Don Freeman
We are thrilled to announce ‘the improvised life’ latest giveaway: Abrams’ lush coffee table book Artists’ Handmade Houses
Don Freeman
At first glance, Artists’ Handmade Houses
Don Freeman
…and the simple asymetrical cabinetry in his bathroom that offers both closed storage and shelves for displaying beautiful objects…
Don Freeman
From Russel Wright’s kitchen at Manitoga, we took the idea of a thick hardwood board acting as both shelf and potrack, and placing a shelf low above the counter to hide electrical switches.
Don Freeman
Also from Manitoga, a moderne sideboard with dramatic rocks for legs. “The reversible Formica doors on the living room cabinet below are red on one side––for fall and winter––and white on the other––for spring and summer.”
Don Freeman
…throughout Artists’ Handmade Houses
The book is a treasure. We’ll post more ideas from it in the coming weeks.
To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is write a Comment (in the form at the end of this post) telling us something you’ve fantasized doing to YOUR space if you had the wherewithal (money or practicality is no object). The last day to enter is Monday, July 18th. Tuesday July 19th. The winner will be chosen by random.org. and announced on Tuesday July 19th Wednesday, July 20th.
Related posts: dream house: marseilles penthouse
voyeur: apartments of nyc artists + others
andrea zittel’s investigative living
Two things I’d like in a house entrance: no steps, you just walk right in OR a grassy ramp, like the old midwestern barns.
I would love to add a garden room. A place to relax and grow some houseplants and herbs.
create a growing seasonal garden on the fire escape that still allows passage for safety.
Our small house was built with a small tuck-under garage, now walled off, and I’d like to convert the apron to some kind of driveable, walkable groundcover that could survive MN winters. Then I’d like to make our bluestone basement more inhabitable without covering the stone. We could at least use it for these sweltering July days. The old garage has no windows and would make a good isolation office.
Shoji as window treatment rather than sliding door. Obviously you’d need a lot of space on one or both sides of the window, but there’s a lot of time when I’d like to get some light from my windows without having it come via transparent glass. I also imagine that, done right, it could add a layer of insulation in winter.
I’d love an interior garden — like a patio inside the house with running water, etc.
Hi, I have never entered one of these giveaways before but when I opened my email this morning, I had to give it a go with this one. We’ve lived in our house – a 1930 Dutch Colonial Revival – for 3 years and done much to make it our own. One of the first things I suggested doing was to replace the old track lighting in our entrance with a paper globe, an idea nixed by the otherwise wonderful person with whom I share life. We still have the track lighting – it would be really fun to have the book.
I would love turning my garage into a working studio – glazing one wall for lots of natural light and judiciously adding a skylight or two. No fancy finishes just bare stud walls with a concrete floor. Light is most important. And heat. Would add a small gas stove. Hope I win this book!
I have two fantasies. One is to take our small bathroom and a small room next to it that was intended as a bedroom and combine them to create a larger bathroom and walk-in closet. Because we have only one bathroom, the new space would allow two people to use the room at the same time with some privacy (if you get what I mean
. The other is to turn our one-car, detached garage into a greenhouse. We already use it for storage, not for our cars, so thus would expand it’s functionality while significantly improving it’s aesthetics.
I am living in an 1840 farmhouse in Vermont. There is a restaurant/house that looks like a barn right adjacent. I would LOVE to put in some studio space for artists to come and work. The land is open and beautiful (see the website)…The tree joists that hold up the ceiling in the summer room (which probably once held hay above) are cracked and need to be supported. That would allow a beautiful studio with north light. How to do that without losing the original rustic feel? I LOVE this website. You have inspired, opened, enabled, encouraged, and shown ‘the light’ on so many days. Thank you so very much! chris
Living in Northern New York where the weather plays an important role in everyday life, it would be nice to have an inside/outside space connected to our Victorian house. A space where we could grow plants, eat meals, read, relax and enjoy the outside but be comfortable because we are inside in a controlled environment. Perhaps a smaller version of the glasshouse of Kew Gardens. And then so that this space wouldn’t look out of place landscape our property with gardens, secret nooks and other design features of English gardens. Thank you for encouraging me to fantasize for a few minutes.
I can’t top any of those entries…and yet there are a few changes I’d make to this home here on the Olympic peninsula. Because we sit on a bluff overlooking the tidal plains of Dungeness Bay where the ever changing view is a daily inspiration I’d find sharing the view with more people to be the greatest ‘bang for the buck’.
I dream of lying in a Japanese soaking tub surrounded by a screen of fragrant vines next to a garden room attached to the house.
I’d like to extend the house to enclose a central patio and fountain garden, build an outdoor shower and add a sleeping perch/porch in the tree that hangs over the yard
I would live to have speakers in every room that are connected to our computer.
We want to build a studio for my wife, a potter and jewelry designer, and me, an architect on our property. It needs to be tall enough to give a view of the close-by Gulf of Mexico.
Interiors a la Carl Larsson!
I’m a filmmaker and my husband is a violinist. We have created a house that suits our creative lives. But the backyard is a New Orleans jungle.
I imagine we add a bedroom on the back that opens into a lush wild garden.
Out there, we have a long table made of barge board. The table is covered with simple off-white muslin. Our friends and future children are gathered there eating a meal I made.
High on a mountain somewhere in Eastern Kentucky (far above the creeks and twisted dirt roads) the wind calls my name in a gray hollow voice. Nights are rich with purple dreams and days are achingly long. Crickets, grasshoppers, fireflies, mating calls. a featherbed by a sunny window, a potter’s shed out back. Dam this economy. The bubble broke and left a down to earth nature lover living in a small condo in a very busy area way north of Kentucky. But, my handmade home with a potter’s shed out back is still intact in my imagination.
I bought my first house ever last year – a little ranch on a concrete slab. Right now it’s a shell, due to some water damage this spring and insurance kaflamma. But I have lots of ideas: replace the crummy little windows with bigger windows, let in the east light, open the east wall of the kitchen onto a terrace, and build a sleeping porch on the east wall of the bedroom–can you tell I like east light? Right now the floors have been ripped out down to the slab. I’m hoping to put in radiant floor heating and stain the concrete or paint it. And solar hot water. And fruit trees and berries in the back yard. And, and, and, and… : >
I can’t figure out how to enter this; I’ve been round the page 3 times, where do I sign up for the drawing??
I lease a house that’s smack in the middle of a hilltop Pinot Noir vineyard in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. It’s a funky house from 1973, but the views are spectacular. I plan to stay here forever but would so love to pull out the wall to wall carpet and tile and replace it all with wood. The weird angles of the rooms, the too-many-doors, the old stained wood ceilings I can live with and even love, but the carpet’s got to go!
I wish one day I could have the courage to build up a simple open to the sky toilet in my house. With wooden floor and sorrounded by all kind of feathery plants. the only thing I succeed to do in my actual house ( in Buenos Aires, Argentina ) is to have the wooden floor, but the hole idea of being at the toilet in the middle of nature is on my wishing list at my next house. Its an idea I found reading “El elogio de la sombra” from Tanizaki.
Toward the continued pursuit of true inspiration, I would like to receive a copy of this publication. I live in such a space while working on my house in such a manner / manor. I fear that the deadline has passed for this giveaway – is there another for october 2011?
the things I have always dreamed about:
a bed under the stairs,
a sunken court yard,
a ladder to a loft,
a seat in the window,
a hammock in the garden.
i would love to design and build a art studio in my garden.