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Cooking With Contemporary Color
By Lauren Brooks Lauren Brooks is the Assistant Editor of ChesapeakeHome. COOKING WITH CONTEMPORARY COLOR ?An Italian woman who loves to cook and entertain needs a kitchen that encourages her culinary talents—she needs top-of-the-line appliances, space for prep work and clean-up, and seating for friends and family to savor her sauces. An Italian woman with three small kids and a fourth on the way needs a kitchen that can keep up. What preceded this warm, modern space was an all-white kitch
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Fresh Impressions: Walls, Pillows and Floors
WALLS & WINDOWS FRESH IMPRESSIONS Natural fibers for window treatments and wall coverings add warmth and casual sophistication to a space. The manila hemp wallcovering from Phillip Jeffries Ltd. is available in 25 different colorways. Woven wood shades from Kirsch are produced in over 50 shapes and textures from a wide variety of unique grasses, reeds, and bamboos. Phillip Jeffries products are available through trade professionals. Visit phillipjeffries.com to learn more. Kirsch shades and blin
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Custom Builder Awards of Excellence
By Lauren Brooks assistant editor of Chesapeake Home Maryland-National Capital Building Industry Association CUSTOM BUILDER AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE What is an artist? A person who creates with their imagination? With their hands? Someone who enriches lives in some way? What if I said an artist is a person who develops an individual idea and transforms that idea into something that speaks to another? I prefer this last definition, because it encompasses not only the creator but also those for whom a
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A Primer on Insulation
Be more energy efficient with proper insulation.
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Painted Furniture
By Mary Medland Mary Medland is a regular contributor to ChesapeakeHome. A New Tradition of Painted Furniture The urge to embellish our homes, whether the walls or the furniture, is a time-honored tradition dating back to our ancestors—the ones who lived in caves and painted hunting scenes on their rock walls. Even these days in spite of our high-tech world of mass production, hand-painted furniture remains in demand. “Painting takes advantage of the energy and experience of artists
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Anatomy of a Decorator’s Showhouse
Nantucket on the Severn Photography By Anne Gummerson, Alan Gilbert, COYLE photography Admit it. Each one of us is at least a bit nosy. Nosiness is one of the top reasons we read home and garden magazines—we like to see how other people live. A designer showhouse is a bit like a magazine article come to life. Rather than nose through the pages of beautiful photography and read about the design, we get to experience each room in person, touching fabrics, witnessing views, appreciating scale
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Eye For Style
By Lauren Brooks Lauren Brooks is the Assistant Editor of ChesapeakeHome. DESIGNING TO A DIFFERENT BEAT By Lauren Brooks Side-by-side comparisons of two homes, one builder, two doors apart Good design is about responding to the client and the environment, says Gilday architect Robert Laird. “You have to be able to listen to the client and understand what they are after.” This methodology is key, especially when trying to craft homes from two very similar spaces for two very dissimila
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Award-Winning Designs
Award-Winning Designs Good interior design is pleasing to look at for sure—it can be beautiful and stylish, inventive and edgy, calming, or energetic. But good interior design is also so much more. It makes sense in that common sense sort of way that is all too uncommon. It is timeless yet functional. It is unassuming and cozy. It marries a structure’s interior and external environments with the needs and tastes of those using the space. It is the look of a Manolo Blahnik slingback w
