Wallpaper from Duro

My niece got married over the weekend and man-oh-man was it an event. As a bonus, I got to spend a long weekend hanging out with my parents, siblings and their families. I'm having a hard time getting back into the swing of things work-wise and blog-wise, so bear with me if my postings are missing their usual intellectual rigor. Hah! Yeah, right.

So as is usually the case when I'm grappling with some I-don't want-to-be-here-yet writer's block, I'm going to run some photo-heavy postings on wall paper for the next day or so.

I'm going to make a prediction. Wall paper is going to continue its march down market and mainstream. Look for more pattern and color-rich offerings on the consumer level. These are from Duro, a Swedish purveyor of wall coverings. Duro has some pretty neat new patterns and as befits a Swedish company, there's a Scandinavian restraint to them that's pretty striking.

European Kitchen Design

I added another blog to my blogroll the other day after hearing from the man responsible for it, Amir Ilin. Ilin maintains what's easily the most exhaustive resource for European and international kitchen design and cabinetry on the internet. Ilin is a kitchen designer based in metro New York and his company, Kuche+Cucina, has two showrooms, one in Paramus, NJ and the other in Madison, NJ.

Kuche+Cucina has been in business for two decades, during which they have designed and installed some three thousand kitchens. When I stop to consider that I do between 25 and 30 a year, their number staggers my mind.

Amir's blog, european-kitchen-design.com, goes light years beyond the products and brands he sells directly and instead concentrates on what's available. It's interesting. When I think of European cabinetry, I think in terms of the slick minimalism that I love so much. But European and international offerings aren't limited to the shots from his website I have on this page. I mean, check out this beauty from Les Rustiques sur Mesure. If you like all things Provencal, why not go to the source?

Spend some time with Amir and learn about what's possible.

Sarah Susanka speaks

In case you missed it on Thursday, the great Sarah Susanka left a comment under my posting for the day. Now, I'm not one who's usually prone to idol worship or star struck-ness, but man! To say that made my day is an understatement. Thank you Sarah!

Her comment was in response to my post about the upcoming release of her new book, Not So Big Remodeling. And once more for good measure, here's how you can pre-order a copy for yourself.

Is that too naked a plug? If so I'm sorry. But this woman has tremendous things to say and if I can do something to spread the word than I'm happy to.

Here's what she had to say on Thursday:

Dear Paul,

Thanks so much for your enthusiastic support of my books and of the "not so big" sensibility. When I began writing this series just over ten years ago, little did I know that they would influence so many. 

The really exciting part about this next book, Not So Big Remodeling, is that it offers people who are not trained in architecture or design a way of thinking about the remodeling process which I've never encountered in print before. It teaches them what architects and designers know to do--start by considering the simplest and least invasive strategies first and work up from there. My co-author, Marc Vassallo, and I have attempted to take the reader through a step by step approach to the remodeling process in a truly not so big way.

It is our hope that this book will serve homeowners, architects, designers, and remodelers alike to improve the quality and character of our existing housing stock, which as we point out, is one of the greenest acts you can take. 

It's easy to make a new house sustainable, but rehabilitating our existing homes and allowing them to continue to age gracefully is a bigger challenge. That's what this book is all about. 

All the best,
Sarah Susanka

Amen sister, I can't wait 'til my copy shows up in February.

More great photography from Jennifer Squires

In September, I wrote a profile of the work of photographer Jennifer Squires. Well, since that posting appeared, Jennifer took a vacation in Greece and her resulting photography has me aching for the Mediterranean. Check out some highlights.

Ahhh. Gorgeous stuff Jennifer. Jennifer's photography is available for sale in her shop on the great website Etsy. Prints of her photos are available in many sizes and I can see a collection of these images gracing the walls of a guest bath or enhancing an entryway. Jennifer has a way of noticing things, of exalting the every day and her perspective is certainly welcome in my home. Drop in and look it over. There's an escapist and ethereal quality to her photographs that I can't get enough of. I feel as if I'm floating over her subjects, whether the subject is a Greek hill town or a peony. You can see even more of her work on her website here. Keep it up Jennifer!

Sarah Susanka has a new book

Sarah Susanka has a new book coming out in mid-February, Not So Big Remodeling. You can pre-order it on Amazon in anticipation of its release. I cannot wait to get my hands on it. To make it easier, my pals at Amazon have a link right here.

Sarah Susanka is an architect and accidental lifestyle guru and it started with the 1998 release of her book The Not So Big House. 

Susanka's work isn't how-to and the homes and design concepts she discusses are not something most people can do themselves. What she advocates however, is a philosophy that calls to me like the Sirens called to Odysseus. I am powerless to resist her ideas, utterly powerless. Unlike the Sirens in the Odyssey though, Susanka's not calling me to a bad end. Rather, her work is a wake up call and a challenge to me and every other creative professional out there to reacquaint ourselves with the fundamentals of why we do what we do. I mean, at the end of the day, my job is to help people live more efficiently. 

Efficiency for me means that the people who call on me come away from the experience with a home that better reflects who they are. They get a kitchen, a bathroom, or a whole home that that not only reflects how they live now but will help them live better as their lives progress. It's my job to come up with ideas that enable families (by any definition) to come together, to live peacefully, to grow, to celebrate, to be quiet. It's my job to provide people with a place where they belong. I can think of no better way to spend my days.

I work primarily in renovation. So more often than not, I'm handed some builder's idea of what the Good Life is:

Ugh. Well, that photo's an exaggeration, they're never quite as bad as that. I mean look at that thing. It's a garage with a house attached. 

Anyhow, the philosophy of home that Sarah Susanka espouses is the absolute opposite of the photo above. Her take on home building; and with her new book, home remodeling; is that people should build better and not build bigger. A home should be built for the benefit of its inhabitants and not for the benefit of its neighbors. Comfort, detail and space should trump square feet. Empty, soulless square feet beget empty, soulless people. She doesn't come out and say that, but I won't hesitate to. But what she does come right out an say is that somewhere along the path to the typical 4,000 square foot new American home, something vital's been lost. Vaulted ceilings for the sake of vaulted ceilings don't make for a happy home. Sterile, impossible to furnish, so-called gathering rooms aren't a place where people will want to gather if their sole attribute is being huge for the sake of being huge. More isn't better, it's just more.

Susanka wants not only architects, designers and builders to start thinking and working toward quality over quantity, she wants the general public to start demanding it. I invoke her name on a very regular basis and I owe a lot of whatever success I've enjoyed to her. I didn't need The Not So Big House to point me in a direction or to awaken something in me. Her book landed in some fertile soil when I got my hands on it way back when, let me tell you. But what her books did and continue to do is help me realize that I'm not alone in thinking the things that I do about home. Susanka's success has brought me some really great clients over the years, people primed and ready to go, excited at the prospect of living Not So Big. So Sarah, even though I've never met you, thanks and congrats on your new book.