Design: Homes and Gardens

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Alexa Hampton: Decorating in Detail

When I was in High Point last month, Alexa Hampton had just released her new book, Decorating in Detail. In part, it’s spun off her decorating columns from the Wall Street Journal’s Off Duty section, in the days when Deborah Needleman days. Alexa has the best sense of humour and it really comes across in this book. That, and her amazing eye for detail and colour are what made me want to buy this book. I have her Language of Interior Design book as well, and it’s terrific.

What I loved about this book was that she talks about 10 or so of the houses she’s recently designed and goes into detail about how they came about. And, of course, because detail is what this book is all about, there are tons of gorgeous images of the details which make the decorating come to life!

There are small details that many people wouldn’t notice,

and grand details which bring a room together.

What was great was that the columns that Alexa did for the WSJ were reprinted in the book, and I was pleased to be able to see these again, because they were full of great advice!

Another thing that she does that intrigued me is “decorating by Sharpie®”. She takes an existing image of a room and sketches out the layout she’s proposing right onto the image!

Using this method, both she and the clients can get a good sense of the space and the arrangements, without tons of effort! She’s clearly inherited some of her father’s talent in the drawing arena, as well as the decorating!

Decorating in Detail will be a new favourite of mine!

Purple Passion

I don’t know whether you’ve seen this house in England that’s making the rounds, but someone’s got a passion for PURPLE! In Baltimore, we take our passion for purple pretty seriously, as that’s one of the team colours for the Ravens. But I think that this might just be too much, even if we do go back to the SuperBowl (doubtful this year!). Take a look!

Thank goodness for the white accents!

50 Shades of Purple

The purple carpeting is climbing up the sides of the tub!

That chair looks very uncomfortable.

Wait… the dining room opens onto a bedroom?

Purple carpeting in the kitchen. {Shudder}

The funny part is that the house looks pretty normal from the outside!

Yours for a mere £400,000!

Le Weekend

I took a quick trip up to Philadelphia this weekend to see my “out-law”, Mark. Our siblings are married to each other, so we’re not technically in-laws, so we refer to each other as the out-laws.

We had a chance to walk around his neighbourhood, Rittenhouse Square, and it’s completely charming. As I was going down a very narrow alley in a very large car, I caught sight of this incredible building, and shot a picture out of the car window.

I have become fascinated with brickwork and spotted a great example at the top of the turret. I spotted the one below on an old house nearby. While this Flemish bond pattern is fairly common, what sets this off is the glaze on the header bricks.

At every turn, there were just wonderful architectural details to be found, like this bow window with its wavy glass.

this great lantern,

this hand-crafted handle,

this fabulous doorknob,

and this beautiful doorway.

There are still some historic homes in the center of the Rittenhouse Square area.

I just adored this Episcopal church, which looked at home here as it would have in England.

I love the secret gardens you find in old cities, tucked in behind homes and gates.

Can you spot the Lady Liberty in the picture?

One of the buildings that I thought was terrific was this late 1800’s apartment building, the Newport. It had copper bows and great arched windows along the front and side elevations.But what captured my attention was the name plate for the building. How fabulous is that!

One of the other reasons I went to Philadelphia was to pick up some antiques from Mark. One of the pieces that will be hugely useful is this Chinoiserie-style tray table and it’s campaign-style frame.

The base folds flat for easy storage. I am thrilled to finally have a cocktail table in the main room, and it even works with the existing sisal rug with its orange Greek key design.

How was your weekend?

I’ll Take This: Manor House in Wales

A friend sent me this listing because he knew I drove by this house almost every day on my way to work when I lived in Wales.

It’s on the Llantwit Major Road in the village of Cowbridge, and I always thought it looked like the quintessential British country house. Luckily, the past owners haven’t ruined it with modernizations, and have kept many of the period details.

I love the collection of Bristol blue glass on the windowsill!

There are four bedrooms, but only one is en-suite.

The property is comprised of six acres in the Vale of Glamorgan with its distant views to the valleys beyond.

In addition to the main house, there’s also a self-contained three-bed flat and another one-bed flat in the house, both with their own entrances. The price for this house isn’t too bad, £1,550,000, although it sold for £640,000 in August of 2013. More information here.

High Point: Hooker Furniture

This most recent High Point Market marks the fourth time that Hooker Furniture has been my sponsor and I am very fortunate to have such a forward thinking sponsor. Some of their innovative furniture designs have been created with input from pinners on the company’s Pinterest page!

One of my favourite things about some of Hooker’s furniture is that it’s clever, and if you know me, you know that’s a high compliment! Take this little side table for example. Very on-trend with its pale turquoise, and its nail-head trim.But when you open it, it’s a whole new story. It’s a charging station!It has a number of outlets for your USB cords, and trays which slide out to hold and store your phones, pads, laptops, etc.

Another clever piece is basically an office in a box!

Lovely cabinet, beautiful detail on the doors, but when you open it, voila!

It holds an entire office worth of files, papers, equipment and more!

The other option is using the piece as a bar!You know that if this was in my house, there would be a lot more booze in the cabinet! It’s got loads of room for glassware of every sort, nibbles that don’t need refrigeration, napkins, plates, mixers and anything else you’d need to throw a cocktail party, except the ice!

Another thing I love about Hooker is their beautiful hardware! The right hardware on a piece of furniture is like the right piece of jewellery for an outfit. You might look fine without it, but when you add it on, you look fabulous!