staircase inspiration...

I really like looking at pictures of staircases, I think it's the architect in me, but I love that staircases can create interesting spaces in their voids, or the spaces within or on the staircase itself. I was looking through my "deco ideas/inspiration" folder on my computer and I found some nice staircases that create charming spaces around them them, enjoy!...

source: home sweet home

source: house to home

source: john bessler

fall love...

My favorite three months are coming up and October can't get here soon enough. Have I ever mentioned that I love fall? Well I LOVE fall! It makes me happy, not to mention my favorite holidays are in October, November and December...

Starting with Halloween. I love it. When I was little Halloween was my favorite holiday and I used to say "happy halloween" to everyone all year long. Seriously. I've watched home movies of myself when I'm like 3 and whenever my dad would tell me to say "bye bye" I would say "happy halloween" instead....didn't matter if it was the middle June.

My addiction to Halloween extended to naming stuffed animals too. When I was in pre-school I won a coloring contest at Long's Drugs (yes, I was an artsy child), my prize was a stuffed animal, it was a dog and I named him "Spooky" in honor of my favorite holiday.

Soon after Halloween is my birthday, November 17th, and I know this sounds really weird, but for some reason I love the way November 17th looks when it's written. I just think the month of November has the prettiest name....but I might be biased because it is my birthday month. I also share that birthday with Rachel McAdams who I think is absolutely adorable, so that's definitely a plus!

...and finally my last two favorite holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving for obvious reasons, including food and family, and Christmas because I love our special family traditions that we do on Christmas eve. I know a lot of people probably do this first tradition, but I'm going to tell you anyways....every year both of my sisters and I get a personalized ornament. We each have our own box of ornaments starting from the year we were born. I love opening the box every year and putting them up on the tree because certain ornaments bring back special memories of each Christmas. I also love the fact that our Christmas tree is a complete mish-mash of different ornaments, the only problem is that with every year we've had to get a bigger tree because of the increase in ornaments....I think we're going on 10'. The other special tradition that we do is have the elves come on Christmas eve. Yes, you read that right, elves come to our house every Christmas. My mom started this tradition when we were very little, what happens is on Christmas eve my parents would tell us that Santa's elves came and left gifts on our beds. All three of us would run upstairs to find 3 gifts that were wrapped exactly the same. Each gift had a personalized ornament attached to it for each of us, and each present had a new set a pajamas in it, usually all three of us would get matching matching pajamas. After we open the presents we always change into our new pajamas and put our new ornaments on the tree. The best part of this tradition is that we still do it!, and yes I am 22 years old. What can I say? I like to relive my childhood.

Can I also just say that every single year I like to start October off right by watching Hocus Pocus? Is that weird, because I don't think I will ever let this personal tradition stop...

Just because it's September 1st and October is only 30 days away, here are some pictures of Halloween decor in San Francisco...I believe my roommate took these for my project freshman year in college, yes my project.

my dining room and hallway...

I haven't posted any pictures of my dining room and hallway yet, so here it is...I found the table and chairs on craigslist. The chairs were originally stained a strange brown color that clashed with the table so I painted them a creamy off-white.

The chandelier is old and ugly, not to mention hung too high, but this is a rental and I didn't want to put too much time and money into changing it.

The buffet is a built-in and original to the 1922 house. It looks goo far away, but the buffet really needs to be sanded down and re-stained. It has been painted one too many times, the wood grain isn't even the real grain, it's faux wood grain....along with the rest of the "wood" molding, trim, and doors in the house.

I needed a place to drop my keys when I walk up the stairs into my apartment so I made this cute little vignette. The artwork is from my grandparents house, I love it. They're old framed prints for "Godey's Fashion"....old clothing is totally my thing by the way. I was the dress-up queen.

Another view of my "key drop-off area". I love my hardwood floors, so pretty. They just don't make hardwood floors like they used to.

and now for the boring corner. Behind that awkwardly short half wall is the entry staircase where I have yet to put any artwork on the walls. I did build this replica of a Rietveld chair though....a few years ago for an architecture project. Yes, I am quite crafty...

This is the view from the back of the house to the front living room in the hallway.

and here is the opposite view from the living room to the back of the house.

urban outfitters in stockholm

Last year I studied abroad in Budapest, Hungary and traveled all around central Europe (never actually got to France, Spain or England). If anyone has ever traveled through central Europe you will know that "inexpensive" shopping is rather limited to the same few stores, H&M, Mango, and Zara. By the end of my trip I was a little sick or recognizing every piece of clothing from H&M and accidentally matching half of the women in Budapest.

That is why we were so excited to see an Urban Outfitters when we went to Stockholm....among the 200 H&M's that were also in Stockholm---ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration....or is it?

If any of you ever go to Stockholm, Sweden I highly recommend that you go to this Urban Outfitters because it's awesome. Why? Because it was an old theater that they converted into the store, stage and everything.

This was the front of the store, I had no idea it was a theater until I went inside...

...which is why were were so shocked when we saw this inside.

I loved the huge chandeliers!

You could walk around to almost every part of the theater, even the stage, which was converted into dressing rooms.

Definitely the coolest Urban Outfitters I have ever seen! I want to go back!

images: flickr, not my own pictures

indoor/outdoor space...

A few days ago my boyfriend was explaining this great idea of what he would want in a house...

"I think it would be cool if the windows in the wall could open all the way and it would turn the room into a balcony"

--not a direct quote

After having him draw a picture of this idea, because I was confused about the whole "balcony" thing, I realized he was talking about indoor-outdoor spaces.

Anyways, I saw this picture the other day and I knew that my boyfriend would love this house...

image: home sweet home

just some things i like today...

...neutral and calm spaces

images: home sweet home, a life's design, belle maison

regarding old buildings...

Why don't we {architects} design like this anymore? By this, I am referring to awkward spaces and tiny, cubbyhole doors. I know it's not very practical, but I think there is just something really special about homes with weird plans and strange spaces. It makes a home feel more lived in, and shows how people made useful spaces out of awkward corners through the years, instead of having everything laid out in an organized way in plan before the house is even built. Spaces like this just remind me that people didn't used to automatically move when they wanted a bigger house, they would add spaces and rooms in attics or dormers, or add complete additions onto a house. People made their homes work for their specific needs and families often stayed in the home for generations. I love how these additions can tell a story about who lived there, how the family grew, and what was going on in history at that time.

source: home sweet home

I guess the point I'm getting at is that I think we need to take a better look at older buildings and realize that we don't always have to tear them down to build something that will be practical in the 21st century. I also think that when we do build new, we need to build better. We need to design flexible buildings, buildings that can be changed to better suit different needs over time. A house doesn't always have to be a house, and an industrial factory doesn't always have to be a factory.

I don't know what the best solution is, but I feel like a lot of architects only think about new construction and all of the crazy things we can do with technology and engineering. I also think that to become a more sustainable country we need to make better use of the existing buildings that we already have before we build brand new "green" buildings. Did I mention that I HATE the word "green". So annoying, it's become such a trend. Not that I don't follow any trends, because I definitely do {aka blogging, among other things} but the word green has become just another brand. I hate seeing ads or commercials when they basically say "buy this, it's green!" or "fill-in-the-blank has gone GREEN!". Sustainability is definitely important, in fact, I think it needs to be a top priority for everyone, but I don't think this "green" trend is really teaching anyone what it's really all about. Not to say that I am living the "green" life to its fullest (I think I just cringed as I wrote that using the word green), but hey, at least I don't drive a hybrid Escalade and I think I'm saving the world just for buying it....

I've been busy....

I'm graduating in less than 2 weeks! So, naturally, I've been in school only mode. Lots and lots of work to do before my presentation on Friday. Here's a little peek at what I've been doing for the past week (but really all semester, with other projects). This is a real project in St. Helena, California (by Napa). Long story short, there is a 1920s gas station on the site that they want to restore (picture above), but they also want to develop the rest of the site and turn the gas station (which is no longer in use) into a small flower shop or other retail space. Below is my design idea based off the plan which was drawn by other members in the group. There are several other designs, a more traditional building and a very contemporary one, mine is more of a Bauhaus/Streamline modern style. I modeled my building in 3D on Vectorworks2008 and edited them a little bit in Photoshop. Enjoy...

I love the 70s...

Below, in all of its glory, is the house that my boyfriends family rented at Bass Lake last summer...and no, they had no idea that the interior spaces would be so AWESOME! It was a complete time warp, and I loved every minute of it. From the larger than life lamps and sofas, to the fluorescent accent lights in the ceiling, and lets not forget the moose head mounted above the glorious stone fireplace. PURE BEAUTY!

Notice the lovely drapes that are on every wall...and the sofas that were 8 feet long and probably 1 foot high. Made me want to put on my favorite trapeze dress like one of these...

...and throw a fabulous cocktail party. Maybe my dress could even coordinate with the couch...too much? or not?

This is some intense wood paneling, and I think the owners had a weird thing for strange statues.

Best part of the house, besides the decor (of course), was that it was right on the lake and we had our own dock where we could park/crash in one case, the Sea-do's and boat...

...and here we are, next to a lovely statue of a knight in his shining armor.

...and this would be Ryan's younger brother who is the most entertaining person I know!

...and now for the pièce de résistance, my favorite piece of furniture in the entire house.

What kind of upholstery is on this lovely armchair you ask?

What are those buttons?

....well that would be some fabulous avocado colored vinyl, and those buttons would be the controls for this vibrating armchair. After a long day of Sea-doing and boating, this chair was such a fantastic place to sit and relax and have your muscles massaged, oh and don't worry if you haven't completely dried off from the lake, this chair is waterproof so just wipe off the water residue from your bathing suit when you are finished with your massage.

This chair, and house, make me kind of sad that I missed the 70s by 6 years....

Hotel in Sigtuna, Sweden & long tangent.

I found this Swedish hotel on Remodelista and I just love interiors! Great mix of traditional Swedish design and mid-century pieces...

Love this room! Simple, but cozy and relaxing, which is just what you want at a hotel!

I have a weird fascination with staircases....and I love this one. I like the simple curve and nice seating area that fits perfectly in the little nook.

Original molding=love...and how cute are those cubbies?

I always wanted a toilet like this when I was young. Is that weird? Strange necessity for an 8 year old. I think there was a toilet like this at The Kellogg House in Santa Ana, Ca. I LOVED going there....even had my 9th--I think-- birthday party there. They dressed us up in Victorian clothes (even though I had already dressed up in my own accurate Victorian outfit, down to the bloomers, prior the party, yes I was that kid who loved to play dress-up on a daily basis). After we dressed up we danced in the parlor while listening to music from an old phonograph. Afterwords, we had cake and tea under a pretty gazebo in the garden. I think this was one of my favorite themed birthday parties, hard to choose a favorite because they were all so great. I had everywhere from a "Free Willy" party to an "I Spy" party, where I sent the invitations as puzzle pieces in an envelope and you had to put the puzzle together to read the invite. I have to say, my mom was the greatest childhood party planner...

The Kellogg House

I can see that the toilet brought me on a very long tangent....strange what a toilet can make you think of.