Coastal Style

Brightness and Creativity in a Live-Work Townhouse

After living in her 1890s Toronto house for nearly 30 years, illustrator Jamie Bennett decided it was finally time to make her dream home. She and her husband, Alex Wittholz, creative director at Helios Design Labs, enlisted the assistance of Toronto interior designer Mazen El-Abdallah after gushing on the transformation that he did of Wittholz’s […]

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Coastal Style

A Paean to '60s and the 1950s in Pennsylvania

Call it kismet. Call it a pipe dream come true. Matthew and Bobbie Fisher fell in love with a renovated midcentury modern home designed by architect Irwin Stein. Nevertheless, it was so out of the price range they stayed put and kept home searching. A year after Craig Wakefield, the Realtor who had shown the […]

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Coastal Style

A Grand Overhaul for a Growing Family

Looking around at their modern townhome, Chris and Richard Cahill realized the harsh modern edges of rock, steel, glass and cable wouldn’t be ideal for a baby on the way. “It might have cost us $30,000 to baby-proof,” Chris says. Besides wanting something kid-friendly, the couple required to have the ability to match up to […]

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Coastal Style

Color Energizes Modern House Interiors

Recently I wrote about some contemporary homes that adopt color in their exteriors, but ironically, most of the homes featured are white on the inside. Even with drywall and other interior constructions that require painting, white is often preferred in modern homes. This minimalist and gallery-like aesthetic lets an operator’s possessions take centre stage, be […]

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Coastal Style

My Touches With Cottage Flair in Canada

Having house envy was a good thing for Jonathan Greenland, who moved to a former coworker’s house after long admiring its custom millwork. Jonathan and his wife, Tammy, infused the traditional-style house — put on a Newfoundland oceanside bluff — with their personal relaxed cottage style. An expansive family-friendly basement having a home theatre and […]

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Coastal Style

Single-Sloped Roofs Ramp Up Modern Homes

Formerly I’ve looked at how a variety of roof forms relate to convention (gable-style roofs), inside spaces (sawtooth roofs) and form (striking roofs). 1 relationship I’ve yet to cover is how roofs may relate to their own site, especially to landscapes with changes in topography. 1 common kind of roofing I’ve discovered with steep sites […]

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Coastal Style

A Seattle Home Reaches for High Sustainability

Intent on following their passions of both green and modern design, Five Dot Design Build chose to create a really sustainable home for a Seattle couple and their son. The city website featured a big lot with remnants of a centuries-old orchard. Project architects Stephanie Ingram and Geoff Piper started with center sustainability measures — […]

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Coastal Style

How to Really Score in the Flea Market

If you are not a seasoned shopper, flea markets may be difficult places to navigate. But there are a lot of approaches to guarantee you’re getting a good deal while having a fun, relaxing Saturday or Sunday from the procedure. Prepare yourself with these eight tips and you’ll be well on your way to trolling […]

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Coastal Style

Hip, Historic Victorian in Santa Cruz

Interior designer and boutique owner Suna Lock resides within her dream house: the 1870s Victorian Cope House in the heart of downtown Santa Cruz, California. It lies only blocks away from Lock’s diverse boutique and design organization, Stripe. “I felt at home the moment I walked into the door,” she states. “I knew that was […]

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Coastal Style

Refreshed Spanish Colonial at the Hollywood Hills

This 1920s Spanish Revival home in the Hollywood Hills was in great shape but wanted refreshing. “The customers are a young family from the East Coast that love spending time around the West Coast,” says interior designer Laura Umansky. “They bought the home with rental in your mind, but will end up using it as […]

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