Porch Life: 12 Ways to Beautify a Porch With Plants

Porch Life: 12 Ways to Beautify a Porch With Plants

We have been chatting about porches for months, but we’ve yet to speak about among the most crucial components on the porch so far: crops. From small pots to big urns, hanging plants into terrariums, foliage and blossoms are porch…

10 Tips for Earth-Friendly Home Renovation

10 Tips for Earth-Friendly Home Renovation

Join us this week as we look at 10 simple ways to incorporate earth-friendly techniques and materials into your renovation. Whether you are simply swapping out your counter tops or backsplash or tackling a whole-house renovation, there’s guaranteed to be…

Gardens Tap Into Rill Water Characteristics

Gardens Tap Into Rill Water Characteristics

Of all of the water features we use in our gardens, the rill perhaps has the most interesting history. The rill is a man-made backyard canal that creates garden ambience through the nice sound of moving water. The earliest style…

Design Inspiration: Tropical Mexico

Design Inspiration: Tropical Mexico

Apologies to anybody who happens to be stuck in the snow at this time, but I am on the beach in Mexico, in a little town just south of Puerto Vallarta. The beauty of the tropics never fails to stun…

Fall for a Water-Wise Fountain

Fall for a Water-Wise Fountain

Water attracts tranquility, balance and motion to an outside space, qualities nearly impossible to replicate with other materials. How can you have the appearance with water conservation in mind? There are a few strategies:Reduce evaporation by minimizing the outside areaSurround…

Get Floored by Creative Use of Tile

Get Floored by Creative Use of Tile

You understand how supposedly we use only 10% of our brains? Well, I think we use only about 10% of tile’s capacity also. I really like staggered subway tile as much as the next woman, but let’s face it: It’s…

Contemporary Farmhouse Vineyard in Minnesota

Contemporary Farmhouse Vineyard in Minnesota

A modern farmhouse may seem like an oxymoron to some people, but also for Bill Costello of Murphy & Co.. Design, the farmhouse feel was appropriate for his client, vintner Billy Smith. Even though the home and land function as…

Crazy Cool Shelves

Crazy Cool Shelves

I’ve been designing a few special custom shelving for a client building a new modern house in Venice Beach, California. He is really pushing the limits of the expected criteria in notebook, and I like this. In working together with…

Contractor Tips: Step Up to a Safe, Stylish Staircase

Contractor Tips: Step Up to a Safe, Stylish Staircase

A staircase is a very simple and elegant way for people to move between floors. The layout, design and implementation by the builder all play a role in determining how safely and comfortably a stair accomplishes this task. Lingo to…

Narrow-Room Solution: Split It Up

Narrow-Room Solution: Split It Up

Many classic American homes are blessed (cursed?) With a long, narrow combination living room and dining area. These rooms can be hard to decorate because they seem too slim and provide no organic division points. The challenge would be to…