Farmhouse in Italy

Second post today takes us to a farmhouse in the Alps. After living and studying for 10 years in Milan and Zurich, Chiara came back to Italy to live next to her mother's house. Like most Italians, she wanted to be near her family so she built an annex to her mother's home. Chiara kept the stone floors and country style but created an open-plan space and mixed modern styles with the old. Dark red walls are traditional to Alpine cottages in this region.<br /><br />More colour for you today, dears!<br /><br /><img alt="UK_CHIARA" class="tmp3-bigimg" src="http://ikeafamilylive.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/template3_first/sites/default/files/HS_3_CHIRA_02.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 793px;" title="UK_CHIARA" /><p></p><p><img alt="UK_CHIARA" class="tmp3-bigimg" src="http://ikeafamilylive.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/template3_first/sites/default/files/HS_3_CHIRA_03_0.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 794px;" title="UK_CHIARA" /></p><p><img alt="UK_CHIARA" class="tmp3-bigimg" src="http://ikeafamilylive.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/template3_first/sites/default/files/HS_3_CHIRA_06_0.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 794px;" title="UK_CHIARA" /></p><p><img alt="UK_CHIARA" class="tmp3-bigimg" src="http://ikeafamilylive.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/template3_first/sites/default/files/HS_3_CHIRA_07_0.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 794px;" title="UK_CHIARA" /></p><p><img alt="UK_CHIARA" class="tmp3-bigimg" src="http://ikeafamilylive.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/template3_first/sites/default/files/HS_3_CHIRA_08_0.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 794px;" title="UK_CHIARA" /></p><p><img alt="UK_CHIARA" class="tmp3-bigimg" src="http://ikeafamilylive.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/template3_first/sites/default/files/HS_3_CHIRA_10.jpg" style="width: 551px; height: 795px;" title="UK_CHIARA" /></p><p><img alt="UK_CHIARA" class="tmp3-bigimg" src="http://ikeafamilylive.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/template3_first/sites/default/files/HS_3_CHIRA_09.jpg" style="width: 551px; height: 795px;" title="UK_CHIARA" /></p> <p>All images from <a href="http://ikeafamilylive.com/">here</a>.<br /></p>

Farmhouse in Italy

Second post today takes us to a farmhouse in the Alps. After living and studying for 10 years in Milan and Zurich, Chiara came back to It...

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Colourful Home in Norway

Some of you tired of my all white posts? Well, today I bring you lots of colour! Just on the outskirts of Oslo, Anne has created an inspiring and personal home. As Anne describes it: "The house had the worst sides of the 50's and 70's:dirt brown linoleum in and a mixture of mustard yellow and military green on the walls."No gloomy rooms now: bright, cheerful colours are a theme that runs through the house.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.alltihemmet.se/InternalFiles/OmAlltiHemmet/FARG%20ar%20den%20roda%20traden/vrummindre.jpg" style="width: 651px; height: 453px;" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.alltihemmet.se/InternalFiles/OmAlltiHemmet/FARG%20ar%20den%20roda%20traden/koket.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 331px;" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.alltihemmet.se/InternalFiles/OmAlltiHemmet/FARG%20ar%20den%20roda%20traden/anne.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 752px;" /><br />Mismatched painted chairs and stools around the kitchen table.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.alltihemmet.se/InternalFiles/OmAlltiHemmet/FARG%20ar%20den%20roda%20traden/utesoffa.jpg" style="width: 650px; height: 781px;" /><br /><span id="result_box" class="" lang="en"><span style="" title="">From the living room you reach the terrace, which is decorated with flea market finds, including an old whitewashed hospital bed.<br /><br />Not many photographs, I'm afraid. I may add a second post today. Thanks for stopping by, dears!<br /><br />All images from <a href="http://www.alltihemmet.se/">here</a>.<br /></span></span>

Colourful Home in Norway

Some of you tired of my all white posts? Well, today I bring you lots of colour! Just on the outskirts of Oslo, Anne has created an inspirin...

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Seaside Cottage in New York

An early 1880s seaside cottage in New York whose former owner was Gloria Vanderbilt was renovated by interior designer Robin Bell. In her words: "It's sort of Swedish-meets-Bloomsbury style, which is English, but in a bohemian Arts & Crafts way. I downplayed the grandness of the house by decorating in a cottagey way. Everything is asymmetrical and deeply comfortable. I didn't want the furniture to look too fussy, so nothing matches except a pair of chairs."<br /><br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/V7/16-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px; width: 450px; height: 575px;" /><br />A poolside arbor hung with wisteria makes an outdoor dining room. The table's marble top was a marble yard castoff, and Bell designed its iron base. Bell designed the iron chandelier and hanging lanterns; both are inspired by streetlights she saw in Harbour Island, Bahamas.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/RK/17-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -5px; left: -6px; width: 502px; height: 393px;" /><br />The pool house's ceiling and border were inspired by a Moroccan tile mosaic. Artisans painted it on beadboard for a tentlike effect.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/O2/18-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px;" /><br />A sunburst mirror frame in the pool house has "a funny tentacled look that's almost aquatic," says Bell, who adapted the simulated bone and ivory mirror from one she spied in a shop.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/tj/1-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px; width: 450px; height: 575px;" /><br />Voluptuous 50-year-old wisteria vines drape a Victorian wire gazebo under which stand Victorian wire peacock chairs and a wire table.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/O3/3-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px; width: 449px; height: 573px;" /><br /> The dining table was copied from an American antique at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was faux-grained by artist Lindsey Tipler.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/Cc/2-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px; width: 449px; height: 573px;" /><br />All the upholstered furniture in the living room was designed by Bell and arranged in one large but intimate seating group.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/vv/4-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px; width: 449px; height: 573px;" /><br />Artist Lindsey Tipler also painted the faux-mahogany finish on the clients' wheelback chairs and the table in the foyer between the dining room and study.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/oI/5-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -5px; left: -6px; width: 508px; height: 397px;" /><br />In the living room, Bell used a mix of antiques and modern furniture, curvy and tailored shapes. She created a fire surround mosaic of seashells. On the blue table from John Rosselli, lamps and black candle holders are from Robin Bell Design.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/lO/7-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px; width: 449px; height: 573px;" /><br />Bell created a plush reading nook with a Moroccan flair on a window seat under the stairs.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/IU/6-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px; width: 451px; height: 576px;" /><br />An 18th-century American harvest table with original paint and 19th-century American shawl-back chairs in the classic white kitchen. Above the island is a wrought-iron pot rack designed by Bell, hung with the clients' pot collection bought on trips to France and Italy.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/Ql/8-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px; width: 450px; height: 575px;" /><br />A second-floor landing has classic striped rag runners by Woodard Weave. Family photos are divided into two wall groupings: black and white on one wall, color on another.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/WW/9-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px; width: 453px; height: 578px;" /><br />When the clients returned from Paris with an album of Honoré Daumier prints depicting the stages of a marriage, Bell took it apart and covered a wall of a guest bedroom with the framed prints.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/BN/11-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -5px; left: -6px; width: 501px; height: 392px;" /><br />The sofa, armchair, and ottoman in the study are covered in antique toile.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/2p/10-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px; width: 452px; height: 577px;" /><br />In the wife's art studio, Bell added paneling consistent with late-19th-century Shingle Style architecture.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/JZ/13-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px;" /><br />An amber hurricane from William Yeoward and seashell bowls from Robin Bell.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/2P/12-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px; width: 450px; height: 576px;" /><br />A covered porch has a mix of antique wicker; fabric is "lemonade- and sangria-proof," says Bell.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/Xb/14-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -5px; left: -6px; width: 503px; height: 393px;" /><br />Bell moved the master bathroom's original cast-iron tub to the window for unobstructed sky and ocean views.<br /><br /><img id="fb_image" src="http://www.housebeautiful.com/cm/housebeautiful/images/sH/15-easyandageless-0508-xlg.jpg" style="top: -55px; left: 44px; width: 452px; height: 577px;" /><br />In the master bedroom, a sandalwood four-poster bed from Sri Lanka is topped with a lattice cutwork tester cover, Monique VV in cream by Old World Weaver.<br /><br />All images and information from <a href="http://www.housebeautiful.com/">House Beautiful</a>.

Seaside Cottage in New York

An early 1880s seaside cottage in New York whose former owner was Gloria Vanderbilt was renovated by interior designer Robin Bell. In her wo...

Read more »