It’s officially book season. The new fiction and coffee table books that have been arriving are the highlights of my week. ‘ll get to posting about those here and on Instagram @StyeCarrot.
West Coast interior designer Nina Freudenberger is such a talent. I loved meeting her years ago when designer David Stark took over Haus, her old shop in New York City, with a very cool exhibition. I wrote about it for Design Milk.
Freudenberger’s first book, Surf Shack: Laid-Back Living By the Water, is one of my all time favorites. From the looks of Instagram @NinaFreudenberger, she is working on another book that is taking her to more far-flung parts of the world.
Here are half a dozen of the private home libraries that designer Nina Freudenberger, journalist Sadie Stein, and interiors photographer Shade Degges captured in Bibliostyle.
I just realized I never posted images from this interior design book published by Vendome Press last year—Robert Stilin Interiors . The book, written by Mayer Rus, is New York- and Hamptons-based designer, Robert Stilin’s first. It features 15 projects photographed by Stephen Kent Johnson.
There are apartments and townhouses in the city along with beach and country houses in his soulful yet tailored style with strong, clean lines and primarily neutral palettes that still seem to include color. I love his artwork choices and the vintage furniture he incorporates.
Here’s a sampling of six rooms in the book, along with the cover:
During the Serena & Lily Thank You Event, almost everything is 25% off! This is the brand’s biggest and best sale of the year. Just use code THANKFUL.
Style Carrot’s partner in design Serena & Lilyis serving up its Thank You Event. Right. This. Minute. During the Serena & Lily Thank You Event, almost everything is 25% off! This is the brand’s biggest and best sale of the year. (Note: sale items, gift certificates artwork, and bikes are excluded.) Just use code THANKFUL.
Since I don’t host the holidays, I don’t need many serving pieces beyond what I already have. (I entertained ideas of quiet, chilly Thanksgivings on Cape Cod, but I think we’ve only done that once, with little fanfare.) Each year we head to Fairfield County, Connecticut to celebrate with my husband’s family.
This year we brought the kitty and let him have free rein of the house since the cat-in-residence is no longer. It’s a pre-Civil War farmhouse, so there are lots of nooks and crannies for him to explore. This morning while I staged photos of Serena & Lily swag for you, he jumped right into the action.
I have a lot of coffee table books. I really love this one—Travel Homeby Caitlin Flemming and Julie Goebel, with gorgeous photographs by Peggy Wong. (The cobalt blue glass is my mother-in-law’s collection.) The book features 20 homes with that incorporate international flavor from far-off cities including Marrakesh, Paris, and Tokyo. Travel Home is currently $30 at Serena & Lily with code THANKFUL.
I rested my morning tea (Earl Gray, black) on my Serena & Lily Granada tray. (The silver is family heirloom. I like the pink runner; I’ll have to ask where it’s from.) The tray is a new offering of Serena & Lily’s own design made from laminated birch. It’s available in small, medium, and large rectangles as well as large and small round ones. This is the small tray on sale at Serena & Lily for $43.50 with code THANKFUL.
It looks pretty here, but I’ll bring the tray home with me to put ton the shelf next to my desk, where my tea will live in the morning. A few weeks ago I dumped half a mug of Earl Gray on my laptop. I’m now, needless to say, working on a brand new computer. That was totally not in the budget.
I also just ordered this Turkish cotton hand towel with hand-knotted tassel fringe from the Serena & Lily Healdsburg bath collection for our powder room. I think the Pink Sand color will work nicely with the neutral sand-toned wallpaper. And be much more fun to dry my hands with than a traditional towel. The Healdsburg bath collection now starts at $12 at Serena & Lily. Use code THANKFUL at checkout.
Canadian Contemporary features 33 projects by top residential architects in Canada. Locations include Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Victoria Beach, Nova Scotia, and others. Styles would look equally at home here in the U.S., as well as Australia, Japan, and Scandinavia. There’s a townhouse, farmhouse, beach house, and even a treehouse.
There are many gorgeous exterior and interior photographs, as well as floor plans. Here is a sampling (admittedly, not the highlights), approved by the publisher. It’s worth picking up a copy for the full presentation.
Compass House by architecture firm Superkul is sited on the Niagara Escarpment in Mulmur, Ontario. It was built as a weekend home for a family of six.
The interior walls are lined with horizontal slats of knotty white cedar, a warm and earthy contrast to the home’s minimal form. The floor is white oak and the ceiling white, to give a sense of infinite space and light.
Fahouse by Jean Verville Architecte is located in a hemlock forest in Eastern Townships, Quebec.
I wasn’t able to identify which house this is, but I think it’s also Fahouse. Given its black exterior and dramatic A-frame roofline, I didn’t want to leave it out.
This home,called The Rock, sits on the side of Mount Shefford in Quebec. It was designed by Atelier Général Architecture. The concept was to merge the house with the mountain. Parts of the deck are actually built around rock outcroppings.
Bécassinnes Cottage (not quite our definition of cottage), was designed by Atelier Boom-Town. It’s in Potton, Quebec, on the shores of Lake Memphremagog. In addition to four bedrooms, it’s got a dormitory that sleeps ten.
This is a less formal house with vertical cedar siding and cedar shingles, left to weather naturally. We could easily find such a home here in New England.
This modern farmhouse, located an hour-and-a-half east of Montreal is called Townships Farmhouse. It was designed by LAMAS (Lee and Macgillivray Architecture Studio). The farmer/artist couple who live here are conscious of preserving the area’s agricultural buildings and conserving the land. This is an image of the central courtyard.
This is a view of what the architect calls a “bed box” in a downtown Toronto loft. The white curtains, archway, adn glossy white farmhouse chairs is channeling an early Delano Hotel vibe. The space, named Broadview Loft, was designed by StudioAC for a young professional couple. The back wall of the kitchen is painted black to recede, and a long built-in bench under the window provides a place to display items or act as seating when entertaining.
Back in February, when we really needed the sunshine, I received a review copy of this design book by photographer Tim Street-Porter. As you might imagine, Palm Springs: A Modernist Paradise by Tim Street-Porter (Rizzoli, February 2018) showcases the mid-century modern architecture of Palm Springs, a modern desert oasis.
Examples include jet-set homes designed by Richard Neutra, Albert Frey, and Paul Williams, as well as private residences by tastemakers, including fashion designer Trina Turk, who penned the book’s foreword and owns a home there.
The pages are glossy and gorgeous; it makes a good housewarming gift if you’re spending the weekend with any modernists this summer.
Living room of Trina Turk’s home The Ship of the Desert. It was designed by Los Angeles architects Adrian Wilson and Earle Webster in 1936 in the architectural style is known as Streamline Moderne. The sofas are Vladimir Kagan.
President Gerald and Betty Ford’s home, which they commissioned after Ford’s defeat by Jimmy Carter in 1976. It’s designed by architect Welton Becket, who designed the Capitol Records Building and Pan-Pacific Auditorium in L.A. This is the dining room, which still contains the original dining table, chairs, and wall murals. (The chandelier is a later addition.) Annie Leibovitz shot this portrait of Betty Ford here in this dining room.
Designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard bought Villa Grigio in 2014. It was designed by architect James McNaughton in 1964. The site was originally part of the Barbara Hutton estate, near the first Palm Springs residence of Frank Sinatra. This is the living room’s sunken conversation pit. The view looks out bowed glass windows to the patio and pool.
The master bath of Martyn Lawrence Bullard’s Villa Grigio echoes the living room design.
This is a minimalist glass house designed by William F. Cody in 1967. It has views across the Coachella Valley. The master bedroom, complete with an Eames lounge and Mies van der Rohe Barcelona daybed, opens to the pool.
The Albert Frey House II, which the architect designed for himself on a steeply sloped lot overlooking the city of Palm Springs, 220 feet above the desert floor. It’s built right inot the rocks.
