Before & After: IKEA Trondheim Madeover With O'verlaysThe Design Pages

It's a rare home that doesn't have a little IKEA in it. Hacking IKEA furniture has become a sport for design-loving nuts such as ourselves. There's no shortage of creativity and ingenuity but we also like to see the simple hacks that give a lot of bang for the buck. If you haven't yet heard of O'verlays, jump below and take a look at what they can do.

Carol of The Design Pages transformed this very plain Trondheim dresser using the magic of lightweight, fretwork panels and paint. It's an easy way to add some luxe to IKEA pieces. O'verlays has created an entire line of designs to choose from. Check out their website for photos. For details and photos of how Carol pulled off this dramatic Before and After, run over to her blog The Design Pages.

More Info:
• O'verlays
• Dresser Transformation on The Design Pages

(Images: The Design Pages)

View the original article here

Innovation Week 2011: Five Inventive Residences from the Pages of Dwell: Part Two

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, December 8, 2011, by Rob Bear Photos: Jason Schmidt/Dwell

We're back to finish up where we left off with Dwell magazine's picks for most innovative homes from their archives. Up first: a selection from the "Best Homes in America" special issue, a Canadian house with a decimal in its name, the 23.2 House in Wood Rock, British Columbia. Designed by Vancouver-based Omer Arbel, the angular structure was built using reclaimed wood for parts of the interior with the overall shape of the building impacted by one overarching maxim. At the designer's insistence, none of the reclaimed planks could be altered in any way. This determined some of the house's more absurd angles, but it's hard to argue with the results, like the roof that hovers over a seamless expanse of sliding glass.

Photos: Dave Lauridsen/Dwell

? In this pick, the Orchard House in Sebastopol, Calif., the architects left the raw wood off the ceiling and instead it found its way into the furnishings. Most notably, a gigantic slab of unsealed salvaged cypress that rests on sawhorses and serves as a primitive kitchen island. Designed by the architecture firm Anderson Anderson, the place was built for a East Coast couple relocating to Sonoma and was so designed to emulate, in part, the NYC loft they were leaving behind.

Photos: Dean Kaufman/Dwell

? The Dutch popped up in our last Dwell round-up and now they're back again to represent for the Low Countries. In a distinctly European twist, the Villa van Vijven was built as a collective home for five families. While each family lives in a distinct apartments, they all share communal spaces like the lawn and "the public square," a cobblestone plaza beneath the main structure. The design was helmed by Next Architects and has a distinctive, and very Dutch, orange exterior.

Photos: Lloyd Russell/Dwell

? The sweltering high deserts of Southern California's interior would seem like the last place to plop an untested new design, but it's precisely the challenges of building here that drove the construction of Rimrock Ranch, a vacation getaway for surfwear entrepreneur Jim Austin. Using a solid concrete slab foundation and a steel canopy to shade the house itself, Austin and architect Lloyd Russell managed to keep the temperature inside comfortable without resorting to the government-mandated air conditioning system.

Photos: Gregg Segal/Dwell

? Followers of this year's Innovation Week should find this house pretty familiar, as it appeared in as an AirBnb vacation rental on Tuesday. It's nice to put more of a backstory to the glassy modern cottage, which rents for $350 per night. Known as the iT House, it was built by Linda Taalman and Alan Koch, of Taalman Koch Architects, as their own personal escape in the high desert in Pioneertown, Calif. The house was constructed from prefabricated components and the final cost of constructing this slick getaway was just $265K.

· Five Inventive Residences from the Pages of Dwell: Part One [Curbed National]
· A Fresh Angle [Dwell]
· Fertile Grounds [Dwell]
· Creative Commons [Dwell]
· Operation Desert Shed [Dwell]
· iT House, Joshua Tree [Dwell]
· Five Eco-Friendly Houses to Try Green Living Before You Buy [Curbed National]

View the original article here

Innovation Week 2011: Five Inventive Residences from the Pages of Dwell: Part Two

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, December 8, 2011, by Rob Bear Photos: Jason Schmidt/Dwell

We're back to finish up where we left off with Dwell's picks for most innovative homes from their archives. (For a look at more Dwell favorites, pick up the "Best Homes in America" special issue.) Up first is a Canadian house with a decimal in its name, the 23.2 House in Wood Rock, British Columbia. Designed by Vancouver-based Omer Arbel, the angular structure was built using reclaimed wood for parts of the interior with the overall shape of the building impacted by one overarching maxim. At the designer's insistence, none of the reclaimed planks could be altered in any way. This determined some of the house's more absurd angles, but it's hard to argue with the results, like the roof that hovers over a seamless expanse of sliding glass.

Photos: Dave Lauridsen/Dwell

? In this pick, the Orchard House in Sebastopol, Calif., the architects left the raw wood off the ceiling and instead it found its way into the furnishings. Most notably, a gigantic slab of unsealed salvaged cypress that rests on sawhorses and serves as a primitive kitchen island. Designed by the architecture firm Anderson Anderson, the place was built for a East Coast couple relocating to Sonoma and was so designed to emulate, in part, the NYC loft they were leaving behind.

Photos: Dean Kaufman/Dwell

? The Dutch popped up in our last Dwell round-up and now they're back again to represent for the Low Countries. In a distinctly European twist, the Villa van Vijven was built as a collective home for five families. While each family lives in a distinct apartments, they all share communal spaces like the lawn and "the public square," a cobblestone plaza beneath the main structure. The design was helmed by Next Architects and has a distinctive, and very Dutch, orange exterior.

Photos: Lloyd Russell/Dwell

? The sweltering high deserts of Southern California's interior would seem like the last place to plop an untested new design, but it's precisely the challenges of building here that drove the construction of Rimrock Ranch, a vacation getaway for surfwear entrepreneur Jim Austin. Using a solid concrete slab foundation and a steel canopy to shade the house itself, Austin and architect Lloyd Russell managed to keep the temperature inside comfortable without resorting to the government-mandated air conditioning system.

Photos: Gregg Segal/Dwell

? Followers of this year's Innovation Week should find this house pretty familiar, as it appeared in as an AirBnb vacation rental on Tuesday. It's nice to put more of a backstory to the glassy modern cottage, which rents for $350 per night. Known as the iT House, it was built by Linda Taalman and Alan Koch, of Taalman Koch Architects, as their own personal escape in the high desert in Pioneertown, Calif. The house was constructed from prefabricated components and the final cost of constructing this slick getaway was just $265K.

· Five Inventive Residences from the Pages of Dwell: Part One [Curbed National]
· A Fresh Angle [Dwell]
· Fertile Grounds [Dwell]
· Creative Commons [Dwell]
· Operation Desert Shed [Dwell]
· iT House, Joshua Tree [Dwell]
· Five Eco-Friendly Houses to Try Green Living Before You Buy [Curbed National]

View the original article here

On the Market: Five Listings Formerly Found in the Pages of Elle Decor

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, October 24, 2011, by Rob Bear Photos: Pieter Estersohn/Elle Decor

Celebrity decorator and talk show host Nate Berkus had his home featured in Elle Decor, not long after completing a historically respectful renovation of the 4,000-square-foot apartment in one of Chicago's preeminent pre-war condo buildings. But despite the press his place received, the brokerbabble for the flat, which was listed almost ten months ago, makes no mention of Berkus. The spread has had its price chopped by $500K, to $2.15M, since it was first listed, but that doesn't prevent the three-bed from being just as glossy-worthy now as it was back when Berkus was still interested in splitting his time between New York, Milan, and Chicago. After the jump, check out some more Elle Decor-featured interiors that are currently seeking new owners.

? Public relations guru Paul Wilmot tapped designer Andrew Galuppi to rework the interiors of his midcentury manse in Miami Shores, Fla. and guess what, they ended up on the pages of Elle Decor. Built around a lush courtyard, the four bedroom, 5.5 bathroom house last sold for $1.53M, meaning Wilmot isn't looking for much of a profit with the $1.6M asking price.

? According to the listing, this place was once featured in Elle Decor, but we doubt the place would make those pages today. The Rose Cottage in Eureka Springs, Ark., which comes furnished, has an outdated pink-and-green color scheme and distressed furniture galore. That's not exactly the sleek contemporary look we're used to. At least this place has a petite price tag to go with the dated styling, just $229K.

? Not surprisingly, prices in NYC are a bit higher than those in Arkansas, but the Elle Decor mention is still a strong selling point. The only trouble for this West Village loft is that fact the building, not this particular apartment, was featured in the magazine. Oh well, that doesn't seem to matter for the one-bedroom loft, which is currently asking $1.05M. One plus, the 850-square-foot pad has especially low maintenance.

? Not all houses that have been featured in the shelter mags enjoy the same sort of photographic excellence when they go up for sale. This Hudson, N.Y. center hall house has just two distorted photos attached to its listing, a far cry from the photos that earned the place a spot on an Elle Decor cover back in 1998. Better yet, the brick home is listed for just $325K.

· Honor Guard [Elle Decor]
· 1325 N Astor St [Zillow]
· 435 Grand Concourse [Zillow]
· LookBook [Elle Decor]
· 2 Kansas St [Zillow]
· 130 Barrow Street [Corcoran]
· 10-12 S 7th St [Zillow]

View the original article here

Arch Digest, Elle Decor Report Increased Ad Pages: Architectural Digest and Elle Decor have...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, February 7, 2011, by Sarah

? Back to top

? Previous: Palm Beach Pastels in a Decidedly Non-Floridian Community

? Next: Chrysler's Eminem Commercial Immortalizes the City of Detroit

View the original article here