio is led by Ana Cristina Quiñones who is currently “on a pause with a purpose”: she recently had a baby.

For much more information on eco-friendly living and resources, have a look at our book Remodelista: The Low-Impact Home. Also see:

• Remodeling 101: Hemp May Be the World’s Greenest Building Material
• Expert Advice: 10 Best Eco Practices for Home Building and Remodeling Projects from Dirty Girl Construction
• Unbuilt: A Resale Marketplace for Unused Residential Construction Goods

That attention was bestowed upon it by Studio McW. “We found Studio McW online and immediately connected with their projects,” says Jack. “We liked their approach to natural materials and focus on creating functional spaces. We had a challenging brief to create a multidisciplinary space that could be a home, a place to entertain and a functioning film and photography studio, but Studio McW have gone above and beyond to deliver our dream space.”

We take a tour:

Their brief was simple and the deadline tight (work began in November 2020, and was mostly complete by May 2021). The couple needed a practical layout across both floors— including plentiful storage, a sociable kitchen space and a utility area. “We live and work in the flat, so we wanted a space where we could host our team each week, record podcasts and interviews, spend time with friends and enjoy quiet moments,” Alice explains. “We also wanted to restore the original warehouse character in a very respectful yet modern way, so we incorporated natural and salvaged materials where possible.”

“Spanning just over 100 square meters, we designed Earthrise to work very hard to support Jack and Alice’s busy lifestyle, yet offer a serene, peaceful environment.” says Greg Walton, co-founder of Studio McW. “We carefully designed the spatial flow to craft spaces and built in furniture that offer multiple uses, while feeling clean and clutter free.”

“The apartment now seamlessly facilitates many aspects of our lives,” explains Jack. “During the day the space operates as a studio allowing us to host our team whether it’s for meetings or filming interviews and podcasts, whilst in the evening everything disappears into cupboards and it becomes the perfect entertaining space for friends and family.”

N.B.: This story originally ran on August 10, 2022 and has been updated.

• The top spot on Wirecutter’s recent roundup of best gifts for gardeners? “For anyone who loves a wilder, nature-inspired garden, the gorgeous Low-Impact Garden is both a manual and an inspiration.” We couldn’t agree more.
• Attn., Londoners: the new V&A East museum opens this weekend—and we’re eyeing the shop, stocked with work by local small-batch makers and mostly priced under 30 pounds.
• Ooh, admiring this playful wallpaper by Swantje Hinrichsen in Germany (hat tip: Margot).
• Eagerly awaiting this collection by Kelly Wearstler for H&M Home, premiering in Milan and set to hit stores in September.
• Milan Design Week kicks off this week; among the standouts? This styled apartment, Faye Toogood’s collection for Meritalia, and Marimekko’s Osteria Fiori di Marimekko.
• “The new restaurant where you can bid on masterpieces from the table” (psst: it’s in a Marcel Breuer-designed landmark).
• Love these minimalist prints by Irish makers Superfolk.
• And truly obsessed with these vintage do-it-all clip-on lamps—a rare find from Vecino Shop.
• P.S. Save the date (May 2) for this spring-y mini market at Madre Linen HQ in Portland, OR.
• For when your bath could use a spring refresh.
• In other books-by-Kendra news… the Gardenista contributor’s newest book is Britain’s Best Gardens. (It has the most charming cover!)
• A wildflower hotline “for the latest scoop on superblooms.” (Hat tip: Margot.)
• Have you heard about The Modern House’s How My Garden Grows podcast? The fourth episode is with Gardenista friend Arthur Parkinson.
• What a clever DIY garden storage idea.
• Tree of the week, maybe even tree of the year? (courtesy of John Derian).
• Salmon Creek Farm just released this year’s seed mix. “This is not a careful and precise commercial seed mix — rather a crazy reckless cacophonous variety, gradually collected by hand week by week, seed by seed.” Buy here.
• Mark your calendars! The annual Sakonnet Plant Fair, cohosted by Gardenista fave issima Nursery, will be held on May 2. Among the long list of vendors: Frances Palmer, Stephen Orr, and Janet Mavec!
• Here’s why your potted basil might not be thriving.
• And finally, “a garden for a writer might be the best kind of garden,” says Fan. Discuss.

“In regions like Rouergue, the northern of Cotentin, Quercy, and Lauragais, we work with blacksmiths, ironworkers, metalworkers, founders, chiselers, carpenters, woodturners, and woodworkers to build a catalog of robust, timeless pieces.”

The idea for Inventaire began percolating in 2016, when Pierre and Marion, the founders of Pollet Pinet Architectes studio, moved to Larnagol and restored an old village farmhouse. Their work led them to explore rural architecture across several natural regions, from the alpine farms of the Bornes massif to the granite homes of Cotentin. Marion’s sister Sophie, a former editor at AD France, joined them in their mission to offer meaningful, rewarding work for artisans as a tribute to traditional craftsmanship.

Here’s a look at their offerings:

Photography by Jamie Hawkesworth

Candlesticks

Above: Prices for the Inventaire Candlesticks range from $506 to $722. Above: “Along the Atlantic coast, from France to Ireland via southern England, and further east in the Alps, countrymen lit their homes with rushlights, which featured a clamp that held a splinter of wood. While beeswax candles were reserved for special occasions, the resinous splinter quietly lit the hearth of country homes.”

Door Hardware

Cabinet Pulls

Wooden Objets

Based in NYC but initially peripatetic, Kelsie ran pop-ups and sold bouquets from a flower cart at a Theory shop. Soon, she was working on a bigger scale for the likes of Prada, Gucci, Hermès, Gigi Hadid, Eva Chen, and Netflix: creating sets for fashion shows, producing influencer dinners, and designing the florals for red carpets. Constantly asked for the perfect Manhattan location to hold events, Kelsie realized it was time to open her own.

A decisive sort, she knew that the second place she looked at was The One. Kelsie also happens to be visionary: the former lighting showroom on West 28th Street was nothing more than an industrial white box (conveniently a block from Popup Florist’s workroom in the Flower District). It’s now House of Three, a clubby, other-worldly gathering spot where Kelsie and crew host private events and creative workshops. Designed as intuitively as Kelsie’s florals, the space is filled with inventive, doable ideas worth trying at home. Come see.

Photography by Ori Harpaz, courtesy of Popup Florist (@popupflorist) and House of Three (@houseofthreenyc).

Kelsie had her go-to contractor, Jeremy Hogeland, build the glass-walled partition. It was a splurge, but since they didn’t make any structural changes, no permissions were required.

The ruched cotton ceiling light is the Aldwin Pendant from Soho Home.

The Ubud Coffee Table is from Arhaus; Jeremy hung the weighty glass Pollensa Chandelier hours before the opening party.

She came up with the name House of Three because she wanted the space to feel like a home and three is her lucky number: she writes on Instagram, “I always come back to three—rule of thirds, things in threes. The third month of the year, a quiet transformation, from the last frost to the first bloom. It was also my own transformation, when I became a mother. My family—the trio that shapes everything I create. This is House of Three.”

The Pre-Construction Illustrated Plans

In Progress

More inspiration from NYC’s multipurpose spaces:

• Wed on a Wednesday: Simple, Low-Key Nuptials in Our Favorite NYC Tea House
• 8 Design Lessons from a 25-Year-Old Star Chef’s DIY Restaurant Makeover
• 24-Hour Art: Sculptor Jeff Feld’s Live-Work Quarters and Gallery in a Converted Warehouse

Have a look at five favorite finds in the color of the spring.

More on yellow:

• The Butter Trend Takes Over Interiors: 13 Rooms Drenched in Pale Yellow
• 10 Easy Pieces: Architects’ Favorite Butter Yellow Paint Picks

This emphasis on aesthetic excellence extends to Antoine’s two-story 1950s Montmartre apartment. His landscape architect wife is equally devoted to a flawless look, but getting their two children on board is more of a challenge. “When it was just the two of us, the house was perfectly organized,” says Antoine. “Now, it’s a family home, so it’s always an organic and messy place because we live in it, but I’m teaching the kids about making things beautiful.”

Whether they’re setting the table or cooking a meal, Antoine attempts to nudge his children towards thoughtfulness. “When you come back from the market and you want to prepare lunch, sometimes the ham is packed in plastic, but other times you go to the butcher with the beautiful paper, so I’m teaching them how to make a beautiful scene with everything you bought.”

Fortunately, Antoine’s simple yet meticulously curated kitchen serves as a handsome backdrop for just about any spread. With clean lines and natural materials, it’s a Parisian classic. Let’s take a closer look.

Photography by Benoit Linero.

For the cabinetry, Antoine opted for clear oak on the lowers and white paint on the uppers. “I like to have a dark color on the bottom and a light color on top,” he says, adding that the natural wood cupboards and matching floors anchor the space.

Antoine’s small, two-drawer refrigerator, however, was more of a visual choice. He didn’t want any tall, vertical appliances breaking up the horizontal planes created by his cabinetry, but the compact compartments of the drawer fridge limit him from bulk grocery shopping. “We prefer to buy food for one or two days, so it works for us,” he says. “But for other people who stock a lot of food, it would not be a fit for them.”

For more Parisian kitchens, see:

• Kitchen of the Week: A Suave, Minimalist Paris Kitchen with Indoor-Outdoor Dining
• Steal This Look: A Cool and Compact Kitchen in Paris
• Steal This Look: The $4K Parisian Kitchen from Two DIY Experts

N.B.: This story originally ran on June 8, 2023, and has been updated.

For more glassware, see our posts:

• 10 Easy Pieces: Everyday Wine Glasses
• 10 Easy Pieces: Quirky Glassware, Stemmed Edition
• 10 Easy Pieces: Space-Saving Stackable Drinking Glasses

N.B.: This story originally appeared on July 27, 2016, and has been updated with several new products.

Paint

Fixtures & Appliances

Lighting

Hardware & Decor

For more French country style, see our posts:

• Steal This Look: A Vintage-Feeling Kitchen in France
• Steal This Look: Living Room at La Maison du Figuier in France
• Steal This Look: A Modern Farmhouse Dining Room in France
• Kitchen of the Week: North Meets South in a Remodeled Normandy Home

N.B.: This story originally ran on June 20, 2023 and has been updated with new links, products, and pricing.

The house itself predates modern records, appearing on the Napoleonic cadastre and believed to date to ate least the mid-19th century. It previously served as dwelling and a carpenter’s workshop; like much of the island, it carries traces of Saint-Cado’s sardine fishing industry. When the couple purchased it, the structure was intact but compromised by damp—a common condition in the region’s older buildings. Their approach to the renovation was self-directed, informed by earlier work restoring a cabin in Normandy, and focused on addressing existing issues while preserving its character.

To that end, they reworked the walls using a breathable insulation system: a 5-6 cm layer of hemp and hydraulic lime, left to dry over several months before being finished with aerial lime. The result is a set of interiors with improved thermal performance, balanced humidity, and better acoustics. Across the two 43-square meter apartments—each designed for two guests—the owners build much of the furniture themselves, supplementing it with sourced pieces from flea markets and Leboncoin. Materials are simple and durable: waxed concrete floors, oak cabinetry, raw stainless steel, and a blend of utilitarian and one-off elements that reflect the building’s working past.

Photography by Charly Derouet.

While exploring Saint-Cado, Ceri began to notice traces of her Welsh home: Place Glamorgan, a Welsh flag in the chapel. Further investigation revealed that Saint Cado—also known as Cadoc or Catwg in Welsh—was born in Glamorgan and is the same figure who gave Ceri’s hometown of Cadoxton its name.

The owners had to consult Les Architectes des Bâtiments de France on the color of shutters—as well as redoing the joints and changing the doors and windows—who oversee renovations in areas surrounding historic monuments. Sardineta is within the perimeter of the Saint-Cado chapel dating back to the 11th century. “In some places, the color palette allowed is quite limited, but we were lucky. The color here is mixed by a local paint shop.”

“The house was not unlivable—but it was far from comfortable,” recounts Charly. “Like most old houses here, damp was the main issue. The previous owners had only used it as a summer home, and there were pots of clay powder dotted around the house to absorb moisture.”

He goes on: “The issues were likely caused by renovations done in the 1970s and again in the 90s. As was common at the time, the joins in the stone walls were redone with concrete. This was seen as a modern solution back then, but it actually traps moisture inside the walls. We knew that if we didn’t address the root problem, we’d be managing rather than resolving the dampness. So we tore everything down to its bare walls and roof and redid the electrics and plumbing. The advantage to all this was that we could rebuild it however we wanted.”

Rather than sealing the building further, Charly and Ceri worked with specialists in traditional methods to restore the building’s permeability. “Lime is perfect for damp buildings as it lets moisture pass through and evaporate, and hemp provides natural insulation,” they explain. They applied a 5cm layer of hemp and hydraulic lime by hand—an intensive, multi-step process that required days of drying between coats—before finishing with a finer lime layer that hardens naturally through calcification. The result is a breathable envelope that stabilizes humidity while insulating the house.

After stripping the walls back to its bare bones, the owners chose natural wood wool insulation for its ability to regulate both cold and heat. “We used plasterboard here as the main wall cover, despite our aversion to it. At this height, the walls are less damp, so we could use it here. And the access up two flights of stairs made it impossible to use the tools and materials for the lime hemp as on other floors.” They then applied their own blend of limewash paint—lime, water, pigment, and casein—to the plaster for a cohesive and charmingly unfinished look.

For rental information, see the two listings for separate apartments—the First Floor Apartment and the Second Floor Apartment—at Sardineta on Airbnb.

For more Breton interiors, see our posts:

• Atelier Vime in Brittany: An 18th-Century Childhood Home Lovingly Updated
• Otonali, a Japanese-Inspired Restaurant in Brittany

Completed in November of 2025 after a tidy nine-month renovation, the apartment was designed for a young couple—a book publisher and an engineer—and their baby. With a refined eye for architecture and materials, the clients were well matched with Ghorbanalinejad, who developed a considered palette of waxed concrete, stainless steel, and Okoumé wood. Join us for a tour.

Photography by Mary Gaudin for Saba Ghorbanalinejad.

For more of Saba’s work, see our previous posts:

• A Considered Renovation in Old Versailles by Architect Saba Ghorbanalinejad
• Multiplying Light and Space: A Compact Paris Apartment with a Vintage Quality
• Kitchen of the Week: A White-Out Kitchen Extension in Paris from Saba Ghorbanalinejad

What was it like, the interviewer asked, growing up there? The house was like a sibling, the filmmaker said. Aren’t the spaces we live in like siblings—friends, confidants, witnesses to our most mundane and most momentous days?

It’s been almost a year since my parents sold the house I grew up in. As I see familiar patterns in the shift of the seasons, the grass waking up, the crocuses, I remember this time last year and what it felt like to know I had limited time in the place I loved most. After the purchase and sale had been signed, we spent a day tending to the garden, the one my dad had made and nurtured each season for 30 years, cutting back dead brush, raking out leaves, knowing we wouldn’t be there to see them in all their bloom. Summer was coming after a long winter in Maine, but for the first time, June meant an ending.

I read recently about the ability to picture things in your mind that aren’t in front of you. I can’t do this with most things, but I can do it with our house. I can walk through every room. The soft swing of the blue front door. The gathering room and the morning light pouring in. Yellow coffee mugs, half-drunk, on the kitchen’s soapstone counters. The way the curtains would shift a little with a breeze. The floorboard that slid a splinter into my foot. Towards the end, when my sister and I spent a weekend together in the house, we heard a persistent scrambling in the ceiling above the kitchen. A family of mice, or squirrels, had moved in; we never found out which.

On our last day in the house, my sister and I drove down to help, packing up the kitchen and wrapping in newsprint my grandmother’s bone china plates, the ones I was always too nervous to handle. We stayed for dinner with my parents and lit one last fire in the fire pit out front, looking out at the harbor and its shifting June light, the lobster boats knocking a little in the tide. How do you leave a place you love for the last time? I did my best, laid a palm on the white wall beside the front door for a minute before I walked out. Driving home I had the eerie sense, for a second, that the house could hear me and wished I’d said thank you.

I still have a stunned moment now and again, when I first wake up or when I’m falling asleep, that the house is no longer ours, that I can’t sit in the rockers on the porch or go to sleep in my bedroom or walk on the stones in the front garden, warm from in the sun. It’s an odd thing to know a place so intimately and not be able to return. I hope the new owners are taking care of her, though I catch myself worrying that she misses us, or wonders why we left her.

Inside the basement door, where we used to tack up every phone number we’d need—the pizza place, the movie rental place—we left the markings of our heights on the wall: my sister and me, 1992, 1996, 2000. And in the basement, where we hoped no one would paint over it, we all signed something new: our names, and the date, and the fact that we were here.

• Vipp’s latest guesthouse, in upstate New York, resembles “a stone in a pond.”
• You’re invited to a book exchange hosted by Ravenhill Studio.
• “Wish I could go to this,” writes Fan: Airmail reports on an ode to Noguchi in Atlanta.
• And mark your calendars for Maira Kalman’s “Shaker Outpost and General Store”.
• “Friend compounds” are on the rise; would you build one?
• Need extra storage? Consider this new do-it-all Ikea cabinet (p.s. it works outdoors, too).
• Julie’s eyeing this cushion collection made from antique fabrics.
• Have you heard this? Brandi Carlile on her mattress obsession.
• Summer workshops are now open for registration at internationally renowned Domaine des Boisbuchet in southwest France. Of note: The “Embodied Nature” workshop with ikebana artists Frida Kim and Wagner Kreusch.
• Speaking of workshops,  here’s Salmon Creek Farm’s summer programming. How great would it be to spend a week in one of their handcrafted cabins?
• R/G editors have a long-standing love for Korbo baskets. Now the brand has partnered with  Swedish designer Monica Förster for a new line of recycled aluminum planters.
• It’s Pamela Anderson’s world—and we’re just living in it. The well-documented garden lover just launched a new wicker furniture collection, “The Sentimentalist,” for Olive Ateliers and it is so, so good.
• We were recently reminded of artist Cornelia Konrads’ stunning work in nature, with nature.
• P.S. Sale alert: DWR’s annual Outdoor Sale is happening now, with discounts of up to 25 percent off. (Fan has her eye on the new Jasper Morrison x HAY collection that she wrote about last month.)

Across 237 square meters, the eight-room house underwent a full structural transformation, including a complete reconfiguration of the plan and the excavation of a substantial basement level. Working cohesively across architecture and interiors, Fitzgerald introduced concealed steel beams to open the layout, alongside a considered material palette, built-in furnishings, and custom-designed pieces for the space. Here’s a closer look.

Photography courtesy of Dinesen.

For more Copenhagen-area interiors, see our posts:

• Young Architect Freja Bak Josias’s Art-Filled Family Hideaway in Copenhagen
• A Testing Ground for Objects: Inside the Copenhagen Apartment of Kasia Sznajder and Fred Aartun of aarticles
• Down-Home in Denmark: Designer Rose Hermansen’s Copenhagen Family Apartment

In the kitchen, the approach is both practical and exacting. Cabinetry and trim are painted in muted yellow tones from Linolie & Pigment, giving the room a soft and reflective warmth. Anchored by an ILVE Majestic range, vintage lighting, and a mix of Scandinavian and European pieces, the kitchen is where the project is most fully realized: restored with care and built for everyday use.

For more on the house visit The Yellow Farm @spellingegaard.

Nanna is a native Bornholmer who, after twenty years living away from the island, decided to move with her family to this home in Gudhjem, the same town where her grandparents and mother grew up. Nanna and Mads operate their own real estate agency, Löwe Bruun, out of Gudhjem, specializing in properties throughout Bornholm.

When the couple first took over the house, it had no electricity, warm water, toilet, or heating. It took two years to obtain the permission to install proper plumbing—due to the property’s proximity near a small lake. “We reconstructed everything,” says Nanna. “There was no kitchen, no toilet, no shower—and the situation plan was small rooms with many doors.”

For more Scandinavian kitchens, see our posts:

• Kitchen of the Week: Restoring 1870s Charm in a Copenhagen Kitchen, Delft Tiles and All
• Kitchen of the Week: A Colori Kitchen by Artilleriet in Sweden
• Kitchen of the Week: A Pastel Kitchen Inspired by Swedish Artist Carl Larsson
• Kitchen of the Week: The Dinesen and Garde Hvalsøe Kitchen in Aarhus

For more inspiration and tips for the spring garden, head to Gardenista.

1. Simply White from Benjamin Moore

Shown here, architects Gregory Merkel and Ana Catalina Rojas used Simply White throughout their remodel featured in Two Young Architects Tackle Their Own Brooklyn Townhouse. Photograph by Carl Bellavia, courtesy of Gregory Merkel.

(For much more on what to know about white, see 10 Things Nobody Tells You About Painting a Room White.)

2. Hague Blue from Farrow & Ball

Star London chef Skye Gyngell used Hague Blue on her British Standard kitchen cabinets, shown here and featured in In the Kitchen with Skye Gyngell, London’s Chef du Jour. Photograph by Alexis Hamilton, courtesy of British Standard/Plain English.

3. White Dove from Benjamin Moore

It’s also the color chosen by architect John Alee and designer Hannah Childs in Before & After: A Summer Cottage Reborn on the Connecticut Coast.

4. Iron Mountain from Benjamin Moore

Tatum Kendrick of Studio Hus in Los Angeles used the color in the Venice Beach bedroom shown here. “It can go classic, modern, or earthy depending on your environment and furniture,” she says. Photograph courtesy of Studio Hus.

5. Chantilly Lace from Benjamin Moore

Architect Elizabeth Roberts used Chantilly Lace in this Williamsburg townhouse featured in A Whole-House Overhaul in Brooklyn with a High/Low Mix. Photograph courtesy of Elizabeth Roberts.

6. Nimbus from Benjamin Moore

Remodelista contributing editor Justine Hand used Nimbus on the bed frame in her daughter Solvi’s room, shown here and featured in The Soulful Side of Old Cape Cod: Justine’s Family Cottage. Photograph by Matthew Williams for Remodelista.

7. Thunder from Benjamin Moore

Justine Hand used Thunder to create a forest pattern in her son Oliver’s room. See more at DIY: The Stenciled Kid’s Room, Boreal Forest Edition. Photograph by Justine Hand.

8. Clunch from Farrow & Ball

Paint expert Eve Ashcraft and writer Heather Smith MacIsaac also picked Clunch as a favorite soft white in our story Expert Advice: Living in Black and White.

9. Pitch Black from Farrow & Ball

It’s also a favorite of NYC architect Steven Harris, who chose the color for our story Black Magic: Architects’ 8 Top Paint Picks.

10. Calamine from Farrow & Ball

Candace Partain used Calamine in her daughters’ bedroom in their Bozeman, Montana, home, shown. Photograph by Vanessa Pleasants, featured in An Inspirational Montana Home, courtesy of Vintage Whites.

For more on paint, see:

• Expert Advice: 12 Essential Tips for the Perfect Paint Job
• How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets: 5 Tips from a Master Painter
• 10 Easy Pieces: Architects’ White Exterior Paint Picks

N.B.: This post is an update; the original story ran as “Paint Colors with Cult Followings: Architects’ All-Time Favorite Paint Picks” on June 13, 2016.

Born in Norway, Lux grew up in the UK and studied art history at Central St. Martins before moving to NYC where she earned a fashion degree from Parson’s. During a study-abroad residency in Oaxaca, Mexico, she met a community of natural dyers and “saw up close a lot of these incredible if marginalized techniques that offered such beauty and inspiration.”

Post-graduation, Lux worked as a visual stylist at ABC Carpet & Home. Noticing the food scraps being tossed from ABC V, the in-house vegetarian restaurant, she began making her own dyes from things like avocado pits and onion skins, and stitching her first samples.

Initially established as a clothing line, Supernaturae now includes cushions and quilts that we’re highlighting here. Designed by Lux, each is meticulously created by a tag team of specialized artisan groups in India and Mexico. Describing the collection as “future vintage,” Lux says, “The desire is to create timeless pieces, collectibles of living history, highlighting incredible workmanship that is closely tied to nature.”

Photography courtesy of Supernaturae (@supernaturae).

The silk is hand-woven in Murshidabad, India, and dyed by a Zapotec community in Oaxaca who use locally sourced plants: pericón, añil, grana cochinilla, and palo de Brasil. Lux notes that “the mountain water from Sierra Norte enhances the colors, making them incredibly crisp and clear.”

More of our favorite pillows and cushions:

• Studio Augustin: Pillows and Poufs Made from Vintage Portuguese Grain Sacks
• Christina Lundsteen’s Velvet Pillows: “Mixing Colors and Patterns Like Nobody’s Watching”
• Social Enterprise Success Story: In Casa by Paboy’s Ruffled Cushions

Appliances

Faucets & Fixtures

Furniture

Accessories

For more farmhouse interiors, see our posts:

• Steal This Look: The Ultimate Farmhouse Kitchen
• Steal This Look: A Modern Farmhouse Dining Room in France
• Steal This Look: A Modern Farmhouse Kitchen, California Wine Country Edition

N.B.: This story originally appeared on August 22, 2017 and has been updated with new links and pricing.

The 220-square-meter property (about 2,400 square feet) is constructed with cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels precut to size and assembled on-site within two weeks. (The architects had previous experience with the material and worked with carpenter Christian Doerschug, who specializes in CLT structures.) The houses are clad in Western red cedar siding, and the interiors are outfitted with ash paneling, custom furniture, and Dutch and English lighting fixtures. Join us for a lesson in subtle splendor.

Photography by Luuk Kramer, courtesy of Korteknie Stuhlmacher Architecten.

Above: The kitchen counters are a dark brown terrazzo and the pendant lights are porcelain and copper [product id="1024154"]Bufferlamps[/product] by Dutch design studio Wieki Somers. Above: The pendant lights hanging above the custom ash dining tables are [product id="610510"]Original BTC Hector Pendant Lights[/product]. The chairs are vintage school chairs sourced by the clients. (For more, see our post 5 Favorites: Sources for Vintage-Style French School Chairs.)

Above: A view to the kitchen, which has a [product id="615865"]Lacanche Chassagne Range[/product] in terracotta red and chrome stands out among the otherwise muted palette. Above: The larger barnlike building is made up of bedrooms, bathrooms, and the central living space, which has [product id="1023873"]Foscarini Gregg Suspension Lamps[/product] (one large, medium, and small) overhead, a [product id="612110"]Carl Hansen & Søn Cuba Lounge Chair[/product], vintage leather butterfly chairs, and a tiled woodstove from Van Hoff Ontwerpen. Above: The floors in the living room and hallways are finished with liquid polyurethane in Dulux’s Beige Grey paint. The classic ceramic ceiling sconce is the [product id="604628"]Thomas Hoof Ceiling-Mounting Porcelain Light[/product]. The doors are fitted with Post & Eger Handles (FL-8644). Above: Doors and the built-in cabinetry designed by the architects are all painted with Farrow & Ball’s [product id="614032"]Borrowed Light[/product].

For more grand European country houses, see our posts:

• The Dinesen Family House: A Historic Renovation for Danish Design Royalty
• A Glamorous Farmhouse in Southwest France by Studio Maclean
• 100 Percent Handmade: Valentin Loellmann’s Historic River House in Maastricht

N.B.: This story originally ran on July 23, 2018 and has been updated.

Using proprietary hand-tufting and knotting techniques, the family-owned team behind 1001 Knots creates pieces meant to last a lifetime. Color, pattern, and texture merge, and the application of traditional craftsmanship becomes the vehicle for delivering centerpiece-worthy rugs.

Below, find a selection of rugs from 1001 Knots designed to bring any room to life.

According to 1001 Knots, rugs are made using “proprietary hand-tufting and knotting techniques that have been kept within the family for three generations. They involve specific ways of tensioning the yarn and finishing the edges that mass manufacturers simply cannot replicate. This generational knowledge is why we can confidently stand behind every single rug. It’s not just about aesthetics; it’s about a structural ‘perfection’ that ensures the rug lasts for decades.”

Explore more rugs from 1001 Knots here.

It’s all the work of Elizabeth Starks and Jacob Sackett—and so taken are we by what they’ve created that we’ve featured the place three times, from the dining room to the root cellar to the new overnight lodgings where guests can rest their heads after dinner).

“We’ve spent the last six years building a farm and homestead from scratch here, which has become home to a restaurant, guesthouse, and brewery, chickens, ducks, two donkeys, and a small flock of dairy sheep,” Elizabeth writes. “This year we’re planning on making some wine, expanding our produce garden about tenfold, maybe adding some pigs into the mix, and finally building a house that we’ll keep all to ourselves.”

Amidst it all, Elizabeth writes in today with her go-to playlist, four series/movies to watch for the interiors, and an under-the-radar gift shop. Read on:

You’re invited to dinner. What’s your go-to gift?

In the summer and fall, fresh flowers from the garden. In the winter and spring, a bottle or jar of something we’ve fermented or pickled.

What’s on your bedside table?

An overly expensive hand cream and a sprig of dried lavender.

What podcast or playlist do you put on when you need inspiration?

Spotify says we’re the number two top listener in the world of Tal Farlow. Where is number one?! Let’s meet!

What’s a film or TV show whose aesthetic has stuck with you?

Father Brown has some delicious interiors to pine over while your brain works out the mystery of the week. Also Gosford Park, You’ve Got Mail, Little Women (the usual suspects).

Which Instagram account do you go to for design inspiration?

Cheapoldhouses: You’ll want to add all the built-ins to your own house and buy every one of these listed houses too.

My favorite paint color for the bedroom is…

The guesthouse has varying shades of white, which I’m pretty loyal to. But I foresee some darker colors in our own home one day. Jake’s favorite color is green, and I love a deep reddish brown.

Your design pet peeve?

When homes all start looking the same! Trends won’t serve you well; things shouldn’t be classified as “in” or “out.” Design your home to bring you joy and I promise that it will bring joy to anyone who steps inside too.

My go-to kitchen utensil is…

A wooden spoon and a paring knife. The joke of the kitchen is that I never have the proper tool in my hand for the job. The same goes for the garden.

Three words that describe my design style:

Handmade, uncluttered, touch-of-whimsy.

What item from your closet do you have on repeat?

Anything wool. It can be worn for 9 out of 12 months of the year here. I’ve also come to feel more emotionally connected to wool, now that I raise my own sheep and process their wool. My husband bought me red wool underwear for Valentine’s Day last year which was a pretty much perfect gift.

Favorite design shop to visit (online or in person)?

The Hancock Shaker Village gift shop has a beautiful array of Shaker boxes and baskets and furniture—which would look great in any house, or at least inspire you to hunt for antique design lookalikes, or maybe even take up woodworking!

What is the last thing you purchased for your house?

Some backup dish brush heads. I don’t let anyone in the house use kitchen sponges, but they get mad at me when I let the dish brush heads get old and worn out. I’m trying to get ahead of the problem.

Something you’re coveting?

We’re about to begin timber-framing our own family home, and traditional timber-framing tools happen to be really beautiful. The dovetail saw from Lie-Nielsen! Their jack and jointer planes! The gorgeous little bronze spokeshave!

I don’t leave the house without…

I mostly leave the house without things and am thankful when whoever I’m with has grabbed a phone or wallet. But my car is stocked with chapstick and hand cream. These winters, I’m telling you!

Thanks so much, Elizabeth! Follow her work @bovinafermentory and @elizabethlstarks on Instagram and book a table or a stay at bovinafarmfermentory.com.

• Most shared article among the Remodelista team this week: the 200-year-old farmhouse of Suleika Jaouad and Jon Batiste.
• “Amazing intel in the answers here,” writes Margot, about this quest for a rosy pink paint color on a Shaker building.
• For all your home barista needs: This great-looking coffee maker now comes in a new color.
• Objects of our desire: Vancouver ceramic artist Janaki Larsen’s latest.
• Ooh, admiring this new mid-century light that doubles as a floor and suspension lamp.
• How France’s anti-waste laws are boosting small repair shops. We love to see it.
• Eyeing Apto, compact designs for small-space living.
• Don’t forget! Tiwa’s Scrapyard is happening Saturday, April 4, in NYC.
• In real estate news, photographer Robert Frank and artist June Leaf’s downtown NYC live-work townhouse is for sale.
• The most beautiful restaurant we’ve seen in a while? That would be Holy Carrot, Spitalfields.
• A thrilling reminder that gardens can be anywhere.
• If you were charmed by floral designer Kelsie Hayes’ dreamy new studio and event space that Margot wrote about yesterday, here’s an opportunity to see it in person and learn from the best.
• Fan has her eye on this conch shell-shaped terracotta planter from Campo deFiori.
• New Yorkers: CherryWatch at BBG is officially live. (Hat tip: Laura.)
• Gardening this weekend? Watch this first and see how an ecologist does spring cleanup.
• New York Restoration Project is giving away thousands of native tree saplings starting this weekend! Find details here.
• And a late-breaking addition to this week’s 10 Easy Pieces roundup of outdoor chaise lounge chairs: It’s from Zara Home and it’s so good, you may want to use it indoors instead.

Working in her characteristically cross-disciplinary mode, Toogood layers the utilitarian with the expressive. Honest materials—wire, paper, canvas—are treated with a degree of reverence, set against a historically inflected palette drawn from Spitalfields’ Georgian surroundings. Running the length of the room, a hand-painted mural by Toogood—figures entwined with oversized mushrooms—anchors the space. Part dreamscape, part still life, the design shifts the room from a daytime canteen to something more immersive by evening. The effect is tactile and assembled, balancing raw and refined with a quality that feels both improvised and exacting. Here’s a look:

Photography by Ollie Tomlinson for Faye Toogood.

For more from Toogood, see our posts:

• Design Luminary Faye Toogood’s Family-Friendly Minimalist Apartment
• Plump and Reassuring: “Functional Yet Sculptural” Homewares by Faye Toogood

Aalto conceived the project down to its smallest details, working alongside his second wife and collaborator, architect Elissa Aalto to design not just the building but its interiors, furnishings, and lighting—an approach based upon the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk, or a total work of art. Nearly seventy years on, that ethos remains intact.

It’s this continuity that drew New York-based studio In Common With to the house. Founded on similar principles—modularity, adaptability, and a close attention to material—the studio installed a selection of its Core collection here, placing contemporary fixtures into dialogue with Aalto’s architecture. Rather than contrast, the aim was alignment: pieces that register as part of the spatial order.

Photography by Bastian Achard for In Common With.

Aalto designed the house as a complete environment, from built-ins to light fixtures, dissolving the boundary between architecture and interior. “[Alvar Aalto] is a key inspiration behind why we founded In Common With—and the guiding principle of our first collection, Core: a modular system built to evolve, adapt, and endure,” explains In Common With.

The founding of Artek in 1935, 20 years prior to finishing Maison Louis Carré, helped translate Aalto’s approach into furniture and systems designed for everyday use. Nearly a century apart, the shared language—modular, adaptable, expressive—allows the new pieces from In Common With to sit easily within Aalto’s framework.

“Every element in Maison Louis Carré is considered,” describes In Common With. “Our approach was to place our fixtures in a way that felt continuous with the architecture, rather than applied to it.”

For more historic modernist houses, see our posts:

• Villa Rezek Restored, Now On View: 1930s Viennese Modernism by Architect Hans Glas
• Daring Color Ideas to Steal from the Finn Juhl House in Copenhagen
• 14 Lessons in Minimalism from the Glass House
• 12 Design Lessons from Le Corbusier’s Maison La Roche in Paris
• 12 Design Lessons from Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge

But of course. We have a well-documented weakness for kitchens designed for and by chefs (for examples of other cooks’ kitchens we’ve covered, scroll to the end).

Below, Conti Cert designer Celia Muñoz shows us around.

Photography by Claudia Mauriño, courtesy of Conti Cert.

For more on the home kitchens of chefs, see:

• Kitchen of the Week: Chef David Tanis’s Low-Tech, Economical, and Beautifully Soulful Kitchen in the East Village
• Kitchens of the Week: Chef Samin Nosrat’s Characterful Oakland Kitchens
• Work Smarter, Not Harder: 7 Tweaks for the Kitchen from Chefs, Cooks, and Cookbook Authors

For more lighting ideas, see our posts:

• 10 Easy Pieces: Good-Looking Pendant Lights Under $200
• High/Low: Modern Tiered Suspension Pendant Light
• High/Low: Chic Portable Lighting, Indoor/Outdoor Edition

N.B. This post originally ran on July 12, 2017, and has been updated with new products, links, and pricing.

Which explains why these humble, age-old building blocks are now being put to inventive uses as both structural and decorative elements. Designers have also come up with their own more sophisticated riffs on the standard cored block. Here are some notable examples and ways to use them.

Traditional Perforated Brick

Refined Versions of Perforated Brick

The bricks come in natural terracotta and four glaze colors, available in both matte and glossy. The glazed bricks are also available with contrasting colored inserts.

For a while now we’ve been noting the rise of circles in design: see, for instance:

• Trend Alert: Perforations, Punctures and Hole Punches
• Wall Murals: The Power of the Painted Circle
• Kitchen of the Week: The Eternally Sunny London Kitchen

At Jan de Jong Interieur in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands, designer Christien Starkenburg built out a modern kitchen with a white, charcoal, and pale gray palette with a rustic curtained sink. Here, we dig into matched and similar sources to re-create the look, as fresh today as when we first spotted it.

Kitchen photographs by Anna de Leeuw, courtesy of Jan de Jong Interieur.

Materials

Furniture

Lighting

Faucets & Fixtures

Accessories

For more creative kitchens with sources, sleuthed, see our posts:

• Steal This Look: A Scandi-Style Kitchen in a Canadian Cabin
• Steal This Look: Smart Storage in a Swedish Kitchen
• Steal This Look: Designer Lauren Soloff’s Colorful LA Kitchen
• Steal This Look: A Star London Chef’s Kitchen

N.B.: This story originally ran on November 22, 2016 and has been updated with new products, links, and pricing.

I am an architecture tourist and have visited many lovely sites, but the feeling I had on this property was unlike any other. There is a light and airy quality to E-1027 that you have to visit to fully experience (they offer tours from April to November, and it’s a short drive from Nice). One of the most perfect examples of modernist architecture, with its hyper-functional design and nonexistent ornamentation, it is minimalist yet thoughtful and deeply attuned to its environment. The relationship of the house to the light, land, and sea is simply magic.

But the house was almost lost forever. The nearly 100-year-old property changed hands many times, including during Nazi occupation and a brief stint as an 1980s locale for illicit activity, before it eventually fell to squatters. By the time the French State purchased it for restoration in 1999, the house was derelict. Every piece of furniture, including the built-ins and even the plumbing, had been stolen. Thus began an arduous and complicated process of rebuilding and restoring every facet of the home using the same materials and methods of the period, down to the paint. It feels like a miracle that this house could ever exist in the first place, and another miracle that it exists again today in nearly the same condition as a century ago.

E-1027 was far ahead of its time with ingenious design solutions that still feel relevant today; here are some of the most intriguing ones to inform your own projects.

Photography by Manuel Bougot, except where noted.

1. Work with the climate.

E-1027 was built as a passive house with no air conditioning. The stretched canvases on the terrace were designed to shield the interiors during the heat of the summer without compromising the view; they’re also removable, to allow sun to heat the house in the winter. The accordion doors and windows let air circulate during hot summer evenings.

2. Design for proportion.

3. Surprise and delight with slow reveals.

The colorful mural was painted by Le Corbusier, the story of which is one of the great controversies in E-1027’s long and scandalous history. Eileen Gray’s time at the house was short-lived. After only two summers, she moved out and left the house to Badovici, who invited Le Corbusier to visit. Corbusier was stunned by the house’s beauty; some say he was envious of Gray and her forward-thinking design. He painted eight enormous, colorful murals on the walls of E-1027, completely out of harmony with Gray’s pared-back vision.

Many believe this was an act of vandalism, done without Gray’s permission, and an expression of male dominance and female subjugation (it doesn’t help that Corbusier painted the murals in the nude). But some historians have disputed these claims, arguing that Gray had relinquished ownership of the home and the murals were painted with Badovici’s blessing and invitation. It begs the question of whether Corbusier’s murals add to or detract from the property. We’ll leave it to you to decide.

Before Corbusier’s mural was painted, Gray designed this front entrance wall to be entirely white with the inscription “Entrez lentement,” or “enter slowly.”

4. Use tile colors to delineate a space within a space.

5. Reduce noise, especially in a small space.

6. Opt for furniture that can be used both indoors and out.

7. Return to the closed kitchen.

8. Layer your bedside lighting.

9. Embrace the art of the swivel drawer.

10. Be inventive in the guest room.

11. Don’t be afraid of a little cheekiness.

And for looks inside more famous homes, see:

• 12 Design Lessons from Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge
• Lamb’s House: A Masterful Restoration of a 17th Century Home (Once Visited by Mary Queen of Scots)
• Required Reading: “Still Lives: In the Homes of Artists, Great and Unsung” by Leslie Williamson

N.B.: Featured image by Stéphane Aboudaram, courtesy of CMN dist. Scala.

Photographs by editors, except where noted.

• A Picasso for 100 euros? That’s the promise of this auction.
• Bravo to the UK’s first circular construction hub, where scraps are readied to be reused.
• New Yorkers, stop into “Tiwa’s Scrapyard” next Saturday, April 4, for “ceramics, candelabras, textiles,,” and other “personal bits for sale.”
• Does your bath need a springy pick-me-up? Shop this sale.
• The end of an era: So long to BDDW on Crosby Street.
• Love Copenhagen’s tiny floating wildflower islands.
• Time to plan a craft retreat.
• And the Best Use of Signature Palette award goes to: the green in this bath.
• Consider us intrigued: a chair inspired by the letter K.
• And really great all-around-the-house baskets (psst: they’re Ikea).
• Get ready to be utterly charmed by these Brutalist sheds (hat tip: Margot).
• Vogue says “moss is having a moment.” (For what it’s worth, Kendra wrote about the appeal of moss in this 2023 Gardenista story.)
• These woven dogwood branches will evoke the mane of a fire horse (hat tip: Julie, by way of Aya Brackett).
• Got pelargoniums? Here’s Monty Don’s advice on how to get the best summer blooms from your plant.
• Attention, Bostonians: The iconic hanging nasturtiums are back at the Gardner Museum. (Ticket info here.)
• And for those in the U.K.: Now’s the time to order Burnt Fen’s biodynamically grown tulips, all cultivated on a farm in Norfolk Broads.
• One of our favorite brands, Bergs Potter, has just launched a pretty new pot—the Delphi.
• Shopping for comfy but chic Adirondack chairs? Here are our favorites.

Above one of these eateries is a particularly tranquil space, a quiet oasis that belies the street life happening just below it. It’s the work of Adam Robinson, of Montreal-based Bureau Tempo. Though sizable by New York City standards, the 1,600-square-foot loft, housed in a former industrial building that dates back to the early 20th century, had only one bedroom and little storage when Adam was brought on by the the client, a single professional. “The space lacked a few of the amenities that the owner desired: There was no guest bedroom, it had inadequate storage, and no entry closet. The key to the project was creating these additional functional spaces while maintaining the light-filled openness of the loft,” says Adam.

Here’s how he designed a serene home that has ample storage, an additional flexible study/guest room, and an open floor plan for easy entertaining.

Photography by Alex Lesage, courtesy of Bureau Tempo.

For more Brooklyn design, see:

• Adding Energy Efficiency and Revived Style to 1860s Quarters in Brooklyn
• Steal This Look: A Communal Family Kitchen in a Brooklyn Townhouse
• Every Inch Efficient: 10 Ideas to Steal from a 1,000-Square-Foot Brooklyn Apartment

N.B.: This story originally ran on September 13, 2024 and has been updated.

The studio’s latest collection, Roots, was created in collaboration with Furnishing Futures, a UK charity that combines social work with interior design expertise to help survivors of domestic abuse rebuild their lives. The 14 handwoven designs feature natural motifs, subtle textures, and colors that “evoke safety, comfort and belonging.” For every rug sold, Shame Studios donates another for the living quarters of a Furnishing Futures’ beneficiary. Writes the Shame team: “Roots champions the idea that thoughtful design can do more than decorate a space; it can help people heal, rebuild, and put down new roots.”

Photography by Nat Aubry, styling by Anna Sheridan, courtesy of Shame Studios (@shamestudios).

Bhadoi, near Varanasi, is a region in Inda that has been a center for weaving for centuries. Shame notes that the techniques employed are ages-old, “yet its artisans remains open to experimentation, making it one of the studio’s most cherished places to work.” Shame is a certified partner of the fair-trade nonprofit Label Step and is committed to paying all hands fairly: “we exist to provide equal benefits to the craftswomen and men who produce these exquisite objects,” they write, “and the clients who will enjoy them.”

Shame Studios has a pop-up exhibit of the Roots rugs at Furnishing Future’s space, The Atrium. It’s up through April 4, Thursday to Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm, at 11A Argall Ave, Unit 4, London E10 7QE

Here’s some advice and more of our favorite rugs:

• Expert Advice: How to Choose a Rug with Luke Irwin
• Expert Advice: How to Track Down Ethically Made, Eco-Friendly Rugs, 12 Tips
• How to Combine Wallpaper, Fabric, and Rugs with Christine Vanderhurd
• 10 Easy Pieces: Non-Toxic Rugs
• 10 Easy Pieces: Green Area Rugs

Ett Orangeri—an event space in Sweden designed in collaboration with Nordiska Kök for creative couple Camilla Simonson (a graphic designer, photographer, and cook) and Lasse Kronér (a musician and television presenter)—is like a traditional orangery in spirit, in that its purpose is to bring people together and spread delight, but it takes its design cues from modern Japandi style (a mashup of Japanese and Scandinavian sensibilities). Rather than grand proportions and an imposing stone or brick facade, this orangery has a light touch (thanks to a glazed pitched roof and four walls of glass and cedar), and the clean lines of a simple one-room cabin. And, notably, a small but functional kitchen allows Camilla to create her Japanese-influenced dishes.

Let’s take a tour.

Photography courtesy of Nordiska Kök.

To learn more about renting Ett Orangeri for a private event (which can accommodate up to 22 guests and include a seven-course meal and live music), visit its website. For more details about the building of Ett Orangeri, check out its Instagram account. And for more on the kitchen cabinets, head here.

N.B.: This story originally appeared over on Gardenista; see the story here.

See more storage ideas in our posts:

• Build Your Own Storage: Modular Aluminum Shelving by Studio Moto of Belgium
• 10 Easy Pieces: Side Tables with Hidden Storage
• Scandi Storage for Every Room: Reform Expands Beyond the Kitchen

N.B.: This post is an update; the original story ran way back on May 19, 2010 and has been updated with new products, pricing, and links.

In this week’s edition: Lately we’ve seen circles, openings, and apertures appearing in interiors…and now in the garden, too, where they bring a sense of movement and calm. Here, three examples:

For spring inspiration and much more, head to Gardenista.

Materials

Lighting & Fixtures

Furniture

Accessories

For more Parisian spaces with design sources to match, see our posts:

• Steal This Look: Pastel Bright Guest Room in Paris
• Steal This Look: The $4K Parisian Kitchen from Two DIY Experts
• Steal This Look: The New Parisian Apartment Bedroom
• Steal This Look: A Cool and Compact Kitchen in Paris

N.B.: This story originally ran on May 31, 2022 and has been updated with new links and prices.