Showing posts with label Reagan George. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reagan George. Show all posts

Monday, August 2, 2010

Bobby McAlpine, LIVE, on The Skirted Roundtable, this week!






I can hardly wait to hear the latest interview on the Skirted Roundtable featuring one of my favorite architects of all time, Bobby McAlpine.
Joni , of Cote de Texas fame, and I were emailing recently. I was responding to her statement that he is one of her design heroes of all time.  I told her that he is one of my all time favorites as well.
I wanted to congratulate her on the opportunity to talk with him on their wonderful online program.

Joni, Megan and Linda have talked design and life with some amazing people in the last year or so, but for me, personally, this one is exceptionally exciting!


 
Honestly, I have had this page and the following pages attached to it, in my files for years - since 1996, to be exact, when it was in Southern Accents. 






This one, too, an article about the home of designer Cindy Smith,  in Charlotte, North Carolina and her work with Bobby McAlpine..  It was in a Southern Accents issue from 1993!


This is the interior of the home - I loved it then and I still love it! Classic and handsome.




 


 While McAlpine Tankersley has had lots of press coverage over the years, people are quite excited about Bobby's new book, The Home Within Us. I couldn't wait to read it, and think it stands alone in the world of design books. While the interiors are beautiful, it is the depth and substance of Bobby's design philosophy that make this book so real and so special. I really look forward to putting a voice to these words.

I know I have been known to call more than one architect my favorite. I don't make that statement lightly, though. I really do have a handful of favorites.

Some are familiar Texas architects, Michael ImberDavid Lake and Ted Flato, of San Antonio.

Some are my friends, like Jon Pankratz  and Reagan George,  both of  Dallas and Fredericksburg, and Craig Kinney of San Angelo.

Some are architects  I have followed  from afar, literally for years - reading books, magazines, anything I could get my hands on to glean more from their work.  O'Neil Ford
Frank Welch,  Hays Town,  Hugh Newell Jacobson, and Bobby McAlpine are all architects whose work I am drawn to, flipping through design magazines, recognizing the pull and excitement I often feel when I spot an aesthetic I love,  sometimes before I even know it is their work.

So, check on the Skirted Roundtable  for the interview one day this week, pour yourself a cup of coffee and sit down for a listen. 

I know I will be listening, maybe more than once,  and loving every minute of it.


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

House Dreams

While I have had the good fortune to live in this hill country house for the past four years, I find myself dreaming of designing a house for the next stage in our life. We will be empty nesters in a few years, and our needs will change.
This house is classic Texas hill country and has been a very special home to inhabit. Our girls have had a blast here entertaining their friends  - swimming, playing hide and seek, playing basketball, roasting marshmallows, and having backyard birthday celebrations. We have had good times as well, but the house is too big for the two of us. Another family needs it now.

Hill Country House is for sale.

The house is situated 4 miles outside of town. It is the perfect distance - country skies filled with stars at night and not a city light around, but close enough to run to the grocery store when you forget something. 

If you are interested in living here, or know someone who is, contact me and I will give you sales information.

So............


I know I want something smaller. It is no secret that I like too many things and too many styles, though.  I believe in building appropriately for the setting, and in Texas that can mean a southwestern or hill country style,  or a home with a Mexican influence.  There are many styles and choices. I dream of soft contemporary..........something like this:


Dallas home designed by Lake Flato



or even more modern, like this.....






or sort of traditional modern, like this..........

or let's throw in some Southern influence, or would it be Mediterranean?.........

I apologize for no credit info -  saved in my favorites file



or this............


Craig Kinney architect


or maybe really hill country, like this.....................

 Lake Flato


or subtle and nestled in the trees, waiting to be discovered............like this.......

 Reagan George, AIA

Confused? Me too.

Thoughts, ideas welcome.


Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Painted Floors

I posted a month or so ago about my kitchen dilemma - to paint or not to paint, that was the question I put out there.  Unlike some of the "big bloggers", I do not get tons and tons of comments every time I post. That is fine - I am regional (except when I travel and can't help myself) ,  and pretty random in my topics. I blog because I love the process and the sharing with like minded souls, so I don't really worry too much about how many comments I get each time.

It is fun to see what topics people respond to and are passionate about, though.
So, with the kitchen post, I certainly found out how to get more comments - ask people for advice! I loved each and every comment and have seriously considered all suggestions. So here it is - 2010 and I am still debating over the kitchen and what to do with it.

I think I had better tell you the whole truth now.

Our house is for FOR SALE...... so I am not sure this is the best time to make such a major change. With the way my life goes, I would paint the kitchen some fabulously wild color combination like this.............





and just the almost right buyer would come along and say "oh, if only she hadn't painted all that beautiful antique long leaf pine" and the deal would fall through.

I thought about a safe, but still lovely, color like this ...... (I have the black counter tops)






but I am not sure the flow is right with my dining room which looks like this..............





with the blues and greens and aged beaded board ceiling.........



Sooooo, my next thought is, painted floors! I love them and here are some of my favorites.





Love this large design like a hex sign from a barn in the northeast.





Big stripes would be fun.





Of course, painted floors might not be to someone's liking, either. I have mixed feelings about making changes to my house. Sometimes I think it doesn't matter - that we should do what we love and when the time comes for someone else to live here, they can do what they love.







Other times I worry about the whole "resale factor" and it really goes against who I am. Some people can live in a fairly vanilla house, or one that is safely decorated, but it is so not me. I am constantly moving furniture and accessories around and wanting to change things. I sell things out of my house and at antique shows, and then come home with new things.

I think about space and how we use it, and want to create rooms that are warm and functional and make me happy to live in them.  I think a home is a huge reflection of the people who live there. I know I am stating the obvious to anyone who is reading this, but there are people out there - I know them - who just want a nice, clean house to live in, but their passions lie elsewhere. I am not them.

So, do I follow my heart, and paint those floors or cabinets, or just the island, whatever - have some fun with it all,  or sit tight and wait for that person to come along who adores ALL the old pine and rock and antique, scraped dark floors and doesn't have that fundamental need for color?

Then I can design my own house and make it just like I want it - maybe something like this from Jon Pankratz, AIA......


 



or this, from my new friend and another favorite architect, Reagan George, AIA........




yes, another hill country house, but smaller and and tucked into the woods somewhere, designed just
 perfectly for my art and treasures.

Or maybe something like this...........



 old and quaint and distinctly old German Fredericksburg..........

so, my dilemma continues. Of course, comments and opinions are always welcome!!


All photos either from House Beautiful or from my collected files. I apologize that I do not have photographer credits.

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