Hooked on Houses is hosting her "Hooked on Fridays" blog party; I hope y'all will click here and have look. This week. I'm hooked on 3 Atlanta bloggers. Things That Inspire and Tara Dillard brought some clarity to my fuzzy thinking. I enjoy finding simple ideas and metaphors that help me understand design.
New Atlanta blogger Dan Curl gave me a scare and some good advice. (see below)
This post is not about cats: This picture is in memory of Lilly the cat who did her best to make our family room look good.
Have you seen Things That Inspire's last 2 posts fantastic posts on windows? We Architecture Tourists notice windows before we notice decor. If the architecture is wrong, it's hard to overcome with decor.
Her latest post, "Light on Two Sides" illustrates Design Pattern 159. LIGHT ON TWO SIDES OF EVERY ROOM. Inspire and I had been discussing the design patterns "off-blog." Many of "Inspire's" commenters talked about the trade off: more windows mean less wall space.
That rang my bell. We have a lot windows.
Our designer friend Gordon always bugs us to put something interesting outside the windows: Something to pull the outside in and the inside out. And whatever is outside needs to be lit because a window at night is just a black shiny thing.
If the windows take up decorative indoor wall space, put decorative items outside the windows. The effect extends your room. I think I've got the idea but I'm unable to explain it very well.
So this week I discover Atlanta blogger Tara Dillard and have one of those slap my forehead moments. Tara's term for the idea is "Vanishing Thresholds" the merging of indoors and outdoor design. Go over to Tara's site. She explains it better than I can.
If you are a fan of "A Pattern Lauguage" you'll apprecitate Tara's implicit understanding of several patterns:
106. POSITIVE OUTDOOR SPACE
111. HALF-HIDDEN GARDEN
112. ENTRANCE TRANSITION
115. COURTYARDS WHICH LIVE
160. BUILDING EDGE
Warning:
Dan Curl's brother was bitten by a Copperhead Snake in an upscale Atlanta suburban subdivision. He was just taking a walk on the sidewalk after dinner. He's OK. Dan interviewed his brother in the hospital. Be more careful out there. I sure am. As near as I can tell, Dan is Atlanta first blogging home inspector. He was an "eco-inspector" before it was cool.
Here is a picture to honor Things that Inspire's "Light on 2 sides" post. These are some of our corner windows. We didn't realize it until we moved back in, but this room has north, south, east, and west facing windows. Most face north and east, the Palladian faces east. I'm not sure how Bill did it but I know he did it on purpose. I'm sure he knew we'd eventually catch on.
Thanks for coming by and please check out all the bloggers at Hooked on Houses' "Hooked on Fridays" blog party.