Category: Cool Dwellings

Creepy Modern Houses in Scary Movies

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Ian and I went to see Gone Girl on the weekend, and during the scenes in the lake house, I turned to Ian and whispered, “OMG that house!” I looked it up, and it’s a real place – a gorgeous home in the hills of Southeast Missouri, designed by architects Maurice Jennings and David McKee. Those are pictures of it, above.

What is it with modern houses appearing in creepy ways? Here’s a list of 10 Modernist Houses in Scary Movies from Azure magazine. They’re all swoon-worthy. Especially the one in The Ghost Writer (which is a surprisingly good movie).

Wow… Talk About A Vacation Rental With A View

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Here are two vacation rental properties (link one and link two) I found on Airbnb recently during one of my semi-regular wanderlust-induced browsing sessions. These are both in Muir Beach, California, which is only about 15 miles from San Francisco. Could you imagine relaxing on the deck of one of these places and looking at that view?!? Dreamy.

[first 2 photos from this rental property; last 3 photos from this rental property]

What Does Your Home Office Look Like?

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My regular readers know that I’m always mixing things up in my home office. Remember the new chalkboard wall I painted in September?  And last week I reconfigured my desk so I could have my second screen (aka my laptop) running with the Olympics feed from CBC’s website (pictured above).

If you’re looking for home office inspiration, or you just like checking out other people’s setups, have a look at this post on Design*Sponge. Posted yesterday, it features 13 Creative and Clever Home Offices.  I love the variety of spaces, from a small desk in the corner of a room to a huge double-workspace table with a butcher paper roll.

You Can Rent a weeHouse in Ontario or Upstate New York

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Ian and I have a dream of one day owning a shack in the woods. Some place we can escape to in order to get away from the city. We both LOVE the idea of a prefab, modular, modern building – one that is simple and features a lot of windows, so as to not compete with the nature around it. I was playing around on Alchemy Architects’ weeHouse website, and noticed that there are TWO weeHouses that are for rent within an easy drive of Toronto. (!!!) One is on Georgian Bay, and one is on Seneca Lake (which is where we visited around this time last year, on our upstate New York / Finger Lakes getaway). I’m bookmarking both of these for summertime rentals. The hard part is… which one to choose?  =)

[images of Georgian Bay/Cawaja Beach weeHouse Modern Cottage via their rental listing]

Dreamy Modern Cottage for Sale in Muskoka

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After spending all last week at Kinnon‘s family cottage in Quebec, I’ve got vacation properties on my mind. Of course, that’s all a pipe dream for now, but it doesn’t hurt to look, right?  Today I saw this posting in Toronto Life, for a dreamy modern style cottage that’s for sale in Muskoka.  They say “this modern and airy design proves that a cottage doesn’t have to have wood paneling and a dead moose on the wall.” I couldn’t agree more.  Swoon.

[images via Toronto Life]

A Print Edition of Covet Garden

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Do you know Covet Garden, the monthly online magazine showcasing cool people in their homes (that aren’t done up by decorators – these are real people in their real environments)?  My company Camp Tech regularly advertises in the magazine, and they’ve featured my amazing RMT Michelle in an issue.  I really do love Covet Garden!

So of course I was super excited to hear they’re going to do a special print edition, called Covet Garden Home, which will be available this winter.

To make sure you get your copy, contribute to their IndieGoGo campaign.  A $30 contribution gets you a copy of Covet Garden Home, delivered to your door.  I’ve already contributed, and really think you should too.

Blik Wall Tiles: An Alternative to Wallpaper

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There are a few walls in our house that I would love to wallpaper, but I haven’t done so because wallpaper can be so messy, and such a pain to remove. I’d love to try the wall tiles offered by Blik as an alternative – they’re relatively easy to install (the tiles are self-adhesive), and can be repositioned and moved.  I love the “fishwall” pattern pictured above, but there are other, more subtle options too.

Would you live in a (really) tiny house?

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There’s a street in my neighbourhood that’s known for its small houses, and the community of neighbours that live there (they call themselves the Tiny House Society).  Spacing Magazine recently did a little feature on Craven Road, and included an interview with my pal Lisa, who lives on the street.

Would you live in a tiny house?  How about a really tiny house?  My Dad sent me this slideshow of small dwellings.  He thought it was a funny joke, but seriously, I would consider living in a few of those!  Our house is 1200 square feet, and I often think it’s too big.  I love the idea of a tiny house in a beautiful location, like the cabin in Nantucket, pictured above.

What about you?  Do you like having a lot of space to spread out, or do you prefer a cozy little home?

PS- Cabin Porn.