Urning Dividends: Beautifying Gardens with Urns

Every garden needs an urn, or better yet a pair of urns.  Gardens always look better with a little architectural detail; an urn provides a wonderful focal point and a pair of urns can mark a path, stair or entry way.  They look great with a mix of flowers or a single clipped boxwood.

 

Spring Color Inspiration:Yellow

 Yellow is decidedly the color of early spring in New England.  At the end of a long winter I'm desperate to see some color.  The daffodils and forsythia are among the first things to start blooming, so their bright yellow is such a welcome color.  Yellow adds a touch of cheer on the inside of the home as well as outside.

White Flower Farm

 Christine d'Ornado's London Dining Room

 Jay Jeffers

 Huestis Tucker Architects

 Mark D. Sikes

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 via Habitually Chic

 

Kitchens and Baths Magazine

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Carriage Houses aren't just for carriages any more

I was looking for the perfect carriage house today, for inspiration and design ideas for a garage I'm designing. I was really looking for images of simplified farmhouse Victorian carriage houses. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, but I came across some lovely examples.

Visit to a Local Landmark: Lockwood Mathews Mansion

I attended the Traditional Building Conference this week at the Lockwood Mathews Mansion in Norwalk, Ct.  I have lived in this area nearly my entire life, have driven by the Mansion hundreds of times, and somehow have managed never to tour the mansion.  The conference seemed an ideal opportunity to finally see the inside of the mansion and to take care of some of my continuing educational units. Although the conference was restricted to the the entry, rotunda, and the billiards room, we could peak into the other spaces which have been restored to their former glory.  It was a real treat.

 The mansion was built in the 1860's as a summer home near the Norwalk River.  The city is really built up now, but I imagine when the mansion was built, it was almost a coastal home, and probably had views of  the Long Island Sound.  It was built in the Second Empire style, and was a precursor to the Newport Mansions which were built some 20 years later.  I have to say I love the architecture of this building, the granite, the massing, but have always found the wooden porch, picture above, to be an odd design element.  It's always seemed way to spindly and weak compared to the massive granite building.

 I love this little conservatory room.  apparently major green houses were part of the original estate...they were demolished many years ago, and I've never seen them.

 Roof and dormer details

 Porte Cochere

roof and dormer details

view from the South East

Floor Plan

 Entry Hall with extravagantly carved mantel

Detail of Mantel

 Library with restored woodwork and new wallpaper

 Library with restored ceiling details 

Much of the restoration work including ceiling painting and woodwork has been done by the amazing firm of John Canning Art Restoration & Decorative Painting.  They are a world renowned company located nearby in Cheshire Ct.  They have worked on notable projects including the Grand Central Station renovation in NYC.  Mr. Canning gave one of the lectures about his work on the restoration of the mansion. It was fascinating.

 Library before the wallpaper was installed

 Detail of Library Cabinet

Conservatory

Music Room

 Detail of Billiards Room ceiling

 Detail of Billiards Room Ceiling

 Rotunda

Rotunda