Extres – Page 18 – p h i l l y g o e s s o l a r

City View: Denver Design Soars

By Extres
on Jul 04, 2019
in Fireplaces

I Had Been born in the 1970s, so when I think of Denver, I Believe of Alexis Morrell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan and the rest of the clan over at Dynasty. I also think about the other end of the spectrum, Outward Bound programs. Like a lot of the remainder of the country, I have a view of Denver that’s all kinds of wrong.While the city and its surrounding areas are full of people who love an outdoor experience, this does not mean they do not have style. These adventuresome Coloradans draw inspiration from viewing and exploring the magnificent landscape about them, in addition to from maintaining it.

Denver denizens also draw inspiration from the past and present, using reclaimed materials and sourcing materials and craftspeople locally. “The biggest problem about Denver is that it is a western cow town lacking any type of sophisticated design scene,” says Jonas DiCaprio of Design Platform. “The design scene here is lively; there are so many talented regional designers and designers here who are producing just amazing work.”

Let me present a Denver which has nothing to do with sporting dresses with shoulder pads into formal family dinners or cooking a can of beans over a flame.

Design Platform

Across the board, designers note a big craze in Denver is integrating industrial and recovered materials into interiors. This includes used heavy machinery parts for dining table foundations and lamps, and reclaimed wood floors, dividers and wall panels. “Using barn wood, barn doors as well as other agricultural components and pieces gives a great contrast to a clean, contemporary aesthetic,” DiCaprio says. “We are also seeing a lot of natural materials that bring about a lot of warmth and texture.”

Design Platform

DiCaprio participate in the favorite Denver tendency of keeping things local. “One local cabinet and furniture builder I work with in Denver, Jeff Faine of AvenueTwo:Design, is just 25, and he is producing cabinets in the level of a Berloni or Pedini,” he gushes. “The cabinets are all custom made, with incredible details and quality. Best of all, the materials, design and construction all occur here in Colorado.”

Design Platform

“Wall coverings and wallpapers are back in a big way,” says DiCaprio. “The painted accent wall has been replaced with a wallpapered, tiled or wood-wrapped accent wall.

Design Platform

“We truly reside in a climate where you could have an indoor-outdoor connection yearlong,” says DiCaprio. “Most men and women think Denver is cold and snowy all winter, but there have been Christmases here which were 60 degrees. Many customers are searching for outdoor kitchens and living rooms which add on to the square footage of their living area.” DiCaprio notes that homes can be left wide open much of the summer thanks to the temperatures and absence of bugs.

Chalet

“Many neighborhoods have a rich background, however the nature of a locality can vary block by block,” says Beth Mikon of Chalet. “Contextual design is not only possible but highly desirable. But this does not signify that individuality has to be dropped on the outside or inside of a house.”

Chalet

One way to keep a unique style in the area is to adopt western themes in fresh ways, Here a western-theme space gets a contemporary upgrade, resulting in a more Rocky Mountain transitional style.

ROWLAND BROUGHTON ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN

“One of the biggest misconceptions about Denver is that it is just an outdoor town, therefore we do not have actual design,” says Craig Lawrence of Rowland Broughton Architecture and Urban Design. “But the truth is, Denver residents and businesses have nurtured a powerful art and design culture without sacrificing a sense of the power of the landscape where they reside.”

ROWLAND BROUGHTON ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN

Lawrence notes that uniquely Denver style nods into the grand sweep of the plains along with the towering height of the Rocky Mountains. “This can take several forms, like the peaked tents of the Denver International A Concourse or as subtle an approach since the orientation of a house in the foothills toward the plains,” he says.

Residents also enjoy their striking surroundings by producing indoor-outdoor living spaces with large entry doors and contemporary outdoor furniture.

ROWLAND BROUGHTON ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN

“Communities all across the Denver area are actually developing an appreciation for the present urban fabric,” says Lawrence. “Both residential and industrial customers are searching for ways to conserve and enhance upon the value of existing buildings, so some of the best interior design occurring right now is occurring in remodels and renovations.”

A lot of these renovations create multifunctional open floor plans which incorporate living, kitchen and dining spaces.

Kenny Craft, CNU LEED AP

Architect Kenny Craft practices mostly southwest of Denver in Buena Vista, Colorado, but the city’s influence is felt there, too.

“In this new economy, square footage is much more conservative and the overall architecture more austere, but those restraints often allow for some extra spending on additional, unique features that ultimately give the home its distinctive character,” he says.

Kenny Craft, CNU LEED AP

“For instance, on this house’s exterior, the general architecture is restrained, but additional attention was given toward a personalized steel porch along with the 9-foot-tall customized front door made from reclaimed barn wood,” Craft says. “The steel porch details, customized front entrance, Bevolo gas lamp and complex rafter tails provide a richness that ultimately balances the otherwise simple architectural character.”

Kenny Craft, CNU LEED AP

This corner chimney was created from local river rock by Denver mason Brad Pranger of BK Pranger Masonry. “We consider Brad Pranger to be an artist in his own right,” says Craft.

Lynne Barton Bier – Home on the Range Interiors

“I believe the biggest misconception about Denver style and the style for the surrounding mountain area is it is very traditional and western. On the contrary, Denver has become well known for its cutting-edge contemporary design style, where rustic components tend to be intermingled with contemporary lines and furnishings,” says Lynne Bier of Home on the Range Interiors.

Lynne Barton Bier – Home on the Range Interiors

“The rustic contemporary look, which started quite a few decades back in the Denver area, has spread into metropolitan areas across the world,” says Bier. “This style is characterized by a blend of reclaimed materials, such as antique timbers or barn board , and industrial components, such as steel I-beams or metal parts on furniture.”

A want to work with renewable materials also fuels this tendency. Within this area, rough-hewn reclaimed beams mingle with antiques and contemporary art.

Lynne Barton Bier – Home on the Range Interiors

Antique shutters take on a new life in this hall.

Perhaps you have changed your understanding of Denver and Rocky Mountain style? I would really like to hear out of Coloradans about what makes your part of the country unique. Tell us below!

See related

Modernist Icons Take the Floor at Brooklyn

By Extres
on Jul 01, 2019
in Coastal Style

Brazil native Daniel Vianna has attracted his fresh and contemporary style from Rio de Janeiro into his new Brooklyn, New York, apartment. After settling into his rented space only a couple of blocks from The Pratt Institute, he wasted no time putting together an eclectic collection of seminal modernist furnishings. An industrial design student, Vianna wanted to go for something different than the conventional fitting furniture collections. “When it’s done it’ll be like a shop,” he states. “A showroom for contemporary industrial design.”

in a Glance
Who resides: Daniel Vianna
Location: Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York
Size: Approximately 1,000 square feet; 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Hardwood floors run throughout the open-concept apartment. Storage cabinets sit into the far right, and doors in the end of the distance lead to a mini balcony.

Chris Dorsey: How is an architect and an industrial design student influenced how you designed your home?

Daniel Vianna: In a young age, younger than many, I have been interested in everything from furniture to building. I am 30 years old today, so I believe that it is not so much of being an architecture student who has impacted my personal design, but my design has compelled me for a student — to constantly find out more.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

CD: Why did you opt to combine the dining room chair styles?

DV: It’s wonderful to have a little comparison, as there are so many distinct pieces out there. While I have friends over, they have the chance to determine which chair to sit down in. The Victoria Ghost Chairfrom Philippe Starck took a very long time to buy because I wasn’t certain how it’d match or if I’d enjoy it here. But now, when my friends come over, I enjoy choosing that seat because it’s pretty straightforward.

Pendant lighting: Piper Grande, YLighting

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Glossy white cabinetry with doorways and hinges provides just the correct amount of storage. The countertop is Caesarstone Blizzard, as a fruit bowl, and Design serves.

Scrabble piece magnets decorate Vianna’s stainless steel fridge.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

DV: I enjoy this Experts Chair by Philippe Starck since it encompasses the shapes of the 3 classic chair forms in one piece, so it’s kind of historically referential. It reinterprets the 7 Series by Arne Jacobsen, the Tulip Armchair by Eero Saarinen and the Eiffel Chair by Charles Eames all in one.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

CD: What’s your favorite collected piece?

DV: I really don’t know whether I could pick a favorite. Though maybe this Moooi bunny lamp. I enjoy it because it’s sort of a joke. As one of a three-piece set, they also designed one as a horse — as in, a life-sized horse with a lampshade above its mind and a pig table. The bunny is more subtle. Additionally, my 2-year-old niece is mad for this. I lifted the colour and she kept pointing to where it attaches to the mind of this bunny and saying, “Take it off! Take it off!”

Chris A Dorsey Photography

The May Day table lamp by Konstantin Grcic, a lively lamp out of FlosUSA, sits atop a Cappellini New Antique side table. A colorful Eames Hang-It-All provides Vianna a place to hang outerwear.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

On the other side of couch, a Bourgie Table Lamp, designed by Ferruccio Laviani, sits on a Cappellini side table.

What’s another addition to his group? “There are so many bits I would like to have at the end, it’s difficult to choose what’s next,” states Vianna.

CD: Where did you supply all those bits?

DV: Once I moved to New York from Brazil, everything in here was out of Ikea. Piece by piece, except for the couch, I have been in a position to substitute the Ikea bits together with the actual thing. I’ve bits by Philippe Starck, Eero Saarinen and Vitra. They’re mostly from style stores, though some are out of antique stores around New York.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

CD: Would you have a favorite designer?

DV: I’d say Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha. He has this style — industrial with colorful, contemporary textures. He creates these chilly, concrete walls with every thing in grayscale. That’s what I want to do if I return to Brazil. It’s really great for me when you’re able to view something and then create it. I am hoping I will design something like that in Brazil, a mixture of modernism with unique textures.

Storage unit: Cloud by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Cappellini

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Southwest-facing glass doors allow natural light to completely flooding the space.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Framed Andy Warhol soup-can prints line the hallway leading to the bedrooms and the bathroom.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

CD: What design projects are you working on?

DV: I made a soap dish as my first industrial design project for college. I designed it with a parametric layout and fabricated it onto a 3-D printer. The dish is small, but I actually use it. I have also tested the MakerBot, which I simply got not too long ago. I haven’t been able to utilize it as much as I enjoy since there was a two-month wait list.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

The mark of any fantastic designer is a worn out workspace with some character. This second bedroom is Vianna’s office.

Vianna says his set of contemporary design icons is far from complete, but it adds a lively and lively design twist into his temporary space in the meantime. He intends to select the collection together with him back to Brazil following graduation.

Chris A Dorsey Photography

Vianna’s apartment building is situated at Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood. Host to many pubs, restaurants and markets, it’s a wonderful spot to be a young professional.

c: Are you currently a student with a creative, contemporary area? Discuss it with us!

See related

How To Size Interior Trim to Get a Finished Look

By Extres
on Jun 27, 2019
in Eclectic Homes

One of the most essential questions which we all have about trim is, What size should it be? Acquiring the proportions and size of trim correct can make a big difference in the way the room is used and enjoyed. If the trim is too small or too large, it can be just like a clown wearing a minuscule hat or supersize set of shoes.

While there are a few guidelines, they’re, in actuality, just guidelines. No rule should replace what you enjoy and what you believe is perfect. Start out choosing your trim by defining the narrative you and the room want to tell. From there, purchase some samples and have mock-ups built. This is all a small price to pay for receiving your trim right.

Here are the rules — I mean, guidelines — for sizing the trim in a room.

The 7 percent solution. When sizing a baseboard at a traditional-style home, a good starting point would be to use a ratio of 7 percent. If your ceiling height is 8 feet high, try a baseboard that’s about 7 inches tall.

BAAN layout

Obviously, this is more of a suggestion than a rule. For example, if you’re seeking to produce a more contemporary inside, consider using a shorter baseboard or, even if you’re brave enough, no baseboard in any way.

Redbud Custom Homes

For casings, 50 percent is good. Generally, vertical trim elements such as door and window casings should be smaller and have less heft than baseboards. So I’ve found a good guideline for sizing window and door casings would be to maintain them at about 50% of the height of the baseboard.

Winder Gibson Architects

As always, this is not a hard and fast rule. Casings that equal the measurements of the baseboards can work quite well.

Crowning achievements. Even though there are a few guidelines which could be used to size a crown (for example, make it about half of the size of the foundation), there are many questions that come into play, such as:

• How tall is the ceiling?
• Will the crown be convex or concave?
• Will the crown measure out and up of, say, a picture rail?

Given these variables, sizing a crown is not as easy as you might think. I love to purchase foot-long parts of different sizes and profiles and construct mock-ups of the crown within the room. In reality, because most trim is easily available and affordable, this is a excellent process to use for selecting all of your trim elements.

Siemasko + Verbridge

Another principle for crown selection is to use the same crown across the kitchen if your design involves using a crown at the top of your cabinets. Actually, you’re probably going to want the crown to be finished and supplied by the cabinetmaker. Otherwise, the crown will not match, making transitions from one to another problematic.

Alix Bragg Interior Design

All together now. A well-trimmed room is something special. Its baseboard, casings and crown all relate to one another in their style, proportions, sizing and complete. In this example, the baseboard appears to adhere to the 7 percent ruler: The casings are about half of the size of the baseboard, and also the crown seems to be just slightly smaller than the baseboard. There is no doubt that the trim for this particular room was conceived as part of the overall layout.

Shirley Meisels

The rule of thirds. Installing a seat rail, without wainscoting, will split the perpendicular plane — the walls to multiple places. If you want to make the room feel taller, then place the seat rail one third of the way up from the ground.

Mark Brand Architecture

If, on the other hand, you want the room to be more romantic, consider placing the seat rail two thirds of the way up from the ground.

More:
Tell a Home’s Story With Trim
Design Details: Moldings — Or Not?
Frame Your Views With Great Moldings and Casings

See related

Color Guide: How to Work With Bright White

By Extres
on Jun 23, 2019
in Color

We are not speaking here about antique black or black white or a nice Bavarian cream white. They are all lovely colours and they have their own place. But we’re referring to white-white, the type of white which architects love. The type of white that is as crisp and fresh as a snowflake.

Everyone makes it. Behr has Polar White. Sherwin-Williams has Super White. Benjamin Moore has the White of Decorator. The list goes on, and to be sure, there are subtle differences — some are bluer or grayer or yellower. A positively true bright white is an issue of your eye and the light, and what direction your windows face. (Bright white looks better on south-facing walls than northern facing ones, by the way.)

But regardless of minor gradations, we could all agree — even those people who adore color — that nothing appears quite so clean and confident because a superwhite white.

So put it everywhere. Or everywhere. As San Francisco designer Chloe Warner says, “The only place I would never do bright white is on a ceiling. It just looks like someone forgot to paint”

Rethink Design Studio

Go Big or Go Home: The All-White Room

Ceiling, flooring, walls, trim. An all-white room is a blank canvas just waiting for one to make it your own. It may go old or new, modern or cabin, but it typically goes spare. Bright white is simplicity and minimalism, maybe not opulence.

Jeanette Lunde

Bright goes with sunlight. This dining area has “spare Scandinavian” written around it.

Neslihan Pekcan/Pebbledesign

A crisp, all-white room isn’t just cozy, but it is calming. There’s no distracting clutter allowed in a room such as this, because everything which isn’t white pops into attention. I love the comparison of this conventional painting with all the modern white walls.

Jeanette Lunde

Another spare living area. A botanical theme (reflected from the prints and the leaves from the vase) adds a few earthy organic-ness to the entire thing.

California Home + Design

Pop Up: Bright White With Hits of Color

White is a fantastic alternative if you are a collector of items or artwork. Nothing makes color and pattern soda just like bright white. And it provides even kids’ scribbles a gallery-style background.

Chronicle Books

Bright white is the color of choice for an eclectic area where one color is not dominant and the eye is split among lots of vibrant shots of color. Anything else on these walls will muddy the result.

Dans le Townhouse

Vivid color, meet white. Both will get along swimmingly, what with your contrasting but complementary personalities and all.

Jill Sorensen

Blue turns bright white beachy, particularly navy blue. But turquoise does it also.

Feldman Architecture, Inc..

Vegetable and Mineral: Bright White and Wood

If you want to bring out a gorgeous piece of wood, while it is a desk or any trim, go bright white. Every line of grain appears to show up when wood is against white.

More wood with bright white. The wood warms the white up, and the white makes the wood look clear and modern.

RANERE DESIGN GROUP

The Impact Length: Bright White Trim

A bright white trim makes wall colours seem clean and crisp. It looks especially good with dark colours and helps keep a room with dark paint bright.

Chloe Warner

“I love Benjamin Moore Atrium White to get supercrisp trim, woodwork, and picture rails,” says Warner. “My favourite is when there is background below the picture rail and a small tint above — the white actually snaps into consideration”

Pottery Barn Kids

Benjamin Moore Natura Paint, Decorator’s White – $52.99

Decorator’s White is the classic bright white paint.

Benjamin Moore

Chantilly Lace Paint

Chantilly Lace is just the teeniest bit warm (yellow).

Pottery Barn

Benjamin Moore Aura Paint, Super White – $65.99

It should be known as super-de-dooper white.

More:
How to Obtain the Proper White

More Ways to Design With White

An Architect’s Guide to Color

See related

Tray Ceiling

By Extres
on Jun 20, 2019
in Eclectic Homes

A tray ceiling is a recessed or an inverted part of a ceiling that adds architectural interest and depth to the space. It may be left as is and completed to match the surrounding ceiling for a simple, clean look; for much more dramatic interest, contrasting paint colors, paneling, trim pieces, recessed and pendant lighting and other decorative touches may be integrated into the tray.

Natalie Fuglestveit Interior Design

A contrasting paint color highlights the tray ceiling in this modern bedroom.

AIA, Mark English Architects

An area rug offers one way to anchor a dining room in an open space, but a tray ceiling like this also defines the distance, leaving the floor plane clear.

Pepe Calderin Design- Modern Interior Design

An oval tray ceiling makes a dramatic statement when paired with an oval kitchen island.

John Termeer

Tray ceilings do not always need to be square, as may be seen in the elaborate tray layout in this bedroom. The tray ceiling provides space for both recessed lights and a chandelier.

Peter Rose Architecture + Interiors Inc..

Even a small tray ceiling can make a large difference when you include cove lighting, like this smart home office.

Hillside Sanctuary in Vermont

By Extres
on Jun 16, 2019
in Coastal Style

Homeowners David Hart and Demaris Wehr wanted to make a sanctuary overlooking scenic views of a valley and farm in Vermont. Getting that prized view meant working with a north-facing slope. They requested Milford Cushman of this Cushman Design Group to operate around the challenging landscape and make a small home incorporating the natural space around it.

“David, a psychologist, spent his life researching fairy tales, and that played a key role in the design of the house,” Cushman says. “It is a particular place, and even with the site’s challenges, it’s hard not to feel the spiritual and sociological aspects of the house. David and Demaris were quite thoughtful about all of the things they desired in their property.”

at a Glance
Who lives here: Demaris Wehr and David Hart
Location: Calais, Vermont
Size: 1,850 square feet; 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
That’s intriguing: all of the natural timber surfaces interior are custom constructed with locally harvested Eastern white pine.