Showing posts with label Interior. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interior. Show all posts

Monday, November 30, 2009

A FREE HOUSE

Knowing he replaced windows Susanne Hudson deduced the old windows were going someplace, shall we say, unpleasant, in these 'sustainable' times? With Susanne's brilliance, instead of ending their life at a, literal, DUMP his windows are becoming GARDEN HOUSES, metaphorically, free.
#89 granite gravel creates crunchy delicious floors.

With rescued objects (aka free) and an exquisite eye for junking Susanne's GARDEN HOUSE is a statement in INTERIOR DESIGN too.
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Who knew junking & rescuing could be so GORGEOUS!!
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Took pics in Susanne's GARDEN HOUSE.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

15 REASONS TO HIRE AN INTERIOR DECORATOR

15. Not your specialty. Want your dermatologist to do a heart stint?

14. Create rooms with serenity, filling you with energy. (Ha, hire the decorator.)
13. Place ceiling fixtures properly. Hire the electrician twice?
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12. Choose light fixtures: new to junkers from thrift stores stored in your garage.
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11. Place artwork on walls. Move paintings 2-3x's on newly painted walls?
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10. Place bric-a-brac. Trifling trinkets when you do it.
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9. Place lamps & choose new shades. Most important if you have a lighting fetish.
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8. Place furniture. Pianos are heavy, buffets too.
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7. Honor collections. Culling years of collecting into Something....Anything. Will toss what you tell me to.
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6. Choose flooring. Too many choices to go it alone.
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5. Choose fabrics. Too many choices.
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4. Choose colors. Too many choices.
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3. Increase intended function of each room/space.
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2. Save money.
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1. AMPLIFY WHO I AM
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Yes, I'm hiring an interior decorator, Susanne Hudson. Counterintuitively I know Susanne will save money and make me, more me. My house, 22 years old, with original everything, has reached a crisis. Oh, the clawfoot tub in my garden? Dahlings, it's coming inside.
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It's time my house catch up to the FABULOSITY of my garden, VANISHING THRESHOLD.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics, saved privately to show Susanne what I adore. I didn't keep their provenance, ugh. If you know the source, & let me know, I'll update this post. Thanks!

Friday, July 17, 2009

LAVENDER HILL

AUNT is finally ensconced upon her 100+ acres. I helped design her previous landscape.
This landscape: sunny, dry, windy, large. AUNT, a busy woman, has a great eye & depth of feeling. Understanding the constraints? Design a landscape to inspire & feed the soul.

Low maintenance.


UNCLE is on the tractor, a crew weed-eats the edges. At lunch, below, mixed greens+roasted walnuts+goat cheese+strawberries+blueberries, and artisanal bread, I asked AUNT, What do you miss about your other garden?


It was on acreage too and included a small walled garden, vegetable garden and fruit orchard. She missed, Having a little place to take care of without help.

Reclaimed timbers in the living room, above. Seeing her furniture in a new home. Some of the pieces inherited from her mother, MISS LOUISE, and, aunt, AUNT TILLIE. Mentors to her, and me.

My own home & garden with things inherited from MISS LOUISE & AUNT TILLIE. Their gardens within us both. Their love too.


A guest bath, above. I recognized the mirror from AUNT's previous home.

A bedroom, above. With AUNT TILLIEs vanity & MISS LOUISE's mirror. Great light and views 180 degrees while laying in bed. Garden views. Wanting so much to get this landscape right.
Portions of the home are 1-room deep. Views of acreage spanning north-south.

A bank of 5 pair French doors, above. (My little camera couldn't shoot them all.)

AUNT's previous home had a stunning dining room window too.

Dining room, above, is not finished.


Clothes line, above, will be stained the trim color of the home. And French lavender planted. Screened porch, above, off the main rooms + kitchen. AUNT, a wonderful cook, wanting a tiny spot to charcoal grill & herb garden. AUNT wanting herbs in large pots. Of course, they'll go here nearest the kitchen.

On the way to AUNT's property, herd of decorator cows.

Trees + evergreen shrubs, the bones, are already placed. My job? Flowering, and fragrant, shrubs + trees sequenced to have something different coming into bloom every 2 weeks.
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Magic? All landscapes NEED magic. Don't you want your soul stirred? It's the shaking of our soul, at least mine, taking me into the garden.
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This site perfect, front to back, for lavender. Sunny & dry. Low maintenance. Fragrant. And those winds? They will scent the air with lavender even when not in bloom. The winds are strong enough to rub lavender leaves against each other.
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FRENCH LAVENDER. Will use a few Spanish lavender too. Spanish lavender blooms before the French, are darker purple, less fragrant, & look like butterfly wings.
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French Lavender is the magic of AUNT's garden.
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AUNT is already living at Lavender Hill. Thoughts of a garden are that strong.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Thursday, July 16, 2009

MISSIONS & PAINTS & OBITS

Faded green, color-matched from a House & Garden magazine picture circa 1990's. The home was in England, owned by a couturier to the Queen. My trim had been white. (Blinds, above, are always open but lowered to prevent birds smashing.)
Antique iron gates, Egyptian, late-Victorian, arrived rusted with hints of Robin's egg blue. It became the color for all the iron in my garden, above.

This chair, above, arrived, from Wal-Mart circa 1990's, already stained. Ick.

Original stain finally wore away and I stained, above, the chair Saturday. You knew, of course, I do these chores myself? Then, as it dried on the patio the rains came.
Choices had to be made, above, painting this iron gate with wood post. Stain the wood, as all the wood is stained, faded green, or go with Robin's egg blue? After that, choosing the bird's color was easy.
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Robin's Egg Blue: from Lowe's color matched, Olympic exterior oil gloss, base 4-73704, B57-3, Kingston Aqua exterior gloss oil, 101-24 102-28 103-3 Flat egg Sat s/g gloss. Note, they don't sell oil anymore.
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Faded Green: from Lowe's color matched, Olympic maximum, Deck Fence & Siding Stain. 100% acrylic Latex Formula, clear base, custom color, manual dispense 113-5Y40.5 115-2Y1.5 114-2Y47 102-1Y8.5
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Staining teak or an arbor aren't easy choices. My regret was waiting to make choices. The colors never bore. They are different in shade, sun, morning, evening, rain & etc.
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Painting & staining in the garden completed the interiors of my home.
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I live from the center of my home to the property line. Before, I only lived from the center of my home to its walls.
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A delightful obituary in the NYTimes Tuesday for Edward Durell Stone, Jr., landscape architect included, ...Most recent honor , the ASLA Landmark Award co-sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Presevation for PepsiCo's world headquarters in Purchase, NY was particularly gratifying. Designed over thirty years ago, PepsiCo's corporate campus was recognized for its excellence and inspiration to its people and their purpose.
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Why do anything less for yourself?
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A home & garden to inspire your daily life & your purpose in this world.
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Reminds me of something from Oprah magazine, What is your life the answer to?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Friday, July 10, 2009

TRIP TO DOUGLASVILLE

Wed. & Thurs. were spent with Susanne Hudson, Le Jardin Blanc, Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival , & more, in Douglasville, GA. Her business & private garden have graced international TV & magazines.
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Her home was begun in 1875 with an addition in 1915. She began the garden when she moved in less than a decade ago. The woman moves fast. And wisely.
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I lived a happy month in those 2 days and will share with you sporadically thru the next many weeks.
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Before bed, late, we talked books-gardeners-gardens-interiors-ideas in her library, below. She pruned the climbing rose, below, in my room. It had grown inside the room to the canopy bed. Why? I would have loved the rose as bunting.
Sunlight on the original plaster ceiling yesterday morning, thru my iron canopy & chandelier.

How did she have time to put roses by my bed? Again the original plaster walls. Delight.

Susanne's chandelier, below, was a bit larger than mine. Hmm.

A girl has to bathe during a work trip doesn't she?


Wish you could smell the soap, and feel the towels.


Oops, I slept late, 8am. Coffee was wafting up the stairs as I was turning the landing, below.


Can you believe the garden view from her landing?
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More of these 2 days will be sprinkled in the weeks ahead.
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Susanne's garden, ideas, and even pics of one of her client's house/garden. And, if I'm devious enough, some of the nitty gritty conversation.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Monday, June 29, 2009

SPO: HOME, GARDEN, TEA

SPO's home was under construction when I drew her landscape design several months ago. I knew from descriptions it was going to be scrumptious. A small house is what she, & her husband CAPE COD, wanted with great details, antiques, art, books and a garden. Look at the tea she served. Cava, ha, isn't she wonderful? County restrictions & certificate of occupancy played a role in the initial landscape. A dastardly lawn HAD to go in. Soon much of the lawn will be flowering shrubs, groundcovers, understory blooming trees, paths, rosemary, lavender & more wildflowers.
SPO's first wildflower meadow, above.

Lawn now but just you wait, hydrangeas, azaleas, viburnum, mondo, jasmine, tea olive, cryptomeria, gardenia, camellia, forsythia, & etc......


SPO sourced most of the materials for the house. The working shutters are on all sides of the house. The living room, above, with 2 pair French doors leading to the back porch and, below, a door from the master bedroom to the back porch.

Well chosen downspout, below, it's round. The stones are faux. On site, from 3', you can't tell they are faux.

The kitchen, family room, master bedroom, upstairs office, & porch, below, overlook an amphitheater with a mature woodland backdrop. You would not believe the birdsong.


Natural terracing, below, forms the amphitheatre. Faux stone tops the retaining walls.

Textured blocks, below, even cheaper than the faux stone, comprise the retaining walls. Not seen, why spend more?

A delight in the carriage house, the Cadillac. SPO & CAPE COD drive for pancakes each Saturday in the Caddy. Yes, I've asked them to stop by & pick me up some Saturday.

SPO adores cooking and found her kitchen online at Yestertec Kitchen Works. Simple, compact, functional and charming.

The oven, below, is in the cabinet under the stove.

And the armoir, below, is not a pantry.
It's a cooking center, below. Delightful, just close the doors and it's a clean look.

In the library, below. Moving into this house they decided to forgo cable. And are loving the change in their lives.

Between kitchen and living room, below, the desk. The house is one room deep in these rooms and full of natural light. And views, views, views.
Keeping it small, below, SPO knew to go high with the living room ceiling.

SPO & I dreamed, before she moved in, about having a tea party on the back porch, below. Alas, dear ones, we were weak. Do you know how forsakenly hot/humid it was?


SPO & CAPE COD have successfully down-sized from their large home yet already feel the difference in living larger, richer, simpler, lives.
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Enjoying the cava, conversation, house, garden and scones with fresh fruit/jam it was difficult to comprehend they have only been in their home for 3 months. It felt like E. M. Forster. The solidness of Howard's End. A place to fill the spirit.
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You'll be getting more of SPO & CAPE COD because I didn't get any pics of their corgi, who really owns the place. And of course, as the garden goes in.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T