So far...

the weekend has had...

a little of this

a limited amount of that

one of these...

and a lot of...

Craftsman Modern

If I had the need for a bar stool, which I do not, if I even liked bar stools, which, unless they are in a bar, I really don't and if I had $1,400 in the budget, which is never going to happen, this warm, handcrafted, uniquely modern Tractor Bar Stool is the one I would buy.

Designed by BassamFellows as part of their Craftsman Modern collection I love everything about it: the ergonomic solid walnut seat, inspired by a Swiss tractor seat; the leather wrapped footrest; the mid-century feel of the tapered legs. I want to look at every day; to touch it; to sit it on it, elbow resting on the counter, one foot resting gently on that leather bar.

Despite the seductiveness of the image I just painted, practically I have no use for a bar stool but fortunately The Tractor Stool also comes in a regular height model ($1350). That would be better suited to our needs; it's just the thing to add to the table when extra guests turn up unexpectedly and would look gorgeous in The Cool House, or any modern, or Craftsman, interior.

The Craftsman Modern Collection, which includes tables, credenzas and a deceptively simple daybed, is available from The Conran Shop. You can see more of BassamFellows' furniture in a New York Times slideshow of their Philip Johnson designed house.

Trending Pink

OK I'll be honest, I have a sort of pink obsession going on. Maybe I'm influenced by all the azaleas and rhododendrons flowering in the yard right now... but they've bloomed every Spring since we've lived here so there must be more to it than that.

For instance, I've never been tempted to put five shades of shocking pink in one planter before. I'm a minimalist and that would normally drive me crazy.

Maybe it's the really vibrant shades of pink Geberas and Impatiens that the local nursery had on display

Or maybe it was From the Right Bank to the Left Coast who blogged this Radiant Pink sink. A pop of fun pink in an otherwise white space that I'm seriously considering for our kitchen renovation. It would bring a rosy glow into my kitchen every time the sun shone and would do wonders for my skin tone. But I'm a fickle sort... What if I tired of the pink in a year or two?

Luckily there is be a way to get a fuchsia fix without permanent commitment. Danish design group Bodum are bringing colour to their kitchenware this summer - cafetieres and toasters in green, purple, red and pink! They're also introducing this ergonomic Gravity Spice Grinder $29.95. You can enter to win one from PointclickHome here.

Deep, Hot, Hollywood Pink - it's coming close to replacing Chartreuse as my current color of choice. But no matter how enthralled by pink I may become there's still one place I won't go.

There must be something in the air because Fifi Flowers is drinking Pink, while Hooked on houses is swinging on the porch.

Babu the Boar Bookend

Love Babu the cute limited edition leather boar bookend by Zuny. Also available: adorable Lion, woolly Sheep and black and white Dinosaur, at Generate $49 each

The weekend: Highs and Lows

A quick round-up of the weekend:

Highlights: Dinner with Mme Faboolosity and Hubby in the old 'hood, followed by Jill Sobule concert at The Landmark on Main Street. Spent evening coveting Jill's red velvet wedges.

Sunset on the deck in Huntington Bay, appetizers for dinner. (Cell service at the beach!)

Taking photos of the yard followed by best BBQ spare ribs and black beans ever.

Lows: First ever failed fairy cakes. I took this as a personal insult! (N.B. Failure does not mean inedible. There are only four left and I don't eat cake...)
Not fun yard work: weeding, removing thorny suckers and sucky vines; pruning the dead twigs from azalea bushes
Thousands of tiny caterpillars discovered the day after weeding - all over clothes, bedroom floor, bathroom. (The Guy had said the previous evening he thought ants were crawling over him and the zyrtec he took hadn't helped...)

Hitting head on outside lamp while taking close ups of planter... two of the three bulbs are no longer working but I have lump the size of lightbulb where I smacked it...

Variations of Pink

Today's post is brought to you by the colour PINK.

Who knew (apart from artists, graphic designers and webmasters) that there were so many shades of pink? More hues or tones than I can name, each pinker than the last...

After a couple of days shooting the azaleas I was seeing pink.

Salmon pink?

 Ballerina slipper pink?

Cerise?  

Hollywood Rose?

Then the rhododendrons began to open. Pale pink...

Lavender pink. Lavender rose?

 

And deep pink... Fuchsia, Magenta?

Or a combination of pinks - hot and cool

The flowering azalea hedge, a riotous display of... Tea Rose? Persian Rose? Maybe just Rose?

I love this time of year when the yard blooms with a hundred or more variations on the colour pink.

Red and Gold*

Gorgeous red peony in my neighbor's yard (mine are smaller, later, pink and white). Ruby coloured crimped petals with a garland of gold - perfectly understated elegance.
Speaking of which this is most definitely not!

*OR: The Peony and the PCV

Chartreuse

It's still officially Spring so I'm going to forgo Nature's burst into bloom* and let myself be seduced again by green, or more precisely, chartreuse. A mix of yellow and green, chartreuse is bright and peppy almost like the new growth on the weeping juniper tree.

 

The difficulty is finding a shot that will truly reflect the color on the screen. In the yard these hostas are edged with a perfect chartreuse. On the mac? Not so much.

Chartreuse is elusive -  at first glance it's everywhere but through the camera lens the lime-tinged conifers outside the kitchen window are just pale green.

This shrub held promise but the yellow turns out to be insipid not inspirational; wishy-washy, or simply washed-out.

 

It's a colour that's hard to define exactly; the paint chips lean to more muddy yellow hues while the hex designation on the web is an equal mix of yellow and green that results in an acid tone. I was so obsessed with Chartreuse that when we painted the kitchen I tried many variations on the kitchen walls from Anjou Pear to Sweet Pear and every chartreuse inspired pea shade in between. Sadly none of them replicated the color that I find in my yard... or the one in my imagination.

 

Perhaps the problem is that chartreuse is such a saturated hue it needs a contrasting colour to set it off- a smoky blue or a stone grey,

a soft silver green or a bluey-purple?

Why the fascination with chartreuse, apart from the mellifluous sound of the word itself? Because, every so often I'm reminded that once in my sophisticated youth there was a fondness for liqueurs. I was a Benedictine girl but my drinking companion loved Chartreuse and asked for one in a country pub atop a lonely hillock in the wilds of Cumbria. She got what she deserved. The bartender laconically replied: We ain't got no green but we got som o' that yella. Our faux urbanity dissolved in a fit of giggles and henceforth "som o' that yella" was used to describe any delightful but possibly pretentious and overpriced item.

Not at all like the gorgeous chartreuse green of the new leaves on this azalea or the flecks of colour inside the white blossoms.

*(I fibbed because I couldn't leave you without one shot of the yard in bloom).

Green Beach House

The first full day of summer 2009 is the date homeowner Jill Kornman has set to be lounging on the porch of her newly-built green beach house. The determination she shows to finish construction in the next six weeks is a tribute to her vision, the design plan of architects Bouler Design Group and the skill and dedication of her team of builders.

Situated on a strip of land where the Atlantic Ocean meets Long Island's Great South Bay, the house with its geo-thermal heat pump, solar panels, extra insulation, and use of green building materials, is a premier example of sustainable architecture. I've been following its progress since I first heard that BDG was building a modern house with a zero carbon footprint in Oak Beach, NY. I was lucky enough to be invited by Creative Advisor Nadine Bouler (seen here on the right with Jill on the left) to see the house at 90% complete.

BDG worked with the owner to create an energy-efficient beach house that fits the scale of the surrounding properties on this barrier beach. Although the house has a unique design, traces of the original cottage can still be seen in the north side of the building - in the remains of the screened-in porch, the arches and of course the ubiquitous shingles.

 

Superimposed upon the original footprint are two soaring towers. One of these, with its tapered walls and clerestory windows, gives the playroom/library/zen retreat (the purpose hasn't yet been finalised) the feel of a monastery within and a lighthouse outside - and superb views of the bay to the south, east and west.

Facing south the angled roofs are covered in EPDM, a non-polluting synthetic rubber roof that will support enough solar panels to provide for all the electrical needs of the 2000 sq ft house. Naturally the design of the house takes full advantage of the beautiful site. Huge sliding glass doors with transoms above allow 180 degree views of the ocean to the south, while to the east a wall of windows will flood the house with light at sunrise. But Jill goes that extra mile: mindful of the aesthetics of the building and the surrounding shore, she is having the power lines seen in this photo re-routed underground.

Although most of the finishes are chosen: polished concrete floors with inset stone though out the house; reclaimed white oak treads on the staircase and bamboo on the barrel ceiling in the living room, some have yet to be finalized, including the kitchen cabinets and guest bath. All are sustainable, but perhaps the best examples of environmentally-friendly fixtures are the banister posts made from reclaimed pilings.

Jill has been hands-on throughout the process. She interviewed several architects before finding one she believed truly shared her dream of building green and she's been able to keep a close watch on the construction, renting the house next door while her dream house is built. She chose BDG because they believe in efficient design; building smarter, not necessarily bigger, houses. For more information on the Oak Beach house and other sustainable designs visit the Bouler Design Group website.

Polish and dust (then polish some more)

The day started and ended with shoe polishing. There are no pictures of this because, frankly, photos of shoe cleaning are worse than photos of paint drying. But I will say that it's The Guy who undertakes this chore and there's a whole process involved: several rags, "real polish", brushes. perhaps a little spit to help things along and always, always, complaints about the choice of colour to match the shoes. I'm much more a buff it up sort of girl so I walk away as soon as he gets the polish out. But if you feel you need know more about the polishing process here's a condensed version.

An hour or so later the shoes shone and we could move on to the next chore: Masonry Part Deux.

One of the stones The Guy carefully re-set a few weekends ago popped again. When we lifted it this time it separated cleanly along a natural fault, leaving a thicker piece that we were able to reset and a thinner piece we'll keep and use to replace cracked stones on other projects.

We used a different grade of stone dust for the mortar that should be more resistant to cracking. It looks much more natural than last time so we're hopeful. (The reddish coloured line in the photo above isn't a crack but hæmatite within the stone).

But why were there two shoe cleaning episodes? Hmm. Someone undertook the messy, dusty work in his Cole Haan sandals....

 

.... and had to clean them quickly before another pair became "yard shoes". 

(Yes, I fibbed about the no shoe-polishing photo).

House Voyeur

Yesterday's voyeur tour was so popular I'm feeding your habit again. More Incorporated Village Housevoyeurism here: