Friday Before & After: Farmhouse Revived!

Architecture
February 6, 2015

Good Morning Lacquered Lifers. Today a Friday Before and After with Gideon Friedman and Rachel Bedard’s eighteenth century farmhouse in Earlton, New York. Despite the age of this house, multiple renovations over the years had left this house void of the character which is synonymous with an eighteenth century property. With the help of the design team at Jersey Ice Cream Company (more on them next week), the couple was able to bring the farm back to the farmhouse, and nowhere is this metamorphosis more apparent than in the kitchen and the master bathroom. For more photos visit Country Living. Happy Friday!BeforeAfterAfterBeforeAfterAfter

Photos via Country Living

In the Kitchen with Martha

Designers
January 28, 2015

Good Morning Lacquered Lifers! A few weeks ago I posted about Martha Stewart’s laundry room at Skylands, her home in Maine. Today, I thought I would share some photos of Martha’s various kitchens. While I have never been a follower of Martha’s, she is lucky enough to live in some extremely beautiful historic homes – so clearly we have something in common. When I designed our kitchen at Church Street, I looked backwards for my design inspiration, and designed a kitchen that was in keeping with the time period when the kitchen would have been added into the house. Prior to kitchens being inside the main house, most Charleston houses had a kitchen house, or dependency, a building separate from the main building that would have housed the kitchen. Martha is lucky enough to have kitchens that are original to her homes – and I can’t pretend that these photos haven’t ended up on more than one inspiration board for my clients.

This first photo above is from Turkey Hill, Martha’s home in Westport, Connecticut – not far from where I grew up! Her use of long, narrow storage drawers in her island is one of my favorites.
This is from Skylands, Martha’s home in Maine. This large scale sink is heavenly. Deep, divided, drip edges … what’s not to love? And again at Skylands, what Martha refers to as “the great wall of china”. Open shelving is something I always appreciate. I definitely took this cue at Church Street!Martha’s kitchen on Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton. This zinc countertop is so great. It is not only great looking, but durable as well, and is one of those products that looks even better with age and wear. I also really appreciate the low height of these cabinets, and the way that they are fastened to the counter. It allows for beautiful open storage above, and easy access to china … without a step ladder.Finally this full wall cabinet back at Turkey Hill in Westport. As you all know, I probably get more envious of storage than anything else. As someone who is slowly becoming somewhat of a china hoarder, cabinetry like this in a butler’s pantry would be my dream.

Photos via marthastewart.com

Throwback Thursday: Studio Daze

Architecture
January 22, 2015

Good Morning Lacquered Lifers. Today I thought I would embrace the concept of Throwback Thursday and share some photos of my Philadelphia studio apartment that I lived in from 2009-2011 while I attended graduate school. The studio was 12′ x 24′, and while that may seem small, it fit me just perfectly. Sure I was hanging clothes in a closet in the tiny kitchen that only had a half fridge and two burner stove (no oven), but there was room for my bed, my desk, some great ikea club chairs, and I even through four person dinner parties in that apartment with a little drop leaf table I would pull off the wall and open up in the middle of the room. And the location? Perfect. I was one block from Rittenhouse Square. Built at the turn of the 20th century as a single family home, this Philadelphia row house between 20th and 21st Streets was once quite grand. However, by the time I got there, the home was broken up into small studio and one bedroom apartments that weren’t in the best shape … Here is a photo of the building from the exterior. See the dormer windows on the fourth floor? That’s my apartment. Even though the building no longer looked the way it had 100 years prior, there was still evidence of its past in some of the architectural details on the facade. Everything in that apartment was bought on a shoestring budget and became a DIY project, or was something I inherited, or was a gift from my parents. And some of these pieces are still a part of my life here in Charleston. Those silver tables are now coral and live on the piazza. My teeny tiny kitchen. And to think that I made dinner parties worth of dinners in that space! All on the stovetop b/c I had no oven. I painted the walls Benjamin Moore Caribbean Blue Water in high gloss which made a teeny space feel more like a jewel box than a closet. And the walls of the main room were Benjamin Moore Bird’s Egg. I loved that little studio. With all the studying and work I was doing, I probably spent more time in that apartment in Philadelphia than both of my NYC apartments combined. It seems like only yesterday, but I took these photos six years ago. Whoa. Happy Throwback Thursday.