interior home: January 2009

Green Home Design Reduces Carbon Footprint

A green home minimizes the negative impact on its environment through its home design. Here are a few considerations your architect takes into account when designing a green home:1. Site: Evaluations and analysis of access, slope, ledge, soil, bodies of water, and vegetation in order to limit the home’s impact on the site environment. This...

"Real" vs. "Kitsch"

As you know, I'm constantly trying to define my style, hone my skills & figure out what works & what doesn't work in spaces. Well, a concept I often think about is real or authentic design, art & accessories. vs. what make something kitsch or scripted or forced or "decorated." I used to be THE culprit of kitsch when I started...

The Washington Post Santa!!

I wanted to thank Terri Sapienza so much for putting Pure Style Home on Blogwatch today in the Washington Post!! (For the recent post on my client's dressing room, 2 posts down.) I was just sitting down for breakfast & opened up the Home Section to Blogwatch & was so shocked to see it on there!!! I started yelling because I was so...

House Love: Rice Cottage

I know I say this a lot, but I LOVE this house:[Please forgive my limited use of vocabulary in this post which consists mainly of: "love," "perfect," and "beautiful."] The living room has almost all of the elements that I love: natural elements, (the linen!!) the color scheme, the something pretty, the sculptural table, it's light & airy...

Benefits of Building a Green Home

Why build a green home? Every positive action counts. Many people assume that if you are going to build a green home, you’ll be spending far more money than a regular home. This is not true.From my vantage point, any improvement to any portion of the home building process helps the environment. According to the Brookings Institution, by the...

Pure Style: Dressing Room

A dressing room: one of the ultimate luxuries. A client of mine came to me with the idea to change a spare room of hers into her very own dressing room and that's what we did.She loves to shop & attends all kinds of parties & galas and has the most beautiful collection of ball gowns & cocktail dresses!!! Her shoe collection is...

Northern New England Home Show, Manchester, NH

Bonin Architects & Associates is exhibiting this weekend at the Northern New England Home Show, Manchester, New Hampshire. Stop by our booth (#1703) and talk to us about your plans to build a green home! Feel free to bring your ideas and sketches. We'll be able to help you get started on a home design that will fit your family's wants...

Design Exercise: What's Your Personal Style?

I’ve been doing a lot of design-soul-searching lately, trying to really get a handle on my personal style. (Image from Carlton Varney's Wisconsin lakehouse featured in House Beautiful)While always evolving, I think it’s really important to hone your personal style or design philosophy into something you can wrap your head around & define....