Rustic Minimalism

So while I have not been blogging, I have still been doing my hobby of looking at houses on NYTimes. com and saving pictures of places that I like. I have come to realise that I now I have a very good sense of what I like in a house and I believe that one of the styles that could encapsulate some of my tastes is Rustic Minimalism. I came up with this word after looking at this picture and realising that I liked the simplicity combined with the natural touches.

While I do not like all the elements of the style, since some aspects of it veers towards the modern, I do love what I have come to realise are my base design elements – bone, foilage and wood. This translates into use of a lot of white, plants and rustic elements such as driftwood or re-used wood in the space. I am drawn to any design that incorporates all these three in a warm way. The warmth I will discuss in the next post as that adds another level to my design preference – the French country.

So I decided to google rustic minimalism and realised that it was already an established design path so I will be doing more research on it. For now, here are some pictures that fall into this kind of design.

I love wooden beams! Especially light coloured wood. The only thing that is missing here are some plants.

Again, I would need more colour here but I love the wood and white again here. The legs on the wooden table are a plus.

Here is one with more colour though a bit too muted for me. But this space also reveals another of my preferences. The multilevel greatroom space. I love the wooden stairs  in the middle and the hint of pink. Whimisical design used sparingly is always a nice touch.

This last one deviates from my favorite colour palette but you have to love the chair and desk here. This would add so much character to any room and a splash of colour too. Other colours I love in this antique look are yellow and of course, green!

Of course, this theme could not be exhaustive but am gonna end now. Be back soon with some French Country…or anything else that catches my eye at the time. A bientot!

Getting inside – Episode 1

So I know I said that this blog would be about what I call ” outside- in” architecture – bringing the outside into the home and designing with that in mind. However, part of my inspiration for the blog was to catalogue all the pictures that I have saved looking through real estate pictures on theNew York Times website – a fave pastime of mine. I decided to start collecting the parts of the houses I liked so that I would have a montage of my tastes. This Inside series will cover all of this. Where are we going to start? The bathroom. More specifically, tubs. yes, tubs!

As you will see, my tastes in tubs are quite specific. Enjoy!

 

Beautiful design

Bath in own corner

Wooden Tub

True OUTside living

I have been such a bad blogger. I must admit that it takes effort to keep up something that does not have much reward beyond the personal. However, here I am again, between classes. Just wanted to share one of my most interesting finds on outside living. I saw a news article recently about two Brazilian artists who put up a living art display on the wall outside a building where they stayed for 14 hours of the day for four months in 2009.

While, of course, this is not a long term solution to redefining how we live, it does give food for thought. How much space do we need to live? How much different would our lives be if we lived outward, rather than in? I, for one, just like the spunk of these guys. Its those who think outside the box that make the truly remarkable changes in society.

Brothers living on outside wall in Brazil

Necker Island

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Necker Island is owned by Richard Branson, the owner of everything Virgin. I saw this island first on a countdown on VH1 about the most opulent celebrity homes and I was in awe. The entire complex is built like an extension of the outside.  I know that I may find somewhere that beats it, and that it is more of a hotel than a home, but for now, it is the epitome of outsideinside living to me. Because they have the entire island, it is possible to build without worry of privacy, a luxury most people wont have but there is so much inspiration that can be drawn  from the designs .All the rooms take the most advantage of the views, even the bathrooms. (Branson ended the feature sitting on the toilet which was essentially outside. Yet they still fell cozy enough for you to curl up with that special someone or book. I know it may get cold and rainy sometimes, but that is what blankets are for right??

OutsideIN

First blog post!

So I decided to start a blog to catalogue one of the passions in my life – architecture, real estate and to some extent interior design. Basically my personal version of HGTV. I know there are many blogs of this nature out there in the blogosphere and adding one may not make that much of a difference in the public realm, but personally it will.

Why the name Outside In?

I am drawn to architectural design that brings the outside in. Basically an aesthetic where the inside and the outside are essentially seamless. I love to see this especially in great rooms and kitchens. But I have seen bathrooms which employ that idea and though seemingly public, they are beautiful.

I love this style because of the sense of peace and tranquility that you get from nature and I believe that we shouldn’t put  concrete blocks to block us from that feeling. We should build in harmony with nature, let it direct our buildings and not the other way around.

I think this is especially necessary in a country like Jamaica, where I live, which has such beautiful weather all year round and is so green. Yet, we build humongous concrete structures that lock us away from, rather than embrace the beauty that this island is known all over for.

Enough of the preachy voice. But that is my inspiration. But this blog wont be just about houses. I am a very private person, but hopefully as I write I will be able to spill some of my inside out to the virtual world as well.

So to whoever will read this. Welcome to my journey to a better self and a better understanding of the things I love!

P.S. I will do as little editing as possible, so if you see errors, oops.