In our new modernist home, a few splashes of orange around the house and a skeleton on the front bench suffice for demonic decor. I’ve been experimenting with deer-resistant plants in the front pots and though several perennials have given up the ghost already the nasturtiums are thriving. Right now a strand is crawling into [...]
No wallpaper decision made yet, but the new sink is in! Isn’t she a beauty? Perhaps you recall this moment of impulse renovation when we ripped out the old odd powder room vanity with no plan for what would take it’s place? Four months later we have new things in the room including floor tile [...]
Having grown up on a farm, I’m nostalgic for the harvest season that starts in late September. Perhaps that’s why I loved this image of grapes hanging from the ceiling of an Umbrian farmhouse. According to the story in the September issue of The World of Interiors these clusters of moscatello, trebbiano and malvasia grapes [...]
Over the summer I’ve been re-reading Wallace Stegner’s “Angle of Repose” and thinking how much more I bring to this reading now than I did when I read it in my 20s. Today I came across this quote near the end of the novel— “For several weeks now I have had the sense of something [...]
Ever since I read writer Susan Orlean’s New Yorker piece about working at a treadmill desk, I’ve been intrigued by the idea of walking or at least standing while I work. When we bought this house we thought it came with a built-in office desk. However, when we moved in we found that the (not built-in [...]
As summer draws to a close, the landscape here in rain-starved California is dominated by straw-colored hills dotted with silvery-green foliage. It took me years to appreciate this dusty color palette having grown up in a place that was either bright with summer rain or starkly white under a layer of snow. But now these [...]
After taking a few months off from home-remodeling projects to travel and entertain house guests, we’re back at it. Today I’m trying to hear myself type over the bang-crash-clang of demolition. If I didn’t know better I’d think some super heroes were duking it out upstairs. But no, it’s the super-duper tile guys demo-ing one [...]
One of the unique features in our living room is a long, narrow display niche. I don’t know what the niche will ultimately hold, but for now it showcases various “blue” objects that came out of the moving boxes. Things like the Korean pottery M.J. picked up in Seoul when he was a Mormon missionary [...]
As I’ve been putting this new house together, the home renovation site Remodelista has been my go-to source for design inspiration and resources and I’m certain that Gardenista will be just as instrumental when it comes time to renovate my garden. (Can’t wait to “dig in” come fall once the days are cooler and there’s [...]
Hello! I’m finally reporting in from the other side of the move. We only uprooted 2.4 miles—a longish stroll, really, but a move is a move and even a short one can make you feel like you’ve traveled a very great distance. The move itself went smoothly but was exhausting. Six professionals did the bulk [...]
